Every morning as an ATR is an adventure. You walk in expecting the unexpected and sadly incompetent stupidity.Last Tuesday, I became the gym teacher. I was handed the schedule when I waked into the office. Not bad, I thought to myself. I like covering Gym. It keeps me active.
Now the gym in the school I am currently assigned to is a classroom. That is why when the weather is decent the current Gym teacher brings the students out to the yard. The little ones you can get away with a classroom, but the big kids...not so much.
Being the principal and the competent AP were not in the building that day I went to the incompetent, out of touch, useless other AP to confirm that I can take the classes outside to the yard (I had previously covered gym and have done it).
Our conversation went like this:
AP: Mr Zucker, you are a substitute.
Me: No, I am an ATR.
AP: But I'm not sure of the safety of the students.
Me: I have been teaching for nearly 25 years.
AP: But this is Gym, you might....
Me: I have taught Gym in the past, once for almost an entire school year. I also was athletics director at a summer camp, taught Gym in D 75 for summer school, and coached my son's Little League team for 4 years.
AP: Well...let's see how today goes in the classroom and if it goes well, maybe next time.
Me: But there is no equipment in the classroom, at least the older kids can bring their basketballs with them.
AP: You can take some equipment from over there (points to the recess equipment closet).
Almost everything in the recess closet was projectile based and/or hard. I took four cones with me.
In the classroom all I had access to were about a half dozen hoola hoops and two foam balls.
I improvised during the day.
Playing steal the bacon with 4th graders was fun. The 5th graders were too big, and I saw what a safety issue I was put in the middle of.
The little ones it was fine. We did relay races, stretching, and some laps around the room.
But why is being outside cause the AP to me concerned for the safety of the students, when there is plenty of room to run free and to spread out. But being in a small enclosed space all is peaches and cream?
This idiocy just can't be made up.
4 comments:
I am a 16 year PE teacher in NYC. I have the opposite problem. I HATE brining kids outside. The kids hate the cold, the asphalt is rough and bumpy, plus I gotta drag all my equipment outside. I have been told to bring the kids outside as long as it is 33 DEGREES OR WARMER. You can't make this stuff up.
My last full year as an ATR I taught high school Phys Ed for a year. My best year as an ATR. Every morning I did 30 minutes of aerobics with the 9th grade girls immediately followed by 30 minutes of weight lifting with the boys - in the afternoons it was A two mile run followed by soccer and basketball with 6th-8th. I got in the best shape of my life and had a lot of fun. It sure beats the classroom by about 10,000 miles. The only place I ever missed as an ATR.
They then sent me to the worst school I was ever in - Eagle Academy for Young Men - a disgusting middle and high school in a beautiful state of the art building off Tremont Ave with the boys wearing uniforms. Uniforms look nice but mean nothing in this joint. What a sham and a shame! The place should be closed down. The UFT’s LeRoy Barr is always touting it. How much does he get paid by the group that sponsors it? Do they know how their money is burned? That fucking asshole Mike Shill would do nothing to help me get out of there. Avoid that place like the plague - poor admin, great secretaries and abused staff - absolutely totally out of control kids, especially if you are a Sub=ATR. All boys dry humping each other all day. Two hour classes with middle schoolers and no lesson plans. Two groups would stand on opposite sides of the room and throw heavy text books and anything else at each other for hours. Deans would come and the moment they left the same thing all over. You can put up with that place for a week or maybe a month (with a lot of Xanax). A year is impossible. Teachers were quitting in the middle of the day and going out in ambulances with nervous breakdowns. If you’re an ATR and end up there just put in your retirement papers in.
Yes, that Turkey Academy for Young Thugs is a disgrace. I had the misfortune to be there also. The place is impossible to keep staffed. The group that sponsors the place (100 Black Men) go to Massachusetts, and farther, to private schools to recruit totally misled idealistic Black male teachers to join the staff. They sell their houses, move here with their families and quit before Christmas. Those were the smart ones. Most of the staff left were on the verge of full blown psychosis. The folks there do their best and are great people; but the kids are unreal. I also begged Sill to help me get out of there to no avail. To call Sill a piece of shit would be an insult to shit everywhere. Fuck the UFT.
It's Physical Education, not gym.
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