I believe that the voters are going to rid the board of some of the yes people head bobbers for Eugene White in the May primary. There will be some big name challengers.
I've been here 30 years. I've never known the rumor mill to STOP circulating rumors about changes at the top.
My first years were spent listening to folks griping about Karl Kalp. Now it's, "Let's get rid of (insert one.....Adams, Zendejas, GIlbert, Pritchett, White, etc.).
We need simply to do the best we can with what we have. Griping wastes energy.
Are there real reasons they could fire them for. I mean beyond "the teachers at IPS B.S don't like them." I don't know, I'm a parent not a teacher, but I thought numbers-wise the district had improved quite a bit since Dr. White? Wouldn't a new superintendant likely be worse than White? Again, I don't know, but wouldn't a new superintendant have to prove that he can get whip the school into shape without kicking out money, I mean students? I mean, do you really think a new person would come in and go, "you know, things here are just peachy? We should just stop worrying so much."
I think that Dr. White's "This Is It" theme was telling. This is his fifth year as superintendent, and he said five years ago that he would turn this school system around in five years. Obviously, that hasn't happened. I think that his opening theme was a big clue as to his intentions this year, and he thinks no one is smart enough to figure it out. (Remember, he has an incredible ego, and he thinks no one is as smart as he is.) I bet he will opt for a million dollar plus buyout from the board and leave.
As Gladys Knight and Marvin Gaye said once, " I Heard It Through the Grapevine" that someone is going somewhere and it is not the superintendant, but it is someone high profile.
I heard that Dr. White is going to fire thirty teachers from around IPS, placing the whole blame for a failing school system on the thirty teachers. Then we will hear wonderful speeches from the "Bobble-Headed" Board Members, that now the problem is solved with IPS failing the citizens of Indianapolis. Then the Bobble-Heads" will award Dr. White a huge bonus for "saving IPS". This way the "Pimp Daddy" will look good, made changes, and took no blame for his poor leadership at IPS. I hope to see the mink coat out Pimp Daddy, with maybe some blue Gucci shoes, it will match your ring.
It was satire, humor, my clueles one that posted the above notice. Nope, its Dr. Giles, as he is having an affiar with Sandra Towne and he does her evaulation report, that is wrong, but the "Bobble-Heads" just keep on bobbing to every word Dr. White utters. Plus he has covered for her mistakes (some serious) for the last few months. What is the DOE meeting for Special Education meeting about, does anyone know anything.
Anyone who thinks that things have improved under White obviously is not involved with IPS. It has been a steady decline since he took over. He is able to sometimes manipulate some people, the media and always the bobble headed board to buy his smoke and mirrors act.
Who is Sandra Towne and what is her position at IPS? she must be blind......or is yoda(Giles) packing a large pistol or paying her for other unmentionable services ???
Don't know what the DOE meeting for Special Education is about,(would love to be a fly on the wall) however maybe someone has finally caught on to how the Special Education Dept. at IPS is doing a disservice to the Special Ed. Students,Parents of these students, Special Ed. Teachers and General Ed. Teachers by not providing and offering these students the proper environment for learning( be it self-contained or inclusion setting with the resources to help them be successful and productive citizens).
Giles might have a small deringer, who knows. Sandra Towne is over the alterative schools, cute, but she has no idea about running alterative schools or being an effective leader for the educational community. Dr. Giles had the same problem in Fort Wayne, but IPS hired him maybe, Dr. White liked the way he said "yes, Sir".
I hear that the state may take over one or more of the IPS high schools at semester break. That is because they are non performing and that White has failed in 5 years of developing any plan that would increase achievement and show progress.
Now lets see, Arlington, North West, Manual or John Marshall? Let the Department of Education try to handle the problems with the schools,they have no idea of the conplex nature of IPS. Then maybe they will staff them with the new funky licensed teachers, that would be a hoot.
