I am a second year teacher at an inner city school in the Bronx. There are plenty of wonderful blogs out there about teaching, its heartaches and rewards. One such blog is http://southbronxschool.blogspot.com/, which is horrible in is truth, but also very entertaining. One of my coworkers and best friends is also writing a WordPress blog of our experience, which you can find at http://184days.wordpress.com/. This last blog is exquisitely written, and is a very raw and personal account of what the teaching experience is like for some people.
My first several posts (which I have imported from another blog of mine) below elaborate upon specific experiences I had as a first year teacher at the same school in which I work this year. We were required to write about these “moments” for our graduate school class, and I simply copied and pasted them into a blog I started last year but did not continue after I completed the fall semester and consequently, did not need to write about such moments for a grade. As I said in my Hello world? post, I rarely stick with something for very long as I grow restless easily.
This fall semester, I am enrolled in a graduate school class which asked us in early September to examine the culture of the school that we work in using surveys and observation, etc. Ever since I wrote that paper, I have noticed a fundamental shift in my attitude toward my school. Specifically, my eyes have been opened to the roaring tension that is only escalating between the administration and the staff at my school. How I could not have been sensitive to it last year is beyond me. I refuse to believe that I am getting jaded because my relationship with my students is still very rewarding and I still love what I do with all of my heart. I have amazing co-workers who make me all the more excited about going to work in the morning.
But I am witnessing a very different staff-administration relationship this year which is toxic to the learning environment at my school. It is no secret that the staff at X High School are terrified and resentful of their principal, let’s call him/her The Crown (TC for short). TC runs a tight ship. Its numerous staff are kept under video surveillance meant to help monitor the hallways for safety’s sake. More than once, I have heard rumors of a staff member being called in to the administration’s office because they have done something wrong and the video cameras caught them in the act. They are pulled into the office to “discuss issues,” and then are confronted with the video evidence.
Staff do as they are told not because they want to do it for the students (because a lot of what we are asked to do does NOT benefit our students, but simply makes the school look better to superficial observation), but because they are afraid to be reprimanded or to receive a “letter in their file.” This letter is a scare tactic which is overused by TC and our administration. As per our union agreement with the DOE, teachers are allowed 10 absences during the school year without jeopardizing their standing at a school. As per TC, if you are absent more than 5 times, you receive a letter in your file. Last year, I received a good letter in my file for my participation in a school event that TC wants to get more staff to attend. A month later, at the end of the school year, many of the staff – including myself – received a (bad) letter in our file because we failed to attend a workshop organized for professional development within our building. I am not sure about why a majority of my other colleagues did not attend this workshop, but I genuinely forgot and instead, reported to my usual hall monitoring assignment for the duration of that period. As a result, all of us who neglected to attend this workshop received letters which called us “unprofessional and insubordinate,” among other rude things. It was the first time I personally felt affronted by the administration, and even though I was quick to address the issue with TC, it still left me with a very sour taste in my mouth. I have been told, repeatedly, that this administration will not hesitate to smile to your face, and stab you in the back 40 times the minute you let your guard down. It does not matter how much you do for the school. You could be teacher of the year one month, and on TC’s hit list the next.
And yet, besides that letter, I have never been reprimanded by the administration. They have been nothing but good to me, and I have a wonderful relationship with my own department administrator. Being favored does not make working at X High School any easier, though, because of all of the whisperings and rumors of what is being done to other staff members. That could be me. It’s a lot of pressure to fly under the radar – even in a school as big as X High School – while doing what is right by my students.
This brings me to school culture. TC has built a wonderful facade at our school, and has everyone from the DOE to some staff members – and maybe even itself – fooled into thinking that the school is a place where learning takes place and where student performance is improving. Far from it. And yes, as teachers, we like to complain about lack of parental involvement and student apathy or disrespect (or both). But there is more to education than the student-teacher relationship. The process of education requires money, ambition, parental involvement, student attendance, respect, trust, dedication and honesty. The DOE and administration at X High School provide the first two; it is difficult to affect parental involvement without enforcing teacher-student communication and establishing a culture of parental accountability, neither of which our school does; and it is difficult to inspire students to attend class for the sake of learning without the last several qualities on the list above, which our school as a whole lacks.
Our school’s mission statement says that X High is a place that prepares students for college with a quality education which fosters academic success and personal growth through a program of academics, arts and athletics. X High School claims to prepare students to become well-rounded and productive citizens, and its success is attributed to its academically rigorous curriculum across all content areas. We have received a “B” on the city progress report (a way for the DOE to grade schools and compare them to similar schools in the city), and earlier this year, the Quality Review (an intense and “comprehensive” analysis of how a school operates which helps the DOE identify problem schools) smiled favorably upon X High School. So our school sounds good and looks like it is improving.
It promises its students a lot, but is failing to follow through. Our school is failing those who it serves.
My colleagues and I work closely together as our students’ four core subject teachers. All of our eighty or so special education students travel among the four of us as the period bells ring through the school day. Every day, the four of us meet to discuss our students’ progress and address issues in our Academy (House). Since the beginning of the year, poor student behavior has made all us of feel awful at least once if not more. Their IEPs highlight issues ranging from emotional and learning disabilities, to attention disorders, physical impairments, etc. Of eighty students, about fifteen have presented themselves as persistent behavior problems, at times making getting through a lesson impossible.
At X High, poor behavior is addressed using a set hierarchy of action, starting with a private discussion with the student, a phone call home to the parent, parent-teacher-student conferences, calling in your department administrator, guidance referrals, detention/suspension/ other disciplinary school-based action, etc.
We have followed school protocol for the last several months, and nothing has worked because it (1) is not enforced by parents/ other teachers who are not part of the House, (2) lacks consistency, (3) is not addressed/ taken seriously, among other reasons. No matter what the four of us do in our classrooms, the fact of the matter remains that our students spend a lot of time out in the hallways of the school… where school rules about lateness are not enforced and the teacher is forced to shoulder the burden of a lesson continually interrupted by knocks on her door from students finally arriving to class… where if a student curses out a agent of discipline (a dean) they are suspended, but if they curse out or threaten a teacher, little is done… where administrative expectations of students is so low or TC’s need to raise passing rates is so great that teachers have been forced to create credit recovery assignments for students who are failing which ensures they will pass regardless of how much work they have completed throughout the marking period… where students have to take five exams in one day so that the school “keeps up attendance.” Low expectations, lack of rule enforcement, overcrowded classrooms, lack of communication and consequences, overworked and under-appreciated teachers…
Recently, I have organized meetings among us, our students’ other teachers, counselors and administrators to address the behavior issues that are not getting better despite our best efforts. In response to our efforts to address student behavior that is preventing or slowing down the process of education in our classrooms, I was warned by colleagues not to rock the boat too much. “TC is all about keeping its hold on power, and that includes sabotaging any positive relationships that develop among staff members for the purpose of improving student performance.” “The administrator who sat in on your meeting the other day and whose involvement you are so excited about could have been sent to spy on you and your co-workers for TC.” “Be prepared to face the music if you call attention to yourself by complaining or creating more work for the administration.” “Don’t trust anything that is said to your face.”
How can progress be made if, even BEFORE we take our ideas up the ladder, we are being warned by colleagues to lay low? I refuse to believe that progress would be sabotaged simply because teachers working together for the good of their students represent a threat to TC. If that is the case, and our efforts to involve others outside our House for our students are thwarted, then all of the rumors and experiences that my colleagues have spoken about will be legitimized and reinforced. No matter how true the warnings ring, I refuse to let them prevent me from trying to do what is right by my students, and to deliver on the school’s promise to them.
