Here I am with 15 years experience as a teacher and I go into schools with many new, inexperienced teachers who treat me as "just the sub" - no respect or recognition that I was an excellent teacher and have so much to offer these teachers. Why don't they put me in as a co-teacher to work with them? .... Paraphrasing an ATR at the Nov. 19 meeting.
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| How many ATRs want this? |
I reported on Saturday's invigorating ATR event:
Chaz Delivers Outstanding Presentation for 40 ATRs Who Turned Out for Info Session
I know that we can't make blanket statements about all ATRs and the problem with the DOE and the UFT is that they view them as the same. Maybe ATRs who feel they have certain skills get to state them -- like my pal Peter Zucker has tried to do when he goes into schools with no functioning tech programs.Another take away from the meeting were the number of people who were misplaced and called Amy or Mike and got things resolved. Now a comment on my last post castigated Amy and Mike for not advocating for an ATR chapter.
My responses:
ed notes onlineWednesday, November 23, 2016 at 1:26:00 AM EST
A
few people at the meeting seemed to have given up on asking the uft do
help when. Rules weren't followed. Chaz and others pointed out that they
do respond and fix stuff. That was the praise I guess. I mean they
should do that but some atrs are so angry or dispirited they never ask.
Also discussed was that some atrs give a bad impression and ruin it for
others.
I
also think we need to understand that people in the uft are not free
agents. Amy might be fine with a chapter. She couldn't say that openly
as long as mulgrew is not for it. His concern is bringing in hostile
forces to the Del ass. Since atrs would get a batch of delegates. They
don't want a vocal rogue chapter. The best we can hope to do is form a
shadow Atr chapter but the major issue is that few atrs are willing to
stand up in public.
If there is another meeting - which would be in mid-late January - I would see if people would want to form a shadow chapter and form an executive committee that would run the quasi chapter. These people would have to be capable of making cogent and impressive presentations - like Chaz did. I was thinking of offering an opportunity for ATRs to make an ad. Some should go to PEP meetings and present a case for using some of them effectively in the schools. Allow for some flexibility instead of wishing them to go away.
We also need to discuss how they are supervised - if the DOE considers them throwaways why are they spending so much money on hiring people to supervise what is essentially a sub?
We know the reason of course. And on rotation - if a teachers is older and not as physically able to take on the burden some provision should be made.
On the other hand we did hear that there are so many bad suprvisors running schools that rotation can be a life saver from being doomed to be under the thumb of monsters.
My final take away for today is the value of having an organization like MORE available to facilitate issues for various interests. Chaz pointed out that for the first time in a long time having independently elected reps on the UFT Ex Bd has created more transparency in the union. You need an organization that can raise money, preocure space and provide resources to assist people.
So it is not only about MORE beating Unity in an election but a lot of activity on a number of levels. 80 people showed up to a MORE sponsored event on Sunday to talk about a response to the Trump election -- MORE has to be a big enough and inclusive tent.
