Thursday, March 25, 2010

The latest in the saga

Do readers of this blog feel like they're tuning in to an educational soap opera?

Anyway, I met with Julio's mother this morning. She asked if she could come into the classroom a few times a month to sit with him, to see if that would help him focus. I said I would have to run it by my assistant principal. She promptly nixed the idea, saying it would be "disruptive to the other students" (evidently she's in denial about how disruptive Julio is all on his own...!). I mean, I get that, but as diplomatically as I could I said, "I think Julio's mom is just wondering, now that he's on this waiting list for placement, what services we can provide him here and now. Because he's not getting any services right now."

My AP agreed with me that Julio is indeed getting no services, and then beat the same hasty retreat that she does whenever I start asking those kinds of pesky questions.

Meanwhile, one student went home with an asthma attack, another went home with an allergy attack, the nurse called me 17,000 times today, and then we were all called into an "emergency UFT meeting" after school during which we learned that evidently 8,500 of us are about to be fired.

Good times!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was at the DA and it's 8,500 teachers may be laid-off.

The mayor and chancellor would like to fire teachers, but they can't. Our present contact is in place as per Taylor Law. The only way the teachers can be fired is if the union agrees to these conditions - I DOUBT IT VERY MUCH SO! Mulgrew will never agree to something that egregious and hurtful to the members.

Ann T. said...

Dear Miss Brave,
I knew it. That AP is a freakin' coward.
Ann T.

Anonymous said...

It sounds like you are making progress with Julio's mother. It's dawning on her that something is going on during the day with her son that she needs to see and deal with. Whether or not your AP will let her visit, I think if you continue to provide the mom with lots of information about Julio's classroom experiences, you will help her develop into the advocate she needs to be going forward.

Tom Joad said...

Miss Blogger,

If the union desires to stop layoffs, they're going to have to mobilize their membership! Don't wait for the leadership to do it, start a committee in your school asap! And reach out to the community (in your neighborhood and in the union)!

james boutin said...

Julio sounds like the kind of kid that we're simply not willing to invest in as a society. We can't afford to provide them with the support they need so we create a lot of fancy talking points about how what we are doing is working. And it all comes down to how much you, as the teacher, are willing to sacrifice for him.

Keep up the good work on your part.

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