According to the New York Post (no fan of teachers or public schools), a principal in The Bronx decided that teachers should not sit while teaching. To make her point, she threw all their desks out, dumped them on the curb.
The principal said the teachers don’t need desks.
Connelly told teachers she “does not want them sitting,” an insider said, although though no chairs were tossed.
“Figure it out,” she snapped when staffers asked where to store their supplies, a source said.
As to where teachers should grade papers, Connelly answered, “Use the lunch room,” sources said.
Teachers had to remove student paperwork and items such as devices to help kids with asthma.
“All their stuff is in boxes, bags and on the radiators,” a source said.
She must be in the same club with John Kasich, governor of Ohio and candidate for the GOP nomination, who said that if it was in his power, he would close all the teachers’ lounges. That’s where teachers congregate and share their stories.
I’m a teacher who is always on my feet circulating and I’ve also gone paperless but I still need a dang desk and a couple of filing cabinets. No desk and no filing cabinets for a teacher is like Chinese Water torture. Here are my top ten reasons why teachers still need desks! https://kafkateach.wordpress.com/2015/10/18/top-ten-reasons-why-teachers-still-need-desks-and-filing-cabinets/
Just to let you know as one that circulated among students for decades, you may need knee or hip surgery in the future. My left knee will probably need surgery soon, and many former colleagues have already had knee and/or hip surgery.
Email to ask the principal how this improves teaching and learning and what furniture did she discard?
dconnelly@ps24school.org
Great
..and what did she keep for use? What a creep!
Edit: ” her own use”.
Did the principal get rid of her desk?
Disgusting contempt for teachers all made possible by this long ugly private war on public education. She throws their desks in the street as if she is the sheriff dispossessing the indigent. This is why Madame Defarge in “Tale of Two Cities” knitted the names of the oppressive hierarchy into her sweaters. Where is Hillary-loving Randi of AFT and tough guy Michael Mulgrew of UFT, forgetting to protect their members from shame and bullying?
My first reaction also was, where’s the union? What’s the point of having a union if a principal can behave in such a way.
Exactly! The UFT and AFT should be supporting us! WTH?
“. . . to protect their members from shame and bullying?”
It’s not a matter of bullying but one of health issues, work place safety issues, etc. . . .
I wonder how much abuse from all corners teachers are to take……… My little wooden desk has Georgia O’Keeffe-like paintings on it, done by students. On the front edge of the desk are the tissues, paper clips, staplers, hand sanitizer, lotion, pens and pencils, and markers the students are welcome to use or take.
The little desk protects a lot of wiring for the desk top computer on it, plus the over-head projector. I have to sit down and use the computer from time to time. Sometimes I eat my lunch at my desk, when there are not students doing some kind of work needing my attention. I rarely sit down ever, anywhere.
.
Why must teachers be subject to ridiculous rules like, no desks? When did principals and administrators decide to draw a line in the sand making us the enemy? So glad my own children did not go into teaching.
Cindy…It’s not a matter of whether someone sits down or not…we should stop trying to explain or rationalize why we need to be treated with decency. Period. And stuff like this will continue until we fight back. Hard.
No sitting at the next staff meeting. All stand and salute: Heil Hitler!
Yes, I was wondering where the teachers were when she did this. Did she do it in the middle of the night or what? I had a principal a few years ago who wanted to remove all the books from our English classrooms. I fought him and was ready to physically prevent him from removing the books from MY room. All the other English classrooms were altered in some way, but not mine, in the end,
The article says that the teachers had to clean out their desks and filing cabinets right in front of the students and then send the desks and cabinets into the halls for the custodians to take outside. Adds insult to injury–make the teachers look browbeaten right in front of the kids. That doesn’t help with student behavior or teacher morale. It’s disgusting.
In one of the schools in my district they stole the textbooks out of the teachers’ classrooms so they would be forced to use the tablet computers the district provided for every student instead. Eventually they had to return the textbooks to the classrooms because there were so many problems with the online textbook.
Exactly. Fight back. Use your superior intelligence. We know these admins couldn’t survive their classes. Bully them right back out of the building!
Oh don’t you know? The adminstration is the Privileged Class now. It’s the new Gilded Age. I tell off my principals every chance I can get. I tell them that they have no management skills. It’s not insubordination, it’s constructive criticism.
“When did principals and administrators decide to draw a line in the sand making us the enemy?”
It’s been that way for a long, long time. The adminimals are the bosses and the teachers the peeon minions–“Do as I want right now!! Any questioning or commenting upon the request is considered insubordination [how the hell did that concept come into being in the public education realm??] and I will be able to fire you, yes you the supposed “tenured” teacher at any time.”
Seriously? When… when ‘top-down mandates replaced the teacher’s autonomy in the classroom. Lorna Stremcha addresses this in her must read book.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/background-information-bravery-bullies-blowhards-lorna-stremcha
I remember when I read the manuscript when it was “Sins of the Schools” and in the intro, she identified the moment that teachers lost their autonomy. It was in the eighties, and I had no yet returned to full-time teaching so I missed the change, and believed, when I took the position in 1990 at East Side Middle School, that principals supported classroom practice.
Boy, was I in for surprise. by the end of the second year, with the school firmly established, the nut of principal went after all the more experienced teachers, including me. I had tenure, and she began her harassment, ripping down my bulletin boards, sitting in on my classroom and ‘documenting’ anything and everything for ‘file letters.
However, the school was doing well (we experienced professional were appreciated in this Manhattan school on the East Side, and she was eliminated, to be replaced by a more subtle exterminator.
As to CRAZY… just put “Principal Bully” in the search field at the NYC Teacher newsletter
http://www.uft.org/search/apachesolr_search/principal%20bully
and you will see how these administrators ruined schools so they would fail, and how they hurt the professional staff
Queens principal burns office, staff
Principal fiddles while classroom burns
http://www.uft.org/feature-stories/principal-fiddles-while-classroom-burns
Feb 17 2011 | News & Opinion
In some of the wackiest news yet, Principal Antoinette Martin, at Brownsville’s PS 289, called a lockdown … in the Educational Twilight Zone. Martin isn’t the only principal acting strangely these days. On Feb. 2, one of the iciest days in recent memory, the coldhearted principal of PS 30 on Staten Island, Denise Spina, …
Principal blamed for school’s decline
Below are a few of the posts I found, (Unfortunately the embedded links in the title don’t take you there… yo have to go to the Newsletter index, but a perusal of a tiny fraction of the incidents will show you how common this is:
Principal blamed for school’s decline
Feb 03 2011 | News & Opinion
in Flatbush, under a previous principal, was one of 100 high-performing schools in the city. Then came a new principal, Mary McDonald, and eight years later, the large pre-K-5 school is a shadow of its former self
Mar 26 2009 | Press Release
The NY Post reported that the principal of PS 24 in the Bronx is being investigated by city Department … on a “hate list.” They are also looking into allegations that the principal distributed cards to members … then the principal should be disciplined appropriately for creating an atmosphere of tension, intimidation and fear …
Bronx principal rules with intimidation, disrespect, teachers say
Dec 16 2010 | News & Opinion
the Bronx’s worst principal? The competition is stiff, but teachers at PS 14 in Throggs Neck say … Jason Kovac (left), principal at PS 14 in the Bronx, is “more interested in appearances and vendettas … Who’s the Bronx’s worst principal? The competition is stiff, but teachers at PS 14 in Throggs Neck say …
Principal fined for ‘ruining careers’ still on job staff has ‘no confidence’ in ‘harassing’ Brooklyn principal
Mar 24 2011 | News & Opinion
in their principal, Carlen Padmore-Gateau. The list of charges was long: failure to report safety incidences, … issues with“scapegoating” Principal Carlen Padmore-Gateau (inset) of PS 22, Brooklyn. … in their principal, Carlen Padmore-Gateau.
