Excess, an amount greater than is necessary. I guess I fell into that category.
Friday, October 14, 2005-, week 6 of my first year of teaching was the day I got excessed. As my former AP always says, “In other words” everything that I have worked towards in these past few weeks means nothing. More importantly, everything that my students have, or have not, worked towards means nothing.
I was shocked to say the least. I felt betrayed, sad, rejected and overall, utterly confused. I was pulled out of one of my classes, given the news and out of the building 20 minutes later.
Let me start with the reasons given for my excess.
“We don’t have enough money in our budget to pay the number of teachers we currently have working here.”
“Well the B.O.E did not send all the students they promised us so we have to cut down on the number of classes, and therefore teachers.”
What was going to happen to my classes, my students? What is this new school I’m being shipped off to all about? How can I have no say in any of this?
I was informed that my students would be dispersed among other classes and that the school I am joining is a wonderful place. It was pretty clear that I had absolutely no say in any of this.
Should I hand in my grades, my students work, or the school owned books I had compiled? Well, no one asked. No one needs them…no one cares.
This brings me back to a previous blog of mine, “Do They Care?” The “they” I was referring to in this case were the students; maybe I should have been referring to the administration or the B.O.E. How can the B.O.E not realize that with each teacher they excess there are 20-30 students for each class they teach that also affected.
All of that time spent with each class laying ground rules, making up missed homework assignments, quizes, tests, writing papers, reading papers and most importantly, getting to know one student, is meaningless. There is now no accountability for anything.
I think of the students I had who were failing because they did no work, were absent 75% of the time and when they were present, walked in late. I’m angered. Those students are now right back at day one. They are now on par with the students who worked so hard, never missed class, and rarely arrived late. At the end of the first marking period they will receive the same grade as the students who participated in class, and were conscientious about their work. That does not seem to make sense to me.
All in all, my being excessed is not about me. It’s about the students, and the message it sends to them when they walk into class on Monday to find their teacher is gone and they are receiving yet another program change.
No wonder NYC schools are so far behind. No wonder so many of the students act as if nothing matters to them, as if school is a meaningless institution. It’s what they’ve been taught!
Ed Note : Previous versions of Bimsmile’s diaries can be found in the New Teacher Diary section of the blog.
16 Comments:
1 NYC Educator
· Oct 18, 2005 at 3:49 pm
And no wonder NYC loses half its teachers in the first five years, considering the shoddy way they’re treated.
It won’t make you feel any better, but the same thing’s happened to me, and many of your colleagues too.
2 institutional memory
· Oct 18, 2005 at 6:01 pm
You’re 100% right about the impact on the kids. There’s no silver lining for them.
That said, please don’t despair! You’ve now been hazed, which is (regrettably) part of the standard new-teacher package, and has been since time immemorial.
You will land on your feet, and this will, someday, be part of your war stories.
It’s times like this when clichés apply: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
Don’t let them get to you, and welcome to the show.
3 todd
· Oct 18, 2005 at 7:36 pm
This is insane. The impact to students is not something that an entire level of administration thinks about so much when they never see a single student in their entire day. This is perhaps another reason to examine more carefully how much of the state-apportioned funding for education is actually reaching the classroom or school sites.
I had a fifth period of freshmen that were given to another teacher last year and I inhereted a fifth period of juniors that had been cobbled together by 3 from this class, 5 from that class, etc. It’s rough for just one period; I can only imagine what it’s like to be shifted to an entirely different school and classroom. The explanation was simply numbers, similar to the explanation you were given: English 3 classes were overloaded and the new English teacher would be better off with a schedule of all freshmen (and, thus, a single prep). By the way, that decision to make the schedule an easier one for the new teacher was made by myself and the other department co-chair, not by the administration.
4 redhog
· Oct 18, 2005 at 7:38 pm
This post is a powerful and unforgiving ( as it should be!) indictment of this miserably administered system. This post is a crisp, comprehensive, and poignant testament to the plight of all pragmatists and idealists among us whose labor is consecrated to children.
5 Kombiz
· Oct 18, 2005 at 7:46 pm
If people reading this thread get a chance, go back through and read Bimsile’s earlier writings. It extremely poigniant, and part of the reason I think having this blog will have an impact in getting across the stories of educators. Her first diary is on being a new teacher, her second diary is on how her classes were switched on her as soon as she was connecting with her students, her third diary is on the frustration at the lack of respect she was getting in the new classes. Her fourth diary which was submitted Thursday night and went up Friday was on how she felt she finally made the connection to her new students. I talked to Bimsmille on Friday shortly bfore her diary from Thursday went live on the front page and she told me she had just been excessed.
There’s also one more teacher writing diaries, and I’m currently trying to set up a third to blog.
6 Teachercoach
· Oct 18, 2005 at 8:00 pm
This post makes angry. In any other profession, they nurture and care for their newcomers. The DOE treats new teachers like dirt. And Bimsmile’s point about the kids is well taken. Not only is her semester in shambles, but the kids have been uprooted and disrupted.
