More School Venting

so the superintendent came to FMIL and was absolutely dreadful. The woman told a science teacher in front of the students that. 'I hated the lesson plan and thought it was horrbile'........


And I have th joy of living 3 blocks away from Franklin K. Lane High School in Queens. That school is beyond dreadful, There are so many cops out front you think it was a precinct..... this is just amazing....All the kids are transfering out of the school and going to FMIL school....and causing the same trouble at a different venue.........does bloomberg have a plan or does he just intend to move these kids around indefinitely until he actually tries to fix this behavior.......

I am just blown away by all of this, I am suprised people aren't throwing stones at the chancellor, this is unreal, I COULD NEVER be a teacher and put up with that, I was going to get my Masters in ED, but no freaking way.............................I wouldn't touch teaching with a ten foot pole....that is just too much nonsense

I teach in a high school in Manhattan where we have students from Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, as well as Manhattan. We are not a zone school so we do get students from all boroughs.

I have to say that I get a bit defensive when I hear people make a generalization of all the schools in the city based on one or two schools. I happen to like my school and I love the students there. Yes, there are some students there who are not nice, but for the most part I have no trouble with them. I wish I can invite all of you to spend a day with me to see the good things that happen in a NYC high school. I'm not implying at all, NYCHICK, that your FMIL is exaggerating - there are administrators who should not be in their positions and there are students who are hellions, and I'm sorry to hear she is dealing with a lot of trouble at her school. But there are also some good teachers, administrators, and student out there as well.

My message is not meant to start some drama - I just want to point out some of the good things as well. And for those who were thinking about teaching - don't let some of these stories scare you!!! Not all schools are bad. I did work in a not-so-great school with an unsupportive administration when I first started teaching. I decided to leave after one year and am now teaching in a school that I love.

O no I defintely hear what you are saying Claudia, I am positively sure that there are good schools out there(I went to one), my post is just meant to imply that the horror stories are what people hear about the most, and the good schools are too few and far between and their is no conscious effort made by the administration to really tackle those issues.

ps I am very happy that you have a good schhol and good class. I hope they multiply in the near future.

I feel that it's the administration that can make or break a school. It does sound like the administration in your FMIL's school has a lot to be desired. One of my BM's works in a high school in Queens that used to be good, then a new principal came in and it went downhill so fast! This year has not been a good year with the Department of Ed because there is a lot of reorganization that was very confusing. Very few of the superintendents know what their jobs entail and some are so inexperienced (never taught in a classroom setting before or for very few years) that they don't know what to look for in a teacher's lesson, so they tend to be nit-picky.

We're having visitors tomorrow (I believe the superintendent and some regional supervisor, if that's her title - who knows) so I could be singing a different tune tomorrow. But I trust that my principal will protect us - most of us have a good rapport with her.