board77

sauronsfinger wrote:

Public schools generally see homeschooling as somthing apart and completely separate from themselves. So there is not an inclination to use that as a resource to reduce class size.

The entire homeschool arguement often comes down to expertise, credentials and education of who is doing the teaching. If you want to pursue that, i would be happy to. But I imagine you probably already know the normal line of discourse.

It is good that you found a solution for Sarah. Glad to hear that.

While I will admit the reduction is a fraction of what is needed. Homeschooling does prove that smaller classes are important (my experience). I look at teaching like a relay race, you can only go as fast as your slowest student (runner).

I am a perfect example of this. I sucked at math but did well in everything else. I did not learn my multiplication tables until the 9th grade, not for lack of trying I just couldn't get them into my head (Lali and I suspect I am the cause of Sarah's dyxlexia ). In a normal math class I frustrated teachers and other student because they could not move as quickly as they needed.

I was fine in other classes, did make National Honor Society, but math was my Achilles's heel.

Back on task of unions.......

What are your thoughts, as a former steward, on the performance evaluations that I have presented earlier?

freddy

Freddy ... this is the material you want me to discuss?

Quote:

You assess the teacher with actual observations. As a supervisor I am responsible for completing yearly reviews on each of the officers assigned to me. I cannot base this simply on the number of reports, citations, calls for service, alarms responded to, etc etc. I need to have solid personal observations and documentation. Here's how I do this: I fall in on calls the officers' are sent on; I review their reports for accuracy, grammar, etc; I watch them as they interact with the public and other officers, I give them assignments and see how they do.
I have plenty of time to check on each of my officers and it is totally random so they cannot prepare.

If you get a below standard you lose your shift preference and get whatever is left open, usually 3pm-11pm and have to work it for the year. If during that year you improve and you receive a standard evaluation then you are returned to normal selection. You also are not considered for special assignments that may come up (detective, K-9, evidence technician, etc).

If anything in the evaluation is unjust, which we have has supervisors like this, then there is an appeal process through the union to right any wrongs.

If it works for law enforcement then it will work for others as well. Are there biases? Absolutely, but I have found that 98% of the supervisors are soft when it comes to evaluations and don't want to give a bad evaluation. That 2% is what the appeal process is for.

My opinion would be that a good school administrator is worth their weight in gold. And you know that gold is a rare metal.

Sadly, my experience in schools has been that very few administrators do a good job in these type of evaluations. Some do. Some don't. Some are there just be a pain in the butt to make it look like they can find something. Others are there to help when they find weaknesses or faults.

It sounds like you have the role down as far as your duties go. It sounds like you do a good and professional job and I imagine the men under your supervision appreciate constructive criticism.

If I can. allow me to relate one story about a teacher observation. This was the worst teacher in my high school and one who was later fired - and deserved it.

As part of the process, the head Social Studies Supervisor for all of Detroit Public Schools came in to observe him teach. I knew her for many years and had worked with her on several committies and we even shared a car once on a 100 mile trip to an education conference. So there were good lines of open communication and friendship there which is always a plus.

She observed this teacher for a full 55 minute class and took exhaustive notes. After the class she presented her findings and notes to both the teacher and myself as his union representative.

Without giving you the entire 55 minute wrap up- here is a summary of what she saw

9:02 Teacher starts class two minutes late.
9:04 Teacher asks nobody in particular where Deinda is and has anyone seen her. Class does not respond.
9:05 teacher begins to take attendance but has to orally call out several names because students are not sitting in their right seats. Students argue with him asking why can't he just see them. Teacher does not reply to students inquiries.
9:08 Girl in third row takes gum out of mouth and places it under her desk. Teacher says nothing.
9:10 teacher begins to review yesterdays lesson on the end of the Civil War but gets the location of treaty signing wrong. no student in class appears to care or know of the error.
9:15 Student arrives late with no pass or reason - teacher simply goes on teaching without noticing.

9:16 student in row four takes something off the desk of student in row 5 - teacher does nothing

and this went on for many pages for all 55 minutes.

So I ask her if she could come back soon and teach a model lesson. She agrees.
A week later she comes back, I sit in, and it is one tremendous lesson as she is a terrific teacher in every respect. When the kids leave I come up to her and shake her hand and tell her how much I enjoyed her lesson and how terrific she was. She just beams and is really happy with how it all turned out.

Then I showed her my exhaustive notes on her 55 minutes.

I did the same thing to her that she did to the teacher. I emphasized every little negative thing that happened and gave little mention of the positive.

She read a portion of it , saw what had happened and said it was grossly unfair becuase it was not an accurate record of that hour. I agreed with her. But also said that is what she did the previous week to the teacher.

From there we both tried to help the teacher but truthfully he was beyond help and got fired later.

