NYC Educator: No NY Teacher Should Have More than Two Co-teachers

NYC Educator: No NY Teacher Should Have More than Two Co-teachers

No NY Teacher Should Have More than Two Co-teachers

It's tough keeping up with the geniuses in Albany. They have so many ideas, and they are so smart that each one must be followed to the letter. They are not to be criticized because they are the Regents, the closest thing NY State has to popes, or saints, or statues so sacred birds won't poop on them.

In their infinite wisdom, they rewrote CR Part 154 so that students who don't know English would get less English instruction. Though they gave them no more time, they decreed that if some ESL teacher sat his or her posterior in a subject class full of ELLs, the students would magically learn not only the subject, but also all the English and culture associated with it. If it takes 45 minutes for a native English speaker to learn about chapter one of To Kill a Mockinbird, an ELL can learn not only that, but also all the vocabulary, idioms, background info, and everything else a native American English speaker can learn.

How does that happen? No one knows, but since the Regents say so, that should be good enough for anyone. So people scream at me that I'm not kind enough to the geniuses in Albany, that they are experts, and that they know.

Here's the thing, though. On this astral plane, there are consequences. Yesterday I spoke to a high school teacher who had five co-teachers. I'm acquainted with an elementary teacher who has nine. Now how do you co-plan with five teachers? How do you co-plan with nine teachers. The short answer is you don't. You walk in those classrooms and hope for the best. You can't possibly anticipate what the teachers will do.

Even if you could, you're a third wheel. Teachers may think you don't belong in the classroom. After all, they're there each and every day and CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: No NY Teacher Should Have More than Two Co-teachers