11 Responses to “Negativity”

1. Leilani Says:
   February 14th, 2008 at 8:24 am

   While the negatives can be be disturbing, I like that you made a list of some of the good things going on at your school as well. It's so important to shift the way that we are examining something at times to be able to see its very complicated and multi-faceted angles. Good luck. As my old principal in Oakland said, "You are a warrior, working on the frontlines to make sure every child has access to quality education."

2. Ms. J. Says:
   March 4th, 2008 at 10:04 pm

   I'm glad you're focusing on the positives as well, but I have to quarrel with your listing (twice) of teachers' working extra long hours as one of them. Of course everyone knows that teachers seldom limit their work to the 40 for which they get paid, but I do not think we should expect this of ourselves, nor do I think we ought to glorify those who do it. A new teacher like you is full of ideals, hopes, and time, but a system which relies on youthful, energetic, idealistic people who are willing to martyr themselves in order to achieve whatever goals (and even worse when the goals are set by NCLB, an illogical, punitive, cynical program) is not sustainable. Why do you think so many teachers burn out after five years? Teachers should not have to suffer in order to be successful. We should be able to lead balanced lives in which we prioritize our own children (even if they are not children per se, but projects/hobbies/passions outside of teaching) and we should not feel guilty about it. If the only way we can get our school out of PI, or meet AYP, or WTF the NCLB or the OUSD demand of us, is to sacrifice our own time, self-respect, happiness, or families, then something is wrong. And it is wrong when so much of our media suggests that teachers have to go to heroic lengths in order to merit the job, and calls us 'failures' or our schools 'failing schools' if we (whether or not we've gone to those heroic lengths) don't meet the imposed goals. Very complicated challenges require much more than the dedication, self-flagellation, elbow grease, and even inspiration of a group which comprises only one of the constituents who should be concerned with these issues. Hello, society? Hello, poverty? Hello, families? Hello, investment in schools?

3. Siobhan Says:
   March 17th, 2008 at 4:28 pm

   Ms. J,

   I agree with your concern about the hours that teachers put in. I think we ought to get paid for the extra hours or at least not be expected to work them. I mention it in the positives because, too often, those people who DO put in the extra hours are not acknowledged and appreciated. We have so many new teachers at our school that our only choice it seems is to burn the midnight oil "reinventing the wheel," as my veteran teacher partner would say. We certainly can't change the state of education in this building or in this system simply by putting in more work, but we can try.

   I also agree that teachers need to learn to balance their lives between job and social time. It's been a hard lesson to learn for me this year, to be sure. I know that when I haven't put enough time or thought into a lesson it goes poorly. But even when I do go all out, it often bombs. I also know that when I never have fun time, I'm cranky and resent my job a lot more. The trickiest part is deciding when it makes sense to do the extra work and when it can be left aside in order to relax and take care of your own needs. That's a lesson I know I have to learn just by feeling it out. Any advice on how to make that judgment is certainly welcomed!

4. Cranky Teacher Says:
   April 11th, 2008 at 3:25 pm

   Ms. J, you make excellent points. We are set up to fail unless we either work like dogs or are superhuman.

   However, I think this has always been the case. Certainly, being a teacher has always be associated with overworked, young, single women. The system was set up to exploit teachers and continues to do so.

   it was interesting two years ago when Berkeley Unified teachers did "work-to-rule." It really exposed how phony the 35-hour work week is.

5. Cranky Teacher Says:
   April 11th, 2008 at 3:27 pm

   Hey, Katy — are these seven teachers dead? MIA? Fled the district? Kinda weird that they would have signed on for this project and get their pretty pictures put up for a year if they weren't going to even give it 10 minutes a month of effort, no?

   I know they weren't being paid, but they're still in breach of their obligation to tell us something of their experience, no?

6. kmurphy Says:
   April 17th, 2008 at 10:11 pm

   Yes, for all its potential, this blog hasn't quite panned out like I'd hoped it would. I guess it shows just how overwhelmed first-year teachers are.

   Maybe I should create a site for tenured teachers next year. Interested?

7. Siobhan Says:
   April 19th, 2008 at 8:36 am

   This is in response to Cranky Teacher:

   One of the reasons it's been hard for me to continue blogging is because of the tension this blog has built between me and the teachers and administrators at my site. Many of them don't like what I'm saying or think my blog gives a negative impression of our school. So I've been careful about the things that I write and when I feel it's o.k. to post. I hope that a "cranky teacher" such as yourself can empathize with the politics surrounding a project such as this.

8. Oakland Teacher Says:
   April 20th, 2008 at 1:14 pm

   Siobhan:

   Writers always face criticism; much like teachers... you can simply never please everyone. That said, I had written a few months back (and was criticized by many!) that I would have found your blog more compelling if I could have gotten more of a sense of your classroom; what are your students reading, how have particular students (with identifying characteristics) growing or perhaps failing to thrive, and what patterns you see.

