A Situation Simply Stated

On one side of this situation is the pool of teachers in the ATR.  We are experienced teachers who cover the range of core subject areas, as well as the enrichment classes like art, music and technology. We come from all parts of the city and have a variety of skills and strengths. Our salaries are funded.  We are a valued resource for the public school system and we are ready to go.

On the other side we have a struggling school with limited resources for a variety of reasons.  Because of a reduced budget there are fewer teachers; consequently, each class in each grade is at maximum size. The students can't get the attention or special help they need because their teacher is too busy with too many students.  There is one music and one art teacher for 500 students.  The more the school struggles the more it continues to slide. The deeper it sinks, the more the budget shrinks each year.

So what happens?  The school is assigned a different teacher from the ATR each week to cover a class, or lunchroom or to monitor the hallway.

The value : Nil

The lost opportunity: Priceless.

Money, Money, Money

Well, the beat goes on.  I heard that my school has hired two rookies.  Now I know that along with me (computer teacher), an art teacher, a music teacher, a gym teacher and about six others were all given the asterisk. So, who is being hired at the school?  I am sure that there are plenty of licensed, experienced teachers from the ATR pool to fill any position in the core subjects.  So why go for a pair of rookies?  Especially in my old school, which,  like so many other "hard to staff" schools, usually benefits from having an experienced teacher in the room.  Believe me, during the six years of my tenure at the school,  I  saw legions of Teach for America people run after the first year, if they made it that far. Nothing against TFA, but anyone and everyone will tell you that there is a world of difference between sitting in and standing in front of a classroom. And it takes about five years of teaching before you really get your feet on the ground. So, like almost every other issue on the plate, it is a matter of money.
  I know everyone has to start somewhere and new teachers have to be out there trying to get hired, and hey, they have outrageous loans to pay off.  But when hiring decisions are based primarily on money in the budget, then having an experienced ATR teacher compete with someone who can be had for half the price is certainly not the way to keep a level playing field. I imagine some principals can put together a staff of inexperienced teachers and maybe be rewarded for coming in below budget. So, perhaps we will need to change how we evaluate a school. Perhaps the value of the school should really be measured by how well the principal kept within the budget. Just kidding, but what a waste of talent and what a demeaning way to be treated.  There are however, ways to utilize the talent in the "Reserve"; ways that can both be useful to the various schools under budget crunch and be mindful of the various talent and skills that will be available in the pool.  

Groundhog Week

An aerial view of the ATR

I have to say that I did not get much out of the Open Hiring System.  Citywide, there were only 8 positions for a computer teacher and 3 of them were for high schools. The last time I looked, two days ago, there was only one school left on the list that still had a vacancy, and I didn't get a response from the principal.   The way this hiring system works leaves me with little hope of securing a position in the fall. I suspect,  therefore, that I will have a secure position in the ATR pool come September.

 

 This dismal prospect gives me all the more reason to look at what is going on in my new ATR assignment.  For starters: what is the rationale behind the mandate that all teachers in the ATR  be assigned to a different school each week?  The UFT/DOE claim that by doing so, the "excessed" teacher will have an opportunity to meet the principals of the different schools in the district.  What for? Are we going to have a coffee together?  If there is a position at the school, they should just post it like their supposed to. If there is a position available, then offer it at the job fair.  Really, by the time September rolls around, each school should have their staff in place.  We are all waiting around to be picked for the dance but the music will end soon and many of us will never get out on the dance floor. I guess we are too expensive/experienced to be a valued addition to a teaching staff. But even if this idea of being a surplus, not a substitute, teacher was deemed financially necessary then why the directive of a different school each week.  Just what does that really accomplish and who does it serve.  It certainly makes the teacher's job all the more difficult since every week is the first week of school.  Yeah, it does sound like Bill Murray's Groundhog Day.  I imagine it is also additional work for the administration: having to come up with a schedule or assignments each week for teachers of different talents and skills, having to keep track of the attendance of employees you hardly recognize.  As for the students, well picture this middle school lunch period: you are assigned to the lunchroom to keep order - you don't know any staff and the students don't know you.  Have a nice week.

A View From Under the Bus

Well, first of all, it is very dark under the bus, hardly any light on the matter at all.  I guess, after a while, your eyes get used to the darkness.  I can barely make out shapes but I see the Universal Shaft clearly and I know from personal experience and from what I have heard, most ATR's can feel the shaft before they actually see it.  The tire tracks impressed on the back of my white shirt can, in my opinion, become a fashion statement if given to the right marketing professional.  They do standout, especially if I wear my old school colors of black and white.  But wait,  I can't even say that now since I am no longer affiliated with that school and in fact, the school has stopped enforcing school colors years ago.

 
I also know there are others under this bus.  I can hear them, faintly calling out in the dark stillness of the DOE Purgatory Parking Lot.  It's funny how the words called out have evolved.  In June, one could hear "..what happened?, what did I do? or I had an S rating so why am I here?"   Now, I hear a lot of angry grumbling and curses.  We have become almost almost unintelligible in our exasperation, resentment and feeling of disrespect. I can hear, "This is bull and if the DOE and UFT  want it this way then so be it.  You want to devalue my experience, skill and work as an educator and have me monitor lunch rooms for the SAME PRICE as having me teach the class I have done successfully for many years? Fine, but what what kind of attitude do you think that treatment will engender anyway?"  Instead of planning lessons, marking student work, meeting with parents etc., the ATR agenda is reduced to getting a parking spot and finding a nearby Dunkin' Donuts.

