Election day is near and the ads are constant on TV, radio, and the Internet. All the nasty, misleading misinformation is flowing from both sides like an unstoppable volcano. Come next Tuesday it will all thankfully stop and we can get on with our lives. Until then, IGNORE every commercial you see or hear. They mean nothing. They have nothing new to tell you.
I, on the other hand, have lots of opinions and you are welcome to read on and see what I have to say about the candidates and propositions. I will tell you up front that I am coming to this election from an educational viewpoint. All my choices are based on whether it will help fully fund and support public education, give teachers a voice at the 'reform' table, and ultimately, help me keep my job.
Meg Whitman will not help public education. She will make deep cuts to the public employee sector and put in place huge corporate tax breaks and that takes money away from education. I have searched high and low to find out what she wants to 'fix' in public education but there are no specifics anywhere and the overall mantra seems to be that we need to find ways to fire teachers easily (sounds like a corporate CEO to me) and any bad school will be changed to a charter and somehow that will miraculously turn them around.
Jerry Brown has a record of supporting education. He will honor Proposition 98 (that we overwhelmingly passed and that Arnold is suspending) that guarantee's minimum funding. He will work together with District offices, administrators, teachers and parents to develop a fair form of evaluation and is a true believer in allowing local districts to make local decisions.
Our state is in bad shape. The Democrats will still control Sacramento after Tuesday. Meg will have no better chance at getting anything done than Arnie did. She will be blocked at every turn and she will be powerless to use her business skills because she will be unable to fire workers or management that doesn't agree with her vision. Our state is not a company. It is a wild and crazy mix of diverse hopes and dreams. Jerry knows the ins and outs of Sacramento. He is beyond political sides and has become a pragmatist that will do what needs to be done to get our state moving forward again. Jerry Brown for Governor.
I don't have much to say about the Senate race. Fiorina shipped thousand of jobs overseas, made herself rich, and left HP in worse shape than when she took over. Boxer is a champion for education and the working people of California. Barbara Boxer for Senate.
Prop 19 - Pot. Make large amounts of tax money on the legalization and distribution of pot? The feds will never allow the raising, packaging and selling of pot so the reason to say yes is to make a statement and start a movement in the United States to legalize a drug that is arguably no better or worse for society than alcohol is. From a purely financial view, I say: Yes on 19.
Prop 20 -redistricting, part 1. This proposition was created and paid for by the son of a Wall Street billionaire, a man named Charles Munger, Jr. When a proposition is paid for by one person, I am immediately suspicious. It would direct the citizen commission to draw congressional boundaries as well as state legislative districts. This gives the commission much more power and would cost us millions more than we agreed to in Prop 11 that created the commission. More disconcerting though is the implied racist language in the proposition that calls for districts to be 'segregated by income'; 'similar living standards'; similar work opportunities'. This is the same language that created the notorious Jim Crow laws in the south and continued the separation of peoples by race and class. For this reason alone I adamantly say: NO on 20.
Prop 21 - $ for parks. Charge you a tax on new vehicles bought to help pay for the deep cuts to the state park system. I need nature to replenish my patience well. I say: Yes on 21
Prop 22 - $ is locked to specific spending. This sounds good but our budget has been played with so much that most everyone gets their funding from the general fund nowadays. Until there is a separate, untouchable source of income for education, we are dependent on access to the general fund. I say: NO on 22
Prop 23 - suspends AB32 This is one of the biggest cons pretending to be a proposition or the people. Two huge oil companies do not want to pay to clean up their refineries and so they have put Prop 23 on the ballot and tried to make it sound like they care about working people. This is a handout to big oil and would stop dead in its tracks the one business model that can help move Ca. forward - green energy jobs. I say: NO on 23
Prop 24 - stop corporate tax breaks. This is a big one for education. If these tax breaks are allowed to happen, education could lose another billion dollars in possible funding. We have lost close to $25 billion in the last three years and cannot afford any more loses. An article in the LA Times today showed that companies in Ca. are not taxed at a higher rate (4.3%)than most other states. In fact, we tax lower than Texas (4.8%), who Meg and others always mention as having a better environment for business. If we pass Prop 24 then these breaks will not go into effect. This one I shout: YES on 24
Prop 25 - on-time budget This is a no brainer. Pass the budget on time or you don't get paid for every day you are late. Retain a 2/3 requirement for any bill that involves taxes. This proposition combined with Prop 24 and Brown as governor might actually keep the hounds at bay next year, keep class sizes where they are (still too big) and keep anymore teachers from being laid off. I say: YES on 25
Prop 26 - vote on fees This is the second biggest con on the ballot. This is funded by Chevron, Exxon, Shell, Bp and other energy companies because fees are raised to help clean up the pollution these companies create. Don't be fooled by the commercials. This is another handout for big oil. I say: NO on 26
Prop 27 - redistricting part 2 - this would repeal Prop 11 and take away the Citizens Commission that will draw the state legislative districts and give the power back to Sacramento where it has always been. Toss-up. From a a financial viewpoint, it would save millions in the cost for this new commission and as we know, once a commission has been created, it hungers for more money. I say: YES on 27
These are my viewpoints. Take them as you will or don't take them at all. All I ask is one important thing: VOTE !
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Shame
If anyone needed a reason to vote for Prop 25, the abysmal performance, incredible ineptitude, shameful last minute flurry of back room dealings and downright gutless inaction on raising any kind of revenue by our elected officials in Sacramento should be enough of a reason to convince even the most die-hard conservative.
The Legislature took 100 days to pass a budget that pushes billions of dollars worth of problems to the next governor, based their projected shortfall and incoming federal money on a fantasy, and slashed to the bone every social aid program in the state. They could have done this last July.
They suspended a Proposition that was passed by a solid majority of Californians that guarantees funding to schools and will NOT pay out close to $3 Billion dollars to schools already at the breaking point with some of the biggest class sizes in the nation. In three years they have cut almost $25 Billion from education. There is much talk of school reform but without basic funding and public support, reform is a mute issue. Don't blame the teachers when you pack kids into the rooms like sardines, cut 5 days out of the academic year, fire custodial staff and schools become filthy. Give us an even playing field and the money the people of California said we should have before you pass judgement on our abilities.
