Down in DC

I've been out of NYC for a few days visiting family and friends and doing lots of sightseeing in the Washington DC area. Just behaving like a typical tourist and trying to ignore the constant drum of ed news. But of course that's impossible. On the way down we stopped at a rest stop in Maryland and there was a Unity Caucus slug on the way to the NYSUT convention in DC, one of those coincidences where you think you are getting away from it all. My wife would have strangled me if I made any attempt to get near the convention.

Numbing Nuts
Then I get a phone call from a reporter on Saturday asking me if Mulgrew called Klein "Numbnuts" at the NYSUT breakfast on Friday. Do they have tracking devices on our cars? Actually, I know this reporter because a relative lives next door to me. She said she had read on Ed Notes that Mulgrew was referring to Klein in that manner at the April 21 DA. I told her I wasn't at that meeting but she reminded me that Philip Nobile had written that report. I'm glad someone knows what's being published on this blog. I had to hang up as my wife was giving me THAT look, but I figured with this being the NY Post, some kind of hit job was coming on the union and Mulgrew. There was a report in the NY Post yesterday that mentioned me and Ed Notes and it was not as bad as I thought it would be. I personally like the Post reporters and we know that editorial influences the reporting. But at the Daily News, where the editorial opinion often matches the Post, reporters like Meredith Kolodner and Rachel Monahan somehow manage to get so many things right.

By the way, before going on, I am finding a lot to like about the way Mulgrew has dealt with issues - on the surface at least, though if you read the ICE blog (see top of the sidebar for a link) there is lots of consternation over the rubber room agreement and the way Mulgrew went about it. That is not surface so all the things I like may be more style than substance. I have had very little contact with Mulgew and got a chance at the Perkins' hearing to see him in action and felt he handled himself pretty well. I will work on getting some tape up when I get back.

I was certainly happy to see Mulgrew announce they were going to run a primary against Bing for putting up that recent law over seniority. "He is dead to us" was the kind of thing those of us who saw the UFT endorse incumbents who knifed us in the back have been looking for. And they held a demo at Ruben Diaz' office as reported by Under Assault.


I didn't get to see Rhee in DC, but it was close
We are staying in Bethesda and were taking the train into the city every day. On Saturday they held a memorial for the principal who was found dead in his house in a space near the train station. Michelle Rhee was the main speaker. Lots of press coverage according to local news but we escaped in time to avoid it.

Rhee has real problems with her private funding sources (Broad, Gates, Walton - all those stellar citizens of Ed Deform – for the proposed contract putting conditions on the money. Candi Peterson's guest blogger raises some serious issues for DC teachers about this all being about a bait and switch: teacher get offered big raises to entice them into signing a contract while also signing away seniority protection rights and - whammo. Candi asks: "Should the WTU Tentative Agreement ever get ratified by our union members, will you still be around to collect your pay raise or will you be among those on the unemployment line ?" Read More.

One of the articles that came across my Blackberry this weekend was an article from a Rhee supporter who trashed her in so many ways I was drooling. But I can't locate it right now. Probably a WAPO article. If anyone comes across it send me the link and I'll update it here.

Goldstein on Bill Gates and Measures of Effective Teaching
Speaking of bait and switch, Arthur Goldstein is siting the Bill Gates teacher effectiveness initiative (A Bill of Goods), jointly sponsored with the UFT, as a B&S tactic. Tell teachers one thing but do another. Like video tape them. Arthur raises some wonderful points and Under Assault parses them (Goldstein on Gates.) I'd like Mulgrew a lot better if he ended any contact with Gates.

Video taping teachers
I do want to say something about video taping in the classroom. Back in 1969, Elaine Troll, my teacher trainer - there was money in those days to have someone full time to deal with the new teachers - asked me it I would take part in an experimental program to video tape lessons and then analyze the tapes as to the types of questions I was asking and the type of responses I was getting. The idea was to judge the effectiveness of my questioning technique - I had to categorize them to see if I was making kids think rather than give simple responses. Pretty daring for that time - think video on the late 60's. If you read Arthur's piece, sound familiar? I guess the tapes could have been used for nefarious reasons to judge me - but I wanted to be judged. I didn't view administrators as "gotcha" people but as looking to improve my effectiveness as a teacher. In today's world and what the ed deformers have wrought, even if they were well- intentioned, we as teachers have to say "Hell No!" Good for Arthur - who I had a hand in converting from a Windows to a MAC user. Remember, every MAC bought is one less dime in Gates' pocket (not that Steve Jobs thinks any better of us).

There is so much more to write about that's happened since I've been away - like questions about how charter schools mark the recent exams as opposed to how public schools do it and questions on charter school data - like to they EVER take real attendance - so many exempt from scrutiny of the ATS system. All kinds of goodies which will just have to wait since I'm getting THAT LOOK AGAIN.


Oh, and I do want to talk about sightseeing in DC (maybe tonight when I get back) and all the things we saw- I realize I have not been a tourist in DC for a long time, though I have been her for demos and meetings (last being the AFT convention in 2003, Sandy Feldman's last speech, which I liked very much). The museums we saw were just wonderful (and FREE) and we were excitedly filling in our cousins and friends who live here and are so blase about it. But when they come to NYC we can be just as blase about not going to any tourist attractions there. Maybe we could swap museums with DC and I could go down there and enjoy MOMA without having to pay $20 to get in.