Hollis community blames principal for all school’s ills
Feb 23 2012 | News & Opinion
happened? Parents and teachers blame Principal Cynthia Ofori-Feaster. Since her arrival in 2009, fear stalks … and a D. It did little better last year. What happened? Parents and teachers blame Principal Cynthia … at the school and demanded her removal. Complaints run the gamut from Feaster’s creating a hostile …
Sep 05 2013 | News & Opinion
Island principal repeatedly accused of bullying parents and staff and sent for sensitivity training … principal repeatedly accused of bullying parents and staff and sent for sensitivity training … ruling upheld UFT charges that PS 90 Principal Greta Hawkins’ decision to hold a separate meeting …
Let teachers teach
Brooklyn principal a ‘bully’
http://www.uft.org/news-stories/brooklyn-principal-bully
Mar 08 2012 | News & Opinion
the principal at PS 90 who’s doing the bullying?” “We have a no-bullying rule … Council town hall meeting on Jan. 11. “So what are you doing about the principal at PS 90 who’s doing … Rotondo was one of more than two dozen parents from Coney Island’s PS 90 who turned out at the town hall …
A win against bullying principal
Mar 08 2012 | News & Opinion
March 8, 2012 – 5:02pm Lisa Capece scored an enormous victory against the bullying, harassing and intimidation practices performed by Di …
Protesters call for Bronx principal’s ouster
Jan 19 2012 | News & Opinion
Bronxdale HS to protest the Department of Education’s mild disciplining of Principal John Chase Jr., who … Bronxdale HS to protest the Department of Education’s mild disciplining of Principal John Chase Jr., who … training. “If Chase were a teacher and not a principal, would he still be here?” UFT Bronx Borough
Principal’s pet has no class, and other strange tales
http://www.uft.org/feature-stories/principal-s-pet-has-no-class-and-other-strange-tales
Dec 16 2010 | News & Opinion
in which common sense is overruled by nonsense, byzantine rules are the order of the day, principals too … Twilight Zone. We begin our journey at MS 443 in Brooklyn, where a principal routinely brings his puppy … principals are all too common in the Educational Twilight Zone. Just consider the recent headline-making …
Principal fined for ‘ruining careers’ still on job
Feb 03 2011 | News & Opinion
HS Principal Iris Blige strong-armed assistant principals to “get rid of” nearly a dozen teachers on her “hit list” by giving them unmerited U-ratings, a report from the city’s Office of Special … her with a $7,500 fine. Fordham HS Principal Iris …
Queens principal burns office, staff
Principal fiddles while classroom burns
Feb 17 2011 | News & Opinion
In some of the wackiest news yet, Principal Antoinette Martin, at Brownsville’s PS 289, called a lockdown … in the Educational Twilight Zone. Martin isn’t the only principal acting strangely these days. On Feb. 2, one of the iciest days in recent memory, the coldhearted principal of PS 30 on Staten Island, Denise Spina, …
Principal blamed for school’s decline
Feb 03 2011 | News & Opinion
in Flatbush, under a previous principal, was one of 100 high-performing schools in the city. Then came a new principal, Mary McDonald, and eight years later, the large pre-K-5 school is a shadow of its former self. … teacher. In 2003, PS 139 in Flatbush, under a previous principal, was one ..
Bronx principal rules with intimidation, disrespect, teachers say
Dec 16 2010 | News & Opinion
the Bronx’s worst principal? The competition is stiff, but teachers at PS 14 in Throggs Neck say … Jason Kovac (left), principal at PS 14 in the Bronx, is “more interested in appearances and vendettas … Who’s the Bronx’s worst principal? The competition is stiff, but teachers at PS 14 in Throggs Neck say
Brooklyn principal arrested for allegedly assaulting teacher
May 21 2009 | Press Release
On May 21, the principal at PS 20 in Brooklyn was arrested by police from the 88th Precinct on assault … questioned the veracity of the allegations, the principal rose from his desk and approached him as he sat … 5:37pm On May 21, the principal …
Is the principal in favor of keeping her own desk and chair?
Donna Connelly needs therapy and an extended leave of absence without pay.
Standing no furniture
Amen!
One word: NUTS!
My sympathies for any teacher that has to work under Donna Connelly. It must be a demoralizing place to work and learn.
My principal must have read the article. She recently told us that if she comes into our classroom and sees us sitting at our desk then that will be “like fingernails on a chalkboard” when evaluating us. Where does this authoritarianism come from?
And teachers don’t want to walk into the office and see you at your desk. Practice what you preach our dear principal.
Wow so glad I work for a supportive principal. I am staying parked at my school. What a nightmare. No wonder so many states have teacher shortages.
Oh they’re busy off at some breakfast conference or training in another city setting up their consultant gigs for when they retire. The days of the principal circulating the building to see what was going on have long disappeared. That’s why they need all this data because they arent working observing. Observations are a form of data but they ignore them. Idiots.
These nitwits think you aren’t doing your job unless you are constantly hovering over kids. Never mind that classrooms aren’t so big teachers can’t see what it is going on anyway. Circulation is good when it comes to making sure students understand the material.
Let’s ask global teacher of the year, Nancie Atwell, how things look at her school. The one she created so she could teach using her own excellent methods. I was lucky to be an intern there. The teachers sit down and have conversations with the students about their work when that is appropriate. I am sure they stand some of the time. I found that I preferred being in a seated position yet a bit taller so I could maintain eye contact with my elementary students. I was considered a highly effective teacher before the term was quantified. I stood and circulated when that was the best choice for my classroom and students. This is beyond the pale. Where is Al Shanker when we need him? We should comb through his old columns and find pertinent ones. I know not every principal is like this, but it is distressing to hear of even one. Have they not read The Quality School by William Glasser? What planet are we on? PS for Nancie’s most recent speech google The Washington Post from 10/17. It is excellent. Andrea Strauss’s column.
