Your Mama's Mad Tedious: Diary of a Bronx Teacher

I don't have a car but ...

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:10:00 +0000

... I have a blog! Cool bumperstickers: Really, honk! As in leave a comment. (Thought I'd re-post this to let you guys know I am still out here and teaching.)

The Equity Project Charter School, Front Page of New York Times Again!

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:20:00 +0000

The New York Times has another front page feature on TEP Charter School! TEP's teaching "dream team" has been chosen. The article is currently the NY Times' #1 most emailed story and the #10 most blogged about story.

The article also mentions TEP's fundraising efforts for our permanent school building in Washington Heights, NYC. I am on TEP's Capital Campaign Advisory Board. Please join TEP's Facebook Causes page or visit my TEP drive on Changing the Present.

TEP is an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit. TEP does NOT fundraise to support its investment in teacher salaries or administrative costs. The ONLY area for which TEP fundraises is for its school facility, since NY State public charter schools must primarily pay for their own facilities. TEP is a public charter school and does not charge student tuition or fees.

The List

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:56:00 +0000

Things I never experienced before becoming a preschool teacher in New York City: strep throat, conjunctivitis, bronchitis, scabies, sinus infections, colds lasting more than a week, head lice as an adult, styes, fun and new stomach problems! (List in progress.)

Noooooo, I'm not bitter that I spent my winter break sick.

Happy New Year!

Becoming an Autism Educator

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 20:16:00 +0000

Originally published in the New York Times Lesson Plans blog (plus an excerpt in the Sunday NY Times!).

For the first time in my six-year teaching career, I am not completely freaked out by going back to school. I have, however, more than paid my dues to reach this stage of teacher emotional stability. In my first year of teaching, I freaked out not only in September, but pretty much every day (and well into every night) of the school year. At the time, I taught teenagers with learning disabilities in the South Bronx, including many emotionally disturbed students. I somehow managed to stick it out, and the next year, I met a Bronx teenager who would change my life and set me on my current career path.

Jeremy has Asperger’s syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism. As guilty as I feel admitting this as a teacher, there’s no denying that Jeremy was my favorite student. He may always be. While other teachers seemed exasperated by Jeremy’s autistic quirks, I got along with him easily. We hung out during lunch. He fixed the classroom computers and shared his unique life insights. He also easily passed a New York State Science Regents exam on his first try, which quickly shifted the school administration’s attitude from, “We have to get rid of this kid,” to, “We need this kid for our numbers.” Sadly, Jeremy didn’t exactly receive a stellar public education in the Bronx. I often wondered how much further he could have gone had he received stronger educational support from an early age.

Jeremy taught me that working with students with autism was what I wanted to do with my life. I began training with the Center for Autism and Related Disorders, where I learned behavioral techniques for supporting children with autism in the classroom. Simply by circumstance, not choice, I began working with younger kids. This was because nearly all New York City and State funding for autism education is geared toward early intervention and preschool services. When children with autism reach kindergarten, they often lose their services. So it’s actually quite difficult to make a living as an autism educator to older kids in New York. There’s simply no money there. I miss teenagers like Jeremy, but, as it turns out, teaching the little ones is my forte. This is mostly because I’m a 34-year-old with a four-year-old sense of humor.

I now provide preschool and home-based services to children with autism spectrum disorders, mostly in Manhattan. I also occasionally work with children with other special needs. Last school year, I worked closely with a boy recovering from leukemia. He is now in full remission and about to begin life as a mainstreamed kindergartner! I have become a huge proponent of mainstreaming at an early age, and I love working with special needs students in mainstream pre-school classrooms. My goal is to help them prepare for fully mainstreamed kindergarten and elementary school educations. They, in turn, help me stay grounded.

In the ideal scenario, a few months into the school year, if I do my job well, an outsider will walk into the pre-school classroom and have little idea which teacher is the special needs teacher and which kid is the special needs student. My first few months with a student can be challenging, but with the right approach, the next six months of the school year are relatively smooth. Being a special education itinerant teacher (SEIT) requires a balancing act of supporting, but not stifling, my students. I often interact with the other kids in the classroom, and they tend to see me as one of their teachers, too. Most of them don’t really know (or care) that I’m officially there for one student. At the pre-school age, there is little stigma in receiving special needs services. The kids have not yet developed that sort of prejudice. If there is any stigma, it comes from the adults.

Preschool started this week. I had a wonderful summer of teaching part-time and hanging out with kids on city playgrounds. There are moments when I can’t believe I get paid to do this (tempered, of course, by moments when I don’t get paid nearly enough to do this.) This summer, there were more of the former. I worked with two students at their summer camps, and I worked weekends with one student at his family’s country home. Summer seemed to have a superhero theme. Two girls showed up to summer camp dressed as Spider-Man and Batman for no apparent reason (other than the obvious cool factor). I played superheroes on the playground and blasted off with a (highly imaginative) student from the tip of the Egyptian pyramids into outer space. (Yes, my job is cooler than yours.) I saw preschoolers develop seemingly random, yet fervent obsessions with the state of Wyoming and chicken pot pie.