Prop 25 says that the Legislature must pass a budget in the appointed time or they will NOT get paid for every day it is late. It allows us to pass the general (more on this in a minute) budget with a majority of votes, thereby ending this tyranny of the minority we have experienced for the last 6 years where a handful of politicians can stop any effort by the majority to try something, anything, to fix the problems. It does NOT stop having to have a 2/3 majority for raising taxes. A budget is made up of a bunch of smaller bills and any bill that involves taxes would have to be passed by a 2/3 majority before it became part of the general budget bill.
We witnessed politicians taking vacations, flying to China, and generally doing nothing for 100 days while our state sunk deeper and deeper into despair and uncertainty. It is time to hold their feet to the fire. Pass a budget or pay the price. Yes on 25.
The Legislature took 100 days to pass a budget that pushes billions of dollars worth of problems to the next governor, based their projected shortfall and incoming federal money on a fantasy, and slashed to the bone every social aid program in the state. They could have done this last July.
They suspended a Proposition that was passed by a solid majority of Californians that guarantees funding to schools and will NOT pay out close to $3 Billion dollars to schools already at the breaking point with some of the biggest class sizes in the nation. In three years they have cut almost $25 Billion from education. There is much talk of school reform but without basic funding and public support, reform is a mute issue. Don't blame the teachers when you pack kids into the rooms like sardines, cut 5 days out of the academic year, fire custodial staff and schools become filthy. Give us an even playing field and the money the people of California said we should have before you pass judgement on our abilities.
Prop 25 says that the Legislature must pass a budget in the appointed time or they will NOT get paid for every day it is late. It allows us to pass the general (more on this in a minute) budget with a majority of votes, thereby ending this tyranny of the minority we have experienced for the last 6 years where a handful of politicians can stop any effort by the majority to try something, anything, to fix the problems. It does NOT stop having to have a 2/3 majority for raising taxes. A budget is made up of a bunch of smaller bills and any bill that involves taxes would have to be passed by a 2/3 majority before it became part of the general budget bill.
We witnessed politicians taking vacations, flying to China, and generally doing nothing for 100 days while our state sunk deeper and deeper into despair and uncertainty. It is time to hold their feet to the fire. Pass a budget or pay the price. Yes on 25.
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Vote with Knowledge
This election is exactly why I chose Mr. Wilde's comment about truth. The truth of these initiatives and propositions is certainly not pure and most are written to seem simple but have loopholes inside of loopholes. Here are my thoughts. Short, simple, to the point.
Measure E - YES - this is important for schools. Temporary, all money goes to teachers, arts programs, class size reductions, clean and safe schools and no money goes to district administration. Yearly audit. Basically, a little more than a quarter a day or $2 a week to help our school system that has lost $20 billion in funding and thousands of teachers, counselors, maitenence workers, etc. in the last 3 years.
State Superintendent of Schools - Tom Torlakson - good, solid, former teacher, understands what it is like in the classroom and the boardroom. Gloria Romero is in the pocket of big money that wants to privatize public instruction.
Governor - I'm voting for Jerry because I'm a democrat and I enjoy voting in a primary that I know all the candidates are democrats, which is one of the reasons why I am opposed to Prop 14.
I have looked all over Meg Whitman's website and have yet to find concrete details about how she will do all the things she is promising. She says she wants to 'fix' education but never specifically says what she thinks is wrong with it, nor does she express any specific changes other than the current mantra these days about charters are good and teachers need to be fired more easily.
Poizner used to be socially moderate and fiscally conservative but has drifted so far to the right I don't know what he really stands for anymore.
Prop 13: YES - retrofit without having to raise property taxes
Prop 14: NO - no open primaries until campaign finance reform is in place. I want to know who the candidates are, not what they are pretending to be.
Prop 15: Maybe - could be the beginning of campaign reform, could be a waste of time because of too many loopholes for corporate pacs.
Prop 16 - NO - will make PG&E very rich, give them an almost monopoly in California, give them the power to raise your rates (oh yeah, you don't get to vote on that decision) and has nothing at all to do with 'taxpayer rights to vote'. It is purposefully misleading and tapping into the voter/tea party anger. It will stop new green energy solutions and will do nothing but make PG&E richer.
Prop 17- NO - again, another cynical attempt to subvert the initiative process. See who wrote and funded this initiative. Mercury Car Insurance. This will possibly punish good drivers, add surcharges to some policies and make Mercury extremely wealthy. This is designed for a corporations benefit, not you, the consumer.
Vote as you will, but please don't be fooled by the onslaught of slick, but empty TV ads. Read the initiatives, see who is funding them, go to the websites of the candidates and look for details instead of rhetoric. Make up your own mind because you understand the positions not because Fox, or MSNBC, or I told you what they mean and how to vote.
Measure E - YES - this is important for schools. Temporary, all money goes to teachers, arts programs, class size reductions, clean and safe schools and no money goes to district administration. Yearly audit. Basically, a little more than a quarter a day or $2 a week to help our school system that has lost $20 billion in funding and thousands of teachers, counselors, maitenence workers, etc. in the last 3 years.
State Superintendent of Schools - Tom Torlakson - good, solid, former teacher, understands what it is like in the classroom and the boardroom. Gloria Romero is in the pocket of big money that wants to privatize public instruction.
Governor - I'm voting for Jerry because I'm a democrat and I enjoy voting in a primary that I know all the candidates are democrats, which is one of the reasons why I am opposed to Prop 14.
I have looked all over Meg Whitman's website and have yet to find concrete details about how she will do all the things she is promising. She says she wants to 'fix' education but never specifically says what she thinks is wrong with it, nor does she express any specific changes other than the current mantra these days about charters are good and teachers need to be fired more easily.
Poizner used to be socially moderate and fiscally conservative but has drifted so far to the right I don't know what he really stands for anymore.