It is Valarie Strauss not Andrea and here is the link to Nancie’s words:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/10/17/why-kids-still-need-real-books-to-read-and-time-in-school-to-enjoy-them/
Yes, Valerie! Thank you!!
Fortunately, I was captured by Nanci Atwell’s writing years ago before reading was packaged as discreet skills. As a special ed teacher, I know there are kids who need direct instruction in decoding, but they still need exposure to books they can get lost in. A very few may have to rely on audiobooks to find pleasure in books and that is fine. Since practice is such an important part of becoming good at anything, why not turn children lose on books they want to read? thanks, sunflower, for posting the link.
That would be Valerie Strauss. But you’re absolutely right what planet are we on??!!?! This is truly a sick sad world.
Reminds me. A decade ago I solicited from teachers a couple of paragraphs describing what they considered to be “best policies and practices” and “worst policies and practices” (current or prior year of teaching). Unbelievable observations on the “worst,” mostly nostalgia for what used to be the “best.” I think there is a book idea there. Run with it.
You can’t make these absurdities up.
“[S]He was so terrible that [s]he was no longer terrible, only dehumanized.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night
This is not about productivity or effective teaching. It is about a bullying tyrant who is deliberately telegraphing how contemptuous she is of teachers. Her staff needs to get up off their knees and fight back. That might include enlisting the support of parents, students, and the community; striking and picketing; demanding Donna Connelly be fired; and quitting to find another job. There’s just no way any self-respecting human being should tolerate this demeaning treatment.
Well said Marian Higgins.
She is a principal; she will never be fired.
Perhaps, also completely incompetent. If this is what passes for trying to establish good teaching technique, the country is really over.
It’s over. Even here in the suburbs the idiot principals are in all of the schools. They were the teachers that in that never would make it in the classroom and they are rewarded for their incompetence
Hmm… Will the students still have desks?
Filing cabinets too? That’s just . . . weird.
Here I go again. In 2005, our principal in the Brooklyn school threw out the teachers’ desks into the street. She said, “I never want to see you sit.” Yet, she allowed the teachers to create makeshift “desks” (you couldn’t put your feet under them) from bookcases. It made no sense. There was no place to put your purse, the students’ papers, medications, pencils, pens, etc. Your chair (and I found an old wooden chair that was tall enough – that was my lifeline) wasn’t an appropriate height in relation to the bookcase/desk. Luckily, I used the “writing desk/cubby” as my desk, and never got caught. I had to use that space for my reading assessments and conferences. My second grade students (Pakistani and Mexican) wanted me to be a “real” teacher and have my desk in the front of the room, and they also wanted to sit in rows. They were craving structure. I did call the UFT, and to his credit, the rep answering the phone said the principal couldn’t do that. But, we had a very weak faculty, and they caved to the craziness. This principal lost so many teachers – and she’s never been questioned by her superiors for the disappearing staff.
Your union rep could have filed the grievance rather than individual teachers. But this is what happens when weak teachers are staffed at a school. The district Rep should have called the superintendent and demanded action!!!
Our district rep – who has been there for years – does nothing. The school has a UFT “rep” who has been there for years, who has been bought under the principal. Woe to you if you try to run against her; the principal and assistant principal count the votes. When the Union did send two visiting reps to check out the school, the school’s rep took down the notices for the meeting, and she admitted it! She thinks she’s working for the principal. Many people complained in different ways; nothing happened. The principal brags that she’s friends with the city councilman.
IN 1998, my union rep at he site, was anxious to see me gone, so she could teach full-time in her license. I taught seventh grade art within my COMMUNICATION ARTS curricula , which was actually seventh grade English. I had a license in both subjects, and used art to motivate my students to work hard at their writing for 3 weeks and then in the 4th week,, each month they had art with me. I did the entire NYS curricula in art, offering the principles of design and using all media, paints, pastels, ink, etc. I also taught elective art, watercolor.
She was given phys ed (gym) to fill in her full-time teaching, and so she saw me as the impediment;, she began,to write letters to the staff about me! Using the UFT letterhead.
She told stories about me to students, who then wrote to me, “Why is Ms Daniels saying you ruined th lives of 2 girls?” as I sat in a rubber room awaiting some indication of why I was there for six months!
Why Indeed?
Hmmm, while I was in that teacher jail, the principal emptied my room, GAVE HER ALL MY ART MATERIALS many purchased with my own money, and she became the full-time art teacher, and immune from harassment.
And then there was the UFT Manhattan Bureau chief who sat mum when I was accused of outrageous things. I had to hire an attorney who filed a lawsuit, to get out of the rubber room, but I never taught English again, even though I was , that year, THE NYS EDUCATOR Of EXCELLENCE
Union? Hee hee, LOL!
I’m glad this principal did this. The teachers who work 5 hours a day with weekends and the summers off, should never sit at a desk. I would have fired the teachers rather than remove the desks. Lazy bastards need to teach and do their jobs. You want to sit? Go home and let a younger, more motivated teacher take your cushy 6 figure position.
What alternative reality do you come from? Have you read the responses? Desks and file cabinets really are kind of ordinary requirements of the type of job teachers do. Please point me to that cushy five hour job with the paid vacations you seem to assume we have. It is a rather amusing assumption that student vacation translates into teacher vacation. Seeing as how my typical work week translated into 52 weeks+ of work not counting the time spent during “vacations,” I am really having trouble identifying this job you think teachers have.
2o2t,
I read Marc’s post as sarcastic, cynical, etc. . . . Kind of like something I would post. If it’s not meant that way I need a tuneup of my sarcasmometer and better head to the SER*.
*SER = Sarcasmometer Emergency Room.
Then I hope Marc will accept my apologies. I probably had read far too many depressing posts from teachers before I read his.
“Go home and let a younger, more motivated teacher take your cushy 6 figure position.”
6 figure?! Not many of us get there and those that do have worked 25+ years in a well funded district. Apparently, the younger potential teachers are choosing other less stressful careers. Have you not heard about the widespread teacher shortages? My last district still has not filled all of its teaching positions.
School districts save between 40k & 60k For every teacher they throw out before they to vest in benefits. In my 20th year in NYC, after 4 decades experience teaching in NYS, and with 2 degrees and 60 more credits in advanced degrees, I was earning 58k, when they threw me to the dogs, even as I was a most successful & celebrated NYC teachers. Had I been allowed to reach my 24th yeat my salary would have reached 70k, at that time and my social security and pension,plus saving would have made my retirement reflective of my excellent service.
