Saturday, May 1, 2010

Saturday Rambings

I'm far too lazy to write my usual long post, so here are some things that have been on my mind.

There's a great article by Arthur Goldstein in the Community Section of GothamSchools discussing the Gates Foundation's efforts to reform teacher evaluation, all with the full blessing of the UFT. I was asked to volunteer by my CL but refused to have anything to do with Gates after his small school fiasco.

I'll be exiled the week after next to grade the ELA exam. Fortunately, it will only be for three days. Last year, I met a bunch of people who had been sentenced to grade for more than a month. It tells you how much they value you when your school ships your off for a tenth of the school year.

I wonder how much it costs to grade these stupid exams? From what I saw, the ELA tests in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades were about the same level of difficulty as last year, which is to say a mollusk could pass them.

Thanks to NYC Educator for pointing out Primadonna's blog called Queens Teacher. I've noticed her teriffic comments on other blogs for a while but didn't realize she had her own.

Thanks to Norm for mentioning a number of us and our efforts to weed out the truth about that website that shall not be named because it is run by a couple of newbie backstabbers and union busters. I wonder when some reputable news outlet will look into their funding. GothamSchools, are you listening?

The effort to shoehorn special ed kids back into the mainstream classroom is an education nightmare waiting to happen. And it's all about cutting services to needy kids to save money. Everything about education these days is about the money.

Enjoy the weekend! Let's go Mets!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

AT,

I, too, don't agree with the Gates' money used for the reforms of teacher evaluation. Is the UFT that desparate for money that they are willing to use "dirty, cut-throat" funding from a killer of the public school system.

Would anyone use a knife used in hurting a family member during a holiday dinner? The knife (Gate) is a weapon, not a utensil.
This knife will end up hurting us (public schools) again.