I had to laugh about a group of student teachers a few years back, who about 75% were looking for another type of career, teaching was not for them. The rest were going to head to small urban and township schools, one had a job at IPS, but was let go after her first year.
Goodness. Dr. White and Li-Yen; Dr. Giles and Sondra Towne; Dr. Bridgewater and who can count; Li-yen and her stripper parties; students in the bathrooms; teachers and students in the classrooms. Is it a business or a party house?
Perhaps some of the people being dismissed would be some of the directors. It would be no loss to see the hunchbacked troll Joan Harrell, or her frog-faced buddy Sally Callahan, head out the door.
So I take it since Towne is not capable of handling her job at IPS she must have slept her way to the top?...........looks like she is in good company with Dr. Johnson and Dr. Clency! Must be a prerequisite that in order to make it to the top in IPS just sleep around with one or two maybe three of the big wigs!!!!
I'd rather look at Clency's Barbie Doll wigs than Harrell's and Kendrick's butch-looking bobs or especially Mary Bush's 1960's big bouffant helmet hair. IPS would do well to have an image consultant on staff.
Previous post should have been "has" instead of had.. Sorry, Jane's butch haircut has me shaking. Get a goog look at the white shoe after Labor Day. They have to be a mile wide.
Come on folks...this is degenerating into just hateful speech. It does nothing to address the real issues and is degrading to the posters...we teach our children to be better than this, I hope. What do you hope to accomplish by writing such degrading things...and who among you doesn't have some area that people could make fun of? If you are going to criticize, then stick to those actions that really affect our work; not gossip and personal attacks.
What you fail to understand is that the behaviors and attitudes being discussed here affect every child and staff member in IPS. Those behaviors and attitudes are destroying IPS and is degrading its employees and students. That is what people are trying to point out on this blog and in conversations daily in the schools and in the community. IPS has a horrible lack of leadership and is in a crisis.
IPS isn't suffering from a lack of leadership. A small group of natives who are afraid of change or perhaps incapable of it, don't want to follow the directives and lead of the "chief" who are in charge trying to affect change.
This board shouldn't be public. Those of you who need a place to vent such venom need to find a more private way to do it. This blog is really embarrassing. I swear I sometimes wonder if the site owner isn't really a school voucher proponent or charter school advocate trying to show the world how bad IPS teachers REALLY are.
I dont think there is much on here that bad mouths IPS teachers. Much of the administrative misbehavior and incompetence is highlighted. Normally a school board would monitor that but with the bobbleheads on the board that is not done. Someone has to do it and who better than the people who with it on a daily basis and see it up close and personal. If you don't liike then you and your other administrative friends can easily just not return to read it.
"Racist?"..."Lu-Cee....you gotta lotta 'splainin' to do" - More recently I was told not to use the term "Hispanic" because it reflected "his panic" -- can anyone 'splain that to me?" Is Latino a safe word?
90% of the comments on this blog reflect poorly on IPS teachers, because it is assumed that teachers are the ones writing them (although I am extremely suspicious that is the case). Comments that are ignorant or racist or self-serving or ugly show the public that we are exactly as ignorant and racist and self-serving and ugly as "reformers" have been telling everyone.
I believe that referring to superintendent as the chief and the teachers are natives is racist especially when the superintendent is African American. For years, Ricky Ricardo was played as a Cuban who despite years in this country had trouble with the language. The implication was that he was too dumb to learn the language. One of his key phrases to Lucy was that she had "some splainin" to do.
He was scripted to speak like he didn't speak English well...that is racist. In actuality, Dezi Arnaz was from a very wealthy Cuban family and graduated from a top notch Catholic School in Dolores, Cuba. The broken spanish he spoke in the show was playing to the racial sterotype.
By 1990 all the forms from the U.S. census had incorporated the word "Hispanic" as an ethnicity option.
What is interesting is that when you try to choose between Hispanic vs Latino, you realize both fail to incorporate our indigenous roots. Our race is primarily a mix of Indian, European and black, therefore the terms only encompass some of those origins. If I am Mexican, I am probably Mayan Indian.