I also experienced several language breakthroughs with a student, one of which came in the form of a clear request: “I want Sesame Street numbers!” So we watched Count von Count, who I quickly realized, like Jeremy, has a clear case of Asperger’s Syndrome. Numbers, numbers, numbers! Mwahaha! I then realized I was diagnosing a Sesame Street character with special needs and that I needed a break from kids before September. This school year, I am working with students at two Manhattan preschools and providing home-based, early intervention autism services to several two-year-olds. There is nothing quite like welcoming nervous and excited preschoolers to their first week. The two boys I will work with at school this year are old pros, having attended preschool before. But things are about to get more serious for them. It’s time to start learning to read, write, and share blocks without fighting.

It sometimes astonishes me that I found my perfect career. I never meant to be a teacher. I meant to be a serious journalist. But when my grad school classmates went off to write for esteemed media outlets, I went off to teach special needs kids. It made no sense. It was the best decision I ever made.

Palin and Special Education: A Closer Look

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:24:00 +0000

Jennifer Laviano is a special needs attorney in Sherman, CT. Her guest opinion piece appears here with her permission. - Miss Dennis

Dear Clients, Friends, and Colleagues,

As we near the Presidential election in just two weeks, I have been asked by many of you to comment on my thoughts on Gov. Palin and what she can and will do for special education students. As an attorney whose practice focuses exclusively on the representation of children with disabilities, I always investigate candidates' positions and records on this very critical moral and financial issue. One of my clients recently suggested that I share with others what I have learned, and so here it is.

When Gov. Palin first came to my attention, I was, as I am sure all of you who care about this issue, intrigued to have someone on the national platform who talks about children with special needs. Since hearing her say this repeatedly in speeches, I have been waiting, and waiting, to hear some specifics on special education reform. Most of all, I want to know what her stance is on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the federal statute that governs special education. The IDEA is up for reauthorization by Congress in 2010, and it is crucial that it reflect the policies and funding structure necessary to protect and appropriately educate our children with disabilities. I needed to know what Gov. Palin thinks about the future of special education legislation in this country.

I know where the other three on the tickets stand. Senators Obama and Biden have issued position statements on the IDEA to various parent groups, strongly supporting full funding for the IDEA and the rights of children with disabilities and their parents. The Obama-Biden website has a direct link to the ticket's position on disabilities. Senator McCain's website does not have such a link and neither he nor Palin have provided those positions on the IDEA to parent advocacy groups. Senator McCain does have a supportive position on the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) which has been published. I was, however, extremely disappointed in his discussion on the Senate floor regarding the Reauthorization of the IDEA 2004, in which he expressed his concerns that parents of children with disabilities who have to sue to secure appropriate services for their children under the Statute and win against districts shouldn't have their attorneys' fees covered. This is not just a matter of self-interest for me; it is the difference between families, especially poor families, being able to vindicate their civil rights or not. But I knew those things, I did not know where Palin stood, and I wanted to find out.

Having waited for some specifics from her on just how she is going to be an advocate for children with special needs in the White House, I finally got close. In her recent interview with Greta Van Susteren on Fox News, she was asked what her position is. While never mentioning the IDEA at all or what needs to be changed, kept, or fixed in it, she stated that the issue that needs to be addressed is "equal access" for children with special needs.

EQUAL ACCESS? Seriously? We HAVE equal access - that is what the original version of the Statute fought for in the early 70's, when children with disabilities were literally prohibited from attending our public schools. Equal access is so far in the minority of what needs to be addressed in special education I hardly know where to begin. Our problems are not that children with disabilities aren't allowed into the buildings; our problem is what happens when they get there! What about a Free and Appropriate Public Education? What about "meaningful educational benefit?" What about giving children with special needs the tools to thrive and prosper and be fully independent adults, which is what the IDEA now stands for? We are decades from equal access being the key question, and apparently Gov. Palin is not aware of that fact.

Now, you might say, "Well, Jen, I am a parent of a child with special needs and I didn't know that either." Okay, my response: "Are you running for Vice President of the United States? Are you telling the nation that you would see yourself as the voice for those children within the federal government? If you were, do you think you might have looked into it a little bit?"

It is not terribly surprising to me that Gov. Palin's views on this are so far outdated. I have traveled to Alaska to give a speech to parents and professionals on the subject of the rights of children with special needs, in particular children with autism spectrum disorders. I was stunned by how far behind the State was from the vast majority of the rest of the country on the education of children with disabilities. Perhaps, for Alaskans, "equal access" IS the problem, but it is certainly not the case in Connecticut or most of the rest of the country. I am in regular contact with a colleague of mine who is a parents' attorney in Alaska, who has had to fight tooth and nail for children with special needs in Alaska simply to secure them the most basic of services that we take for granted here. I for one do not want the rest of the country to use Alaska's system of educating our most vulnerable children as a paradigm.

