Back in the 1980's when I first completed my Bachelors from Sarah Lawrence, I arrived home entirely unsure about my career goals. I was in the middle of several exciting plans as I recall now, including leaving New York City behind and travelling around Europe,and/or going for my PhD in language and learning disorders for which I had applied and was awaiting acceptance. More than that, I just remember being perfectly happy to be out of school and very glad to be on my own, living the city life with friends, primarily spending my time relaxing and going out nights.
In the interest of disclosure too, it should be said that my mother was still herself working as a NY Public School Educator, which I have to admit to anyone who gets any other impression was NOT a particularly good motivator for me to do the same. Having watched her survive the many years, arriving home each day exhausted and with tales of children in crisis, school building in decline, curriculum in flux and apparently ever changing... all that did not bode well for my own determination about what to do with myself. And while I had spent a good deal of time myself in classrooms around the city, at college and even abroad, and even though I had always been told I was a great teacher in the making...I just simply was not sure.
And all that being true, I still trudged off that summer after college, to the cavernous offices of the BOE as it was called then in Downtown Brooklyn. And this is what I remember: Mazes of soup green walled rooms, with 8 1/2 by 11" papers stuck on doorways with scotch tape marked sloppily with codes, rooms of plastic orange and green chairs in which we waited, and older women - employees of the organization- many with beehive hairstyles, sitting at beaten metal desks surrounded EVERYWHERE by huge standing piles of applications (such as the one I was there to complete). I remember it took several such visits to get through all those rooms, to deal with all those ladies, and to see how my application found its place somewhere in all those piles of paper. All of which ended up with a notification of a test date, instructions to show up (no preparation guide, just to have a few sharp pencils and some form of legal i.d).
What I recall beyond the sheer bizarreness of the place, those chairs, ladies and lines is this: the test and the subsequent one-on-one interview with a retired New York City Principal was actually about education, about teaching and learning, about 'best practices' for handling many difficult but realistic scenarios. What I recall was that the interviewer spent more than an hour with me alone, discussing what I had learned first in school, how I had been able to that point to apply any of those skills and accompanying knowledge and generally what I thought was the purpose of 'being a teacher'. It was a fine interview; and that along with the written test sticks with me all the more so as I compare to more recent 'adventures'. The essential point about the earlier experience: I was well prepared to teach, the process though paper heavy, people and time consuming (nothing online yet!)..it still took into consideration the elements of teaching and learning. My interviewer was a seasoned educator himself, articulate and interested in how I would proceed in the profession with what I knew and learned prior. And the written test was similarly designed; albeit not based nearly as much on specific goals or scoring, and fairly unsophisticated in format as it has become now..it still took well into consideration the nature of teaching in the big city schools and demanded some depth of understanding and desire to teach in the city's schools.
Some weeks later, a provisional certificate, roughly xeroxed and stamped, arrived in a plain unadorned envelope. That was then. Instead though, I never used the paper, instead headed off to some travel, followed by some graduate work, and then leaving the field entirely, went to the corporate life for a job where, all things considered, it was entirely less stressful or challenging than standing in a classroom and attending to children and students in need would ever be. It was to be quite some time before I returned to try my hand at the gift of teaching and in that time many many things had changed. More than I was properly or reasonably prepared for as it turned out.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
You Know It's Gonna Be a Crazy Day When....
1.you walk into a labryinth of security guards, screaming students and metal detectors.
2.the 'ladies' of the school office greet you with the following question:"Dear, do you know the extension to dial for emergencies?"
3.the students walk into the classroom, glance once at you and then walk out again.
4.the few students who decide to stay (even with a sub: imagine that!) sit at the computer screen and dial up the New York State Department of Corrections website, commenting as they do how they are looking up family member(s) in jails.
5.the two girls making out in the corner start an argument with one another about who's the 'b*?!ch' in the relationship
6.the announcements on the loud speaker appear to come from Mars, (and not Brooklyn) and are all but entirely unintelligible with static instead of a voice.
.... and when, at the end of six very long hours with some surprisingly sweet kids sitting near you in the mix, not a single ADULT staff person even ACKNOWLEDGES you were there, surviving the day at their fine school for higher learning....
2.the 'ladies' of the school office greet you with the following question:"Dear, do you know the extension to dial for emergencies?"
3.the students walk into the classroom, glance once at you and then walk out again.
4.the few students who decide to stay (even with a sub: imagine that!) sit at the computer screen and dial up the New York State Department of Corrections website, commenting as they do how they are looking up family member(s) in jails.