Prop 13: YES - retrofit without having to raise property taxes
Prop 14: NO - no open primaries until campaign finance reform is in place. I want to know who the candidates are, not what they are pretending to be.
Prop 15: Maybe - could be the beginning of campaign reform, could be a waste of time because of too many loopholes for corporate pacs.
Prop 16 - NO - will make PG&E very rich, give them an almost monopoly in California, give them the power to raise your rates (oh yeah, you don't get to vote on that decision) and has nothing at all to do with 'taxpayer rights to vote'. It is purposefully misleading and tapping into the voter/tea party anger. It will stop new green energy solutions and will do nothing but make PG&E richer.
Prop 17- NO - again, another cynical attempt to subvert the initiative process. See who wrote and funded this initiative. Mercury Car Insurance. This will possibly punish good drivers, add surcharges to some policies and make Mercury extremely wealthy. This is designed for a corporations benefit, not you, the consumer.
Vote as you will, but please don't be fooled by the onslaught of slick, but empty TV ads. Read the initiatives, see who is funding them, go to the websites of the candidates and look for details instead of rhetoric. Make up your own mind because you understand the positions not because Fox, or MSNBC, or I told you what they mean and how to vote.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Saved !
Oh, Happy Day !!! The LAUSD asked the Board of Education to rescind another 522 elementary teachers that received their RIF (Reduction in Force - laid off in layman's terms) and the board agreed to do so. I am very, very happy to say that I was one of those 522 and can now breathe a huge sigh of relief. I will have the incredible joy of grappling once again with a brand new set of 36 different 5th grade minds next year. I am truly walking on air at this moment.
I would remind us all to not forget that this came about because of all the unions (teachers, administrators, of office workers, custodial, counselors, nurses, etc.) taking furlough days, deep cuts at the district level and a class size increase that is still in effect from last year. We are still in financial trouble for the following year as the Governor is withholding $2.3 billion from K-12 California schools in his latest budget. I will write a new post soon concerning the upcoming election, but for now, I want to bathe in the glow of happiness.
I would remind us all to not forget that this came about because of all the unions (teachers, administrators, of office workers, custodial, counselors, nurses, etc.) taking furlough days, deep cuts at the district level and a class size increase that is still in effect from last year. We are still in financial trouble for the following year as the Governor is withholding $2.3 billion from K-12 California schools in his latest budget. I will write a new post soon concerning the upcoming election, but for now, I want to bathe in the glow of happiness.
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Action NOW !
I want to keep my job at my school next year and if the Senate will focus on a specific bill, NOW, I will have a better chance of keeping it.
What we teachers need right now is action! Action from the federal government to pass a bill to release funds that will specifically SAVE TEACHERS JOBS! Action from every concerned citizen to put pressure on Congress to pass the Keep Our Educators Working Act right NOW!
Hundreds of thousands of teachers across the country have been pink-slipped and class sizes have been increased due to the ongoing states’ budget crisis. We see a turn around in the economy nationwide but states will take longer to catch up, pay their debts and fill their tills. We need one more year of federal help. The House of Representatives already understood this and passed a bill weeks ago authorizing an extension of stimulus funds for one more year to save teachers jobs. Senator Harkin from Iowa introduced the Senate version and it was moving along rapidly until we got involved in the Health Care debate and now with the Immigration ruckus from Arizona and the oil spewing into the Gulf, the Senate bill has stalled. We need it to move fast, as school budgets are being finalized right now and teachers will be laid off if there is no new money. If the funds come through this summer, many teachers will be rehired but not at the schools they may have been at for years. We need action from all of you, NOW.
Call, email, or fax the following places and urge them to support and pass, quickly, the Keep Our Educators Working Act (S.3206).
Urge Your Senator to cosponsor the Keep Our Educators Working Act and to push for its immediate passage.
Urge the President to support immediate action to save and create hundreds of thousands of education jobs.
Urge Your Representative to cosponsor the Local Jobs for America Act, which Representative Miller (D-CA) has introduced in the House. Although the House has already acted, the Miller bill sends a strong message about the need to get an education job package done and enacted into law.
What we teachers need right now is action! Action from the federal government to pass a bill to release funds that will specifically SAVE TEACHERS JOBS! Action from every concerned citizen to put pressure on Congress to pass the Keep Our Educators Working Act right NOW!
Hundreds of thousands of teachers across the country have been pink-slipped and class sizes have been increased due to the ongoing states’ budget crisis. We see a turn around in the economy nationwide but states will take longer to catch up, pay their debts and fill their tills. We need one more year of federal help. The House of Representatives already understood this and passed a bill weeks ago authorizing an extension of stimulus funds for one more year to save teachers jobs. Senator Harkin from Iowa introduced the Senate version and it was moving along rapidly until we got involved in the Health Care debate and now with the Immigration ruckus from Arizona and the oil spewing into the Gulf, the Senate bill has stalled. We need it to move fast, as school budgets are being finalized right now and teachers will be laid off if there is no new money. If the funds come through this summer, many teachers will be rehired but not at the schools they may have been at for years. We need action from all of you, NOW.
Call, email, or fax the following places and urge them to support and pass, quickly, the Keep Our Educators Working Act (S.3206).
Urge Your Senator to cosponsor the Keep Our Educators Working Act and to push for its immediate passage.
Urge the President to support immediate action to save and create hundreds of thousands of education jobs.
Urge Your Representative to cosponsor the Local Jobs for America Act, which Representative Miller (D-CA) has introduced in the House. Although the House has already acted, the Miller bill sends a strong message about the need to get an education job package done and enacted into law.
Monday, April 26, 2010
RIF Hearing
RIF (Reduction In Force) Hearing
It is 8:30 am and I am sitting in the basement of the California Marketplace with close to 1,000 other teachers waiting for a hearing to begin that might decide the fate for all of us. It is chaotic, confusing, rumors of what might or might not happen are flying through the room, and it is all thoroughly depressing.