I guess if we were to create a term to reflect our true heritage it should be something like...Afrolatinhispanindian a little bit of a tongue twister.
Scripted hell.... I'm the one who wrote that his accent wasn't easy to overcome. My father was a cameraman for Desilu Studios. I remember VIVIDLY his accent. He and his lovely wife were frequent guests in our home. Looking for racism where it doesn't exist does a grave disservice to real racism dumbass!!
The use of the accent .....in writing ..like the word "splain" only serves to perpetuate stereotypes. Dezi attended school with Fidel and Raul Castro and other of the Cuban elite. He was well educated and didn't need some buffoon writing in broken English for him. Then for someone else to write it.....is even worse. We don't have accents when we WRITE.
I know white people who talk about the bridge over the 'crick' rather than creek. They also talk about shopping at 'Krogers' rather than Kroger.
I know black people who 'axe' for directions rather than ask. They also talk about crossing the 'skreet' rather than street.
Different people in different parts of the country talk differently. How dull and boring we'd be if we all spoke the same and sounded the same. I can live with it!
The comments about Northwest are being made second hand and are not actully true. All high schools in IPS have issues but instructional support in that building from admin is not the problem. Teachers that can't teach and refuse to change is the problem. Face reality and know the students are suffering due to the educators, those still there and those that left at the end of the year. My kids are getting a great education from there but the teachers have a lot to learn about parental contact!
Every ethic group that came to this country from a non-English speaking country has been the butt of jokes - remember all the Pole humor, the Dutch, etc. - depends on the area where you are becoming a larger population. Perhaps it is somewhat grounded in fear..."Ja, ya betcha'...ve Novegians from Minnie-soow-ta haf to put up wit the yokes"
My last point is that if it is a dialect or accent that is acquired from one's background that is one thing. It is when someone uses it to denigrate an ethnic group or geographically area that is hateful. Lots of Hoosiers say crick rather than creek but that is because that was the norm for their family or area. They are not faking it.
Some of the SpringBoard classic novels currently used in IPS do indeed rely heavily on the authors' uses of wonderful dialect. Without the dialect, would we ever grasp the true contextual meaning of Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird" or Barbara Kingsolver's "The Poisonwood Bible" or "The Bean Trees"?
Some of the world's greatest literature is embedded with rich and colorful accents. To strip writing of accents (or dialect)and to sanitize it to meet political correctness is to rob the audience of the author's true experience and meaning.
Using dialects in literature and using it on a blog to degrade people are two difference uses for two different reasons. Degrading people or groups of people on a blog is never a positive contribution.
As the kids would say, "Stop meddlin'." A blog is not necessarily administered to be politically correct or to make all readers comfortable. It's journaling Online; nothing more, nothing less. Expect non-closure; expect to feel discomfort.
Northwest teachers work hard. When you have a principal call in all teachers - not just a small group - and tell them they are terrible, what does that do? He tells them they are terrible, but then offers no aide, suggestions, anything. As an instructional leader, he should know what to do in a classroom. These are not rumors. These are not second-hand. The principal is in the hot seat due to his lack of knowledge as an administrator, so he is taking it out on the staff. I am sure he will get better results taking this route.
We need to keep it classy, IPS. We all have our reasons to be angry, but we are starting to sound like teenagers talking on Facebook...cursing, and talking about inappropriate things just for shock value.
"My first years were spent listening to folks griping about Karl Kalp. Now it's, "Let's get rid of (insert one.....Adams, Zendejas, GIlbert, Pritchett, White, etc.)."
"The principal is in the hot seat due to his lack of knowledge as an administrator, so he is taking it out on the staff. I am sure he will get better results taking this route."
I also worked for IPS for thirty years, and it is true that people have always complained about the leadership.
I will say that the real problems started with Zendejas. She really pushed for improvements in test scores, however she did nothing to support this initiative. Nagging and threatening teachers isn't going to change outcomes. She along with the former mayor implemented "accountability" programs that made teachers accountable for things they had absolutely no control over (student attendance).
I taught at a small elementary and third grade test scores were the be all and end all, and since we only had 35 third graders each one counted as almost 3% of our third grade scores, I asked the third grade teacher how she had gotten one kid through the test, as he could not read, and she said "I sat him next to smarty pants, and told him three times "Don't cheat by looking at smarty pant's paper and copying the answers on to your test"". What else was she suppose to do, the threats were coming hard and fast, your school would be closed, you would be fired, and on and on.
Now everyone is in that hot seat. The pressure is on from all directions to improve test scores, to make AYP, to turn a sows ear into a silk purse. With one face Dr. White stands in front of the board, legislature, and community leaders and asks for more funding. He cites the many factors that affect student achievement, which can be summed up in one word, Poverty. Yet when teachers cite these same reasons as sources of problems that affect student achievement he poo-poohs them as "not holding high expectations for student achievement".
What we need and will probably never get is someone who is honest. Someone who says "this is a district plagued by poverty, it will take real work and commitment to change what is happening here." Someone who believes that there are no quick fixes, and doesn't lay the blame for all societies problems at the feet of teachers and schools.
Look for a major administrative change at Tech. Besides the violence toward people, the out of control students are vandalizing and destroying property at a record pace. The principal has her fall flowers planted and is getting ready to have the maintainence people get the bulbs planted for the spring. She always strolls in about 9 a.m. with her 32 ounce soft drink and after a little while starts making plans for her 2 hour lunch.........she has retired but she keeps showing up to work and collecting her pay check.
I heard that Mary Louis is headed for the door, due to her nasty remarks to staff and teachers. I am guessing it her fat legs, and cheap haircut plays in the game of looking like a homeless woman. Mary Louis looks like an old meth user that needs more makeup and talks like a fool.
I believe that the voters are going to rid the board of some of the yes people head bobbers for Eugene White in the May primary. There will be some big name challengers.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope that the rumor is true..............and that Dr. White, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Giles and the clueless IPS board will all be fired!
ReplyDeleteI've been here 30 years. I've never known the rumor mill to STOP circulating rumors about changes at the top.
ReplyDeleteMy first years were spent listening to folks griping about Karl Kalp. Now it's, "Let's get rid of (insert one.....Adams, Zendejas, GIlbert, Pritchett, White, etc.).
We need simply to do the best we can with what we have. Griping wastes energy.
Then why are you on this Blog? This Blog is here for freedom of speech.
ReplyDeleteAre there real reasons they could fire them for. I mean beyond "the teachers at IPS B.S don't like them." I don't know, I'm a parent not a teacher, but I thought numbers-wise the district had improved quite a bit since Dr. White? Wouldn't a new superintendant likely be worse than White? Again, I don't know, but wouldn't a new superintendant have to prove that he can get whip the school into shape without kicking out money, I mean students? I mean, do you really think a new person would come in and go, "you know, things here are just peachy? We should just stop worrying so much."
ReplyDeleteYes, I spelled superintendent wrong. Twice. I meant to look it up before I hit submit. I always want to end it like attendant. [sigh]
ReplyDeleteI think that Dr. White's "This Is It" theme was telling. This is his fifth year as superintendent, and he said five years ago that he would turn this school system around in five years. Obviously, that hasn't happened. I think that his opening theme was a big clue as to his intentions this year, and he thinks no one is smart enough to figure it out. (Remember, he has an incredible ego, and he thinks no one is as smart as he is.) I bet he will opt for a million dollar plus buyout from the board and leave.
ReplyDeleteAs Gladys Knight and Marvin Gaye said once, " I Heard It Through the Grapevine" that someone is going somewhere and it is not the superintendant, but it is someone high profile.
ReplyDeleteI would leave for half that.
ReplyDelete"Then why are you on this Blog? This Blog is here for freedom of speech."
ReplyDeleteIsn'i it you who is limiting my freedom?
I heard that Dr. White is going to fire thirty teachers from around IPS, placing the whole blame for a failing school system on the thirty teachers. Then we will hear wonderful speeches from the "Bobble-Headed" Board Members, that now the problem is solved with IPS failing the citizens of Indianapolis. Then the Bobble-Heads" will award Dr. White a huge bonus for "saving IPS". This way the "Pimp Daddy" will look good, made changes, and took no blame for his poor leadership at IPS. I hope to see the mink coat out Pimp Daddy, with maybe some blue Gucci shoes, it will match your ring.
ReplyDeleteIt is not a teacher!!!! Don't know where you heard the number 30!
ReplyDeleteIt was satire, humor, my clueles one that posted the above notice. Nope, its Dr. Giles, as he is having an affiar with Sandra Towne and he does her evaulation report, that is wrong, but the "Bobble-Heads" just keep on bobbing to every word Dr. White utters. Plus he has covered for her mistakes (some serious) for the last few months. What is the DOE meeting for Special Education meeting about, does anyone know anything.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who thinks that things have improved under White obviously is not involved with IPS. It has been a steady decline since he took over. He is able to sometimes manipulate some people, the media and always the bobble headed board to buy his smoke and mirrors act.
ReplyDeleteSomeone's having an affair with Giles?? Ewwwwwww...
ReplyDeleteWho is Sandra Towne and what is her position at IPS? she must be blind......or is yoda(Giles) packing a large pistol or paying her for other unmentionable services ???
ReplyDeleteDon't know what the DOE meeting for Special Education is about,(would love to be a fly on the wall) however maybe someone has finally caught on to how the Special Education Dept. at IPS is doing a disservice to the Special Ed. Students,Parents of these students, Special Ed. Teachers and General Ed. Teachers by not providing and offering these students the proper environment for learning( be it self-contained or inclusion setting with the resources to help them be successful and productive citizens).
ReplyDeleteGiles might have a small deringer, who knows. Sandra Towne is over the alterative schools, cute, but she has no idea about running alterative schools or being an effective leader for the educational community. Dr. Giles had the same problem in Fort Wayne, but IPS hired him maybe, Dr. White liked the way he said "yes, Sir".
ReplyDeleteI hear that the state may take over one or more of the IPS high schools at semester break. That is because they are non performing and that White has failed in 5 years of developing any plan that would increase achievement and show progress.
ReplyDeleteNow lets see, Arlington, North West, Manual or John Marshall? Let the Department of Education try to handle the problems with the schools,they have no idea of the conplex nature of IPS. Then maybe they will staff them with the new funky licensed teachers, that would be a hoot.
ReplyDeleteYou mean the teachers who got the 5 week crash course ......??? Many of them will be gone by then.
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh about a group of student teachers a few years back, who about 75% were looking for another type of career, teaching was not for them. The rest were going to head to small urban and township schools, one had a job at IPS, but was let go after her first year.
ReplyDeleteGoodness. Dr. White and Li-Yen; Dr. Giles and Sondra Towne; Dr. Bridgewater and who can count; Li-yen and her stripper parties; students in the bathrooms; teachers and students in the classrooms. Is it a business or a party house?
ReplyDeleteWho are these "big name challengers" running for school board?
ReplyDeleteSondra Towne began as a sped. teacher I believe at school 106. She couldn't run a classroom or spell.
ReplyDeleteTowne cannot speak in complete sentences or in a coherent manner.
ReplyDeletePerhaps some of the people being dismissed would be some of the directors. It would be no loss to see the hunchbacked troll Joan Harrell, or her frog-faced buddy Sally Callahan, head out the door.
ReplyDelete"Towne cannot speak...in a coherent manner." No wonder she & Willy get along so well. LOL
ReplyDeleteSo I take it since Towne is not capable of handling her job at IPS she must have slept her way to the top?...........looks like she is in good company with Dr. Johnson and Dr. Clency! Must be a prerequisite that in order to make it to the top in IPS just sleep around with one or two maybe three of the big wigs!!!!
ReplyDeleteEwwwwww...
ReplyDeleteAnd speaking of big wigs, isn't that what Clency wears? Several of them actually, all in an amusing array of seasonal colors and lengths.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it is still possible for a heterosexual female to get a job in the Ed. Center???
ReplyDeleteI think the last heterosexual female at the Education Center retired last year.
ReplyDeleteNo, there are still a few female instructional coaches and TOSAs at JMFEC who like a good man with a great set of tools!
ReplyDeleteJust because one parks at 120 East Walnut doesn't make her a carpet muncher.
Clency looks like a drag queen in those ridiculous wigs!!! LOL
ReplyDeleteIt's better than Joan Harrell's butchy dyed crewcut. What is that about? Oh wait. She and Prudence are friends, from way back.
ReplyDeleteI'd rather look at Clency's Barbie Doll wigs than Harrell's and Kendrick's butch-looking bobs or especially Mary Bush's 1960's big bouffant helmet hair. IPS would do well to have an image consultant on staff.
ReplyDeleteTC are you picking on Sally and Joan?
ReplyDeleteKendrick eats so much carpet that she had shag hanging from her teeth.
ReplyDeletePrevious post should have been "has" instead of had.. Sorry, Jane's butch haircut has me shaking. Get a goog look at the white shoe after Labor Day. They have to be a mile wide.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this nonsense, I no longer wonder why IPS performs so poorly. Ick, I hope none of you teach my kids.
ReplyDeleteI hope none of your naive children are in my class.
ReplyDeleteCome on folks...this is degenerating into just hateful speech. It does nothing to address the real issues and is degrading to the posters...we teach our children to be better than this, I hope. What do you hope to accomplish by writing such degrading things...and who among you doesn't have some area that people could make fun of? If you are going to criticize, then stick to those actions that really affect our work; not gossip and personal attacks.
ReplyDeleteWhat you fail to understand is that the behaviors and attitudes being discussed here affect every child and staff member in IPS. Those behaviors and attitudes are destroying IPS and is degrading its employees and students. That is what people are trying to point out on this blog and in conversations daily in the schools and in the community. IPS has a horrible lack of leadership and is in a crisis.
ReplyDeleteIPS isn't suffering from a lack of leadership. A small group of natives who are afraid of change or perhaps incapable of it, don't want to follow the directives and lead of the "chief" who are in charge trying to affect change.
ReplyDelete"chief" should read "chiefs" ^ there.
ReplyDeleteYour racist comment is unwarranted.
ReplyDeleteRacist? Please 'splain.
ReplyDeleteWhat? Where are the racist comments in this thread?
ReplyDeleteThis board shouldn't be public. Those of you who need a place to vent such venom need to find a more private way to do it. This blog is really embarrassing. I swear I sometimes wonder if the site owner isn't really a school voucher proponent or charter school advocate trying to show the world how bad IPS teachers REALLY are.
ReplyDeleteI dont think there is much on here that bad mouths IPS teachers. Much of the administrative misbehavior and incompetence is highlighted. Normally a school board would monitor that but with the bobbleheads on the board that is not done. Someone has to do it and who better than the people who with it on a daily basis and see it up close and personal. If you don't liike then you and your other administrative friends can easily just not return to read it.
ReplyDelete"Racist?"..."Lu-Cee....you gotta lotta 'splainin' to do" - More recently I was told not to use the term "Hispanic" because it reflected "his panic" -- can anyone 'splain that to me?" Is Latino a safe word?
ReplyDelete90% of the comments on this blog reflect poorly on IPS teachers, because it is assumed that teachers are the ones writing them (although I am extremely suspicious that is the case). Comments that are ignorant or racist or self-serving or ugly show the public that we are exactly as ignorant and racist and self-serving and ugly as "reformers" have been telling everyone.