5.the two girls making out in the corner start an argument with one another about who's the 'b*?!ch' in the relationship
6.the announcements on the loud speaker appear to come from Mars, (and not Brooklyn) and are all but entirely unintelligible with static instead of a voice.
.... and when, at the end of six very long hours with some surprisingly sweet kids sitting near you in the mix, not a single ADULT staff person even ACKNOWLEDGES you were there, surviving the day at their fine school for higher learning....
Monday, January 26, 2009
A day underground...
Suffice it to say that wandering into a random school... absolutely knowing no one, having only a taped message telling me where and when to report... is a challenge most would admit to. I however think (in retrospect) it was like a child experiencing a complex and not so pleasant situation for the very first time: I had absolutely no experience or apriori knowledge... so let's just say I was very naiive.
Prior to this 'adventure', I did have plenty of experience with BEING a STUDENT, a TEACHER, a MEMBER OF A LEARNING COMMUNITY... in a number of situations, schools and places. And in all, I was always generally treated as part of a community of purpose driven learners/teachers/helpers...
Here's the thing: a sub in NYC is scarcely noticed either way. Expectations are so low; it's positively unnecessary to be or say anything particularly. It is about showing up at the allotted time, receiving a paper with attendance forms that need to be filed with student's names that you will not know (now, picture taking attendance in a foreign school with kids who do not necessarily want or care if you know they are there!), punching a card that is eerily the same as ones I remember from my mother's generation as a teacher here in New York City, and whatever else falls in between that time is just a bonus(?).
That first day though, and all other (sub)sequent ..ahh a pun.... I march in, greet and say hello to each and every person passing me in the hall, stairwell or anywhere else and EVEN though in many many instances I am barely acknowledged by other adults in these schools (am I invisible in this scenario? I wonder often), I find myself daily trying to just connect on a basic level. To the school administrator who's job it is to make sure there is indeed an adult (licensed) body in every class, I always smile, show them my letter, license... and in case it is a school actually seeking an excellent teacher, I pass them my c.v as well.
So to sum up :
*I get an assignment on the 'subcentral' system, by phone call, and rarely any other notification or information than from a prerecorded message.
*I present myself, professionally, on time, punch in, receive my assignment and...
*Goto Class(es) as listed on my schedule
Now, clearly I have yet to elaborate on the latter part .. the one where I actually show up at the door of a classroom and am expected to teach. That part will have to wait while I catch the reader up on the other, preliminary parts of the substitute-in-nyc scenario ... except to say that I have had ample opportunity whilst 'experiencing' subbing...as it's called... to ask myself the following:
Question "Is not teaching and the profession about connecting with students and others engaged in the educational process??" I can chuckle though, and while I acknowledge that to date I have had, met, and taught alongside of some very very excellent and engaged teachers, AS A SUB IT IS PRACTICALLY A NONEXISTANT EXPERIENCE. If anyone speaks to me, it is almost completely initially without any expectation whatsoever. Often I find that when I do have a moment with some of the adults (and even with some of the students), there is a calculable instant when each notices, "hey, she is a mature, articulate and educated teacher.."... and I have come to think how wierd it is that the surprise is that I AM qualified, experienced and not a total incompetent idiot!! Really.
As a Sub, I am essentially the no body walking in the halls with the blue attendance folder.. the folder that appears to be more important than the work that I may or may not be able to accomplish in any given day, filling in for a teacher I will probably never meet and who will most probably never care to meet me or if he/she does...
Leaving off now with an example of meeting one such teacher that is amusing: when, arriving back later that same day to her room where I was 'substitute teaching' for a group of aproximately 20 9th and 10th grade students...ALL of whom were there with me on detention (a detail which no adult felt necessary to fill me in at days' start) while the rest of the classes went for a trip, the teacher made the following remark as I headed out:
"I'm really impressed", she said quietly and smiling, and continued with, "usually, when I come back here after there has been a substitute teacher, all the chairs and tables are thrown around and paper and books are everywhere"...all said as calmly as you or I may mention to someone how nicely someone's new boots or coat are that they are wearing...
As I said, expectations for the 'sub' is, well, set 'sub'standard, all in all.
Prior to this 'adventure', I did have plenty of experience with BEING a STUDENT, a TEACHER, a MEMBER OF A LEARNING COMMUNITY... in a number of situations, schools and places. And in all, I was always generally treated as part of a community of purpose driven learners/teachers/helpers...