Hip Hip hooray?

 

Well, I received my copy of New York Teacher in the mail the other day.  I guess it was the Victory Edition because it was all of four pages plus the Educational Supplement. The headline, we all know by now, was the judge's ruling that upheld the arbitrator's decision about the DOE efforts to decimate the staff at the 24 schools in question. All this is great, especially if you are one of those whose head was on the block. However, on the same page in the paper was the article Good news city budget.  I quote, "In more good news, no teachers or school aides will be laid off in the 2013 budget and, for the first time in five years, there is funding to replace departing teachers.” OK, so did I miss something? You mean there is money for teachers, you mean that those qualified teachers consigned to the ATR squadron due to budget cuts reflecting the purportedly reduced student population, will be called back to their classrooms because budgets are restored?  Is this money going to the schools to be disbursed as the principal sees fit? I ask only because I am, as of now, along with about 1000 other teachers, out of a classroom due to no fault of my own.  My position was eliminated because of a budget crunch -- or so I was told. So, money is back - yeah? So where is the email from my school welcoming me back with open arms?

But I Want To Be a Teacher !

It has only been this past week or so that I have been looking at ATR blogs and have read the various comments submitted by other excessed teachers, and I must admit, the picture looks awful.  Time after time, excessed teachers write that they (myself included) have been religiously checking the open market for available positions, sending out emails, letters, and phone calls.  Each and every time the response has been negative:  usually, not even a call back or an email acknowledgment of communication.  It is no wonder that the word "disheartening" is heard over and over again. However, a typical comment in response to this situation is: "...but what, after all, are you upset about -- you have a job, right". Yes, we continue to have a paycheck,  but that is really not a job and certainly not part of what I would consider a career.  Teaching is not a vocation you happen to fall into; it is usually a calling that fulfills a true desire to inculcate a love of learning.  To think that the person who spent years of study and training in order to be a quality instructor would be just as happy and fulfilled pulling a check by simply sitting in a classroom without purpose calls for a depth of cynicism that I am not willing to entertain.  Now, that is not to say that some teachers in the ATR pool do not take up that mantle.  I have read comments that reflect the attitude of "...hey, they put me here, without purpose, if they want to give me a paycheck to have me sit and do squat, then so be it...I can outlast them".  Everyone knows that it is really, really difficult to do nothing.  I would certainly rather deal with a double period of my worst class from last year than be in a situation where I sit and watch the clock tick away in a room full of empty desks, as I wait for my only assignment of the day -- lunchroom duty.  Really, how much more satisfying it is when you even try to engage your students in a worthwhile project or assignment.  At least it is a challenge and certainly a more worthy challenge than trying to beat the clock.
So, this leads to to what I need to do for the remainder of the summer.  Instead of searching for more websites like "surgery squad" ( virtual surgery - attn: science teachers), I can spend the time fruitlessly milling about the "open hiring system", perusing Craigslist for entries under Education Jobs, Part-Time or Etc., or just fretting and anxiously waiting for my ATR assignment.  Disheartening?  Yeah, I would agree.

Humor anyone?

Anyway, even with the misery and dread attendant to being ATR, there is some consolation in that I suspect that the ATR need not worry about the above type of experience. But hey, I might be wrong. I suspect that we will need to be rated by the end of the year. I wonder how that is determined.  The more I think about this situation, the bleaker and really more absurd it becomes.  What advantage is there, or rather what is being served by having the ATR move from school to school? It is wrong headed in so many ways. The teacher never gets to establish a relationship with fellow teachers, students, or administration, yet these are basic field rules that need to be there before one can expect any fruitful results from having a teacher stand in another teacher's classroom. I know that all the schools are "teaching the same thing at the same time" Gee, doesn't that make it easy?  Anyway, what I need to know is if there is a generic bathroom key that fits all the teacher bathroom locks. This is what I need to worry about instead of checking my student's Glogs on the Harlem Renaissance.  That is when I had a class and a classroom, instead of a coverage slip.

I would like to know from other experienced ATR people if you are also sent to do a Poncho to Cisco in other teachers’ classrooms.  In other words, if you are not covering an absence, are you sent to work with another teacher as a sidekick, or are you sent to "the pool you came from" -- the cafeteria/facility lounge?

You: You want the truth!

Me: I deserve the truth!

You: You can't handle the truth!

Me: Try me!

You: You will be sent to be an unwelcome stranger intruding upon the Other who will regard you with suspicion and the "there but for the grace of Athena go I", type of pity. .  You will need to do this on a near daily basis if you are not sent to oversee the class that thinks sub means sandwich - something to eat... You will be required to search for the only secretary that has the one bathroom key - and yes, she is very busy, you may be eating lunch at 10:30am or 2:15 - you never know. You will have to track down the payroll secretary to make sure you have a card this week, you will need to have identification - perhaps a badge will do since you are indeed a stranger. Shall I go on...there will be no where to park and no where to eat ..

Me: Aha, so much the wiser.