Hang in there, kid. It looks like you got what it takes to really make a difference.
7 shouldhavegonetomeds
· Oct 18, 2005 at 8:53 pm
If you are smart you will size up your chances for medical school, law school or dental school. Otherwise stay in the Department of Education and receive a lifetime of insults!!!
8 divina
· Oct 19, 2005 at 6:59 am
Teachercoach,
Your comment was very important. Many teachers have perceived (rightfully) that the DOE treats them like dirt, and the public doesn’t understand them.
But the important part of your post is the perception that other people are treated better, or nurtured.
While I can think of a few stories where the young are nurtured, it happens rarely, and only in cases of Ivy Leaguers being recruited for top law firms and top financial companies etc. In addition, even these stories are becoming more and more. I have heard of stories where new graduates were offered choice paid internships 6 months to 1 year before they graduated from college, only to have the offer revoked at graduation due to the economy souring. That left many new graduates in a lurch with no job, no notice, the possibility of having turned down other offers and large student loan payments.
The grass is always greener.
9 outraged
· Oct 19, 2005 at 10:39 am
why does the union keep trying to sell the 25/55 BIG MAYBE?
They have tried for 30 years according to them, what makes it beleivable now.
If its not part of the deal as a guarantee, then it not part of the deal.
I am very sure that this legislation if passed will come at the expense of union in terms of rights and or money.
10 amyarundell
· Oct 19, 2005 at 11:09 am
Bimsmile
It’s important for you to know that there is a state law that prohibits excessing after the first 15 days of a school term, State law 2588, section 5. Accordingly, the next possible time for excessing would not be until February.
Please contact your chapter leader/district representative immediately.
11 JennyD
· Oct 19, 2005 at 1:04 pm
Bimsmile, I agree that this seems like a bit much moving and uncertainty. But I want to ask a question about the latest move, the excessing. It appears your school has a need for fewer teachers, but there is a need somewhere else for more teachers. And you will thus be moved.
My question: How should this have been done differently?
Assume for a moment that in addition to your students, there are students in another school in need of a teacher.
I’m curious about what procedures should have taken place instead to allow for a prompt, efficient movement of teachers to where they are most needed, with the disruption to students (and everyone) minimized.
One other thing: don’t be so sure that other professions are pampered. Look at first-year medical residents. They had to go to court to get their working hours down from, say 48 in a row.
12 roseba
· Oct 19, 2005 at 3:08 pm
Outraged:
You comment is completely unrelated to the original topic.
Please stay on topic.
13 NYC Educator
· Oct 19, 2005 at 10:27 pm
“How should this have been done differently?”
If I were running Tweed, after I made sure teachers got a living wage, I’d make sure new teachers were treated with special care and consideration.
Imagine yourself, the first day at a new school.
“We’re giving you the dumb class, Ms. D.”
“The dumb class? What’s that? Why am I teaching it?”
Well, Ms. D., they can’t learn, and you can’t teach, so putting you together is a thing of beauty.”
Well, you get the idea, and while that might be exaggerated a little, it’s a long-standing tradition to dump the very worst programs on new teachers, and then to make them even worse. That’s what happened to me when I started. I toyed with an offer of driving a FedEx Truck, which actually paid a little more at the time.
I don’t know if you have 50% of doctors fleeing the profession after the first five years. I doubt it.
We certainly can and should do better by this new teacher, and by all our new teachers. As a parent, I believe they’re needed just as much as those doctors.
I absolutely understand how this teacher feels, and it’s certainly possible to place new teachers with more care. It’s one thing if this were an isolated incident. But it’s pretty much par for the course.
14 Bklynteacher
· Oct 19, 2005 at 10:57 pm
I agree to a point. A new teacher should be treated better. However, there are those who will use this argument to take away the seniority rights of others.
Treating new teachers well should never come at the expense of senior teachers as the Mayor apparently wants to do.(
15 Bklynteacher
· Oct 19, 2005 at 11:04 pm
Bimsmile
I’m sorry for what happened to you. Unfortunately, its part of the dues many of us have had to pay. I truly am sympathetic (been there, done that).
This is one of the reasons I am so vehemently against losing our seniority rights. If I thought that doing so (supporting it) would change things, then maybe I’d consider it, but I know from my many years in the system that nothing will change and some senior teachers (who paid their dues) will be left out in the cold.
16 Chaz
· Oct 22, 2005 at 5:00 pm
Devil,
My cousin worked for General Electric during “Neutron Jack’s” time there. He informed me that Jack Welch reduced the payroll by 40% (75% in middle management). However, he rewarded the survivors with good salaries, respect for the employees, and investors with a high stock price. In other words there was a risk and reward policy at GE. Was there a 75% reductions at the DOE headquarter staff?
With all the givebacks (risks to the classroom teacher) where’s the good salaries and respect to the teachers???