I look around the room and see many familiar faces. Some of these teachers were in my classrooms at CSUN six years ago when I went back to school to get my credential so I could become a full time classroom educator. Many were in my BTSA classes (two more years of support and mentoring classes for probationary teachers required by the state and supplied by the district) and we continued to keep in touch to share ideas, cares, worries and hopes over the last four years.
We are the teachers who are threatened with the loss of our jobs and livelihoods. We are the teachers who have been in the classroom for 4 years and would be starting our 5th year in the fall of 2010. We are the teachers that are coming into our prime.
For most of us, the early management missteps have been corrected and the standards based, fast paced curriculum is fully understood. We have learned how to manage our classes, converse with parents, communicate with administration, maneuver through the district bureaucracy, and relate to the politics of a teaching staff. We have learned when and what needs to be taught so that our students have the best opportunity to shine on all the various district and state tests. Most importantly, we have created dozens of lessons, collaborated with peers, taken professional development classes to extend and enrich our teaching of curriculum so that our students have a full, well rounded education that goes further and deeper than what a district test may judge.
It makes me very sad that the LAUSD, Sacramento Legislature, Governor and Federal Government are not doing everything they possibly can to stop the loss of these valuable teachers. I look around the room and wonder how many will come back if they lose their jobs this year. After the district has invested so much in testing, training, workshops, professional development, and mentoring, why would they abandon them just as they are coming into their most effective instructional years?
Where is the vision for the future? When did public education become the whipping boy for all the problems? Why do so many think that Charters are the magic key when almost all studies show they make little or no difference and in many cases are just making a few people rich while students continue to struggle and fail?
It is now 5:00 pm and the lawyers have said their piece for the day. These hearings will go on for another possible 15 days. State testing begins next week in Middle School and in two weeks in elementary.
Shouldn’t I be in my class preparing my students? Shouldn’t the district be finding every penny they can to keep and support dedicated classroom professionals? Think of all the money spent on judge and lawyers fees, district HR employees, building rental, and hundreds of substitutes by holding these hearings. Think of all the things I could have taught my kids today instead of sitting in the basement of this building.
As I walk to my car, I contemplate how I will spend the hour of rush hour traffic I am about to embark on. I will hand my immediate fate of job or no job to whatever gods hold the strings and think of how to best introduce tomorrow a surface area math project that melds into a history lesson about colonial architecture.
It is 8:30 am and I am sitting in the basement of the California Marketplace with close to 1,000 other teachers waiting for a hearing to begin that might decide the fate for all of us. It is chaotic, confusing, rumors of what might or might not happen are flying through the room, and it is all thoroughly depressing.
I look around the room and see many familiar faces. Some of these teachers were in my classrooms at CSUN six years ago when I went back to school to get my credential so I could become a full time classroom educator. Many were in my BTSA classes (two more years of support and mentoring classes for probationary teachers required by the state and supplied by the district) and we continued to keep in touch to share ideas, cares, worries and hopes over the last four years.
We are the teachers who are threatened with the loss of our jobs and livelihoods. We are the teachers who have been in the classroom for 4 years and would be starting our 5th year in the fall of 2010. We are the teachers that are coming into our prime.
For most of us, the early management missteps have been corrected and the standards based, fast paced curriculum is fully understood. We have learned how to manage our classes, converse with parents, communicate with administration, maneuver through the district bureaucracy, and relate to the politics of a teaching staff. We have learned when and what needs to be taught so that our students have the best opportunity to shine on all the various district and state tests. Most importantly, we have created dozens of lessons, collaborated with peers, taken professional development classes to extend and enrich our teaching of curriculum so that our students have a full, well rounded education that goes further and deeper than what a district test may judge.
It makes me very sad that the LAUSD, Sacramento Legislature, Governor and Federal Government are not doing everything they possibly can to stop the loss of these valuable teachers. I look around the room and wonder how many will come back if they lose their jobs this year. After the district has invested so much in testing, training, workshops, professional development, and mentoring, why would they abandon them just as they are coming into their most effective instructional years?
Where is the vision for the future? When did public education become the whipping boy for all the problems? Why do so many think that Charters are the magic key when almost all studies show they make little or no difference and in many cases are just making a few people rich while students continue to struggle and fail?
It is now 5:00 pm and the lawyers have said their piece for the day. These hearings will go on for another possible 15 days. State testing begins next week in Middle School and in two weeks in elementary.
Shouldn’t I be in my class preparing my students? Shouldn’t the district be finding every penny they can to keep and support dedicated classroom professionals? Think of all the money spent on judge and lawyers fees, district HR employees, building rental, and hundreds of substitutes by holding these hearings. Think of all the things I could have taught my kids today instead of sitting in the basement of this building.
As I walk to my car, I contemplate how I will spend the hour of rush hour traffic I am about to embark on. I will hand my immediate fate of job or no job to whatever gods hold the strings and think of how to best introduce tomorrow a surface area math project that melds into a history lesson about colonial architecture.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
At the bottom again
The newest national academic test results once again find California's fourth- and eighth-graders stuck near the bottom in reading ability, outperforming only Washington, D.C., according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Hey, here's an idea. Let's raise class sizes and fire more teachers so more kids will not get the help they need.
Sorry for the sarcasm but I am astonished once again by the short sightedness of our politicians. If we raise class sizes in the LAUSD to 29 to 32 to 1 in K-3 and 38-42 in 4,5,6, there will simply not be enough time in the day to reach all students. Teachers will have to "teach to the middle" in the hopes of reaching the most minds that they can. Whatever extra time they have will be given to extending and challenging their gifted kids and keeping the lowest from sinking altogether.
The group that is on the border between basic and proficient are the ones who will suffer the most. They are the ones we would normally reach in one on one time during the day, but with so many students in the room, and so much content to cover to appease the testing gods, that will not happen to the extent it should. They will fall behind and the next year they will fall back further, and so on until they reach 5th grade and are woefully behind and not even close to being ready for middle school.
The simple fact is: we need qualified teachers in small classes to teach the curriculum we have been mandated to teach. Every legitatimate study in the last 10 years bears out that fact. There is a reason a few years ago we passed legislation for class size reduction. If we do not find the money to make that happen, scores will fall, children will be left behind, and a generation will not be able to compete in the modern world.
