Assignment #1: Comparison/Contrast -By Mitch Asinoff -
UFT Graduate Course –
Prof. Gary Newman- 10/9/01
When rereading the article several similarities and differences between the two schools became apparent to me. The similarities were the principal in the article is like mine. The students were similar as well. It would be a safe bet to say that most of the teachers in both schools care about the students. I, like many of my colleagues try to connect to students. Some of them see the light and unfortunately, some do not. The contrasts were 1) my last school is very unusual as it is a program, not a school. So they do not have a physical building; 2) I do not know any colleagues remotely like the one described in the article; 3) they do not have many mentor teachers; 4) I taught high school and an alternative one at that. So it is very different that a middle school; they have no outside mentors or connections like the ones described in the article.
The first similarity I notice was the principals. The one described in the article is very nice, caring, sympathetic, compassionate, understanding, dedicated to teachers and students, loyal, hard working, wise, full of good ideas to improve things, etc. My former principal is also very sharp and hard working. We all call him Bob. He is very sharp and rose up from teacher to principal in just a few short years. It is interesting hearing him speak because he is so articulate. I told him we are very lucky he is our principal because a man with his brains, interpersonal and communication skills could be making much more money as a CEO of a Fortune 500 Corporation.
In addition to his duties and observations, every term he must decide what sites will close and who will be transferred. It’s like playing chess. Last spring he transferred me from a Manhattan Covenant House to Brooklyn and two teachers from a Brooklyn site that closed to replace me and start a literacy center there. Then he sent the teacher from Brooklyn to Queens. Just thinking about it makes me dizzy. I tell him he has- job security: as neither I nor any sane person would do his job for twice the money! His e-mail address is available on their e-bulletin board to anyone who wants to write him. I do not say this to flatter, as he is not very pretty, has the wrong plumbing, is a Bundy (married with children), bumped me twice in three weeks and excessed me.
This forced me to sub at a middle school in Harlem, a two- hour commute, by train because no one wanted a teacher with my back round/license as an elementary or middle school teacher. After that I was sent to an Elementary School in Far Rockaway the day after the crash. Two months later I hurt my back in a car accident and took an unpaid medical leave to recover and seek an ESL job because I am finishing my Master’s Degree in it. (I have some Born Again Christian friends. So I joke it’s the Devil.)
They say you do not know a person until you live with them. I say you do not a person until you work with them, and for them!
The second similarity is the students. Kids are kids, wherever you go. Some are smart alecks, but most respond to respect, courtesy and sincerity. Others mistake kindness for weakness and need a much firmer hand to keep them in line. A colleague told me that a student asked if he urinated on the third rail from the platform would he get electrocuted. An adult would never thing anything like that.
The third similarity is the teachers: most are very caring, dedicated and hard –working. They come in early and take work home. Unfortunately, some are merely passing through on their way up.
The fourth similarity is the various methods they employ to connect to their students. Many of us talk to the students like they were our own children. It doesn’t always work, but we take whatever small victories you can get, especially when teaching drug -addicts.
The fifth similarity is some of the students see the light before it is too late. Some are just seeking a place to hangout. They do not realize that without an education they will probably never amount to anything.
I also noticed some very sharp contrasts. First, the physical aspects of the school are very different. I worked for Offsite Educational -Services: one of several NYC alternative, high schools. Because they are satellites scattered throughout the city in various one room, community and drug rehabilitation centers their classrooms
are usually make shift and assistant principals, coordinators, and guidance counselors must travel to them daily. This means fighting traffic, weather etc. They only have a wing in Beach Channel High School, in Rockaway for offices. So they set -up desks and file cabinets in former classrooms. They do have a few high -school sites such as Sheepshead Bay, Bushwick and Park West. However most of their sites are in alternative settings you must see to believe: above a- furniture store/plumbers’ union, down a ramp into the basement of a building public in a public housing complex, etc.
Second, and most importantly, I am fortunate enough to never have met many colleagues who were so frustrated and burnt out they berated students in front of the class the way the teachers in the article did. It is unprofessional and counterproductive to do that.
They have many nice supervisors, guidance counselors and colleagues. So I jokingly call them aunt, uncle and cousin. I also joke I'm the Olive Garden: everyone's family because of all the support and advice they give me.
I met Andrea my first day in Offsite Ed. She was so impressed with me that she wrote a glowing- letter praising me to the assistant principals in charge of substitute teachers and the site. When she was promoted from English Coordinator to assistant principal she awoke at 4:30 am to travel from Staten Island to her sites in Harlem the South Bronx. Sometimes she paid tolls out of her -own pocket because she didn’t go to three sites in one day. Then she drove back to the office in Rockaway, Queens and home at 7:00 PM. Yet she found time to help me. I think of her as an aunt.
Her successor, Judy is also very good, hard working and often helped me via e-mail, despite teaching PM - school and working on her Ph.D. So I call her cousin too.
Mike, their chapter leader gives us his beeper and home number. And always returns calls very quickly. He even called me back while on vacation in Mexico. You can also call him for advice as a colleague as well. People like him because he is nice. I respect him because he is a man of character who refuses to criticize his chapter members. And call him my Jewish Priest because I can always turn to him for confidential advice. So I proudly voted for him. (I don’t say this to flatter him either, as he also has the wrong plumbing and is 2/3 of the way to being a Bundy: married with one child).
Tom, a seasoned guidance counselor is so caring that unbeknown to me he went to Bob to request I be hired full time a few times after seeing me -teach in a few sites. I call him Uncle Tom.
Jerry, my staff developer is a God -send. And worth several times his weight in Gold! No one will be able to fill his shoes when he retires. I could not have made it through the first term without Jerry and Andrea.
John, a former supervisor gave me two great pieces of advice: talk to the students as if they were your own children and call parents with compliments once in a while.
The first helps motivate the students and win the parents. The second earned me a very nice thank you note from a mother who said I made her evening.
Third, they do not have mentor teachers like the article described. Only new PPT gets a mentor one-day a week. I had one last year. He was so-so the first term as he began in a bad mood due to family problems. The first day he ran me up and down the flagpole with my supervisor. He also criticized me in front of my class. I did not say anything then. When I did later, he smiled guiltily, said he was wrong and told them he should not have.
I saw a good opportunity to return the favor when Bob observed me last term: he asked why I was taking two days to do a lesson. I instantly said it was Joe’s idea.
He said okay and Joe was angry, especially since it was true. I did the same with my supervisor. We laugh at it now, though. He helped many students though and was much better the next term. My students called him Joe Gotti because he is Italian and the Supranos, a popular show about a Mafia family was on HBO.
Needless to say, a good mentor can be invaluable. Sumita, a former UFT professor of mine said although she’s been teaching over twenty years, still raves about, talks to and considers her mentor a good friend.
Fourth, being an alternative high school, GED teacher is a lot different then a regular middle school teacher. Their students are at that awkward age. They are undergoing a transformation that turns them from a caterpillar to a butterfly. They are no longer children, yet they are not adults either. It is like swinging from one trapeze to another.
Lastly, the only outside contacts they have are the NYC Housing Authority, the agencies such as the YWCA and drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers they provide the educational supplements for. Perhaps they could do something like that in the future, I do not know.
For now at least they are concerned with funding. Bob hired an attendance teacher last semester and put Eileen, an assistant principal in charge of attendance. They must make sure they call home every day a student is out. Letters used to go out after ten straight days absent. Now it is five.
This year has been especially rough, as after being bumped twice I was a wandering Jew for three weeks. Now I was notified I must report to the Board of Ed. for reassignment. I feel that will be, will be. There is very little I can do, except pray for a helping hand.
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