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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Ed Notes Online: Who Do You Trust, Your Principal or Your 3rd Graders?

Ed Notes Online: Who Do You Trust, Your Principal or Your 3rd Graders?:

Who Do You Trust, Your Principal or Your 3rd Graders?

In the midst of shame: The single best evaluation I ever received and more value from a child than I ever got from a supervisor.
My vote goes to the 3rd graders -- hands down. I know we are all having some fun at this provision in the John King dictum and given the understanding that King's motives are designed to degrade the teacher, I would trust the views of kids about me as a teacher even though it can be oh so easy to manipulate them, which was not beneath me. Don't all teachers do some manipulation? 

Teachers should be willing to learn from their kids. I always did listen to my kids  --- I tried very hard to have a comfortable environment in my class -- when you are in a self-contained classroom for 5 hours a day you better have. But I also know I had some arrogance as a teacher and maybe knowing they were evaluating me might have made me a tad more sensitive.

I was also arrogant enough to think that if a teacher did not have the support of their kids they must have lacked 

Dangerous Liasons: TFA Recruiting for CECs in NYC

Some CEC's have resisted the ed deform agenda and with calls for some checks and balances on mayoral control by giving more power to CECs the vulture groups are looking at taking control of these last vestiges of official resistance -- and expect the Tweedies to assist them in anyway possible.

This just in from Leonie Haimson (see our post on the de-zoning issue -- Tweed Dezoning Push: The Ed Deform War on the Neighborhood School While UFT Silent.


In February, TFA was recruiting for CEC candidates below; perhaps they are watching the dezoning fight or anticipating a more powerful CEC in the future.