Write your California Legislators and the Governor and tell them the survival of public education rests on their shoulders. If they fail to raise the revenue to fully fund the educational needs of the districts and their teachers, then they bear the responsibility of the failure of a generation of students.
Hey, here's an idea. Let's raise class sizes and fire more teachers so more kids will not get the help they need.
Sorry for the sarcasm but I am astonished once again by the short sightedness of our politicians. If we raise class sizes in the LAUSD to 29 to 32 to 1 in K-3 and 38-42 in 4,5,6, there will simply not be enough time in the day to reach all students. Teachers will have to "teach to the middle" in the hopes of reaching the most minds that they can. Whatever extra time they have will be given to extending and challenging their gifted kids and keeping the lowest from sinking altogether.
The group that is on the border between basic and proficient are the ones who will suffer the most. They are the ones we would normally reach in one on one time during the day, but with so many students in the room, and so much content to cover to appease the testing gods, that will not happen to the extent it should. They will fall behind and the next year they will fall back further, and so on until they reach 5th grade and are woefully behind and not even close to being ready for middle school.
The simple fact is: we need qualified teachers in small classes to teach the curriculum we have been mandated to teach. Every legitatimate study in the last 10 years bears out that fact. There is a reason a few years ago we passed legislation for class size reduction. If we do not find the money to make that happen, scores will fall, children will be left behind, and a generation will not be able to compete in the modern world.
Write your California Legislators and the Governor and tell them the survival of public education rests on their shoulders. If they fail to raise the revenue to fully fund the educational needs of the districts and their teachers, then they bear the responsibility of the failure of a generation of students.
Monday, March 22, 2010
A Day in the Life - 5th grade
I have asked fellow teachers to write about their daily lives in the classroom because I think the public does not have a clear and true picture of what goes on every day in public schools in this district, state, and country. We all hear about the bad, crazy, worn out teachers everyone agrees should go but because of those damn unions and their seniority rules, we can't move them out. Those are the easy stories to highlight and they make good copy in the news but that does not paint a true picture of the vast majority of hardworking, constantly developing, collaborative teachers that exist in my world. I live in a world filled with dedicated, loving, compassionate teachers who work long hours trying to figure out a way to reach each and every student despite the conditions of the school and the pressures from the district, state and federal government.
Without further ado, I am proud to present to you the story of one of those teachers. I hope to have many more to share with you in the days to come.
A Day in the Life by Noelle Ikkanda
It’s easy to hit the delete button. Nobody screams when they’re being erased. And on the computer monitor, state education only appears as dollars and cents -- lifeless -- a reduced reality. Allow me to present this in high definition for a moment. That delete button will be there later, for certain. I, on the other hand, may not be, because I’m a teacher. Live one day with me. Then recalculate the true cost of attrition. Don’t simply set the economics on autocorrect.
Like my fellow teachers, I arrive at school at 7 a.m., an hour before work begins. I flush my sink for the required amount of time, write the daily agenda, check in at the office, photocopy any necessary handouts, and make sure to say “hello” to in my teaching community. From time to time, I even have a student who comes in and finishes her homework with me.
On rainy or very cold mornings, some students get there at 7 a.m. or earlier. The teachers, other school officials, and I open the classrooms and auditorium early so that the students have a warm and safe place to be until school begins.
Before the first bell has rung, we, the teachers, have done all of the aforementioned tasks, graded papers, organized materials, made phone calls, shot out emails, spoken with colleagues, and watered the plants.
I have also greeted each child by his/her name, answered a thousand questions from “Can I go to the computer lab at recess?” to “Will we really have to dance with boys during music class?” I have taken attendance, completed the lunch count, checked in homework (9 missing assignments again), consoled an upset child who has frequent anxiety attacks, taught a writing lesson, read with my students, challenged their brains and encouraged, loved, and respected everyone of them.
The recess bell rings at 10:00 a.m.
By the end of recess, 10:20 a.m., I have loaned out money for a snack, gone over missed problems with a student upset with her math test grade, walked my students up to the playground, run to a meeting for our new library committee, left a message for a parent about an upcoming field trip, hurriedly consumed a yogurt, and used the restroom.
Between recess and lunch, I pick up my students, deal with any issues that have occurred at recess (usually basketball-related), finish my writing lesson, carefully transition those of my students who have difficulty with transitions, go over math homework, teach a math lesson, and differentiate for the different levels of my students -- a colorful collection of 33, four of whom have IEPs, one of whom came in September without knowledge of English. The remaining students run the gamut, from highly gifted to “typical” learners.
As we get ready for lunchtime, cleaning up all of the math projects, putting them into the correct places, I know that I have encouraged, loved, and respected every one of my students.
The lunch bell rings at 11:50 a.m. I am encouraged by this sound, as I always think that it will offer some “downtime” and yet, everyday I am not shocked when it doesn’t. I have made a lunch date with some girls who are having “5th grade girl issues.” We sit and come to agreements over lunches served in Jonas Brothers lunch boxes (not mine). I work straight through lunch, even well after the girls have gone, giggling and speaking of play-dates ahead. When we have the chance, some days my colleagues and I get to meet during the school day. If not, we communicate via emails during the dinner hour -- something my partner doesn’t understand. “They were at work,” I always tell him. “We just didn’t have a minute to talk.”
When the students come back from lunch and all playground issues have been sorted through, there are only 2 hours left in the day. We have science, history, art, and oral presentations to sort through.
Each subject requires our focused attention and my students are eager to begin the final Biology inquiry. Today we take on cellular respiration. Our room is filled with sounds of exploration as bags are filled with yeast, activated from its dormant state. Sugar is added and carbon dioxide is released. The investigation is a hit and the students are engaged. I move around the room, managing each of my ten groups, questioning each based on the kid’s discoveries and understandings. Some groups need more refereeing than others. Some need more depth and complexity in their understanding. The lesson has been a success as students were challenged to think critically and required to make observations.
