tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719550.post4007334145581062279..comments2023-11-13T04:55:40.769-05:00Comments on Tuttle SVC: More Like ThisTom Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08577165613934129833noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719550.post-25600218936062922612011-02-04T21:25:16.907-05:002011-02-04T21:25:16.907-05:00Well the local paper has given me this golden oppo...Well the local paper has given me this golden opportunity to share my most challenging teaching assignment, by doing a front page story on Success Academy, where I taught for three years.<br />http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/31/3364310/success-academy-helps-the-toughest.html <br />The nice part is I don't have to write a thing.Leroy's Momhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13839945290918777434noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719550.post-49306228292888660582011-01-27T22:55:58.356-05:002011-01-27T22:55:58.356-05:00There are lots of subtle distinctions which will v...There are lots of subtle distinctions which will vary in different contexts. What I'm referring to here specifically is posts about the objective difficulties of teaching that people outside teaching wouldn't necessarily understand otherwise. Like going to the bathroom. <br /><br />And of course, "Today I waited two hours to pee... again." Isn't a gripping tweet, let alone a blog post.<br /><br />Maybe this is the kind of thing that needs to be deployed in the comments of other people's blogs and newspaper cess pits more than in one's own.<br /><br />Also, when I worked in a rural district in Connecticut, the annual budget referendum required extensive Kabuki to plead poverty, so I could almost imagine administration wanting teachers to blog about not having paper, etc. in that town!Tom Hoffmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08577165613934129833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719550.post-25790367483697134922011-01-27T20:01:45.054-05:002011-01-27T20:01:45.054-05:00There are a number of forces that combine to build...There are a number of forces that combine to build a wall of silence around conditions at schools.<br />That post was really excellent and hit at the heart of the everyday indignities that folks going to and working in high poverty urban schools face. But admitting to the legal grey areas we often enter in the course of our jobs goes against the advice of unions. Mine recently presented a "horror show" of stories about Facebook, and said we should not write about matters "related to our job or site on social networks". <br />After seeing that, I had a backstage discussion with some edubloggers in high poverty schools like myself. Basically, most have of us have either explicitly or implicitly made a deal with our district/principal/boss to focus most of our critique on "larger issues." So we write about Michelle Rhee, instead of our own superintendent or administrator to avoid charges of "insubordination". We write about NCLB, instead of about the lousy lunches at our schools. Most of us skirt at the edges of confronting a system that is absurd and sometime cruel. It's the path of least resistance. Our unions may be giving us great "legal" advice in telling us to be quiet, but it's LOUSY political advice because the result is there are few authentic voices about the conditions we work under that are heard by the general public, and that is what is killing teachers’ unions in this argument.Leroy's Momhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13839945290918777434noreply@blogger.com