This one is simple. You cannot fairly evaluate anyone, regardless of position, on one fifty-five minutes session. It needs to be over a long period at different times. Life happens and people have bad days and it is the responsibility of the administrator to be able to accurately assess the subordinate. Big picture not microcosm of time.


freddy

Freddy, I would say that the same is true in evaluating unions.

You don't want all police departments judged by the treatment of Rodney King. A balanced view should be accorded to unions as well.

Just for a look at the irony of turnaround ... I belong to the National Writer's Union which is UAW affiliated, and our biggest battle of the last decade was over first-web publication rights and whether or not these are covered by contracts drafted before web publication became available. We won that case in the courts - publishers must re-contract for web rights - but it was very costly.

Now, yesterday actually, I read in the Wall Street Journal that publishers have been trying to collect fees for internet publication of any of the approximately 5 million books for which copyright is still inforce but the books themselves are out of print and enjoy no plans for reprinting. Site owners have to pay copyright fees, the publishers exclaim, because this is a new venue that we did not anticipate .... the exact opposite of the claim they made when they argued against the writers. But once again the publishers, though not losing in court, realized that they would lose in the market because they do not possess enough control over the market to enforce their point of view. So they are dropping their suits and negotiating contracts with websites now, just as they had to renegotiate contracts with writers due to the earlier court decision (Tasini v. NYT).

I think that the union served the public good by pursuing this issue. Who else besides the union has the collective power to bring issues like this into the courts? Certainly no individual writer could afford to do it. And the workplace is changing in comparable, myriad ways, all the time ... internet publication is just one example of the way in which technology and globalization are constantly changing business.

Believe me, you would not be happy living in an economy where the CEO point of view is the only one that receives succor from congress and the courts because it is the only point of view that can afford to be heard. Even as a company owner, a stockholder, you would not be served by that situation.

What exactly is the debate here?
"Unions are capable of very good things."
"Unions are capable of very bad things."

Is there anyone here who disagrees with either of those statements?

Those statements apply to everything that takes action.

Well, guyz, it isn't just The Big Three that are in dire straits. Honda is asking the Japanese government for help, Volvo is going broke, Opel IS broke, Toyata and Nissan are having problems. Those names don't come up in Washington, do they?

It is common, in these discussions, to lay the blame for the Detroit mess at the feet of the UAW, but that union does not work for Volvo, etc.

Nissan Says Second-Half Profit Will Fall to `Zero'

October Auto Sales: Nissan sales plunge

Toyota Cuts Profit Forecast 56%

Toyota’s quarterly profit drops 69 percent

Domestic automakers aren't the only ones feeling the pain, or the only ones asking for help. -Honda is begging for help from their government to intercede on the yen value.





When I picked my kid up at school today, a school with fewer than 100 students, there were about 30 vehicles in the parking lot and along the road. Most of them were big SUV's. Not all, but most. Escalades, Humvees, Navigators, Tundras, etc. My 12 year old car is starting to make me feel very virtuous.

vison

I for one lay a lot of the blame on the major automotive companies for putting their futures into SUVs and trucks, instead of small economy cars and fuel efficient models.

The current administration rewarded people for buying into largesse. giving them tax breaks for almost any reason why they could justify having a gas guzzling behemoth at their disposal.

We have known about the impending fosiil fuel crisis since at least the seventies.

Nothing has been done in all of these years, NOTHING

The major auto makers SHOULD have been aiming for smaller more efficient cars, or maybe cars that could haul a larger amount of people but cut down on cost per mile, and what did we get? A freaking trade in Hummers, Limos, and extended cab trucks that just make me sick.

What happens to the auto companies they deserve, and IMO, there should be NO bail out. They saw the handwriting on the wall and willfully ignored it, thinking that the government would bail them out, as they are now again seeking to do.

Let them flounder, I think it is time we need to see better stuff arising from the ashes.

BTW, I do not mean not to offer them protection from restructuring or reorganizing or whatever else it takes, but, no way am I in favor of billions of dollars going to companies that were so greedy as to now say they are nearly bankrupt. They are bankrjupt on their own greed, and they need to solve it themselves.

yovargas wrote:

What exactly is the debate here?
"Unions are capable of very good things."
"Unions are capable of very bad things."

Is there anyone here who disagrees with either of those statements?

I disagree with both of those statements.

TheEllipticalDisillusion wrote:

yovargas wrote:

What exactly is the debate here?
"Unions are capable of very good things."
"Unions are capable of very bad things."

Is there anyone here who disagrees with either of those statements?

I disagree with both of those statements.

Weirdo.

Jnyusa,
Unfortunately, we were judged by the Rodney King incident. If I heard "Rodney King" one I heard it a thousand times when I arrested a minority, simply handcuffed and nothing else. I have other thoughts on the Rodney King issue but don't have the time or inclination to argue them.

TW,
It was supply and demand. People wanted the big trucks and were buying them up so it was supply and demand. I wish they would have made them more fuel efficient and they have finally started doing this.