We fill the remaining hours with hard work. Still, I feel that we are behind, knowing that I will not be able to get to all the projects I have planned. We are digging deep to get through all of the material that will be covered on the second of our three district-mandated science tests. At the end of the day, we write down homework, return tests, gather materials, and pack up backpacks. The school day is done for most of the students, but hardly for the teachers.
By the time the bell rings its final toll and the kids pour out of the classroom, there are stragglers to attend to, parents who want feedback, trash to be taken out and the floor that still needs to be swept; recent janitorial cut backs have created this additional duty for teachers
After “work,” I tutor two of my students who are on the brink of failing 5th grade. Without my extra help and attention, these kids will have to repeat and not move onto middle school with their peers. I spend almost 3 hours a week, of my own time and for free, getting these students back on grade-level. I do this because I want to encourage, love, and respect them. I do this because I do.
By the time I leave the school campus, usually around 4 p.m., there are still a few of cars in the parking lot.
We are not an 8 to 3 crew with summers off. (Actually, teachers are unemployed by the district during the summer months, not “on vacation”.)
I do not know one teacher who does not work in some way over the summer, whether teaching summer school (unfortunately no longer available for elementary school), working at the mall, tutoring, attending seminars/workshops, or creating new lesson plans. Teachers work whether or not students are present and we will continue to work hard even with class sizes soaring, students busting out of the seams of the too-tiny-classrooms. Teachers do what we do because we believe that what we are doing every day is for the benefit of our society.
When I make it home, at the end of this single day, I am exhausted. I carry the day’s projects home in my “teacher bag” and the day’s adventures in my heart. A student of mine has not turned in his homework for a week straight and his parents have not responded to any of my attempts at contact. I fuss over the right way to reach him and fear that he will slip through the cracks. Like many teachers, I fear failure. It haunts me, resting on the faces and in the lives of my students. Will I reach him? This student is one of the kids I bring home from work with me. On my hour-long drive from school to home, I am usually planning strategies to tackle the issues my students face. While at home, for Valentine’s Day, I hand write all 33 of them handmade valentine cards.
This is my day.
This is what it asks you now:
• Who will do this, if I am no longer employed?
• Who will care as much as I do?
• Are we really ready to let over 1,800 teachers go?
• If I lose my job, which is likely, who will greet your child in the morning?
• Can we really let a generation of our future society members be forced into classrooms that are too small and class sizes that are too large for real learning to occur?
• Where is the encouragement, love and respect for our kids?
• It is in my classroom this year, but will it be there in the next?
I fear that in a classroom of 40 plus students, there will be less time for the encouragement, love and respect that I am able to give my current 33. I fear that in a room of 40 plus students, I will not be the teacher I am today.
I love my job more than I could ever explain. The words always seem to escape me when I try. I am not a writer but a teacher. There is no other job that I would rather do, nothing that fills me with more joy than being a part of a group of young people for 9 months and then some. I get to work at 7 a.m. not because I have to, but because if I don’t, I feel that I would not be doing my job. I do not work harder than other teachers, nor do I give more of myself than any other.
No word that I have written is in complaint or from anger or regret, because I would have my life no other way. So how would you have my students live their lives? Who will be there, if not me, at 7 a.m. on a morning of torrential rain to open the door for them? Please help me serve them and in turn, serve the state. This is not an appeal so much as it is the proof of life -- the proof that my day is also the students’ day, which encompasses the parents’ day, and ultimately your day.
Without further ado, I am proud to present to you the story of one of those teachers. I hope to have many more to share with you in the days to come.
A Day in the Life by Noelle Ikkanda
It’s easy to hit the delete button. Nobody screams when they’re being erased. And on the computer monitor, state education only appears as dollars and cents -- lifeless -- a reduced reality. Allow me to present this in high definition for a moment. That delete button will be there later, for certain. I, on the other hand, may not be, because I’m a teacher. Live one day with me. Then recalculate the true cost of attrition. Don’t simply set the economics on autocorrect.
Like my fellow teachers, I arrive at school at 7 a.m., an hour before work begins. I flush my sink for the required amount of time, write the daily agenda, check in at the office, photocopy any necessary handouts, and make sure to say “hello” to in my teaching community. From time to time, I even have a student who comes in and finishes her homework with me.
On rainy or very cold mornings, some students get there at 7 a.m. or earlier. The teachers, other school officials, and I open the classrooms and auditorium early so that the students have a warm and safe place to be until school begins.
Before the first bell has rung, we, the teachers, have done all of the aforementioned tasks, graded papers, organized materials, made phone calls, shot out emails, spoken with colleagues, and watered the plants.
I have also greeted each child by his/her name, answered a thousand questions from “Can I go to the computer lab at recess?” to “Will we really have to dance with boys during music class?” I have taken attendance, completed the lunch count, checked in homework (9 missing assignments again), consoled an upset child who has frequent anxiety attacks, taught a writing lesson, read with my students, challenged their brains and encouraged, loved, and respected everyone of them.
The recess bell rings at 10:00 a.m.
By the end of recess, 10:20 a.m., I have loaned out money for a snack, gone over missed problems with a student upset with her math test grade, walked my students up to the playground, run to a meeting for our new library committee, left a message for a parent about an upcoming field trip, hurriedly consumed a yogurt, and used the restroom.
Between recess and lunch, I pick up my students, deal with any issues that have occurred at recess (usually basketball-related), finish my writing lesson, carefully transition those of my students who have difficulty with transitions, go over math homework, teach a math lesson, and differentiate for the different levels of my students -- a colorful collection of 33, four of whom have IEPs, one of whom came in September without knowledge of English. The remaining students run the gamut, from highly gifted to “typical” learners.
As we get ready for lunchtime, cleaning up all of the math projects, putting them into the correct places, I know that I have encouraged, loved, and respected every one of my students.
