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Monday, October 31, 2016

Attacking me is okay, attacking teachers of disabled children at the same time is despicable.

I became the story when the Times Union printed a piece about a quickly fixed error I made on my my blog and I will talk about that sooner than later.

A comment on the piece in the Times Union however upset me, and not because of what the writer said about me as I have definitely heard worse from better, but what they said about teachers of special needs children

From the Times Union,

Alexander Roberts

Chris is a self described troll, which means that he uses his blog to be a provocateur, not to be whistle blower or to educate. Everyone in the system knows he is a bad teacher. He transferred to an ese center not because of a love of students but to avoid accountability. Meaning, low functioning ese students do not take state assessments so students scores are not included in their evaluations. Chris is a troubled man who still has not grown up. He has been arrested over a dozen times and hides in an ese center as a wanna be journalist. At times, he has decent points and criticism but those are lost based on his arrogance, rudeness and exaggeration. Most teachers do not agree with most of his opinions. Those that do tend to also be bad teachers who should have left the classroom years ago. These are the few teachers who ruin the profession, hide behind the union, and collect paychecks. Overall, if anything, his blog demonstrates that the 1st amendment has been protected. He has beat up leaders for years with exaggeration on his blog with no consequences. When playing with fire, you will be burnt. Chris misstepped once again with his facts and got caught. Period. In ANY corporate organization this man would have been fired years ago. Despite his own declaration that he advocates for teachers and public schools he has done more to hurt both than help. Hatefulness toward leaders and systems, coupled with exaggerated and manipulated facts for the sake of sarcasm will not improve anything. Keep that work for sophisticated political cartoons. His blog demonstrates how low media has fell since the raise of the internet. 


I found a lot wrong there but I wanted to concentrate on one part.

He transferred to an ese center not because of a love of students but to avoid accountability. Meaning, low functioning ese students do not take state assessments so students scores are not included in their evaluations.

First of all I didn't transfer to the ESE school I was surplussed from my last school and assigned there. Then students at ESE schools take what is called the alternate assessment it's a state assessment by the way and I "and the 18 other teachers "hiding there to avoid accountability" receive VAM scores based on those performances. 

We are required to teach access points, modified regular standards to children who are profoundly mentally disabled and have little chance of learning them. You can not like me, make up stuff about me, attack me, all you want, but to attack and belittle the dozens and dozens of hard working dedicated teachers who work with our most fragile and challenged children at center schools, saying they do so just so they can avoid accountability and to dismiss those children as inconsequential, that those schools are dumping grounds for reprobate teachers and not deserving of a quality teacher is despicable.

I get it, don't like me or the blog, but why belittle teachers of special needs children, why write or comment about things you know nothing about?

I imagine Alexander Roberts is the made up name of a coward but the ignorance there is real. ESE teachers are real teachers and they work incredibly hard and they deserve better to be lumped in with criticism of me. 
Chris is a self described troll, which means that he uses his blog to be a provocateur, not to be whistle blower or to educate. Everyone in the system knows he is a bad teacher. He transferred to an ese center not because of a love of students but to avoid accountability. Meaning, low functioning ese students do not take state assessments so students scores are not included in their evaluations. Chris is a troubled man who still has not grown up. He has been arrested over a dozen times and hides in an ese center as a wanna be journalist. At times, he has decent points and criticism but those are lost based on his arrogance, rudeness and exaggeration. Most teachers do not agree with most of his opinions. Those that do tend to also be bad teachers who should have left the classroom years ago. These are the few teachers who ruin the profession, hide behind the union, and collect paychecks. Overall, if anything, his blog demonstrates that the 1st amendment has been protected. He has beat up leaders for years with exaggeration on his blog with no consequences. When playing with fire, you will be burnt. Chris misstepped once again with his facts and got caught. Period. In ANY corporate organization this man would have been fired years ago. Despite his own declaration that he advocates for teachers and public schools he has done more to hurt both than help. Hatefulness toward leaders and systems, coupled with exaggerated and manipulated facts for the sake of sarcasm will not improve anything. Keep that work for sophisticated political cartoons. His blog demonstrates how low media has fell since the raise of the internet.
Chris is a self described troll, which means that he uses his blog to be a provocateur, not to be whistle blower or to educate. Everyone in the system knows he is a bad teacher. He transferred to an ese center not because of a love of students but to avoid accountability. Meaning, low functioning ese students do not take state assessments so students scores are not included in their evaluations. Chris is a troubled man who still has not grown up. He has been arrested over a dozen times and hides in an ese center as a wanna be journalist. At times, he has decent points and criticism but those are lost based on his arrogance, rudeness and exaggeration. Most teachers do not agree with most of his opinions. Those that do tend to also be bad teachers who should have left the classroom years ago. These are the few teachers who ruin the profession, hide behind the union, and collect paychecks. Overall, if anything, his blog demonstrates that the 1st amendment has been protected. He has beat up leaders for years with exaggeration on his blog with no consequences. When playing with fire, you will be burnt. Chris misstepped once again with his facts and got caught. Period. In ANY corporate organization this man would have been fired years ago. Despite his own declaration that he advocates for teachers and public schools he has done more to hurt both than help. Hatefulness toward leaders and systems, coupled with exaggerated and manipulated facts for the sake of sarcasm will not improve anything. Keep that work for sophisticated political cartoons. His blog demonstrates how low media has fell since the raise of the internet. 
Chris is a self described troll, which means that he uses his blog to be a provocateur, not to be whistle blower or to educate. Everyone in the system knows he is a bad teacher. He transferred to an ese center not because of a love of students but to avoid accountability. Meaning, low functioning ese students do not take state assessments so students scores are not included in their evaluations. Chris is a troubled man who still has not grown up. He has been arrested over a dozen times and hides in an ese center as a wanna be journalist. At times, he has decent points and criticism but those are lost based on his arrogance, rudeness and exaggeration. Most teachers do not agree with most of his opinions. Those that do tend to also be bad teachers who should have left the classroom years ago. These are the few teachers who ruin the profession, hide behind the union, and collect paychecks. Overall, if anything, his blog demonstrates that the 1st amendment has been protected. He has beat up leaders for years with exaggeration on his blog with no consequences. When playing with fire, you will be burnt. Chris misstepped once again with his facts and got caught. Period. In ANY corporate organization this man would have been fired years ago. Despite his own declaration that he advocates for teachers and public schools he has done more to hurt both than help. Hatefulness toward leaders and systems, coupled with exaggerated and manipulated facts for the sake of sarcasm will not improve anything. Keep that work for sophisticated political cartoons. His blog demonstrates how low media has fell since the raise of the internet. 
hris is a self described troll, which means that he uses his blog to be a provocateur, not to be whistle blower or to educate. Everyone in the system knows he is a bad teacher. He transferred to an ese center not because of a love of students but to avoid accountability. Meaning, low functioning ese students do not take state assessments so students scores are not included in their evaluations. Chris is a troubled man who still has not grown up. He has been arrested over a dozen times and hides in an ese center as a wanna be journalist. At times, he has decent points and criticism but those are lost based on his arrogance, rudeness and exaggeration. Most teachers do not agree with most of his opinions. Those that do tend to also be bad teachers who should have left the classroom years ago. These are the few teachers who ruin the profession, hide behind the union, and collect paychecks. Overall, if anything, his blog demonstrates that the 1st amendment has been protected. He has beat up leaders for years with exaggeration on his blog with no consequences. When playing with fire, you will be burnt. Chris misstepped once again with his facts and got caught. Period. In ANY corporate organization this man would have been fired years ago. Despite his own declaration that he advocates for teachers and public schools he has done more to hurt both than help. Hatefulness toward leaders and systems, coupled with exaggerated and manipulated facts for the sake of sarcasm will not improve anything. Keep that work for sophisticated political cartoons. His blog demonstrates how low media has fell since the raise of the internet. 

5 comments:

  1. Chris, this is a classic example of why so many of us are leaving the profession. The people who have the most to say have never worked with children and have no clue the hell teachers catch trying to educate the kids. In my earlier years I worked with the ESE students and there are special challenges associated with working with them. I just think that we need to leave the babies out of this and allow cooler heads to prevail. Again, as long as we continue to have people to bash you and the people who voice very legitimate concerns about what is happening in the teaching profession, we are creating a void that will take years to recover from. Those who continue to ignore the concerns of the teacher can apply for the teaching positions that are left as we continue to leave in droves, and make no mistake we are leaving. Whatever happens, good luck to you and thanks for giving us voiceless and abused teachers a voice. We may not always agree with you, but we appreciate you for your efforts to garner fairness without fear of being fired!

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    Replies
    1. Stated perfectly! Thanks Chris for having our backs!

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  2. As to Mr. Roberts, who is I hope not--
    I do not appreciate Mr. Roberts inaccuracies regarding vam scores -there is no hiding them, in fact, they are public . I also suspect he does not know how they are calculated nor anything about State Assessment Requirements. Mr. Alexander also refers to an "ESE Center" as somehow "less than" . That is so inaccurate and demeaning to the students and their families. The words of Mr. Alexander and his opinion of exceptional education children are insidious and cruel and are directed towards children who cannot easily speak to your remarks. Shame on you, Mr. Alexander. Chris may be over zealous at times or headliners are on the sensational side but he has never disrespected the value of children, of any type, at any time. Shame on you, Mr. Roberts , for you needn't have said anything about special children while still making your opinion known.



    ps-Mr. C., proof your spelling ,syntax and sources. Clearly people are reading. and thinking. Final Drafts Only :)

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    Replies
    1. Most public leaders do not take the time to research individuals they choose to criticize. Why didn't of our leaders leap to to the defense of these students who could not defend themselves? