IPS has been losing about 1,000 students a year for the past few years, but that also occurred when the economy was humming along. Now the economy is so bad, a lot of people can barely afford to keep their homes, much less move into a new one, so they stay put.
So is the bad economy good for IPS? What do you think?
Not sure if it is the economy or if parent are FINALLY seeing that every school district has its flaws. I had a parent tell me today that she wanted to put her child in a Charter School because they had small classes. I told her he was in a reading class of five, at the moment and he is still failing. ( She has no comeback.)
ReplyDeleteI think your premise is one of the dumbest things I've seen posted on this backwater blog.
ReplyDeleteCluebird: If you are, as you claim to be, an IPS teacher/employee, then you should be applauding the district's loss of just 300 students from the previous school year.
Why does IPS close schools? Fewer students to fill classrooms. Why does IPS RIF teachers? Fewer students in classrooms to teach.If there are fewer to no students, there is no NEED for you, IPS teacher.
Dumbass.
I agree with the previous poster. There is no way the blogmaster here is an IPS teacher. My money is on someone trying to make IPS look as bad as possible, by being as dumbassed as possible.
ReplyDeletei agree, the blogmaster is showing his bitchassness.
ReplyDeleteI guess the administrators had a slow day and found time to come on here and throw around their derogatory words and attitudes toward teachers. They have learned well from Eugene White......
ReplyDeleteIs that the best comeback that you can muster?
ReplyDeleteThe student was blessed to have such a small reading group, was the parent reading with her child? I can tell you she was not going to spend one minute helping her child, she wants the system to do all the work. Like a charter school will take the student after ADM?
ReplyDelete"I guess the administrators had a slow day and found time to come on here and throw around their derogatory words and attitudes toward teachers. They have learned well from Eugene White......"
ReplyDeleteI wasn't being derogatory to teachers. The IPS teachers I teach with and have known for years are awesome people, intelligent, hard-working, and dedicated. They also think this place is a joke and a stain on the reputation of real teachers of IPS. Good job, though, of keeping up your perfect streak of accusing everyone who thinks this site makes teachers look bad of being an administrator.
Yes the bed economy has put a lot of kids back into IPS, I have at least ten this year who were never previously in IPS. Single parent households that had any economic problems ended up moving back to the lower cost areas of the city. All you need to do is drive along German Church and into some of the developments that went up the last couple of years offering nothing down and payments under $600. and count the unmowed lawns. Economic hard times have hurt the people who used to live there.
ReplyDeleteA couple of things. As far as the OP, I'm sure the economy plays a part, but I think the magnet schools are what is helping IPS enrollment the most.
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't think there are a dozen teachers in all of IPS who identify in any way with the blogmaster here (Thank God). The idea that only administration would find fault with most of the comments in this blog is laughable. I go back and forth between whether it's just a handful of really ineffective teachers who need a place to be bitter, or whether the blog is actually written by people running charter schools and wants to paint IPS teachers as a bunch of lazy, whiny morons who don't actually think they should have to teach. (I mean really, if a child is failing in a classroom of 5, what on earth do you expect the mother to do that the teacher hasn't done? The fact that she was talking with you says she cares. The fact that you're blaming her says you don't care. As a teacher, I don't identify with your attitude at all. It's horrifying. Because in a few years, I'll get this child in my class and he will be behind and hostile toward school. His mother will no longer be involved in his education, because she'll be defensive about being blamed. It will be much tougher to get him caught up, and he is very, very likely to drop out. All because you think putting forth the extra effort for this kid is beneath you. People like you make my job 10 x harder than anything administration does, and I'd put up with lower pay, larger classes and more work days if people like you could be replaced with teachers who take their job as seriously as I take mine.
I heard that IPS had a net White student GAIN.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of things that a mother can do to change the direction a child's life is going. Just read about Ben Carson and his mom. I used to teach with someone who said if his kids behaved the way kids in his class did they would sleep on a mattress on the floor, ear bread and water, and wear clothes from the goodwill until they did what he wanted them to do. The same kids who won't do what you want them to do in school don't do what their parents want them to do at home either, and are rewarded for this behavior. I bet the kid has an x-box, I-pod and cell phone. Kids only do what works for them.
ReplyDeleteYou can't be real. You just can't be. In all my years as a teacher, I've never known a single child who could be punished into reading. There is no way a real teacher would suggest "mattress on the floor, bread and water, and wear clothes from the goodwill" as a consequence for reading problems. Does he have an IEP? Has any teacher ever had success with him? Has any teacher anywhere ever had success with a child like him? Start from there. What did the successful teachers do? Blaming his poor reading on his mother and a hypothetical Xbox is a copout and it's insulting to real teachers. If Mom has looked into charter schools, she's more involved than half of my parents.
ReplyDeleteThis place is a joke, and it does this teacher's heart good to see more and more people coming on here and calling out the regulars.
ReplyDeleteYou are the regular teacher basher who comes on here claiming that all is wonderful in IPS. You must have a vested interest in protecting someone......or yourself....get over it....Give praises where they are due but let´s hang out the dirty laundry and see if some of it can get cleaned.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if you're responding to me or the reply directly above yours, but regardless, I do not think all is wonderful in IPS. And I'm certainly not teacher-bashing. Quite the opposite, I'm defending teachers. You're insulting them by pretending to be a teacher and/or by pretending that real teachers agree with your craziness. Any teacher with 2 cents would be horrified at the scenario described by the supposed "teacher" about the poor reader. You're the one who seems to have a vested interest in protecting someone? I'm a teacher too. Why does your loyalty automatically lie with disinterested teachers rather than a passionate one? Where do you work that my attitude seems foreign and hers seems normal?
ReplyDeleteThe OP in this thread gave no "praises where they are due." It was a slick atempt to discredit a positive: enrollment projections from state lawmakers were wrong and the loss of students was minimal than in past years.
ReplyDeleteIPS this year has students enrolled who don't even live in the district. Parents chose IPS
because they support the educational options available - choices that didn't exist five years ago. Now put that in your pipe and smoke it.
I should also add that parents are choosing IPS because they know they are many fine hard working teachers who truly care about the students, unlike the blogmaster of this site.
ReplyDeletethey should be there ^ there.
ReplyDeleteWhere's Barbie?
ReplyDeleteIs that the best you've got?
ReplyDeleteBarbie is alive and well and playing like she's an instructional coach at our school...
ReplyDeleteWho made you God and gave you the right to determine who is a ´disinterested teacher´and who isn´t....are the ones who dont think and look like you get that label....also who are you to say who is a teacher and who is not....use your name and prove YOU are a teacher. I am willing to bet that I have been a teacher and IEA member longer than you....so get off your self appointed high horse and quit trying to disrespect others who post and this web site...this website has already gotten some changes made as the administration is anxious to not be caught with their hands in the till.......
ReplyDeleteDelusional much? You've obviously lost touch w/reality some time ago.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you just STFU? I guess you just can't admit that this blog has no real credibility as its blogmaster isn't even an IPS teacher or employee!
If you really are a long-time teacher and IEA membe (and not just a troll) then you need to retire. It's as simple as that. You're no longer a value to these children or this sytem. Call me God, say I'm on a high horse, whatever you want. But this isn't a matter of different opinions on an issue. This is a matter where you have one of the most important jobs in the world and you're not doing it and you have no intention of doing it or even making sure it gets done by someone else. Again, who do you think is going to have to clean up your mess? Another TEACHER. Youre the one disprecting IPS teachers, not me.
ReplyDeleteBring up this blog to your coworkers as if you've just discovered it. See for yourself what embarassing trash they think it is.
Thank goodness some teachers finally have called out the posters on this blog. Oh and yes I am an administrator, so you can go ahead and assume I have a 666 on my forehead. Do the teachers on here who blame everything on administration really believe that just crossing over the line from the teaching ranks to be an administrator makes them evil? If that is the case you are not using any kind of rational thinking. There are bad administrators, just like there are bad teachers. Most administrators I know work long hours and care deeply about the students they serve. Just as is the case with teaching, being an administrator in an urban school is 20x tougher than being one in the suburbs. Lets all look for solutions to help the students we teach instead of blaming the parents. It is true that the parents are the problems, but all of the venting of that on this blog is not going to change how they parent. We cannot change parenting so we MUST find solutions to helping our students achieve even with bad home situations.
ReplyDeleteTo the Anonymous Administrator. Yes, you are correct. No matter what shape the children come to our school we must do our best to educate them. However, far too many teachers and administrators choose to ignore the family life as if it doesn’t exist or use it as an excuse for laziness. It is time for educators to stand up and realize that our personal home lives will carry much more weight than our work lives. If we want to change society, we must begin in the home. We cannot begin in the homes of our students, but we can begin in our own homes. We must be good parents and role models to our own children before we can be good role models to our students. If every IPS teacher and administrator lived, worked, and sent his or her own children to IPS, we would see a major positive change overnight. It has very little to do with how we teach and much more to do with how we live.
ReplyDeleteIf this is such a horrible site, why dont you quit wasting your time coming here.....go kiss your principal´s behind since you obviously think that your principal is perfect. I am doing a great job ...have been recognized for my efforts, great evaluations and I am not retirement aqe..so quit trying to make decisions on how I live my life.........my students and parents give me the positive feedback that I need and I dont need comments from bottom feeders like you...so take your own advice and STFU
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to comment on the idea that we can't teach without parental support. Several posts here have said it, and it surprises me in this district. Obviously it limits your options as a teacher if you don't have parental support. I can't give assignments that need parents to purchase supplies or help in any way. But what teacher in IPS doesn't teach every day to students without parental support. It obviously can be done because most of us are already doing it. I understand this viewpoint coming from the public who see IPS in terms of low graduation rates and failed ISTEP scores. But all of us have seen that most kids with poor home lives can indeed be taught, and taught quite a bit. (just not as much as the kids with supportive parents.)
