My wife is beginning to think I am more into Ruben Brosbe instead of her. The problem is, how did she find out?
I think Ruben is loving the attention he has been getting the past week. In fact basking in it. I don't think he has gotten this much attention since his senior year in high school when the freshman gave him wedgies, and like George McFly, they taped a big "kick me" sign taped to his back.
Yes, I am guilty of giving him the attention he so desperately craves, but why not out him? He backs it just so gosh darn easy.
Yesterday, in his blog he lamented about "What If I Get It Wrong?" Yeah, what if?
Ruben blabbered; My students were taking their midline math assessments when I noticed that The Scowler, a struggling special needs student of mine, had answers remarkably similar to his neighbor.
Special needs? In what way? Does the Scowler have an IEP? If not, then why are you calling him "special needs?" This seems rather condescending and insulting to the young man. In fact I wish I had a dime for every time I have read about the deformers calling out teachers for how we talk about children. What would your buddies at E4E and MichelleRheefirst.org say about this?
Now if the Scowler does have an IEP, why is he in your class during an exam and not getting testing accommodations? Shouldn't you be on top of that?
I've been known to lose my temper over copying,
Lose your temper? How so. Do describe. Yelling? Screaming? Perhaps Ruben, you should familiarize yourself with Chancellor's Regulation A-421, verbal abuse. This can be quite serious and the crack team here at SBSB neither condones nor encourages verbal abuse of students. You might just be in need of some type of anger management program.
I knelt down, and in a whisper I asked, "Are those your answers, or are those your neighbor's?" "Oh!" He looked surprised. In his disarmingly sweet way, he replied, "Their his." "Well, I need to see your answers, so I know what you need help with."
So the Scowler has cheated. Nowhere has the crack team read that the NYC DOE Discipline Code was enacted. It seems the Scowler violated,
A20 Engaging in scholastic dishonesty whichincludes but is not limited to:Was the assistant principal notified? Was an incident report filed? Was there any followup? You, Ruben are responsible for the security of the tests whilst in your room. You have an ethical, moral, and professional duty to report this. As far as the crack team has ascertained you have yet to. You now are just as culpable as the Scowler.
a. Cheating (e.g., copying from another’s test paper; using material during a test which is not authorized by the person giving the test; collaborating with another student during the test without authorization; knowingly using, buying, selling, stealing, transporting, or soliciting, in whole or part, the contents of an unadministered test; substituting for another student or permitting another student to substitute for one’s self to take a test; bribing another person to obtain a test that is to be administered; or securing copies of the test or answers to the test in advance of the test)
But Ruben with what yo have written next, in some Freudian way, you are seeing the wrongs perpetuated on the students by your little friends at E4E and the big shots in the deform movement.
"But, what if I get it wrong?"
It was one of those so simple it's heartbreaking type questions that come so naturally to nine-year-olds. His voice was overwhelming with self-doubt and anxiety. But while my first impulse was sadness, I also admired The Scowler's straightforwardness.
Yes, Ruben. You are getting it. Yet you are afraid to grasp it, afraid to believe it, but you get it. This kid is being tested to death. He is representative of what all children at the age of 9 are being forced to do. This is a 9 year old boy!!! Look at the pressures being exerted on this this boy, this child. And who is doing it? The people you admire. The people you look up to. The people that for some reason you want to emulate. Is this the social justice you are seeking in what is being done to this boy and all children?
Later, I looked over his midline. Half the answers were blank, and my first reaction was utter frustration. But, I reminded myself, this was a true representation of what he understood. It wasn't pretty, but it was honest, and that was encouraging.
See what I wrote above. But I can get cynical as well. Can it just be that you are just not an effective teacher? If he doesn't understand what is on the test then by your rational, your theories, you are ineffective. Is that fair to you. No it is not. You don't know what goes through a child's mind when it comes to these high stakes tests and you have no idea how they will react to testing. It might be different one day from the other. There is nothing, nada you can do about it.
Come on leave the dark side. Come to the side of goodness and niceness. We are a heck of a lot more fun and throw better parties than E4E can ever.
3 comments:
My attention was brought to your blog through a friend of mine. Not for your cleverness, insight or thought provoking opinions, (of which I have seen no evidence of their existence) but for your extremely shocking maliciousness.
I, like your wife, am concerned with the nature of your obsession with Mr. Brosbe. The problem is not that you disagree with him. I'm still not sure whether or not I agree with E4E's principles. However your "arguments," which are nothing more than inappropriate jokes and slanderous cyber-bullying, only strengthen E4E's argument that "last in, first out" should go.
Your inability to form a strong argument without involving personal slander reveals that you are a horrible role model, insensitive to the present climate in which our children are raised. Clearly you are out of touch with how the issue of cyber-bullying has been affecting our youth. Your reactions are oblivious to the alarm raised a few months ago about the nature of attack our children face in school. The fact that you engage in the very behavior that parents, community leaders (and I would have thought teachers) are urging youth to stop suggests that at the least, you are not attentive or responsive to aggressive, mean and bullying behavior you would observe in your classroom. What's even more troublesome is that your reactions also suggest that critical thinking is not your strong point, and you probably model this behavior to your students instead of using logic, reason, and basic problem solving skills that every student should be learning in the classroom. Your actions provoked me to take further action in changing how our teachers are evaluated and tenure is granted. E4E should thank you for garnering them one more potential supporter.
But maybe I've been mislead, and your blog is intended to be more "humorous." In that case, let me quote you quoting Mr. Spock "One usually makes jokes about one's anxieties and insecurities." What does that say about you?
Explain which jokes are inappropriate. But I must doubt your knowledge in your term slanderous. I am putting the onus on you to show where young Ruben has been slandered or libeled.
As for as quoting Mr Spock, I suggest you rent out a DVD of Wrath of Khan. In it Mr Spock twice says, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."
Do we see that quote put into practice by Mayor Bloomberg? Did Joel Klein adhere to those words? Does Cathie Black?
I suggest you go back to the beginning of this blog and read it all and then come to a clear and concise opinion.
Aw C'mon Mrs. M... Bronx Teacher is the Ricky Gervais of satirical teacher blogs. If you want serious and nuanced discourse, go read Anthony Cody at EdWeek or Larry Ferlazzo on edublogs.
But if you want to laugh and cringe and feel like you're not alone in the current dystopian politics of education, read Bronx Teacher (and Accountable Talk and The Teaching Whore, and The Bad Teacher, etc. etc... theirs is some of the FUNNIEST writing, and they tell it like it is).
Plus, I don't think it's a fair comparison between the cyber-bullying amongst kids and what BT does here. He is aiming criticism toward adults who publicly state their political positions, and who are imposing those positions with a vast arsenal of money. In so doing, they invite criticism (and low-brow satire). We who disagree are entitled to do so, whomever we are, from Diane Ravitch to Bronx Teacher.
And if we can't call all the recent teacher-bashing itself "bullying", than what else can we call it?
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