Here's the thing: a sub in NYC is scarcely noticed either way. Expectations are so low; it's positively unnecessary to be or say anything particularly. It is about showing up at the allotted time, receiving a paper with attendance forms that need to be filed with student's names that you will not know (now, picture taking attendance in a foreign school with kids who do not necessarily want or care if you know they are there!), punching a card that is eerily the same as ones I remember from my mother's generation as a teacher here in New York City, and whatever else falls in between that time is just a bonus(?).
That first day though, and all other (sub)sequent ..ahh a pun.... I march in, greet and say hello to each and every person passing me in the hall, stairwell or anywhere else and EVEN though in many many instances I am barely acknowledged by other adults in these schools (am I invisible in this scenario? I wonder often), I find myself daily trying to just connect on a basic level. To the school administrator who's job it is to make sure there is indeed an adult (licensed) body in every class, I always smile, show them my letter, license... and in case it is a school actually seeking an excellent teacher, I pass them my c.v as well.
So to sum up :
*I get an assignment on the 'subcentral' system, by phone call, and rarely any other notification or information than from a prerecorded message.
*I present myself, professionally, on time, punch in, receive my assignment and...
*Goto Class(es) as listed on my schedule
Now, clearly I have yet to elaborate on the latter part .. the one where I actually show up at the door of a classroom and am expected to teach. That part will have to wait while I catch the reader up on the other, preliminary parts of the substitute-in-nyc scenario ... except to say that I have had ample opportunity whilst 'experiencing' subbing...as it's called... to ask myself the following:
Question "Is not teaching and the profession about connecting with students and others engaged in the educational process??" I can chuckle though, and while I acknowledge that to date I have had, met, and taught alongside of some very very excellent and engaged teachers, AS A SUB IT IS PRACTICALLY A NONEXISTANT EXPERIENCE. If anyone speaks to me, it is almost completely initially without any expectation whatsoever. Often I find that when I do have a moment with some of the adults (and even with some of the students), there is a calculable instant when each notices, "hey, she is a mature, articulate and educated teacher.."... and I have come to think how wierd it is that the surprise is that I AM qualified, experienced and not a total incompetent idiot!! Really.
As a Sub, I am essentially the no body walking in the halls with the blue attendance folder.. the folder that appears to be more important than the work that I may or may not be able to accomplish in any given day, filling in for a teacher I will probably never meet and who will most probably never care to meet me or if he/she does...
Leaving off now with an example of meeting one such teacher that is amusing: when, arriving back later that same day to her room where I was 'substitute teaching' for a group of aproximately 20 9th and 10th grade students...ALL of whom were there with me on detention (a detail which no adult felt necessary to fill me in at days' start) while the rest of the classes went for a trip, the teacher made the following remark as I headed out:
"I'm really impressed", she said quietly and smiling, and continued with, "usually, when I come back here after there has been a substitute teacher, all the chairs and tables are thrown around and paper and books are everywhere"...all said as calmly as you or I may mention to someone how nicely someone's new boots or coat are that they are wearing...
As I said, expectations for the 'sub' is, well, set 'sub'standard, all in all.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Apartheid in Brooklyn?
In New York City, for anyone unfamiliar with the public school 'system', there are districts, and zones. These represent territories of sorts, sometimes cutting through large swaths of diverse neighborhoods... and supposedly represent the schools a given student can enroll. Back when I was growing up, in the middle 70's, that meant not travelling too far for any school with the exception of high school, and even then most high schools were neighborhood accessible. For a myriad of (mostly political) reasons, that is essentially not the case but for the littlest kids.
The elementary schools (PreK, K - 5th grade) tend to take only from their immediate 'zone'... and for some highly regarded zones, notably covering areas in the city one can easily guess (i.e, upper east side of Manhattan, and Park Slope, Brooklyn) those schools are inundated with kids, parents of kids clamoring for spots, regularly faking and falsifying addresses, paying off landlords for 'leases', even moving families to areas to fall into a coveted 'zone'....
And, as a parent, I can tell you that along with tens of thousands of other 'in-the-know' parents, I have navigated, manipulated, and otherwise begged, borrowed and won spots for my own offspring over the years. And each year, articles appear in the Times, Post or Daily News...all of which presumably speak to the essential 'inenquity' of the system. Knowing where to go and who to talk to makes for huge differences and so it follows that those who DO NOT know, perhaps who are unfamiliar with the city, the language (recent immigrant families), or other such disadvantages simply dont find out.