Okay, yes, you all know I'm a liberal ... but that's one of the reasons that I chose to get into the field of representing children with special needs, because I believe in my heart that this last bastion of civil rights is absolutely critical to fight. We need major fixes in our special education system, and if you think that who is in the White House does not effect you on this issue, you couldn't be more wrong. IT MATTERS. It matters in terms of funding and at least as, if not more, importantly, enforcement. Our IDEA enforcement, even in States like CT where we have zealous advocacy, is woefully inadequate. School districts routinely violate the procedural and substantive rights of children and parents and only in a small fraction of cases are they taken to task for it. It also matters because the next President will have at least a few Supreme Court appointments to make. We have had more decisions from the United States Supreme Court in the area of special education law in the last few years than we had for decades. Those decisions have tremendous impact on whether parents have the right to have proper evaluations done for their children, how and when parents can exercise their rights under the IDEA, who has the burden of proof in Due Process Hearings, and a myriad of other issues which directly impact our children with special needs.

Whether we properly educate and embrace our children with disabilities is crucial to the future of this country, as the cost of NOT doing so will be far larger than the cost of doing so ... leaving out the fact that it happens to also be the right thing to do in a great society. This issue should be front and center for any candidate for the White House, and I write to let you know that, at least as far as Gov. Palin is concerned, it has been an opportunity not only missed, but frighteningly misunderstood. It does not bode well for her, for us, or most importantly, for the children we love who need and deserve better in an "advocate in the White House."

I will be casting my vote on November 4th for Obama-Biden, and I hope you will join me. They and their party have been on the side of children with special needs historically, and they will be on their side in the future. As our economy implodes and State and local educational budgets tighten, if we do not turn this around now, I fear that we will, once again, be fighting only for "equal access" for our kids. That is unacceptable to me.

Finally, for any of our more conservative clients who I may have offended, my apologies; I respect your views even if I disagree with them.

Thanks for reading.

Best, Jennifer Laviano
The Law Offices of Jennifer Laviano, LLC
Sherman, CT
Lavlaw3@aol.com

It Bears Repeating

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:57:00 +0000

(Originally posted on the New York Times Lesson Plans blog.)

Two of my preschool students with autism are currently going through stages of repeating their favorite words and phrases over and over again. Both students repeat lines from their favorite children’s videos and books — stories and episodes of “Dora the Explorer,” “Blue’s Clues,” and “Max and Ruby.”

Amanda repeatedly says, “Benny the Bull,” who, as I was slow to realize after hearing his name dozens of times one day, is her favorite “Dora” character. She has also memorized many of Benny the Bull’s lines from the show, and she repeats them at seemingly random moments. David repeats the word “notebook.” At first, I thought he just really liked the word, or that he was proud of himself for learning it. Then, after he began repeating lines from “Blue’s Clues,” I realized “notebook,” came from Joe’s “handy dandy notebook” in the show. And lest this excessive repetition be blamed solely on TV and DVD’s, one of my former students, who rarely watched TV, repeated her favorite scene from the book “Harold and the Purple Crayon” — “moose and porcupine eating pies!”

While the ability to remember and repeat words is an important step in every child’s language development, many children with autism tend to repeat words excessively and in socially inappropriate contexts. A child with autism may repeat the same word or phrase hundreds of times a day (which can drive their parents and teachers a little batty). In the autism education field, repeating lines from movies, TV shows and books is known as scripting, or echolalia. (Some people use the terms scripting and echolalia interchangeably, while others distinguish echolalia as repeating words spoken by live people, not in shows.)

Scripting was famously portrayed in the film “Rain Man,” when Raymond Babbitt, the autistic character played by Dustin Hoffman, memorized and repeated Abbot and Costello’s comedic skit, “Who’s on First.” In the film, Raymond seemed to use scripting to calm himself in stressful social situations. At times, my students appear to script for a similar calming effect; at others, it seems to be meaningless, out-of-control repetition. Despite the many challenges this behavior presents, it is possible for young students with autism to use it in socially appropriate contexts. Encouraging them to do so is one of my goals as a special education teacher.

Many of my students have proven themselves capable of memorizing a word or phrase, associating it with a particular emotion or social situation, and then attempting to use the phrase when they encounter a similar emotional or social situation. One of my favorite examples of this is described in Paula Kluth’s book, “You’re Going to Love This Kid.” Kluth tells the story of a boy who said, “Go to hell, lieutenant,” when he was upset. The boy was scripting from the film “A Few Good Men” and he correctly associated the phrase with anger. In another case, one of my students memorized the phrase, “Hello, everyone. How are you today?” — one of his teachers often said this when she entered the classroom.

One day, when I brought the boy home, he walked into his family’s apartment and said, “Hello, everyone. How are you today?” His parents and I were floored. At the time, this was by far the most socially meaningful language the boy had ever used. While he had learned the phrase through rote memory, he showed progress in social communication — a skill that children with autism often lack — by correctly associating the phrase with entering a room and greeting people.

One thing I cannot do as a teacher is miraculously change the way my students’ brains develop or the way they process language. There is clearly something in the brain development and language processing of children with autism that differs from their typically developing peers. Genetic researchers, such as the scientists with the Autism Genome Project, are currently trying to pinpoint the root causes of the disorder.

We don’t yet have all the scientific answers to what causes autism, and it remains to be seen whether a cure will be developed, or whether a “cure” is something that would be welcomed by those affected by autism. Many parents have told me they would welcome a cure, while many higher-functioning autistic adults are offended by the notion of needing to be cured. In the meantime, there are language development techniques that teachers and parents can use to help children with autism begin to socially connect with their peers and families.

One of the programs I learned while training and working with the Center for Autism and Related Disorders is a social questions activity. Using the basic principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), I am able to teach my students to answer questions ranging in difficulty from, “How old are you?” to “What was your favorite part of the book?” While my students typically learn to answer these questions in a rote manner by memorizing the questions and answers, the next step is to take what they have learned through memorization and use it in socially meaningful situations at school.

David, the boy who repeats lines from “Blue’s Clues,” was able to quickly learn the answers to many socially relevant questions. During snack time at preschool last week, I asked him, “What’s your mommy’s name?” We had worked on this question, so he quickly answered correctly. Then I asked one of his classmates at the snack table what her mommy’s name was, and soon all of the children at the table were telling their friends their mommy’s names. We then did the same activity with daddy’s names and favorite foods. (Of course, teachers should be sensitive to kids who may not have both parents.)

These are the kinds of basic, pre-school level conversations that come naturally to most kids. But David needs to be taught to participate in such conversations in a step-by-step manner. That’s where breaking things down through ABA becomes helpful. While I am not a strict ABA practitioner in the classroom, I do find it helpful to use the basic principles of breaking larger tasks into smaller steps and quickly reinforcing my students for achieving each step. Within ABA, there is a more recently developed model that I use called the Verbal Behavior Approach. This model is especially useful for language development activities.

While I can’t get inside David’s brain to know for sure what he’s thinking, something does seem to click for him when he participates in these kinds of peer conversations at school, and he seems to enjoy them. Being able to use his memorized language with his peers, and hearing that they have different answers to the same questions, does appear to be helping him connect with them socially. Throughout the pre-school year, our social question activities will become more complex and, step-by-step, we will build up to asking questions and initiating peer conversations. The ultimate goal is for David to begin talking with his peers more spontaneously. Spontaneity in language is difficult to teach, but I aim to give David more opportunities to reach this stage by pushing him beyond his scripted comfort zone.

Language issues like this, which can be so exasperating for parents and teachers, do not disappear overnight, but I find it helpful as a teacher to keep in mind that the same strong memorization skills my students use while scripting can be shaped into socially meaningful language.

3rd NY Times Piece Now Up

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:04:00 +0000

My third New York Times blog piece is now up. It's about the new school in Washington Heights, NYC, that I mentioned below. As always, feel free to leave a comment on the Times blog, whether you agree with the school's model or not!

New School in NYC, Washington Heights

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:57:00 +0000

I am on the fundraising advisory board for a wonderful new middle school that will open in Washington Heights, NYC, in September '09.

The Equity Project Charter School (TEP) was featured on the front page of the New York Times back in March. As a member of the school's Capital Campaign Advisory Board, I will be raising $100,000 in the next year for the school's new building. To accomplish this, I will recruit 100 Finance Committee members, who will either donate or raise $1,000. TEP Charter School is a non-profit 501(c)3 educational organization. Since I only know a handful of people who can donate $1,000, I am focusing on recruiting people who can commit to raising $1,000. It only takes knowing 100 people who will donate $100, 20 who will donate $50, etc!

If interested in becoming a Finance Committee member for TEP Charter school, please get in touch! You can email me at nyc30731@yahoo.com. Also, stay tuned for my third piece for the NY Times Lesson Plans blog!

New York Times Education Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:48:00 +0000

The New York Times education blog is up and running with its first piece of the school year! Six teachers from throughout the U.S. are contributing. The first Lesson Plans piece, by Joseph Santini, is wonderful. Check it out! My first article for the blog should run either tomorrow or Thursday.

New York Times Blogger!

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:06:00 +0000

Hi Everyone, I am excited to announce that I will be writing for a New York Times education blog this month! More details and a link to come when the blog launches next week. The focus will be on back-to-school time and "learning to teach in a complicated world."

