Sunday, May 26, 2013

Weingarten And Her Years In The Teaching Trenches

Some commenters in this thread discuss whether Randi Weingarten should actually be called an "educator".

Norm Scott gives the history:

 Once the decision was made to make Randi Sandy Feldman's successor (sometime around 1990 - when Shanker was still alive and no doubt helped make that decision) Randi needed to get some teaching creds (and courses -- find someone who took ed classes with her and you'll find Jimmy Hoffa) so she was handed a position as a teacher at Clara Barton HS -- near Bklyn Bot Gardens so she could be near her home in Park Slope. Casey was the chapter leader there to protect her. She technically taught there for 6 years but only 6 months full-time. She coached the debating team for comp time and reports were that she taught 2 periods a day. But she was also negotiating the 1995 contract (which we turned down the first time - a major defeat for her) while supposedly teaching. The Village Voice did an expose on her. Question that came up since she never got a regular appointment -- did she sit for the exams? -- was whether she was on leave all those years she was president and the UFT was reimbursing her salary so she could get pension credit? All was muddled. When she became pres she took Leo with her.

Another commenter writes:

Randi was in the trenches for one period a day with the best students; I think AP students at Bard HS Early College. This is a school where the principal and the majority of the teachers have a PhD and the students are highly motivated. Leo Casey was a teacher there fore many, many years.

My understanding was that she taught that one class a day, not a large class, for 6 years. Leo Casey was her mentor, showing her how to write lessons, the technique of presenting the lessons, and asking questions that assesses the students' understanding of the lesson.

How can she call herself a "teacher in the trenches" when teaching one class a day does not make you an experienced teacher? What about those teachers who teach 5 periods a day, for 180 instructional days a year, for over 20 years? Those are teachers in the trenches! She was a politician and union hack in the making using the classroom and those students as stepping stones. Wait a minute. This sounds exactly what TFA does to our students.

It is time for someone to FOIL her year-end evaluation rating sheet and find out the amount of time she spent in the classroom.

When Randi talks about spending seven years in the trenches as a teacher, she's talking about a part-time gig that was created specifically so she could call herself an "educator" at a school that was atypical of most schools in NYC.

Quite frankly, Weingarten is an "educator" the way Dennis Walcott is an "educator."

Of course, Michael Mulgrew really was an "educator" and he's been selling us down the river too, so perhaps it's a moot point whether Randi really should be considered a teacher or not.

But it does stick in some teachers' craws the way she throws that so-called teaching trench experience of hers around - experience that is nothing like the experiences of real working teachers in NYC public schools.

8 comments:

  1. I'm still waiting for Mr. Mulgrew's statement on how his sister did $40,000,000.00 in business the last three years as a DOE vendor....

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  2. TeachmyclassMrMayor(andyoutooMrMulgrew)May 26, 2013 at 7:04 PM

    No one is really shocked by any of this incestuous behavior are they? Way back when, when I first started in the NYC schools system, the school I was working in was getting a visit from Sandra Feldman. The chapter leader at the time, when I told her I had questions for Ms. Feldman, told me I was not allowed to ask her any questions. So very early in my career I learned that this union we were in, was no more a union than Cuba had elections in the last 40+ years.

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  3. Whatever the facts regarding Weingarten's teaching record, I'm almost certain she didn't not teach at Bard: the school didn't exist yet.

    I'd always heard it was Clara Barton where she ostensibly taught.

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  4. I noticed that...May 26, 2013 at 9:50 PM

    I want to thank Norm for the clarification of Randi's "teaching" experience.

    I was informed that it was Bard because Leo taught there for many years before leaving to the Shanker Institute.

    No matter where Randi was assigned this question begs an answer: Should she be called an "educator"?

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  5. Of course Randi can solve all of this herself by releasing her teaching records and credentials.

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  6. Look at the 4 UFT Presidents since Shanker got elected around 1966 or 6. He taught JHS for a number of years -- but really not all that many -- some as a sub - maybe 4 or 5 before being hired by the AFT as an organizer in NYC around 1958 -- by the way, a key move in getting the UFT started.
    Shanker was an intellectual and in many ways looked down on teaching -- he was on the way to a PhD but never finished.

    Then there is Sandy Feldman - a K or grade 1 teacher for a very short time before being hired full-time by the UFT. Maybe a year I hear. Then there is Randi -- 6 months. And now Mulgrew whose exact teaching career I have no details about but he seems on the surface to be somewhat real -- like he taught and became chapter leader and rose up -- I assume but who knows if he wasn't "recruited?" Anyway, in some ways he may be the first UFT President to bring classroom chops to the job.
    My point is that on the whole the people running the UFT have not really had deep classroom roots though Mulgrew at least does not seem like bull when he talk classroom (and give Randi credit for choosing a front person, and passing over a lot of other people who were out of the classroom for a long time, who can't be attacked like she was.)

    Note the Chicago CORE crew who 3 years ago walked out of the classroom and into running the union. That sense of teaching informs so much of whatever Karen Lewis says. We need that here.

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  7. I noticed that...May 28, 2013 at 4:25 PM

    That's why it's so important to pick Norm's brain.

    He has a great deal of historical information about the UFT and the chosen people who will lead? the union.

    Thanks Norm.

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