Instead of restoring me to my classroom, the UFT arbitrated me into retirement, rather than defending me against easily disproven allegations of incompetence.
he same is ongoing inLlAUSD
http://citywatchla.com/8box-left/6666-lausd-and-utla-complicity-kills-collective-bargaining-and-civil-rights-for-la-s-teachers
She (this principal) is not the only one doing this. The same thing happened (though not yet in all the classrooms) in my school (New Utrecht HS in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn), where teacher’s desks have been removed.
This is yet another example of how the public schools have gone down the drain. (This is not to defend the charter schools that have sprung up for reasons that we all know have as much to do with money and politics than anything else.)
The reasons for such clearly absurd and harmful actions (of which one could make quite a list) is that all that seems to matter, for too many school administrators (and sadly, also for many teachers who are compliant) is “educosmetics” — how things will look, on the surface, to bigwigs that drop by.
To this has been added how kids do on the exams — which, though again indefensible if used punitively against teachers and schools, as it has been, has at least the slight merit that it is not as totally and whimsically subjective as the educosmetics aspect is.
Apparently, it “looks bad” when teachers are sitting when the superintendent or whoever drops by. Why this looks bad, I will not venture into. Solution: Order the teachers to stand and circulate. If this does not work, throw out the teachers’ desks.
Anyone who has taught knows that teaching, among other things, is also a paper-intensive, clerical job. Homework, classwork, quizzes, exams, lab-reports, project-reports and more deluge in from the 170 students a teacher teaches each day, often in several subjects, in several classrooms, on several floors. These also have to be checked and returned. A single drawer in a classroom with many teachers during the day is all that one might have to store essential supplies, including earlier handouts for those who were absent, book-receipts and more. Many high-school teachers have nowhere to sit and work in a school, even during their one measly “prep period” a day, as their classrooms are occupied by other teachers during that period. Science teachers used to often show demonstrations in class, for which at least a large, stable horizontal surface–not to speak of water and gas outlets, which have become a luxury.
But when the superintendent drops by, he/she will be pleased to find that the teachers in the school you reported on (and in the rooms in my school that no longer have teacher’s desks, including one of those that I teach in myself) are all standing. What an achievement!
I should mention that paraprofessionals are also routinely told that they should not sit in a classroom. As they usually have seven periods a day in classrooms, following their wards, that amounts to standing up through most of the day.
It is well known what prolonged standing does to the lymph vessels and veins in the legs and ultimately even to the heart. Human beings are meant to either walk (during which the contraction of the leg muscles move the lymph and also help the heart move blood upward through the leg veins) or else lie down or be close to the ground — easier in warm, tropical countries, which have far less of chairs and also far less of varicose vein and other problems and harder to do in colder countries in which chairs were needed as the floors were too cold. Sitting in a chair (for periods that are not too long) is a compromise. Many cannot stand still for long without feeling faint, as not enough blood is reaching the brain. This is particularly true for those who are anemic, aged or ailing.
I myself rarely had a chance to sit down in my classrooms when desks were still available. But I still used to sit at times to do the clerical work, including attendance and more. My handouts used to be spread in labeled piles for students to pick up as they entered. Homework, lab-reports and (most importantly) the various papers that go out and come back in during a full-period examination used to return to the teacher’s desk where I or a couple of student helpers would put them in order by various identifiers them as they came in.
Our school is also refusing to repair and buy supplies for overhead projectors. The reason given is that most classrooms now have smart boards (which do, however, need a computer to be carried around and hooked up to to operate, and, as much computer equipment does, often malfunctions or stalls in ways that ordinary mortals cannot easily fix). When I protested, I was told that we did not want to appear “archaic”.
Long live Educosmetics!
Seriously??? It’s okay to be humble, but at some point you have to stand up (or in this case, “sit down”) to maintain your dignity.
My alma mater. This is terrible. This school was once a great school with a good staff. It takes one crazy leader to ruin everything.
Where is the union?!!!!! Hopefully they have already filed a grievance against her. Unions need to band together as they did in the Buffalo area. In fact it is time for all teacher unions to band together, organize to fight this attack on teachers, working conditions,
and above all the Common Core.
In July, West Seneca, East Aurora and Hamburg started organizing into an active union movement and stopped a bullying superintendent.
Notice not a peep from Mulgrew.
Excellent question. Where is Mulgrew on this??
Union leadership is too busy out campaigning for Clinton.
Pretty sure there is an OSHA violation in there if any teacher gets injured for having to compensate for lack of adequate basic furniture to facilitate job tasks like too much bending over to rifle through a bag because of no cabinets or having to lug too much heavy stuff around.
Not to mention ADA violations.
Hmmm. Somewhere I read about a great teacher who often sat with his followers to teach.
Yeah, on the ground and under trees. Socrates and Plato didn’t need no stinkin’ desks or file cabinets!
It wasn’t HER furniture to discard. Those desks and file cabinets belong to the taxpayers who paid for them.
In all fairness, principals DO have the discretion to determine if furniture belongs in a building or any other materials (someone has to make the call about worn out, unusable, archaic etc)
That being said schools are supposed to where practical offer some materials to other schools before discarding. When they are functional, just tossing them because of an educational philosophy seems Ill advised.
Warehousing them for a bit lets her back track if it turns out to be a bad idea.
Yeah, but there is a process to getting rid of functioning equipment, and it does not involve tossing stuff out on the curb. Our district holds a sale every now and then. Proceeds go back into the budget.
The article said the Superintendent had the desk moved inside and into storage.
Why not go directly to the chancellor, the superintendent with this as well as the union? Talk to Carmen Farina? She’s not one of the no nothing bureaucrats. Why would teachers accept this? I sit to read stories (not at my desk, I grade at my desk, eat at my desk), I sit to conference. I’d do everything I could to get rid of her desk- with her at it.
Principals are ” employees”, just like everyone else who works in the building . She should be fired and billed for new replacement desks and chairs,( better than those she tossed out). Forty years in education, and I never heard of such an off the wall action like this one.
What effect did that have on the children? They learn respect by watching the behavior of others, especially the adults.
They aren’t like other employees, unfortunately. They are not adequately supervised, which is the core reason why they abuse their power. It is nearly impossible to fire a school principal anywhere in the United States.
Exactly. Principals have so much power now that they have become petty tyrants. And there’s not one thing anyone can do about it. Principals can violate the law, destroy schools, and fire teachers with impunity. And they will never be fired.
So let’s eliminate her office and let her wander the campus all day.
Mental illness can affect anyone.
I am concerned for the teacher who first posted the discarded furniture picture on Facebook. It was brave. But I know first hand how vindictive administrators can be. 😦
Even as a principal, Donna Connelly should not have the power to “forbid” her teachers from doing something as simple as sitting down during a school day. She’s not their high commander; the concept of ordering someone not to do something as basic as sitting smacks of authority gone astray.