ReplyDeleteI believe that referring to superintendent as the chief and the teachers are natives is racist especially when the superintendent is African American. For years, Ricky Ricardo was played as a Cuban who despite years in this country had trouble with the language. The implication was that he was too dumb to learn the language. One of his key phrases to Lucy was that she had "some splainin" to do.
ReplyDeleteHe was scripted to speak like he didn't speak English well...that is racist. In actuality, Dezi Arnaz was from a very wealthy Cuban family and graduated from a top notch Catholic School in Dolores, Cuba. The broken spanish he spoke in the show was playing to the racial sterotype.
ReplyDeleteBy 1990 all the forms from the U.S. census had incorporated the word "Hispanic" as an ethnicity option.
ReplyDeleteWhat is interesting is that when you try to choose between Hispanic vs Latino, you realize both fail to incorporate our indigenous roots. Our race is primarily a mix of Indian, European and black, therefore the terms only encompass some of those origins. If I am Mexican, I am probably Mayan Indian.
I guess if we were to create a term to reflect our true heritage it should be something like...Afrolatinhispanindian a little bit of a tongue twister.
Scripted hell.... I'm the one who wrote that his accent wasn't easy to overcome. My father was a cameraman for Desilu Studios. I remember VIVIDLY his accent. He and his lovely wife were frequent guests in our home. Looking for racism where it doesn't exist does a grave disservice to real racism dumbass!!
ReplyDeleteThe use of the accent .....in writing ..like the word "splain" only serves to perpetuate stereotypes. Dezi attended school with Fidel and Raul Castro and other of the Cuban elite. He was well educated and didn't need some buffoon writing in broken English for him. Then for someone else to write it.....is even worse. We don't have accents when we WRITE.
ReplyDeleteWhat does ANY of this have to do with the original topic of this blog?
ReplyDeleteI know white people who talk about the bridge over the 'crick' rather than creek. They also talk about shopping at 'Krogers' rather than Kroger.
ReplyDeleteI know black people who 'axe' for directions rather than ask. They also talk about crossing the 'skreet' rather than street.
Different people in different parts of the country talk differently. How dull and boring we'd be if we all spoke the same and sounded the same. I can live with it!
The comments about Northwest are being made second hand and are not actully true. All high schools in IPS have issues but instructional support in that building from admin is not the problem. Teachers that can't teach and refuse to change is the problem. Face reality and know the students are suffering due to the educators, those still there and those that left at the end of the year. My kids are getting a great education from there but the teachers have a lot to learn about parental contact!
ReplyDeleteYou people go off on a tangent over the craziest things that have nothing to do with the topic!
ReplyDeleteEvery ethic group that came to this country from a non-English speaking country has been the butt of jokes - remember all the Pole humor, the Dutch, etc. - depends on the area where you are becoming a larger population. Perhaps it is somewhat grounded in fear..."Ja, ya betcha'...ve Novegians from Minnie-soow-ta haf to put up wit the yokes"
ReplyDeleteYa, ya' betcha' dis is a crazy ting to go off on a tangent about...but interesting, anyway...
ReplyDeleteMy last point is that if it is a dialect or accent that is acquired from one's background that is one thing. It is when someone uses it to denigrate an ethnic group or geographically area that is hateful. Lots of Hoosiers say crick rather than creek but that is because that was the norm for their family or area. They are not faking it.
ReplyDelete"We don't have accents when we WRITE."
ReplyDeleteSome of the SpringBoard classic novels currently used in IPS do indeed rely heavily on the authors' uses of wonderful dialect. Without the dialect, would we ever grasp the true contextual meaning of Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird" or Barbara Kingsolver's "The Poisonwood Bible" or "The Bean Trees"?
Some of the world's greatest literature is embedded with rich and colorful accents. To strip writing of accents (or dialect)and to sanitize it to meet political correctness is to rob the audience of the author's true experience and meaning.