The Purple Stapler

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 07:08:00 +0000

Dear Mad Tedious Readers,

Thanks for the emails encouraging me to get back to writing about teaching! I am still teaching special education in NYC, but my teaching position has changed significantly since I started this blog. I have gone from teaching high school special needs students in the South Bronx to working with much younger kids in Manhattan, mainly preschool to kindergarten-aged kids on the autism spectrum. I've also become a sort of special needs consultant, working privately with several schools and families. I still have amazing teaching experiences every day with amazing kids, and I do want to get back to writing about them.

I'm not quite sure where to take the blog from here, so for now, I'm re-posting an old "favorite," The Purple Stapler. I wrote this at the height of my frustration in the South Bronx, and since first posting it two years ago, I've received a steady trickling-in of emails and comments from amazingly dedicated teachers in similar positions throughout the U.S. The sad truth is that most of us cannot stay in these positions without developing insomnia, losing our minds and/or becoming numb. Purple Stapler conditions still exist in far too many schools in our country. How can we work to change such deplorable learning and teaching conditions while maintaining our personal sanity and professional integrity?!

The Purple Stapler

There are hundreds of reasons to freak out at work each day. Those who haven’t spent much time in a South Bronx high school may think I’m exaggerating or stereotyping. Unfortunately, I'm not. My school’s administration is in shambles. The school district is grossly neglecting the educational rights of students with learning disabilities. I have 17-year-old students who are reading and writing at a second grade level. Not because they’re dumb (talk with them for a minute and you’ll hear their wit), but because they never received help for learning problems ranging from dyslexia to autism. They are among the few teenagers in their situation who haven’t dropped out. Two of my brightest students are constantly in and out of sketchy foster homes. They come to school smelling of urine and worse. One of them has learned to deal with neglect by managing to find a way to get high every morning before 1^st period. A 15-year-old girl in my English class still sucks her thumb. She's six months pregnant.

Yes. There are hundreds of reasons for a teacher here to freak out. Fly off the handle. Go ballistic. Hit the ceiling. Wig out. Flip a lid. Fly over the cuckoo’s nest. Go off the deep end. Or, in other words, break down. My students call it beastin’. There simply aren’t enough idioms in the English language to describe what can happen when a normally rational inner city teacher decides she's had enough.

Before today, I had remained relatively calm in the classroom. I would weep at home, vent to friends over the phone, laugh when I meant to cry, and stay up worrying at night. But for six months I managed to wake up each morning, take the painfully slow train up to the Bronx, and put on my game face in front of my students. I knew it couldn’t last.

So today marks the day that I finally went loca en la cabeza in front of my students. I didn’t snap over something worthy, like drugs or dropouts or a student telling me to fuck off. No. I, Miss Dennis, snapped over a stapler. A miniature purple stapler. It was missing, and I was mad.

Mind you, I teach at a school where several computers are stolen each year. Teachers’ wallets and cell phones have gone missing. I've been lucky. My stapler cost $4.99. In an attempt to make myself seem slightly less ridiculous about freaking out over this, let me explain that at my school, teachers have to buy their own paper to make photocopies for their students. We also spend our planning periods individually stapling student packets because the stapler function on the copier never works. (Administrators pay themselves overtime, but they won’t buy paper or staples for the copy machine.) Since I was given no appropriate books for my special education students, I make countless photocopies from books I purchased myself (don't sue me), and I end up stapling countless packets for my students each day. My little purple stapler was part of my daily routine, and it made me happy. Its theft, of all things, pushed me straight over the edge.

When I discovered the stapler was missing, I completely shut down my class and demanded to know who'd taken it. I was on the verge of tears. My students stared at me in shock.

“Are you okay, Miss Dennis?”

“What’s wrong Miss?”

“I’ll tell you what’s wrong! Look around this classroom. Look at all these books and posters and videos and highlighters. Do you know who bought these? I did! With my own money! That’s right! The Board of Ed gives me nothing! Nothing! That was my purple stapler, and no one has the right to take it! That’s it! I’m taking everything home with me.”

I began pulling down and piling up everything I'd bought with my own money. (It wasn’t quite true that the Board of Ed gave me nothing. I received $150 to spend on classroom supplies. Other teachers got $200, but the genius Board of Ed CFO decided that special ed teachers should get 25% less than all other teachers. The NYC teacher's union - which I am forced to pay $80 per month in membership dues - agreed. Way to go guys! Way to motivate teachers in your highest need area to keep working for you.) So I got $150. Which I spent on 10 copies of The House on Mango Street. I paid for the other 15 copies myself. I’ve spent an estimated $550 on classroom supplies already this semester, and many teachers I know have spent much more. Clearly, my rage was not simply about the missing purple stapler.

I finished piling up all of my belongings as my students looked on in disbelief.

I calmed down and pathetically tried to salvage a lesson out of my tantrum.

“Now. Who can tell me why I’m bringing all of this stuff home with me?”

The Class Sycophant actually raised his hand to answer my question, but he was thankfully stopped by The Student of Reason.