Once again, administrators at the building level prove to be VERY much a part of the problem.
Just like a fish needs water in which to swim, this sort of tyrant is enabled by the punishing attitude towards public school employees nationwide. She sounds like an idiot who read about the fad of disrupting things for the sake of creating change…. and couldn’t think of anything else to disrupt -except the furniture!
This specific example is bizarre so it attracts attention. Imagine the miles long list of much less dramatic indignities and humiliation that educators face on a daily basis.
And, if this how the adults are treated, think what the children face.
I just sent this email to the principal.
Dear Ms. Connelly,
After reading the report of what happened at your school, there is one thing I am certain of: I do not know anything about you or what it is like teach in your school.
With that said, I share with you what I have found to be the truth in my fourteen years of teaching, not to mention my experience working in NYC as a preservice teacher.
1) Kindness should always take center stage.
2) Leading by example provides the space for a shared vision.
3) Communication that is respectful is essential to a school’s success.
4) Figurative lines drawn in the sand never work out for anyone on either side of that line.
5) A desk is a required tool for any teacher.
May you find the time to reflect on your decisions. I suspect that you’ll be explaining your actions to many people over the next few weeks. If you are truly a professional with the goal of helping children learn, you might want to rethink your actions. A toxic environment only hinders the learning environment.
Enjoy your day.
Sincerely,
Greg
Teacher
You’ve been way more charitable than most of us could be…and I suspect, you’ve been kinder to the principal than she deserves.
I “unplugged” over the weekend, so I have no idea if there is any follow up to this story. I await my free time to follow the next events (“But what is this free time you speak of?”).
Lead by example.
This lrincipal should set an example. Get out of the office, circulate throughout the building, take care of hall discipline during classes, and meet parents on an equal level, all standing Everyone on their feet will keep meetings short.
What kind of instructional leadership is this? In addition to good school, leaders, their are too many like this one.
Let me elaborate…administrators on the whole are the foot soldiers for the big money interests trying, and seemingly succeeding, in demonizing public education, its teachers and their unions. These petty bureaucrats have no real skin in the game but are perhaps the most dangerous people on the food chain in terms of the current attempt to make teachers’ lives impossible. They tend to be failed teachers, but very Good Germans (an historical analogy, of course).Note how rare it is for a school superintendent or principal to comment here, on what is certainly the most important clearinghouse for thoughts on public education…
These administrators have all the power and no accountability, while teachers have none of the power and all of the accountability.
That’s so true Susan. It didn’t bother me so much throughout my career to have mediocre or bad leadership. I could still do my job educating my students without giving “them” much thought. But not so much anymore. I might as well work in a coal mine now…it’s become that toxic, thanks to all of the myriad “reforms” we have to endure. So many of my colleagues are doing a personal cost/benefit analysis…it’s very sad because the administrators will stay or move on to another district for big bucks, and we’ll abandon our careers because we cannot work for such “educational leaders” anymore. But I would sure love the perspective of a principal or a superintendent on this forum, but I’m going to guess that only the most insightful visit this space.
I recently had a hip replacement and thank god I’m much better now. I couldn’t walk and couldn’t sit long before the surgery. I think that would have been grounds for a law suit or pay me disability. But really, it is inhumane. Tell me this story is false about the principal.
What???? Stupidity does exist in the world!!!
NYDOE recycles failed principals. Connelly front and center. http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2015/10/doe-recyles-failed-principals.html?m=1
Not just the NYCDOE. Fairfax County Public Schools recycles kookie principals too. In my opinion, after years of observations, I see those that can’t hack it in the classroom teach a couple of years and go for the big salaries of asst principals and principals where they can play dictator. It wasn’t always this way. Before the corporate takeover of the US Dept of Ed, principals typically had over 20 years in the classroom. Now the average is more like 2 years. Nothing but clueless bullies who have ZERO leadership skills. They drink the BroadWaltonGates Koolade.
I always sat during attendance and clerical work like collecting money and permission trips because I would open the envelopes in front of the children just in case the wrong amount was given. And I kept a running record of everything which I filed in my desk.
Much of the paperwork is ridiculous and sometimes I would sit at my students’ desks just so I can spread out. But a lot of work took place at that desk. My desk held my much needed supplies and files. I fought hard to get a large filing cabinet. Most of the teachers had one. Mine didn’t lock, but I kept copies of important lessons and creative activities there and also stored my b-board stuff in the bottom drawer.
My desk was always to the side or back of the room. The days of having it front and center ended decades ago.
An excellent teacher I once taught with told me she was written up because when the principal came in she happened to be at her desk. She told him had he asked or investigated at that point, she would see that she was entering a lateness in the attendance book which is a legal document which only took a minute.
Honestly, the teachers at this school must be brain dead or mushes to not stand up to this type of abuse.
It’s sad. The younger teachers especially lack any self confidence or poise. No chutzpah. We are an embarrassment to the generations of labor who can before us. Our unions are in collusion with admin in spite of what media may say.
Schoolgirl, I agree. My desk as well as my colleagues’ placed the teacher’s desk in back or off to the side. The front was needed for group work sitting on chairs or on a rug. I rarely sat at my desk even before or after school hours. My aide would use the desk depending upon the task she was assigned. The desk was needed for storing everything from soup to nuts.
Then there is this page. She demands that teachers present her book of the month. These books are hardly earth shattering
http://www.ps24school.org/resources/dr-connellys-book-of-the-month
I’m laughing hysterically. She writes “Each Month Dr. Connelly choses a book that all classroom teachers will share with their students. The subject matter addresses diversity, community building, understanding and compassion.” Did you get that? COMMUNITY BUILDING, UNDERSTANDING, COMPASSION…Reminds me of the T-shirt they used to say “the beatings will continue until morale improves” Thank you Citizens United for making this country so heartless and crass from Trump to Christie…we have great role models.
I disagree Barbara – these books are appropriate and by well known authors. However, this program should have been implemented and expanded by the school librarian.
Plus there should have been different choices for the upper grades. Books like Henkes’ Chrysanthemum are too primary for kids over age eight or nine.
Emails for parent executive committee
http://www.ps24school.org/download.axd?file=0fb85a33-b56a-4b75-9198-e9d2da566640&dnldType=Resource
As a teacher, I would just like to say that we no longer have teacher lounges; only workrooms, where we are expected to make copies, etc. Definitely NOT for visiting, telling stories, or otherwise talking; that only happens when we’re willing to stick around at the end of the day.
I’m pretty sure, for many of us and like other professions, that is what a bar is for….to get together after work and talk about our day like the overworked professionals we are (just don’t let anyone from your school see you…unlike other professionals)
The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers has been working under the old contract for over two years. One reason is the district does not want to guarantee that teachers will have desks.