   It's not at all that I think the problems and concerns you have brought up are not important, but I still feel that there are so many forums for airing these grievances, many of which are enormously serious. I think they SHOULD be discussed, and publically, but as a veteran teacher, with deep roots in the district, and having started at a very different time, what I was interested in seeing and reading about would be what new young (or even new career-changing) teachers encounter in *their* classrooms, what they teach (whether in terms of curriculum or in terms of socialization), how they feel about their new careers.

   And yes, at times this will slip over into some of what you did write about. But I rarely sensed your *personal" experience; like how your students fared on the day the septic tank broke. What did you do? How did you explain it to your students?

   I'm not too surprised that your colleagues and co-staff are not too enamored of your blog; in a sense, you're airing their dirty laundry; except it's the whole district. Still, when one "member of the family" sticks her neck out, it definitely draws attention to the whole family. It doesn't mean you shouldn't do it; in fact, I myself have quite a reputation for doing so, but over the years, I've learned a few things.

   The obvious: you can't fight every battle, so choose the ones that either you feel the most passionate about or the ones you can really impact.

   The not-so-obvious: schools are very complex human ecosystems. In many ways, the relations among staff are not much advanced from the high school cafeteria, at least in some cases. If you work at a school for a long time, you will observe all kinds of alliances and cliques and subtle and not-so-subtle subterfuge and undermining of certain people by other people. I had a colleague who always disagreed with me on every single thing just because it was me. You will find that principals are also not perfect, they have their pets and pet projects, that they sometimes use the evaluation system to get rid of certain people, and they make many incorrect judgments.

   If you are the new girl in town, which you may be even after years of teaching, if you change schools, that it takes a while to get a sense of the culture of a school; and that teachers and others who have been there for years may not be that thrilled or welcoming to the newcomer who starts griping about everything, in public yet, from day one. I'm not saying your gripes are not valid but it's not going to win you the support of that many of your colleagues.

   You need to build alliances. You need to establish yourself as a valuable and essential member of your school community. You need to offer at least as much positive feedback as criticism, and you need to care about every member of the school staff, from the principal to the instructional aides to the cafeteria workers, and that's before we even get to the students themselves, and their families, who will become part of your life.

   I'm not saying new teachers shouldn't speak up, but you should very much expect the reactions you've been getting. It's very much like a student I had a few years ago who dressed in extremely unusual getups and used make up in an odd fashion and then complained that people were staring at her and making fun of her. I told her that while it *was* rude and inconsiderate for others to mock and taunt her because of her clothing styles, she still chose to dress that way, and in doing so, she put herself in that position, because you cannot control other people. She should dress how she wants, but understand in advance, some people are going to use it as a vehicle to bring her down. That's unfortunate, and maybe we can change it as educators, but it is how it is at the moment.

   So, if you write about what you write about, you betcha that whole lotta folks gonna complain about it. At least pick topics that will touch the hearts of many, and don't freak out about things that are momentary in nature, like the septic tank.

   And yes, I agree, that this new teacher blog has been a big disappointment. Did everyone write something? It seems like a few didn't. To really get us engaged, it would need to be at least somewhat regularly; perhaps at least once a week.

   And, I would suggest not just *tenured* teaches, but really veteran teachers. I have a blog myself, and although I write about many social political problems, I do so in a way that tends to engender support and because I am not trying to engage in adversarial battles, and I am very circumspect about how I write about the district, and when it comes to writing about my school, I go a long way to disguise personalities. I never criticize my administrators in this forum. Why would I? It ain't gonna solve the problem. If I have a problem with the principal, I'll go talk to him.

   You all had this great opportunity, but by and large, the best stuff was on Katy's other blog, written by the high school students.

9. Oakland Teacher Says:
   April 20th, 2008 at 4:28 pm

   Nota bene: the last sentence in the first paragraph above should read (withOUT identifying characteristics) ... not with them. Three little letters can make a whole lotta difference...

10. cranky teacher Says:
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:35 am

    Siobhan, I appreciate what you did — you took this by far the most seriously of the bloggers. That you took heat at your school is understandable, although sad.

    I remember being in my teacher ed program and being told that veterans may treat us like crap (stripping rooms of materials before you get there, ignoring you in the copy rooms) before we prove we are going to stick around. I take this as a variation of Stockholm Syndrome — they have taken their suffering on as a mantle and accepted failure as a norm. Plus, they see us as shortimers; it's like the new infantry recruits in 'Nam who were seen as bad luck to be shunned until they had survived in the bush for a few months.

    Oakland Teacher — I'd like to read your blog. Would you post the link here?

    As for all the wisdom you were doling out — I'm sure you are right about being politic, yet I think we also should hope for some brashness from youth and newbies. Personally, I didn't see these blogs as being produced only for other peers or professionals, but for the larger community — especially parents and taxpayers.