The lunch bell rings at 11:50 a.m. I am encouraged by this sound, as I always think that it will offer some “downtime” and yet, everyday I am not shocked when it doesn’t. I have made a lunch date with some girls who are having “5th grade girl issues.” We sit and come to agreements over lunches served in Jonas Brothers lunch boxes (not mine). I work straight through lunch, even well after the girls have gone, giggling and speaking of play-dates ahead. When we have the chance, some days my colleagues and I get to meet during the school day. If not, we communicate via emails during the dinner hour -- something my partner doesn’t understand. “They were at work,” I always tell him. “We just didn’t have a minute to talk.”
When the students come back from lunch and all playground issues have been sorted through, there are only 2 hours left in the day. We have science, history, art, and oral presentations to sort through.
Each subject requires our focused attention and my students are eager to begin the final Biology inquiry. Today we take on cellular respiration. Our room is filled with sounds of exploration as bags are filled with yeast, activated from its dormant state. Sugar is added and carbon dioxide is released. The investigation is a hit and the students are engaged. I move around the room, managing each of my ten groups, questioning each based on the kid’s discoveries and understandings. Some groups need more refereeing than others. Some need more depth and complexity in their understanding. The lesson has been a success as students were challenged to think critically and required to make observations.
We fill the remaining hours with hard work. Still, I feel that we are behind, knowing that I will not be able to get to all the projects I have planned. We are digging deep to get through all of the material that will be covered on the second of our three district-mandated science tests. At the end of the day, we write down homework, return tests, gather materials, and pack up backpacks. The school day is done for most of the students, but hardly for the teachers.
By the time the bell rings its final toll and the kids pour out of the classroom, there are stragglers to attend to, parents who want feedback, trash to be taken out and the floor that still needs to be swept; recent janitorial cut backs have created this additional duty for teachers
After “work,” I tutor two of my students who are on the brink of failing 5th grade. Without my extra help and attention, these kids will have to repeat and not move onto middle school with their peers. I spend almost 3 hours a week, of my own time and for free, getting these students back on grade-level. I do this because I want to encourage, love, and respect them. I do this because I do.
By the time I leave the school campus, usually around 4 p.m., there are still a few of cars in the parking lot.
We are not an 8 to 3 crew with summers off. (Actually, teachers are unemployed by the district during the summer months, not “on vacation”.)
I do not know one teacher who does not work in some way over the summer, whether teaching summer school (unfortunately no longer available for elementary school), working at the mall, tutoring, attending seminars/workshops, or creating new lesson plans. Teachers work whether or not students are present and we will continue to work hard even with class sizes soaring, students busting out of the seams of the too-tiny-classrooms. Teachers do what we do because we believe that what we are doing every day is for the benefit of our society.
When I make it home, at the end of this single day, I am exhausted. I carry the day’s projects home in my “teacher bag” and the day’s adventures in my heart. A student of mine has not turned in his homework for a week straight and his parents have not responded to any of my attempts at contact. I fuss over the right way to reach him and fear that he will slip through the cracks. Like many teachers, I fear failure. It haunts me, resting on the faces and in the lives of my students. Will I reach him? This student is one of the kids I bring home from work with me. On my hour-long drive from school to home, I am usually planning strategies to tackle the issues my students face. While at home, for Valentine’s Day, I hand write all 33 of them handmade valentine cards.
This is my day.
This is what it asks you now:
• Who will do this, if I am no longer employed?
• Who will care as much as I do?
• Are we really ready to let over 1,800 teachers go?
• If I lose my job, which is likely, who will greet your child in the morning?
• Can we really let a generation of our future society members be forced into classrooms that are too small and class sizes that are too large for real learning to occur?
• Where is the encouragement, love and respect for our kids?
• It is in my classroom this year, but will it be there in the next?
I fear that in a classroom of 40 plus students, there will be less time for the encouragement, love and respect that I am able to give my current 33. I fear that in a room of 40 plus students, I will not be the teacher I am today.
I love my job more than I could ever explain. The words always seem to escape me when I try. I am not a writer but a teacher. There is no other job that I would rather do, nothing that fills me with more joy than being a part of a group of young people for 9 months and then some. I get to work at 7 a.m. not because I have to, but because if I don’t, I feel that I would not be doing my job. I do not work harder than other teachers, nor do I give more of myself than any other.
No word that I have written is in complaint or from anger or regret, because I would have my life no other way. So how would you have my students live their lives? Who will be there, if not me, at 7 a.m. on a morning of torrential rain to open the door for them? Please help me serve them and in turn, serve the state. This is not an appeal so much as it is the proof of life -- the proof that my day is also the students’ day, which encompasses the parents’ day, and ultimately your day.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Isn't education just as important?
Billions for the bailout of Wall street. Why? They told us because it was too big to fail. It would have brought down our economy. What about public education? Isn't it too big to fail? Aren't we obligated to make sure that the children of this nation have every chance at getting a decent education?
The latest solution to budget shortfalls is to raise class sizes, thereby firing a new surplus of teachers. At LAUSD, we have been told it will be 29 to 1 in K-3 but with the added flexibility of adding 4 or 5 more before a school is awarded a new teacher, raising it to a possible 32 to 1 ratio. Jamming 29 to 32 five, six, seven, and eight year old children in a room with one teacher and expecting that teacher to reach every child every day in this modern classroom of fast paced, standards based, test driven curriculum is, quite bluntly, an insane proposition. Anyone who believes that it is possible to fulfill the needs of those 30 separate minds, has not been in a classroom in the last 10 years.
If we can find a way to spend billions to save companies that basically move money around, surely we can find the money to pay for the teachers who will teach the next generation how to move that money around better.
The latest solution to budget shortfalls is to raise class sizes, thereby firing a new surplus of teachers. At LAUSD, we have been told it will be 29 to 1 in K-3 but with the added flexibility of adding 4 or 5 more before a school is awarded a new teacher, raising it to a possible 32 to 1 ratio. Jamming 29 to 32 five, six, seven, and eight year old children in a room with one teacher and expecting that teacher to reach every child every day in this modern classroom of fast paced, standards based, test driven curriculum is, quite bluntly, an insane proposition. Anyone who believes that it is possible to fulfill the needs of those 30 separate minds, has not been in a classroom in the last 10 years.
If we can find a way to spend billions to save companies that basically move money around, surely we can find the money to pay for the teachers who will teach the next generation how to move that money around better.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Just the facts
Well, it happened. I got my RIF notice. (Reduction In Force, an innocuous acronym for getting fired). Here are the facts:
LAUSD is about $640 million in the hole for next year. We don't know if we are getting any help from the federal government and it seems as if we won't get any help from Sacramento. We, the people, have the power to change that with our voices, letters, emails, websites, blogs, civic actions, votes, etc. Politicians will do what we want, but only if they feel the pressure. It will be up to us to bring that pressure in the coming months if we have any chance of saving public education as we know it.
I am not exagerating that last statement. If we, the unions and the district and the voters, don't come up with a 'shared sacrifice' solution (large paycuts and furlough days from the teachers, district personel cuts and a publicly endorsed parcel tax) then the only alternative the District and the Board has is get rid of close to 2,500 teachers by raising class sizes (29 to 33 to 1 in K-3; 38-44 in 4,5,6), cut the Arts program, all library aides, 20% of custodial, Assistant Principals, and on and on. I have the specifics that I will share with you later, but suffice it to say, it would be catastophic for the learning environment for all students in elementary and early Middle school. Even with this 'shared sacrifice' it will not be enough to save all the jobs. For that, we need help from Sacramento and Washington.
Personally, it feels like the abandonment of public education by our state and federal government. It is a very short sighted solution that will come back to haunt us in the coming years when we are unable to intellectually compete with China, Korea, India, Japan, Germany and others.
How is it that we can spend billions to bail out Wall Street but we can't fund education?
There is no money to cut this time. There is no trying to convince Superintendent Cortines to spend the stimulus money and cut staff at the downtown office. The stimulus has been spent and most cuts have been made. There is no money. Only Sacramento and Congress can save us now. Our voices must be heard or surely we will lose a generation of learners. Let the movement begin.
LAUSD is about $640 million in the hole for next year. We don't know if we are getting any help from the federal government and it seems as if we won't get any help from Sacramento. We, the people, have the power to change that with our voices, letters, emails, websites, blogs, civic actions, votes, etc. Politicians will do what we want, but only if they feel the pressure. It will be up to us to bring that pressure in the coming months if we have any chance of saving public education as we know it.
I am not exagerating that last statement. If we, the unions and the district and the voters, don't come up with a 'shared sacrifice' solution (large paycuts and furlough days from the teachers, district personel cuts and a publicly endorsed parcel tax) then the only alternative the District and the Board has is get rid of close to 2,500 teachers by raising class sizes (29 to 33 to 1 in K-3; 38-44 in 4,5,6), cut the Arts program, all library aides, 20% of custodial, Assistant Principals, and on and on. I have the specifics that I will share with you later, but suffice it to say, it would be catastophic for the learning environment for all students in elementary and early Middle school. Even with this 'shared sacrifice' it will not be enough to save all the jobs. For that, we need help from Sacramento and Washington.
Personally, it feels like the abandonment of public education by our state and federal government. It is a very short sighted solution that will come back to haunt us in the coming years when we are unable to intellectually compete with China, Korea, India, Japan, Germany and others.
How is it that we can spend billions to bail out Wall Street but we can't fund education?
There is no money to cut this time. There is no trying to convince Superintendent Cortines to spend the stimulus money and cut staff at the downtown office. The stimulus has been spent and most cuts have been made. There is no money. Only Sacramento and Congress can save us now. Our voices must be heard or surely we will lose a generation of learners. Let the movement begin.
Saturday, March 06, 2010
I set this up a long time ago to be a place where I could speak my mind. That was during the Bush years. Now, it is time to speak my mind again. This time it is about the state of education in general and in California specifically. In the next few months I want to talk about the inaction from Sacramento, the inability of our Governor to govern, the bloat of LAUSD, the selling of our public education system, the myths of being a teacher, NCLB, and much much more.
I am faced once again with the possibility of losing my job next year because there is no money to pay for teachers. I do not want to write a blog, but I am so frustrated by the incompetence of my legislators, the ignorance of the public concerning the realities of teaching in the modern world, the vehement level of debate and the general apathy of the electorate to understand issues that might take more than two sentences to understand that I feel obligated to let off steam somewhere instead of brining that stress into my classroom.
So, let the essays begin. As stated in my blog mission above, the truth is rarely pure and can never be explained in one line news spins. You can disagree with my viewpoints, all I ask is that we keep open minds, check our facts, think, ponder, wonder, look at problems from multiple perspectives and try to bring tolerance, empathy, and shared solutions back into our political lives.
Over the next few months, I invite teachers, parents, students, administrators to share their experiences this last year as class size increased and budgets were cut so the public can better understand what next year might be like if more increases and cuts continue. Email me your expaerinces and I will post them. Share this site with others. Let's begin to educate the public about the realities of our profession and the day to day lives of what it is like in the trenches of education and why we cannot abandon the next generation of students to political short sightedness.
I am faced once again with the possibility of losing my job next year because there is no money to pay for teachers. I do not want to write a blog, but I am so frustrated by the incompetence of my legislators, the ignorance of the public concerning the realities of teaching in the modern world, the vehement level of debate and the general apathy of the electorate to understand issues that might take more than two sentences to understand that I feel obligated to let off steam somewhere instead of brining that stress into my classroom.
So, let the essays begin. As stated in my blog mission above, the truth is rarely pure and can never be explained in one line news spins. You can disagree with my viewpoints, all I ask is that we keep open minds, check our facts, think, ponder, wonder, look at problems from multiple perspectives and try to bring tolerance, empathy, and shared solutions back into our political lives.
Over the next few months, I invite teachers, parents, students, administrators to share their experiences this last year as class size increased and budgets were cut so the public can better understand what next year might be like if more increases and cuts continue. Email me your expaerinces and I will post them. Share this site with others. Let's begin to educate the public about the realities of our profession and the day to day lives of what it is like in the trenches of education and why we cannot abandon the next generation of students to political short sightedness.
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