ReplyDeleteI am confused as to which posts are directed to whom, and I think "if this is such a horrible site" might be confused as well. What ever happened to the time stamps so we could at least address a post according to the time it was posted?
ReplyDeleteBut blogmaster, with all due respect, I think it's unrealistic to post a blog for teachers and expect only the teachers who agree with you to post here.
AND, Mr. Blogmaster, why are you running two days behind on your blogs?
ReplyDeleteWhat has happened to the rug? Has it been returned?
ReplyDeleteThe time stamps were removed for obvious reasons.
ReplyDeleteI guess I am dense, but what are the obvious
ReplyDeletereasons?
You are dense if you don't understand that.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot wrong with IPS, and there is a lot right. There are many fine teachers who have dedicated their lives to the education of students from a variety of socio-economic groups. Teachers who have adapted their practices and curriculum to best meet the needs of the student.
ReplyDeleteBut there are also those who need to leave teaching, their battle cry is "these kids aren't like they use to be". They use the same old tired lessons and dittos. They hold very low expectations for their students, and often make no attempt what so ever to engage the family in education or behavior issues, good or bad.
Then their is the administration, on the building level, and there has been a marked change in the attitude and behavior of these individuals. Instead of supporting the work of teachers they now seem hell bent on making teachers suffer. Many building administrators simply ignore all IPS policies regarding SBDM, which builds ownership and buy-in on what happens in schools. Instead they take a stance that they know it all, and teachers will do what they say for them to do. It has become a hostile situation. You can no longer go to any administrator for help or assistance because they will then look at this as a short coming on your part.
There is also an ever increasing amount of paper work, for both teachers and administrators, so much so that it is becoming a job unto itself, distracting from our actual purpose, educating children.
And the downtown administration is a whole other story, vindictive and dramatic. An entire group of people with their own personal agendas. Today I was talking to a person who applied for a job he was actually doing, was told he couldn't have that job because he didn't have an administrators license, however the next year they brought in a woman to do the job without an administrative license, she shared a common characteristic with many in the downtown posse.
This isn't a reflection on that person who does a fine job, but on the people who have one policy for themselves (and their group) and another for everyone else.
IPS does not belong to the administration or the teachers, it belongs to the community, students, and parents, and everyone needs to remember what we really work for is the future well being of the owners of IPS.
Now THAT sounds like a real teacher!! I couldn't agree more, both on the assets and liabilities of IPS.
ReplyDeleteI think that is what we all have been trying to say and to give examples. Many people think the stories on here are ficitonal. Some may be skewed but they reflect how IPS works. Many more stories could be told of the shameful behavior and lies of the Eugene White administration but it would reveal the identity of the staff people involved and people have to earn a living. The public has no idea how hard working and competent the IPS faculty is and they wont as long as teacher basher in chief Eugene White is in his reign of terror.
ReplyDeleteThe rug mentioned above was never returned, and nothing ever happened to the person who "borrowed" it.
ReplyDeletesigh..you called me dense! It couldn't be because it might look like someone was writing on school time because the site is blocked at school...besides, we are all really too professional to do that - and that is not sarcasm. Yeah, I suppose someone might have their own personal computer...hmm...any other reasons?
ReplyDeleteThen you admit you weren"t "dense" but you were just a troll on here trying to smear teachers???
ReplyDeleteThe reason for the time stamp removal isn't obvious to me either. Even if it looked like people were posting on school time, they wouldn't be able to prove it if it wasn't on a school computer (and if it was on a school computer, they could tell with or without the time stamp). Besides, the times were never correct anyway. But at least it provided a way to differentiate posts.
ReplyDeleteyes, I admit that I am not as dense as I claimed (not quite anyway) but why would that make me a troll trying to smear teachers? If anything, I was crediting "WE" teachers with the professionalism not to be on this during our work time. Wow...you are really defensive...where was there any hint of smear? Yes, I am a teacher and I thought it was easier to respond to comments when you could attach the time stamp for some sort of identification...now I will just have to refer to you as "the paranoid blogger two submissions above this"... p.s. it is 11:02 p.m. - maybe we could use some type of secret code so the trolls won't get us....
ReplyDeletep.p.s....no hard feelings...just having fun here..
I think that is what we all have been trying to say and to give examples. Many people think the stories on here are ficitonal. Some may be skewed but they reflect how IPS works. Many more stories could be told of the shameful behavior and lies of the Eugene White administration but it would reveal the identity of the staff people involved and people have to earn a living. The public has no idea how hard working and competent the IPS faculty is and they wont as long as teacher basher in chief Eugene White is in his reign of terror.
ReplyDeleteThis is true, parents and the public need to get into the school and see what is going on.
It wouldn't be bad if board members also slipped in and took a look, then they'd have some really interesting questions to ask some of the administrators and Dr. White.
Barbie is still Barbie
ReplyDeleteNo, Barbie's doing better at communicating with her co-workers. Go, Barbie, go!
ReplyDelete