    You may have wanted to see what new teaching philosophies the youngsters are bringing in, but for outsiders the big questions are: What Is Wrong with the Schools? Why can't junior college students write an essay? Why are we importing college-educated workers from Third World countries? Why are so many kids dropping out and filling our jails? Is it true burnt-out teachers and their cynical unions are the problem? Or is there something else? Are Oakland kids really like those we see on "The Wire"? Do these kids just need more discipline? Is NCLB helping or hurting?

    I see the teaching profession as even more in crisis than the schools themselves. The numbers on teacher retention are atrocious. The schools will keep existing, their physical plants and babysitting functions intact, with each school having corners of hope held open by exceptional people. But 47% of new teachers leave the profession in the first five years.

    Katy reports the teacher turnover rate at 14% a year (I had been told several years ago by a school board member that it was 33%, perhaps before the Chaconas pay raise?). This doesn't sound too horrific, but if you look at the faculty picture wall at my school last updated around '03 you can see visually what this means: In 3-4 years a 15% turnover rate can mean you've lost half your teachers — and much more of your institutional wisdom and knowledge. One school I interviewed at during the summer was returning two out of nine teachers — and none of the administrators. I've read that Richmond High started the year with some 80 vacancies!

    This is just me, but as a public school parent and an taxpayer and I fellow new teacher, I don't really want to read a blog full of sweet anecdotes about striving children and the wonders of KWL and write-think-pair-share. I want the world to know how we are SET UP TO FAIL. I have been SET UP TO FAIL (and am doing so quite nicely, thank you very much, even though I am paying helpers $600 a month to help me grade and build curriculum that doesn't exist in the district!). My son's teachers have been SET UP TO FAIL. My principal is SET UP TO FAIL. My students have been SET UP TO FAIL. Not all of them do, of course, but we need to shout it to the rooftops that the system is SETTING UP EVERYBODY TO FAIL.

    Chaconas' reforms failed because he didn't stick to a budget. Yet nobody thought, hmmmn, maybe we are SETTING UP DISTRICTS TO FAIL.

    I just read a well-executed if horrible depressing investigative piece from a forthcoming book about a big high school in L.A. Unified that saw a huge gain in scores and every other metric over a four-year time in which all decisions were made from the teachers up rather than from the district down. The end result? The district fired the principal who had brought in this bottom up philosophy (and employed experts to teach the teachers the latest in meeting and decision-making systems). Apparently, it didn't matter as much what the teachers decided so much as that were taking the reins instead of just griping, and they were allowed to make serious decisions. Morale shot up over the first two years and test results and student behavior followed.

    According to this researcher (a dean of education for several decades at UCLA), however, the district had no ability to absorb the lesson of empowering the teachers — or worse, didn't want such a model to spread. Since then, the school has sunk back into mediocrity and worse.

    The governing system can't learn the lessons of experience because they don't fit with the agenda of control and power. It doesn't mean the leaders are "bad people" it just means they are incompetent. My principal is a good example: A smart, hard=working, decent person with the best of intentions, he makes all the teachers feel like idiots, ciphers or tools that can be easily replaced if needed. And why shouldn't he: With a few APs, he is trying to manage over 200 people! He has no time to get to know us, or to help us. In five years he will be gone, probably to a better-paid job, while the same 40% of hardcore veterans are hanging on through yet another administration.

    (At my last district, a veteran I admired said he'd served under nine principals and he only considered two of them to have been even moderately good at their job. I would posit this is because the job is nearly impossible. The best book on this is "Horace's Compromise," btw, which is a devastating expose of the American high school.)

    I see no hope for the system as whole, at least at the higher grades. But I think people can and do create pockets of success where different colloborative models are temporarily possible. Small schools and charters are only good because they make this easier, although by no means insure it will happen — and they lack the stability of the big institutions, which can lead to crisis as we have seen.

11. cranky teacher Says:
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:49 am

    Katy: Thanks for showing interest in my blogging. If you're serious, I'm flattered. However, I can't imagine doing it without being anonymous. It's not that I would ever name names or even fear my principal, but I don't think it is fair to the students to have their teacher using classroom experiences as examples in a public forum.

    Example: The biggest problem I see in non-AP high school classes in Oakland is that most of the students are COMPLETELY unprepared to learn grade-level standards. They need remediation and we have to pretend they don't. We are given (very expensive) *grade-level* textbooks and related materials and told to use them with kids who lack the vocabulary, critical thinking skills and background knowledge to successfully use these tools. To use a pedagogical term: The content is way beyond their zone of proximal development (Zygotsky's ZPD). Then they are tested by CST tests on how well they learned this stuff.

    So, if I was writing a blog am I going to be public about talking about how uneducated my students are in a place where they and their parents can read this?

    I wouldn't want to abuse the power of anonymity (by trashing individuals), but I see no way to be bluntly honest about the experience of teaching in Oakland without it.

    I'd also be glad to meet you in person to show you want I'm talking about in terms of the textbook, the state standards, etc.

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