An ATR teacher known as Every ATR has some interesting thoughts about the DOE's new plan for evaluating him and his colleagues in Brooklyn.
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| A substitute teacher dodges paper airplanes. |
I am a HS ESL teacher. So far none of my ATR assignments have used me in my content area. I am troubled by the DOE's position that ATRs who are not covering classes in their content area will be judged on their classroom management. skills. When students in high school see a substitute (and that's what we are to the school's administration and to the students) the students see party time. Students won't sit still for a lesson. If absentee work is left students may or may not bother to do it. The UFT's advice to "teach what we know" just doesn't fly with high school students. These students, teenagers, will complain that what the sub tries to teach is not what the class is supposed to be.
I understand from Amy Arundel, that the UFT has sent to the DOE a protocol for how principals should be utilizing ATRs. It seems to me that until a protocol is in place for how ATRs are to be used, no one should be observing any ATR, particularly if they are being used out of their license area. By the way, aren't observations only supposed to be done when a teacher is actually teaching a class in his or her content area?
By the way, as I've moved from high school to high school in Brooklyn, I've noticed that these new mini-schools have pretty much the same level of student as the school I was phased out of--low academics and high behavior problems. The only difference I can see is that these mini-schools have far fewer students and far, far more technological resources. I've also noticed that they are following administrative and pedagogical models that seem strange and useless. Exactly what is "ADVISORY" ???
- Keep the faith.
Photo credit:
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