“Stop playin’ Miss. You're not gonna’ take all that shit home. You take the 6 train. Seen you yesterday. You can’t take all that shit home on the 6 train!”

"I'll take a cab."

"You can afford that?"

He had a point. I might have been acting a little ridiculous.

“Miss, are you crying over a stapler?"

“Not just any stapler Joseph! My lovely, miniature purple stapler!”

Laughter, finally.

I was sure my students would hate me for this incident. Instead, something strange happened. They began to see me as human, and they began to respect their classroom.

“Miss, did you really spend your own money on all that stuff?”

“You must really care about teaching!”

I had my suspicions about who’d stolen the stapler, but I knew no one would snitch. In high school (whether in the wealthiest of suburbs or the grittiest of inner city neighborhoods), there’s nothing worse than a snitch.

Amazingly, after class, one by one, each student came back to the classroom to show me where the purple stapler had been stashed – in a desk drawer in the back of the classroom. Apparently, whoever had planned on stealing it couldn’t go through with it after my tantrum. Even the toughest, most seemingly uncaring of students came back to the classroom to make sure I was reunited with my beloved stapler. One of them helped me put back all of the books, posters, videos and markers.

“I knew you were just playin’ Miss.”

Right. It was all a big plan.

Latest on Teacher Licensing Fiasco

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 23:17:00 +0000

I took and passed the four NY State Teacher Certification Examinations that a certification specialist at the New York State Education Department told me I needed to pass. I'm applying for a teaching license in Students with Disabilities, Birth-Grade 2. I passed the Students with Disabilities Content Specialty Test, the Elementary Assessment of Teaching Skills Test, the Liberal Arts and Sciences Test, and the Elementary Education Content Specialty Test.

I took the Elementary Education Content Specialty Test (CST) in 2003. Education schools generally recommend that teachers take this test in the first or second year of their teacher education programs, which I did. Since then, however, a new test replaced the test I took. The new test is called the Multi-Subject CST and, based on study guides, it is basically the same test under a new name. At most, it's a slightly different version of the old test. The state certification specialist I spoke with six months ago specifically told me that my passing score on the Elementary Education test would “be sufficient” for licensing requirements. Not so.

Rather than do the logical and fair thing (accept the Elementary Education CST for people who took and passed that test before the Multi-Subject CST became the new requirement), NYSED is of course making teachers jump through hoops again. The state is requiring people who already took and passed the Elementary Education CST to pay another $88-$150 and waste another Saturday morning taking the Multi-Subject CST (again, basically the same test). Not only is this a waste of money and time, it will also add at least another two months to the time teachers have to wait to get their licenses processed, potentially keeping many teachers out of the classroom come September.

How much more ridiculous can it get? Seriously. What’s sad is that this is just a drop in the bucket of ridiculous red tape roadblocks I’ve come across during the teacher licensing process, and I have many teaching friends and colleagues going through the same thing. I usually try my best to have a sense of humor about it (it's not hard to make fun of NY educrats), but I'm too exhausted now to be funny.

I learned of this new testing requirement after spending several hours on the phone today (mainly waiting on hold) with both city and state bureaucrats, trying convince them to speed up the processing of my license application. Instead, I learned I have to take another joke of a NY State teacher test. (The tests are all complete jokes, by the way.) I can take the test on July 21, but I have to pay $88 plus a $70 emergency registration fee. Then I have to wait until August 20th to get my score. Then I can call city and state bureaucrats all over again to try to get my license application expedited in time to begin working in early September.

Meanwhile, until this is resolved, I have no guarantee of a teaching job for next school year, despite having glowing references from parents, preschool directors, and co-teachers. One parent who would like me to be his child’s special ed teacher for next school year is talking with his attorney on my behalf. We’ll see if anything comes of that.

Oh, and by the way, for some reason, this testing requirement was waived for people applying for a license in Students with Disabilities Grades 1-6, but not for people applying for licenses in Students with Disabilities Grades 5-9, or Students with Disabilities Birth to Grade 2. This is what a New York City Dept of Ed “Certification Hotline Supervisor” told me. Sheer brilliance.

When I asked for this policy in writing, I got “shushed.” The supervisor literally said, “ssssshhhhh” to try to get me to stop asking questions about the policy. Then she said this was “verbal information” she’d been given by “someone” at the state. I swear these people aren’t even sure what their own policies are. Who even knows if this is actually the policy. It’s easier at this point to just pay for and take the new test than spend more time calling and emailing pinheads and getting frustrated.

Well, all in all, just another chapter in the book of exposing how inefficient city and state bureaucracies are crippling New York City’s public schools and convincing talented teachers to either change careers or teach elsewhere. Public exposure is the only thing that motivates some people to change.

WGBH Eye On Education

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 00:52:00 +0000

For those of you in the Boston area, WGBH radio (89.7) will be re-airing my interview with Tony Kahn and the podcast version of The Purple Stapler tomorrow morning (4/10) at 6:34am and 8:34am. They are airing it as part of their Eye on Education series.