In closing, I have to bow out of this conversation. I have background investigations to get done before next Friday. Enjoy and thanks for the good banter, I learned a lot and might have changed my point of view (slightly )

freddy

Good luck with your investigations, Freddy.

[rant] My husband watches CSI. I HATE CSI. I hate it like poison. Not so much because it's stupid and unrealistic although it IS stupid and unrealistic. I mean, Freddy, how many women police officers have long, flowing, luxurious hair and fabulous makeup and figures like Barbie and all that? The women cops I know are okay looking, but when they're on duty they sure as hell don't look like that. One of our seasonal employees is married to an RCMP officer, she's a Sergeant now. She's a very pretty woman, but she wears her hair very short and wears no makeup at work and while she does have a pretty good figure her uniform doesn't exactly show it off. Sometimes she's in plain clothes, but even then, she looks like Rita the Meter Maid: a military man!!!

If David Caruso was eaten by a lion, I'd be glad. I mean, the actor, not the stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid part he plays. Actually, I don't think he's acting, I think he thinks he is that guy.

[/rant]

vison wrote:

Actually, I don't think he's acting, I think he thinks he is that guy.

If he makes you think that, he must be a fantastic actor.

vison wrote:

Good luck with your investigations, Freddy.

[rant] My husband watches CSI. I HATE CSI. I hate it like poison. Not so much because it's stupid and unrealistic although it IS stupid and unrealistic. I mean, Freddy, how many women police officers have long, flowing, luxurious hair and fabulous makeup and figures like Barbie and all that? The women cops I know are okay looking, but when they're on duty they sure as hell don't look like that. One of our seasonal employees is married to an RCMP officer, she's a Sergeant now. She's a very pretty woman, but she wears her hair very short and wears no makeup at work and while she does have a pretty good figure her uniform doesn't exactly show it off. Sometimes she's in plain clothes, but even then, she looks like Rita the Meter Maid: a military man!!!

If David Caruso was eaten by a lion, I'd be glad. I mean, the actor, not the stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid part he plays. Actually, I don't think he's acting, I think he thinks he is that guy.

[/rant]

CSI has not helped in the area of EV collection. If me or my ev crews hear one more time "They can do it on CSI" I might choke the idiot! On a side note, if we had women that looked like that we would have no problem recruiting! Men or lesbians......

Back to backgrounds.

freddy

Jude wrote:

vison wrote:

Actually, I don't think he's acting, I think he thinks he is that guy.

If he makes you think that, he must be a fantastic actor.

No, I think David Caruso thinks he's whatever the character's name is, I forget. Hector, or something. It's not acting, it's impersonation.

I saw part of a CSI episode. I turned away after they got a GC/MS result and a DNA sequence in, like, 30 seconds.

Freddy wrote:

Unfortunately, we were judged by the Rodney King incident.

Yes, I know! And it's a grossly unfair comparison.

Freddy, this went over my head when you posted it earlier, but I wanted to ask about it now:

Quote:

If you get a below standard you lose your shift preference and get whatever is left open, usually 3pm-11pm and have to work it for the year.

What happens if everyone gets a good review? How do you alot the least favored shift?

vison wrote:

I mean, Freddy, how many women police officers have long, flowing, luxurious hair ....

Especially in a sterile lab where ... hair! ... is what is being tested!!

Quote:

David Caruso was eaten by a lion, I'd be glad.

Me too. He repeats every sentence as if English is his second language ... or yours. But you know what? I LOVE CSI. I watch all three of them just about every week. I devour trashy detective novels too, even though the silliness of the characters and plots are sometimes beyond enduring. There's just no accounting for taste.

Freddy wrote:

CSI has not helped in the area of EV collection.

That's actually one of the serious things that does occur to me while watching the shows. How many county evidence facilities could afford to be equipped like that. What an expense it must be. And when you find a hair at a crime scene, what are the odds, seriously, that it comes from the killer? Practically zero would be my guess.

Ah, Jnyusa, I like trash too. After all, I write a fair amount of it . . . .
But I like my trash without David Caruso.

Blegh on David Caruso. Blegh on CSI. My BIL is a detective, and he, like Freddy, laughs at these shows.

"Oh, look, the cat hair shows that this came from a calico, which we know is the same type of cat that the deceased's ex-boyfriend's current girl friend owns. And, I just happen to have pieces from her garbage which contained a lint removal piece of tape, which also has cat hairs on it, and guess what, they are a match."

GROAN

We very rarely give out below standards (I can think of three in fifteen years). So what that means is the shift choice is done by seniority. Right now a guy that has almost fifteen years on barely made days. This will loosen up a little in a couple of years when we have a large amount retire (thank goodness!). It's done by seniority for each rank. I've got two below me right now and could have had days next year if I wanted it. This was only because the other five sergeants senior to me did not want it.

Hair?!?!?! You're lucky if you find a really good print. We have a really good lab that actually covers around eleven counties. They do a great job but it still takes about three months on latent prints.


freddy