Prison wardens are friendlier
Reading commentary here & at other articles about this incident online– it sounds as tho’ this principal is responding in her own style (cracking up?) to pressure from higher-ups to kow-tow to equally nutty mandated checklists. Fear & intimidation shake’m-up dictates appear to be rotting the whole system! Small wonder, with the one-two top-down punch of Obama/Duncan[King]-Cuomo, buttressed by the GAGA Bd of Reg & state legislature, sending the message loud& clear for yrs now: anything goes, just get those test scores up. Looks like Donnelly is riding high. A while back she snubbed a grant for music-enrichment & was given a pass despite loud community protest. She’ll probably get a pass on this too, given her ‘scores are up’.
The overlords are The BroadWaltonGatesopolis foundations that pump money into principals trainings not teachers.
I would agree with your “cracking up” because the reports say she did all of this in front of the students…. that is really sick….. I am sure there is a page in DSM-IV that describes this behavior….. of course they always describe teachers as “burned out” but what would you say to describe this acting out, abusive action? if it were done in a teacher’s meeting ? was it done impulsively? what was the dictate from above and how did the other principals in the district respond to the dictate etc.
How outrageous. Way to build staff morale. I wonder if the principal is keeping her desk? Is she allowed to sit down while at school?
Most of my career the subjects I taught (home ec and facs) required that I move around constantly supervising student project work. During my later years I taught in a school in which I was caught up in a physical fight in the hallway and knocked to the floor and fought on. literally….. just like in cartoons. My cart of casserole dishes and skillets was toppled and broke my fall and probably saved me from major head and spinal injury but I did have some ugly scrapes and bruises. I had to drive myself to clinic and then to the office at admin to deliver the paperwork declaring me capable of continuing to work in spite of my slight injuries. I was relieved of cafeteria duty for a week and told to teach from seated position. I had already decided after meeting my students on the first day of classes that I would never seat myself in their presence. I stayed on my feet near an exit as I feared that if I were to sit for even 5 seconds that I might be attacked and knocked to the floor. So….I decided that I would not follow instructions and sit down if any students were also in the classroom. During labs I made sure I did not walk into any corners that I could not quickly exit. So, though I think this is a ridiculous thing for a principal to order, I do see that under certain circumstances one should not take a seat while teaching.
If you keep finding articles like this, Diane, you’re going to put the Onion right out of business.
All part of Reform 101. Just google reform and teacher desks. I found an article from 2006 about removing teacher desks. The belief is that this will facilitate more student centered learning—than teacher centered learning. Mind you–this is just a belief. Maybe she should replace the desk with treadmills or exercise bikes and see what happens in the classroom. Makes just as much sense as removing desks.
What about those new desks that people use standing up. At least then they’d have a place to put their stuff and something to lean on when they write.
Sadly, no one else on this comment thread made the connection to the Danielson abomination rubric. The vaunted PhD in Oriental Philosophy who became an overnight ‘expert’ on teacher ‘performance’ and ‘improvement’ with a hefty grant from Bill Gates, not because she had any prior expertise or knowledge of good teaching.
Danielson claims in her bought wisdom that a ‘highly effective’ teacher not only doesn’t sit at a desk or ever sit, being a super being, but that students themselves randomly move the classroom furniture to suit their needs. If a principal doesn’t see this happen during their one or two observations then you are out of luck on that rubric score.
Same goes for Marzano whose claim to fame was analyzing other people’s research and then capitalizing on their work.
This monstrosity has been handed to bully principals, far too many of whom are now petty tyrants, to bludgeon teachers and destroy their morale and humanity. The unions gave their imprimatur to this nonsense out of fear of offending their keepers and owners.
Now it is up to teachers themselves (and the parents and students who support us) to rise up and stop this heinous behavior.
When we will reach our boiling over point? Soon, I hope! Very soon! This cruel and hateful BS must be stopped.
Yes, the principal at my school has been shoving MARZANO down our throats for the last year. And now that she has started his evaluation system we can’t sit down on the job.
My desk was removed in Newark two years ago.
Were you more productive?
In what other professions are professionals not “allowed” to have desks and file cabinets? This is detestable!
No professions I can think of. Retail clerks & short-order cooks come to mind…
Even retail clerks can get chairs if their physical needs require it (ie at walmart)
Student privacy obviously is not important to the administration.
Yeah, as a special ed teacher, it took me two years to get a locking file cabinet for student records. At one job, they had no shredder for confidential files that were no longer current. I suggested that their dumpster wasn’t the most secure way of disposing of old IEPs. The thought of lawsuits resulted in a lame little shredder that was always breaking down. I ended up dragging my documents to the central administration office to use their big industrial shredder. They were so afraid of lawsuits that they would throw any teacher under the bus rather than support them. I sure didn’t want my name turning up on some document blowing down the street from the overfull dumpster.
Michelle Rhee called. She said Connelly should try taping the teachers’ mouths shut and/or taping them to their chairs instead of tossing them out. http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/looselips/2010/08/16/baltimore-schools-have-really-strong-masking-tape/
Former Indiana U basketball Coach Bob Knight called too. He said to toss the chairs at the referees. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qxu5cvW-ds
Then, Steve Ballmer called — busy day. He said tossing the chairs only works if you cuss out and fire them using Microsoft Stacked Ranking. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/05/chair_chucking/
They all said to tell you it was not a meltdown.
“Mother may I?”
Mother may I?
No you may not
You may not sit
And may not &*it
And English lit?
No, not one bit
New York education has gone down the rabbit hole.
ETS did a study training “observers” for 75 or more hours and they watched 900 lessons on video using the Danielson framework and two or three other frameworks. They could not get inter-rater reliability on these measures. They had to throw out about 1/4 of the observational ratings/judgments. I don’t recommend J P Greene’s blog but I will point it out as the source for where I read about the ETS study then I downloaded the study from ETS….
I can see the desire to have teachers more active in the classroom, but that is not the right way to go about it. That is too extreme especially for teachers who grade at their desks or use it for students to ask them questions. Maybe an alternative solution would be to move teacher’s desks to the back of the room so they wouldn’t “teach from their desks” if this bothered the principal that much.
Yes, I agree, there are other ways to address the problem of teachers who are not engaging their students. With so much technology and use of the plug in drug, I am surprised it is even an issue. What about providing professional development for teachers who have lost healthy ego-presence in the classroom? What about revamping a curriculum that does provide opportunities for student inquiry?
In fairness to the principal, what the story does not say is that there MAY have been steps before where the principal tried to address teachers unable to engage their students. However, If there is no effective support for a floundering teacher, an apathy can develop towards the students and the teacher just disengages and fills the children’s lives with videos and busy work. It happens.
I don’t think I ever sat in my desk until I taught third grade during a math practice period and the students would recite their times tables to me privately. In fourth, I needed to work with students to review their paragraph writing, which was a sit down task. Definitely did not sit in first or second unless I was observing my students with a visiting subject teacher.
In my high school, however, in class after class, teachers sat…next to their desks, in their desks, on their desks. The content was fireside and all about the teacher and their tragically small world view. The lack of respect and honor they showed to the art of teaching and the students reflected in how the students viewed the teacher and fellow pupils. For this reason, I didn’t learn how to study and REALLY learn until college. In hindsight, I feel fortunate that I was even able to attend university and how much it saved me from a certain path in life.
Funny that teaching while sitting was status quo in my day but in this scenario, the superintendent actually told the teacher not to move the desks and filing cabinets to the curb, rather put them in the basement out of the public eye. Maybe in twenty years the administrators will solve the problem of managing teachers at all, it will just be distance learning and metricized robots.
What an evil person.
Up there with Scrooge – without a drop of human kindness.
I hope her chain for the afterlife is long and heavy.
Well I wonder who is going to be footing the bills when all those teachers need their knees and hips replaces from squatting and talking to students in front of the students’ small desks all day? I’ve noticed in my own building that many of the elementary teachers walk with limps or have knee and hip replacements in their 50s (earlier than most professionals) from doing just that (and they actually have desks still).
It’s been a good many years since I’ve seen teachers teach from their desks.
I think I was in High School. And I’m old. And those teachers teaching from their desks were DAMN good.
I have questions.
1. Why are teachers allowing this? We will get only as much abuse as we allow ourselves to accept.
2. Why isn’t every teacher in the building over the age of 40 not filing an age discrimination suit? Very easy to do. Online. Free of charge.
This has nothing to do with best practice. It has everything to do with abuse of power and the demeaning of our profession.
So, ok, where shall I put my pocketbook? My IEPs? The box of sanitary pads I keep for my middled school students?
While the petty tyrant in this story is female, that does not mean that she isn’t the face of Silicon Valley misogyny.
Send the desks to the wood chipper. Virtual reality helmets for everyone! Order a ton of wrestling mats to pad all the walls. The future of education is here.
I cannot begin to tell you the egregious outrageous behavior that I experienced, or what I saw and hard from colleagues when I taught in NYC in the nineties.
Unaccountable for ANYTHING, failed human beings who are principals have no fear of reprisals, not from the union and not from the media. IN fact, this from the Post, is unusual, as their usual fare bashes teachers.
Principals from hell was the way it is in too many places.
As hard as it might be to believe, Susan, the nineties were a Golden Age compared to now.
Yes, I know. This is because the oligarchs who run and finance this assault have managed to keep the public clueless. But as I have ben in contact with betsy Combier, Karen Horwitz, Lenny Isenberg, an dNorm Scott, and have read the NYC teacher’s blog, I have seen the deterioration.
Nothing stopped them. No accountability took down the financial market, and it will do so agin, as the top dogs were rewarded for lying and stealing. The next financial debacle will occur as these charlatans manipulate the currency, so our currency drops like a stone, and then, the TPP will ensure that their stuff gets sold.
It’s anyone’s game in a dishonest corrupt culture, with rich barons who have gamed the electoral system, and ride around in private jets, laughing at the masses who have nothing.
Gosh… I am so cynicaL.
Union? Hello?
More like, “Union? Thanks for nothing…again.”
Union?
You have not been reading my comments to this blog.
In 1998 I was celebrated teacher http://www.opednews.com/author/author40790.html
when the UFT let them come after me. Have told that story here. often.
have been publishing, here,/ this link to an essay I wrote in 2004, almost 12 years ago, and the harassment still continues.
http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html
In NYC the complicity of the UFT is easy to discover at advocates
http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2009/03/gotcha-squad-and-new-york-city-rubber.html
http://parentadvocates.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=7534
Look at what they have done to Francesco Portelos
http://protectportelos.org/does-workplace-bullying-continues-my-33-hrs-behind-barso
and his story is here at NAPTA, , a site put up a decade ago to chronicle the abuse
http://www.endteacherabuse.org/Portelos.html
and here http://rubberroom3020-a.blogspot.com/2013/08/dear-arbitrator-wittenberg-doe-evidence.html
and in LAUSD WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED!
http://citywatchla.com/8box-left/6666-lausd-and-utla-complicity-kills-collective-bargaining-and-civil-rights-for-la-s-teachers
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/03/lausd-and-utla-collude-to-end-collective-bargaining-and-civil-rights-for-teachers-part-2.html
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/07/former-ctc-attorney-kathleen-carroll-lays-out-unholy-alliance-between-union-and-public-education-pri.html
TEACHERS NEED UNIONS… BUT teachers have to rise up and with one VOICE and vote to throw out the union leadership that has enabled the war on public schools, beginning with the assault on the civil rights of teachers, that did THIS to NYC
Maybe teachers will “buy into” the idea that this is just another way they are helping their students – sacrificing their own comforts for the good of the world.
I love this comment. So insightful. I’m so sick of the damage done by teacher saints.
Thanks. I often think that maybe teachers don’t realize what constitutes abuse anymore. After one has been beaten and beaten, one may just think that this is the normal way to live. I also don’t understand when teachers say that parents will be against them when they speak up for their rights. Will parents be happier when their children are sitting in front of computers for 8 hours per day and “teachers” are just monitors? The bottom line is that if you don’t respect yourself, nobody will have respect for you.
I guess only connections, power and privilege come with the opportunity to reflect, collaborate, plan…Teaching, it seems, is now a “do as you’re told because I told you to do it” job.
“John Kasich, governor of Ohio and candidate for the GOP nomination, who said that if it was in his power, he would close all the teachers’ lounges. That’s where teachers congregate and share their stories.”
John Kasich should worry less about teachers doing their jobs and more about doing his own.
His appointees at the state department of education seem to spend most of their time dodging investigations, denying records requests and rubber-stamping charter school applications.
Ohio public school kids spent months taking the Common Core tests last year which were sold as providing “vital” information to teachers and parents, and we have yet to see the results of the testing experiment. Not that it matters, because the Kasich administration and state legislators are hastily replacing those tests with another set of experimental test products this year, which will mean more chaos for the unfortunate group of children who happened to be attending Ohio public schools during Kasich’s tenure. Of course, as is the case with so many anti-public school governors, his own children don’t attend Ohio public schools so perhaps he’s unaware of all this.
When I was a teacher, I had my desk and my rocking chair in the back of the room, and on my file cabinet there was a plastic duck….if you accidentally said the secret word, you could knock him off the cabinet with a wiffleball bat, in hopes of making his toupee fall off. They generally paid attention……they did not want to miss anything. Right before lunch—-time for Paul Harvey and the news….that’s enough….no time for “the rest of the story”.
HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENT.
“We are confident that Ms. Connelly will bring a much-needed human touch to our school, backed by years of experience in education,” parents’ association Co-President Cliff Stanton said in a statement.http://riverdalepress.com/stories/Donna-Connelly-picked-as-new-principal-at-PS-24,42409
The 27th worst school last year was PS 24 in the Bronx, led by Donna Connelly, known for turning down a grant for two years of music appreciation for the students at her school, apparently because “there was no educational value to it. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:GrzZ7HV3q-AJ:nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2010/10/more-on-worst-schools-in-nyc-and-their.html+&cd=16&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
And let’s remember that this was done during “instructional time.” Imagine teaching grades 1 – 5 and interrupting your lesson to remove everything from your desk and file cabinets; and to be told to “figure it out!” in front of the children. Imagine the children and their parents looking at the teachers’ desks and the file cabinets in the street. Where is the children’s’ work? Is is displayed all over the classroom?
that is what makes me think the principal is “over the edge”…. but it is a definite assertion of power and done to belittle the teacher in front of the students; does it plant fear in the student’s heart? is it meant to teach “respect”? If the orders came down from the top and all principals did it? or this one principal decided to do it in an individual , impulsive and revengeful way? They always say teachers are ‘burnt out” and i never liked that expression because it puts the onus on the individual when their are hostile working conditions… But this behavior in front of young students (by the principal) can probably be found in DSM-V pages. Then when the behavior becomes the norm of all administrators it becomes “normal” and removed even from DSM -VI… I feel badly for our society/culture. In another demonstration of this type of behavior I have seen a principal nearly pound the desk (almost like Kruschev and his shoe) and say “this is a data driven school” because she is so fearful for her own job in a town with budget restrictions. Just as the union reps have “disappeared” or been co-opted, her IEP committee was no such thing; it was her “budget” committee and she ruled over ever choice. Instead of having an IEP team that would represent the student, they were all fearful; the team was whoever could show up that day (and they were usually fill-ins). The principal’s role had become power to control the budget and to do that she enforced every control on the teachers. Falling back on “data driven” and “results oriented” is the holy grail and supposed to be the language that sends everybody cowering.
And let’s remember that this was done during “instructional time.” Imagine teaching grades 1 – 5 and interrupting your lesson to remove everything
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
If there is not yet a follow up report available about this principal……then people with higher responsibilities are not doing their jobs.
I am beginning to think P.S.24 needs an exorcist. My kids went there during the Philip Sharper years. Their last memory was of him chasing a school worker into a bathroom and being carted off to a rubber room. Dr. Connelly was her replacement. I cringe when I hear these stories. You would think 24 would be a prime job to land in the Bronx. Nice kids, pretty neighborhood and an active PTA…
The whole system needs exorcism… it is HIDDEN TRAGEDY
http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html
http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2009/03/gotcha-squad-and-new-york-city-rubber.html
http://endteacherabuse.org
http://www.whitechalkcrime.com
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/03/have-reporters-become-poli-ticks–the-media-parasites-of-the-body-politic.html
The press should ask responses of Mulgrew, Farina and Randi.
If you throw out the teachers desk and file cabinet you can seat 4-6 more students on the overcrowded classroom.
“in” the overcrowded classroom
Typical of most of these principals,some of whom have never had substantial amount of teaching time in the classrooms to garner enough experience. They rely on materials handed down to them from ‘supervisors’. I have been teaching for many years and I honestly believe that,some principals are experts at what they do others are incompetent and just plain crazy and beyond. Often times the DOE had to urgently intervene and remove these people or hell would have broken loose. Really sad for the students and parents who send their children to these people.Some of these people pay and sleep their way through to obtain these jobs. Everything is not in black and white.
I haven’t read all 143 comments, but somewhere in here, I bet another reader suggested
“Take away the principal’s desk and her chair. See how she does without it.”
They will do fine. Overpaid Principals are barely ever at work. Instead they attend all these fancy workshops and travel on the taxpayers dime while the designated Assistant Principal runs the school. Principals are nothing but District cronies put in place to keep tabs on teachers. Principals should be required to teach at least one class per day so they can be reminded what a complex and challenging job teachers have and just how lucky they are to have a job as an over compensated paper pusher.
Criminal! Abusive! Violation of Human Rights! How much more abuse do we have to take? I almost collapsed in the classroom last week due to pejorative conditions at Holy Cross HS and I had a desk. When I asked the administration for assistance, I got fired and was almost immediately escorted to the door, like a criminal. Do teachers have to drop dead on the job for change to come about? Pinch me is this America? Or Cuba?
I would think that teachers are far more respected in Cuba. Cuba values literacy and education highly.
Teachers in Cuba get the same $20 a month stipend as everyone else. There is so much poverty on the island that teaching must be a respected profession.
This is a classic example of the workings of propaganda.
This principal, if called on this irresponsible act, would say, “The days of teaching in front of the classroom and/or behind a desk are over. Teachers should be mingling with the students”.
And he would be right.
Except:
A teacher’s desk has a handy work surface on which to do work when class isn’t in session. It can even be used as a surface on which to place a computer.
A teacher’s desk has drawers in which he/she can store supplies, records, etc.
This act (which is not an isolated instance here in NYC) along with Mr Ohio’s brilliant idea, is propaganda personified: throw the idea that teachers are lazy and not to be trusted in the public’s face, 24/7, to the point where the public automatically thinks, “Well good for that principal! Get those lazy SOBs off their butts and working with the kids for a change”.
But it’s a gross misrepresentation which borders on cruelty.
“But it’s a gross misrepresentation which borders on cruelty.”
Nah….it crossed the border. 🙂
Update. Desks to be returned. File cabinets to be
Held hostage.
What are they afraid the teachers will sit in their file cabinets? Sounds like a poor attempt to allow the principal to save face. She just looks even sillier and more incompetent.
What could POSSIBLY be the complaint about file cabinets?!
I just stopped subbing for a district that is trying to go paperless. Perhaps this principal has similar high tech fantasies. For the life of me, I can’t think of any other remotely feasible reason.
Sorry here’s the link. http://badassteachers.blogspot.com/2015/10/disrespecting-american-teacher-saga.html?m=1
Where will the teachers store their handguns so that they can protect the children from deranged active shooters?
Easy: concealed-carry permits.
Don’t joke too much about that. At least two states: Idaho and Utah, allow teachers to conceal carry at school. Last weekend, Utah even had specifically teacher-attended conceal carry classes. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865639240/Teachers-treated-to-free-concealed-weapons-class-on-UEA-break.html
What an “upstanding” example. Maybe out standing.