What is peculiar about the newer system of 'school choice' and with older students and families 'choosing schools' is that there are schools sprinkled in many areas and districts (both good and bad as they are known to all) which for a number of reasons can become popular (or not) with the middle and upper middle class (and primarily white) families. Then, there are the schools in both areas again but which have not acheived that level or reputation. It is this latter category of school where I find myself (a white, middle class woman) as I walk into the very first school's 'SUBCentral' assignment: "This", I tell myself, " is the apartheid of Brooklyn" as I see immediately that the students of the school are all but entirely black. Curiously too, the large school building is situated right in the middle of one of the priciest real estate sections of downtown Brooklyn. With the parade just on the corner of white, and affluent residents, heading to the Brooklyn F Train, or pushing the $1200 Italian or British 'prams' to their respective nannie's, day care or private school nurseries, I enter the school, passing directly through massive metal detectors, several oversized school 'security' guards with NYPD armbands, and head to the office. "Apartheid in Brooklyn", I am thinking, as I march on..., "This is going to be interesting".
The elementary schools (PreK, K - 5th grade) tend to take only from their immediate 'zone'... and for some highly regarded zones, notably covering areas in the city one can easily guess (i.e, upper east side of Manhattan, and Park Slope, Brooklyn) those schools are inundated with kids, parents of kids clamoring for spots, regularly faking and falsifying addresses, paying off landlords for 'leases', even moving families to areas to fall into a coveted 'zone'....
And, as a parent, I can tell you that along with tens of thousands of other 'in-the-know' parents, I have navigated, manipulated, and otherwise begged, borrowed and won spots for my own offspring over the years. And each year, articles appear in the Times, Post or Daily News...all of which presumably speak to the essential 'inenquity' of the system. Knowing where to go and who to talk to makes for huge differences and so it follows that those who DO NOT know, perhaps who are unfamiliar with the city, the language (recent immigrant families), or other such disadvantages simply dont find out.
What is peculiar about the newer system of 'school choice' and with older students and families 'choosing schools' is that there are schools sprinkled in many areas and districts (both good and bad as they are known to all) which for a number of reasons can become popular (or not) with the middle and upper middle class (and primarily white) families. Then, there are the schools in both areas again but which have not acheived that level or reputation. It is this latter category of school where I find myself (a white, middle class woman) as I walk into the very first school's 'SUBCentral' assignment: "This", I tell myself, " is the apartheid of Brooklyn" as I see immediately that the students of the school are all but entirely black. Curiously too, the large school building is situated right in the middle of one of the priciest real estate sections of downtown Brooklyn. With the parade just on the corner of white, and affluent residents, heading to the Brooklyn F Train, or pushing the $1200 Italian or British 'prams' to their respective nannie's, day care or private school nurseries, I enter the school, passing directly through massive metal detectors, several oversized school 'security' guards with NYPD armbands, and head to the office. "Apartheid in Brooklyn", I am thinking, as I march on..., "This is going to be interesting".
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Entering the Sub Central Labyrinth
Really, when we all look back, how many of us can recall EVER thinking that a SUBSTITUTE in a school classroom was actually going to TEACH us anything?
So there I am, last fall, completing my MASTERS in TEACHING at a NY graduate school... and trying to get a full time position in the city's 'urban schools'... trying and trying and trying... and dealing with the NYC Dept of Education ... and filling out applications online, sending out resumes with every possible course completed, internship done... easily more credits in the courses than most I meet... and yet NO JOBS..... and nothing from the school I attend or from the city in the way of actual job help.
Another equally qualified, and even more experienced teacher I know... and I.. eventually shuffle BACK to the DOE main offices with SUBSTITUTE License papers in tow.. and go to some tiny disheveled room on the upper floors. No line, just a few women sitting and chatting and someone eventually nods in our direction.
It takes all of about 30 mins... to show the transcript (from just our Bachelor's program..they say to our Master's transcripts, "we dont need these..." !!), a couple of recommendations saying we are who we say we are, and fingerprinting clearance... a photo for our 'SMARTCARD's .. and we are off . Licenses arrive in our respective mailboxes about two weeks later. A paper that says we have most of the credits 'required' and that in the next 12 months, more 'professional development' is to be had. Again, had they even looked at our graduate records, they would have found more than enough of those....but later on that matter...
Now, with the Substitute License, ID card and file number it becomes possible (so says the letter that accompanies the packet) to 'register for SUBCentral'. Call a local number, punch in file number and birth date, and say what dates and times you are available... Sounds good, so after a few days looking at the papers, I make the call (will it, I wonder, change my life?). After several years of studying, then student teaching and job hunting, substitute teaching seems a fine enough way to see a school..make contacts inside the hallways and perhaps find a full time position. I make the call, login to the phone call system, and wait.