You can checkout any time you like, but ...

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 06:03:00 +0000

I've been trying for over a year to resign from the New York City Department of Education. I haven't actually worked for them since early '06. I'd been under the impression for the past few months that I had finally succeeded in resigning and was free from the Court Street beast.

Then, yesterday, I took on the terribly frightening task of making human contact with the Teachers' Retirement System of the City of New York (TRS). I wanted to try to get a few thousand dollars of mine out of the city's low interest pension fund. I needed to be sure I was mailing in the right forms, so I called TRS.

My call was clearly annoying to the woman who answered. She pulled up my info on her computer and told me she could see that my resignation date was listed as March 5, 2006. She then went on to tell me that I hadn't actually resigned, so I couldn't access my money. My status with the Department of Ed was still listed as "active."

Here's how the conversation went:

Me: But you said I have an official resignation date listed in your system.

TRS: I see the resignation date, but above the date, it says "status, active." According to our system, you're an active employee.

Me: With a resignation date of over a year ago?

TRS: (Losing patience with me) Ma'am! It says you're active.

Me: I resigned. Your database shows I resigned on March 5, 2006.

TRS: As long as you're active in our system, we can't mail you a check.

Me: How do I become inactive in your system?

TRS: You need to send the Dept of Ed an official resignation letter.

Me: Done. Three times.

TRS: Well, they never got the letter.

Me: Ok. Ok. It's not your fault, I know. But I just have one more question. If the Dept of Ed never got my letter of resignation, then why is there a resignation date listed for me in your system?

TRS: (Puts me on hold for ten minutes.)

Me: (Downloading and then memorizing Styx, Mr. Roboto, while on hold.)

TRS: Here's the Dept of Ed number you need to call.

Sooooooooo ... Monday morning, I'll call the Dept of Ed to try to resign. Again.

What Math Teachers Can Accomplish

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:39:00 +0000

Former high school math teacher Brenda Pfeiffer discovered that a computer glitch was causing the U.S. Department of Education to overcharge her for student loans. After repeatedly attempting to resolve the issue with the Dept. of Ed, she started a class action lawsuit on behalf of millions of people with student loans. The article appeared in yesterday's Washington Post.

This gives me faith that I did the right thing by getting involved in a class action suit related to special ed teaching fellows.

Oh yeah. A small group of teaching fellows and I started a class action.

It's related to the NYC Teaching Fellows and Mercy College. It's complicated and a major headache. I've been wondering lately if I'm doing the right thing, since it's turned into such a major hassle in my life. A friend of mine, to whom I cried about the difficulties of the case, sent me the above article, and she said she thought I was doing the right thing.

More on my class action later. I really don't know how much info on the case I should divulge here, since it is an ongoing case.

Attention!

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 02:05:00 +0000

I received the following message, word for word, from the New York State Education Department when trying to access my Teach Online account: "Attention! Your account is been disabled."

The more experience I gain with New York educrats, the more comfortable I am becoming with this feeling called "not knowing if I should laugh or cry." I think I might even miss this feeling if I ever leave New York.

Latest from the Autism Genome Project

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 18:37:00 +0000

The Autism Genome Project is conducting the most advanced scientific research yet on the genetic causes of autism. The results of the first phase of the project were published yesterday in Nature Genetics. Don't bother looking for the article on the Nature Genetics website, though. It's either hidden or for pay only (believe me, I searched for a while). The best summary of the results I've found so far is on China View. (I think one of my old journalism classmates must be working there.) Autism Speaks, which partially funded the first phase of the project, also has an announcement. Great work towards a biological/neurological diagnosis of autism. It should really be an embarassment to the medical community that psychologists are still diagnosing autism. This project gives me hope that we're moving out of the dark ages!

Amazing Moments in Autism

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 04:15:00 +0000

Happy New Year Blogosphere!

Today David reminded me how amazing and sometimes downright hilarious the world of autism can be. I usually walk David straight from his apartment building to school, but today we were early, and I was desperate for caffeine. We stopped at the Starbucks across the street from his pre-school, and I ordered my usual. In typical Starbucks fasion, the cashier called my drink out to the barista, and the barista repeated it. Having now heard the name of my drink three times, David had it firmly planted in his memory. Three hours later, during circle time, David blurted out (much to his teachers' amusement), "Grande no whip mocha!"

Guilty as charged. I'm sure his parents will be thrilled to learn that their 4-yr-old frequents Starbucks.

From Rockefeller Center

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 04:09:00 +0000

Happy holidays everyone! I've been on a blogging lull but I'll be back in 2007. Enjoy the pictures from Rockefeller Center and this adorable Christmas slideshow from the NY Times!