Using dialects in literature and using it on a blog to degrade people are two difference uses for two different reasons. Degrading people or groups of people on a blog is never a positive contribution.
ReplyDeleteMe thinks thou dost protest too much.
ReplyDeleteAs the kids would say, "Stop meddlin'." A blog is not necessarily administered to be politically correct or to make all readers comfortable. It's journaling Online; nothing more, nothing less. Expect non-closure; expect to feel discomfort.
Northwest teachers work hard. When you have a principal call in all teachers - not just a small group - and tell them they are terrible, what does that do?
ReplyDeleteHe tells them they are terrible, but then offers no aide, suggestions, anything. As an instructional leader, he should know what to do in a classroom.
These are not rumors. These are not second-hand. The principal is in the hot seat due to his lack of knowledge as an administrator, so he is taking it out on the staff.
I am sure he will get better results taking this route.
We need to keep it classy, IPS.
ReplyDeleteWe all have our reasons to be angry, but we are starting to sound like teenagers talking on Facebook...cursing, and talking about inappropriate things just for shock value.
"My first years were spent listening to folks griping about Karl Kalp. Now it's, "Let's get rid of (insert one.....Adams, Zendejas, GIlbert, Pritchett, White, etc.)."
ReplyDelete"The principal is in the hot seat due to his lack of knowledge as an administrator, so he is taking it out on the staff.
I am sure he will get better results taking this route."
I also worked for IPS for thirty years, and it is true that people have always complained about the leadership.
I will say that the real problems started with Zendejas. She really pushed for improvements in test scores, however she did nothing to support this initiative. Nagging and threatening teachers isn't going to change outcomes. She along with the former mayor implemented "accountability" programs that made teachers accountable for things they had absolutely no control over (student attendance).
I taught at a small elementary and third grade test scores were the be all and end all, and since we only had 35 third graders each one counted as almost 3% of our third grade scores, I asked the third grade teacher how she had gotten one kid through the test, as he could not read, and she said "I sat him next to smarty pants, and told him three times "Don't cheat by looking at smarty pant's paper and copying the answers on to your test"". What else was she suppose to do, the threats were coming hard and fast, your school would be closed, you would be fired, and on and on.
Now everyone is in that hot seat. The pressure is on from all directions to improve test scores, to make AYP, to turn a sows ear into a silk purse. With one face Dr. White stands in front of the board, legislature, and community leaders and asks for more funding. He cites the many factors that affect student achievement, which can be summed up in one word, Poverty. Yet when teachers cite these same reasons as sources of problems that affect student achievement he poo-poohs them as "not holding high expectations for student achievement".
What we need and will probably never get is someone who is honest. Someone who says "this is a district plagued by poverty, it will take real work and commitment to change what is happening here." Someone who believes that there are no quick fixes, and doesn't lay the blame for all societies problems at the feet of teachers and schools.
Sondra Towne sucks!! (literally)
ReplyDeleteLook for a major administrative change at Tech. Besides the violence toward people, the out of control students are vandalizing and destroying property at a record pace. The principal has her fall flowers planted and is getting ready to have the maintainence people get the bulbs planted for the spring. She always strolls in about 9 a.m. with her 32 ounce soft drink and after a little while starts making plans for her 2 hour lunch.........she has retired but she keeps showing up to work and collecting her pay check.
ReplyDeleteI want her job, too, but only if IPS won't offer me half a million to buy out my contract.
ReplyDeleteI heard that Mary Louis is headed for the door, due to her nasty remarks to staff and teachers. I am guessing it her fat legs, and cheap haircut plays in the game of looking like a homeless woman. Mary Louis looks like an old meth user that needs more makeup and talks like a fool.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that the principal at Northwest called his entire staff racist. Yet another time he used inappropriate word selection. BIG SHOCK!
ReplyDeletePlease do not make connect back to Springboard. What a joke. High school students from IPS can only "think-pair-share and draw a picture."
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