Monday night’s recruitment fair left a fair amount of Teaching Fellows feeling dejected. There were quite a few schools there, but only a handful had the gold star stickers on their display tables that denoted they were recently opened and could in fact hire new teachers. Waiting in line for those tables sometimes lasted 40 minutes. The recruiters at the new schools seemed interested in taking our resumes but not necessarily that interested in us.
A couple of teaching fellows I spoke to afterward recounted conversations with school representatives in which they were told the schools were not actually considering new teachers, even though they were in a position to hire them. The mood was definitely not an optimistic one. Fellows literally sweated as the lines inched forward. Our conversations were about nothing but the hiring freeze, the curt responses (or lack thereof) we’ve received from sending out or dropping off our resumes and the group interviews they’ve attended that were conducted in an unprofessional manner (f-bombs were spoken during a recruitment session at which there were at least 6 new fellows, including me, in one interview group).
It’s all beginning to feel like a maze leading nowhere. “Why are we being interviewed by schools that later say they want only experienced teachers?” one fellow asked. “Why were we accepted into the program only to be pushed aside by even the most high-need schools because of the freeze?” My question is, why were we accepted to become teachers when there were already hundreds of teachers not working in classrooms who ostensibly want to be working?
On that last note (and this is going to make some readers angry, I’m sorry but I’m trying to get at the truth), a number of principals with whom I’ve interviewed have voluntarily told me that they “can’t find enough ‘qualified’ ATR teachers” to fill their 60% slots. They are frustrated that the DOE has tied their hands.
By telling me this information, they pulled me in to the conversation. I asked these principals if there was a way for them to access just the ATR teachers’ information and target their recruiting specifically at them. All of the principals told me the same thing (and I have no reason to believe they know each other – they are all in different boroughs and far out in each of those boroughs, I might add) – “At least 50% of the ATR teachers do not have contact information (resumes, email addresses) listed on the Open Market and I can’t contact them.” The ones they have contacted, they say, have not responded to their phone calls or emails or come to their recruiting events.
Trying to be an informed person, I’m aware of the UFT’s assertion that the ATR teachers are great teachers who want to teach and who have been actively searching for jobs but are being discriminated against. So, is it just another poisonous rumor that 50% have no resumes or emails listed? Is it possible that the principals with whom I’ve interviewed were telling me this stuff because they have agendas? Why would they share this information with a teaching fellow – with someone that they haven’t hired? Does that mean it’s true? And if so, why isn’t the union fixing this to get those ATR teachers some email addresses so they can network and get placed asap? If it’s not true, are the principals just trying to make me anti-union?
In the words of the principal with whom I interviewed today, “I’m not sure what effect this hiring freeze is going to have on the profession, both in terms of inspiring more people to become teachers and the morale of the incoming cohorts of future teachers.”
Thoughts?
Oh, and to answer the anonymous commenter who wants me to “focus on what really matters – teaching children well,” I would like to say that I’m doing that to the maximum extent possible (reading UbD, Differentiating Instruction, Harry Wong, Dr. Fred Jones in addition to the NYCTF book and pre-training activities, visiting nearly 20 schools and soliciting advice from teachers I know), but if I don’t find a job this fall, I still won’t be “teaching kids well” no matter how much reading and observing and demo lesson-ing I’ve done.
Filed under: Becoming a Teacher, Cohort 18, New Teacher Hiring Freeze, alternative certification | 4 Comments
Okay, let me throw out some thoughts as a 7th year NYC teacher. Open Market to us educators in the system is a total sham! Before the recession, I knew colleagues who sent out 20+ resumes and did NOT hear from one school. They got new jobs by networking.
Not sure if you are aware, but every year all teachers fill out “preference sheets”. There is a lot of internal reshuffling that goes on. Other people, retire. Some secretly leave NYC once they secure jobs on Long Island and New Jersey. And, some people just move or quit. None of this is officially known until at least August because teachers don’t have to tell anyone until they feel secure. This may have came about because up until a few years ago, principal’s had to “release” teachers before they were allowed to leave and they usually didn’t do so until they found a new teacher at the final job hiring fairs in late July.
ATRs run the gamut from 1st year full-time subs who have been excessed earlier this year to 20 year veterans. Admin doesn’t want to hire top salary, tenured staff sight unseen. And basically, it’s everyone for themselves: teachers, admin, and the DOE. This is the system that we live in unfortunately.
It seems awfully unfair, BUT I think opportunities for you Fellows will open up in a few weeks. It’s still early in the game. Try to expend less energy on the current situation. I think most you will have a job soon and you’ll need the energy for the students!
Hang in there everyone!
XYZ, this is a tough issue. I feel for the excessed teachers. I also feel for us. I take issue mostly with Randi Weingarten’s highly dismissive attitude toward new teachers in general, her future dues paying members, not with the idea that the ATR pool needs to be able to find jobs. Not with the idea that excessing teachers for years is wasteful – it is wasteful of human as well as financial capital. But just to make it so that any new teacher can’t be hired is to say we don’t matter, the Union doesn’t give a crap about us, and by extension, the union doesn’t give a crap about the future of teaching. How do they expect not to alienate us if they don’t even offer a “we’re sorry this has to happen to you now, but…” clause? I thought these people were politicians! Where’s the diplomacy?
That IS the DOE’s issue. They PAID the NYCTF to look for you all! They CHOSE to put a hiring freeze to save money that they had already wasted to search for new Fellows in a recession. “The union does not give a crap about (us)” because they don’t want to continue to protect mistakes made by the DOE. Why should the union be sorry?
You need to stop wasting energy on things that truly don’t matter at this point.
We are told by the DoE and the UFT to look for jobs. But how can we when the official transfer login site
https://www.nycenet.edu/offices/dhr/transferplane/apps/login.aspx
has the following “need not apply” message?:
“Important Note to All Users – Read Before Attempting to Register or Log In:
This system will not recognize user accounts from the Excess Staff Selection System or user accounts from prior Open Market periods. If this is your first login attempt for this Open Market period, please register as a new user.”
A cookie must indicate that my PC belongs to an ATR, because this subtitle appears early in the webpage:
“Excessed Staff Selection System – Sign In”
Activists and reporters need to know: we can’t apply to schools even if we want to. This flies in the face of official policy saying that ATRs have priority.