Love,

Miss Dennis (on kid sabbatical til '07)

Suing for Autism Services in New York City

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 20:22:00 +0000

Excellent article in New York Magazine: The Autism Clause. After reading this article, you'll understand why my mildly autistic Upper East Side student gets 35 hours per week of one-on-one autism services while my more severely autistic Bronx student gets 5 hours. (And he's one of the few in the neighborhood who get even that.)

One parent's brief response to the article is also worth reading. "Apparently my demands are appropriate, but the Board provides the services only when sued for them. In other words, if the Board of Ed turns down all 1,000 children needing specialized services, and then loses, say, 250 cases that are brought against it, it would still cost less. It saddens me for the kids whose parents are unable to fight for their rights."

My two students live three miles apart. One is getting excellent services and is beginning to speak clearly and spontaneously. The other is getting less than mediocre services and is rarely understandable through echolalic speech. One lives in a luxury apartment in a doorman building. One lives in a one-room studio neighboring the projects. They are both at the age when services matter most.

I wonder how the Board of Ed would feel about their autism funding strategies after paying a major class action settlement to inner city children with autism.

P.S. Interesting fact hidden at the end of the article: "Last year, Chancellor Klein, who complains that too many lawsuits result in private-school placements, hired ten lawyers specifically to fight special-education claims."

Amazing Moments in Autism #1

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 04:31:00 +0000

Remember the toothpicks scene from Rainman? I had an experience like that with one of my 5-year-old students, only with dogs and fewer of them.

We're walking down 1st Avenue. Jude is 'scripting' - repeating various phrases he's memorized from cartoons, computer games, and electronic Elmo toys. "It's a watermelon. It's a pineapple. They're getting on the train. We're going to the zoo. Bye bye! See ya later!" This is generally how he communicates. (And I seriously want to throw all those Elmo toys out the window of his parents' 29th floor apartment. "Bye bye! See ya later!"). Jude is taking in nothing from the environment around us as he scripts. Or so it seems. Just as I begin feeling exasperated from hearing, "Bye bye! See ya' later!" in a high-pitched Elmo tone for the 30th time, Jude busts out with one of his amazing talents.

We walk by a dogwalker with a bunch of dogs on the sidewalk. Jude doesn't look at the dogs at all. To try to break up his scripting, I say, "Hey! Look Jude! A bunch of dogs!" He doesn't appear to be listening to me at all, but then he glances at the dogs for half a second and says, "Twelve dogs. It's a watermelon. It's a pineapple. They're getting on the train. We're going to the zoo. Bye bye! See ya later!" If I hadn't been watching him carefully, I wouldn't have even noticed Jude's split second glance at the dogs.

I start counting the dogs. They're moving all around, and I'm looking back as we pass the dogs, going "one, two three," in my head. I re-count the dogs to be sure my number is accurate. Fifteen seconds or so later, and halfway down the block, I feel pretty confident that my tally is correct. Twelve dogs.

I don't know why I even bother to verify these things anymore. He's always right, and he's always immediately confident in his calculation. But how the hell does he do it? How do you glance at a bunch of moving dogs for a nanosecond and immediately know that there are twelve? What's going on in his brain to make him be able to do that? I'm not particularly bad with numbers myself. I've been known to count things for no apparent reason on occassion, and I sort of understand that it can be relaxing. But this kid blew me away.

It's easy to assume that kids with autism are taking in nothing from their environment. But in a way, they're really taking in everything. It can just be hard for them to communicate all the details of what they're experiencing. They see, hear and feel details most of us miss. Jude doesn't think in terms of "a bunch of dogs." He has a hard time seeing the big picture. But he gets the details right every single time - right down to the perfect, annoying pitch of Elmo's voice. "Bye bye!"

Best Teacher Blog Post Ever

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 16:05:00 +0000

I can't believe I only just discovered this. Thanks to the Science Teacher Formerly Known as Ms. Frizzle for leading me to this Hedgetoad gem, "Why I Miss Teaching Junior High." There are no words.

Teacher Licensing Issues - Still

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 02:34:00 +0000

They are driving me mad. Beating me down to the ground. Not the autistic preschoolers. The adults who run the New York City Department of Education and the New York State Education Department. Two completely out of control bureaucracies with employees who only give cookie cutter responses - if they give responses at all. It's dehumanizing. So dehumanizing I can't even muster up the energy to write complete sentences. I want out. Of this state. Of this city. Of this system.

New Job

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 21:13:00 +0000

Back. Exhausted! Started new job with preschoolers with autism. Lots to tell, but no time to tell it yet. Major tantrum from one kid wore me out today. How do you tell parents that they are overcoddling their kids and encouraging bad behavior at home? I already know I need to have this conversation with one kid's parents. I can't be the only one who pushes him to change his behavior, or he'll make my life a nightmare. Autism and bad behavior. Two different things. Oh, and potty training. The best part of my new job.

Traveling

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Dennis) — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 14:22:00 +0000

In South America. Will be back Monday!