By Anonymous
Filed Friday, January 6 at 10:43 AM
by A Roosevelt Teacher
January 3, 2006 –– On the last Friday before Christmas break, Superintendent Williams sent a letter home to parents of Roosevelt students detailing sweeping changes that would take place in the school in January. Williams wrote that it was the teachers and staff at Roosevelt that came up with these new ideas, and that we are "energetic" about implementing them.
Nobody I know had, or knew, anything about them. We were told two days before the letter that there will be a "New Perspectives" Alternative School within the building at Roosevelt - with a separate entrance, a separate lunch, separate rules, etc. There is nothing in writing, only one new teacher, and no mention of any resources to support it. It is supposed to have a community service component, but no community service sites have been set up yet. And teachers will be teaching two new Kaplan curricula without training. At this point, it doesn't seem like the alternative school has any real support - just another quickie experiment.
Mostly, I am upset about these directives that come down about which we cannot voice our opinions or needs, yet we are the ones assigned to work with students every day who are encountering a number of serious problems.
One of the problems is the Kaplan curriculum we are forcing down their throats. Williams sent a message back to the school, however, that "negative comments about Kaplan must cease." How does he expect anything but negative comments when the curriculum says teachers can spend a maximum of 93 minutes teaching the U.S. constitution and its role in law and the Supreme Court; or a maximum of three days on the Civil War, including its causes, how it was conducted, and the effects it had on the subsequent history of the United States?
Even worse, there are many contradictions between what the curriculum teaches and the actual practices in the school, in the city at large, and in the state. We would not be doing our job if we didn't talk about that. But, Williams' response is that Kaplan will stay, but teachers who are doing their job can go.
Several weeks ago, some teachers in my team reported police came into their rooms searching for a bomb. Only about half even knew anything about it, and the other half didn't have their rooms searched. Now, I'll bet if there folks making $100,000 or more were subject to a bomb threat - they'd be evacuated. Not many teachers or students at Roosevelt were even informed. The same thing happens when the city health department discovers Roosevelt students with TB or whooping cough.
I am really getting tired of living and working like this. And, the kids, they've really had enough!
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home