Several days later, the phone rings. I pick up; it is the 'personal' voice of the NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, SUB CENTRAL SYSTEM... It prompts me to enter my file number...which I proceed to do.. twice. At which point, the system says, "GOODBYE" and hangs up on me...
I call the HR division (a number provided on the forms).. and eventually do speak with a person who informs me that, "YES," I must 'be on the system' since it dialed my number, but that also, "you have to be fast" the person on the line tells me ..." or it hangs up"... and with that, she too hangs up on me. Okay, I think, wait and see. wait for tomorrow and see.
It's again another few days before SUBCentral comes looking for me. This time I am ready: with file number on my fingertips, I punch in the number, following the prompts.. and there I am. I have entered SUBCentral !! Thrilled (really!, but in retrospect why ??) I continue and get my very first NYC Substitute Teaching Assignment. An English position (that's good since that is what I am licensed for) at a local school in Brooklyn. I finish dressing, grab my notebook and pencils and head out to my very first day. I am ready, open to adventure and entirely positive about the possibilities. I will be a teacher for a day, I tell myself. Why not? I have always been a teacher (at heart) and everyone unequivocably has told me that I am gifted at teaching, that my regard and love for students and teaching is beyond reproach. How difficult can this be, I wonder quickly, then dismiss as I enter the school entryway for the very first time.
So there I am, last fall, completing my MASTERS in TEACHING at a NY graduate school... and trying to get a full time position in the city's 'urban schools'... trying and trying and trying... and dealing with the NYC Dept of Education ... and filling out applications online, sending out resumes with every possible course completed, internship done... easily more credits in the courses than most I meet... and yet NO JOBS..... and nothing from the school I attend or from the city in the way of actual job help.
Another equally qualified, and even more experienced teacher I know... and I.. eventually shuffle BACK to the DOE main offices with SUBSTITUTE License papers in tow.. and go to some tiny disheveled room on the upper floors. No line, just a few women sitting and chatting and someone eventually nods in our direction.
It takes all of about 30 mins... to show the transcript (from just our Bachelor's program..they say to our Master's transcripts, "we dont need these..." !!), a couple of recommendations saying we are who we say we are, and fingerprinting clearance... a photo for our 'SMARTCARD's .. and we are off . Licenses arrive in our respective mailboxes about two weeks later. A paper that says we have most of the credits 'required' and that in the next 12 months, more 'professional development' is to be had. Again, had they even looked at our graduate records, they would have found more than enough of those....but later on that matter...
Now, with the Substitute License, ID card and file number it becomes possible (so says the letter that accompanies the packet) to 'register for SUBCentral'. Call a local number, punch in file number and birth date, and say what dates and times you are available... Sounds good, so after a few days looking at the papers, I make the call (will it, I wonder, change my life?). After several years of studying, then student teaching and job hunting, substitute teaching seems a fine enough way to see a school..make contacts inside the hallways and perhaps find a full time position. I make the call, login to the phone call system, and wait.
Several days later, the phone rings. I pick up; it is the 'personal' voice of the NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, SUB CENTRAL SYSTEM... It prompts me to enter my file number...which I proceed to do.. twice. At which point, the system says, "GOODBYE" and hangs up on me...
I call the HR division (a number provided on the forms).. and eventually do speak with a person who informs me that, "YES," I must 'be on the system' since it dialed my number, but that also, "you have to be fast" the person on the line tells me ..." or it hangs up"... and with that, she too hangs up on me. Okay, I think, wait and see. wait for tomorrow and see.
It's again another few days before SUBCentral comes looking for me. This time I am ready: with file number on my fingertips, I punch in the number, following the prompts.. and there I am. I have entered SUBCentral !! Thrilled (really!, but in retrospect why ??) I continue and get my very first NYC Substitute Teaching Assignment. An English position (that's good since that is what I am licensed for) at a local school in Brooklyn. I finish dressing, grab my notebook and pencils and head out to my very first day. I am ready, open to adventure and entirely positive about the possibilities. I will be a teacher for a day, I tell myself. Why not? I have always been a teacher (at heart) and everyone unequivocably has told me that I am gifted at teaching, that my regard and love for students and teaching is beyond reproach. How difficult can this be, I wonder quickly, then dismiss as I enter the school entryway for the very first time.
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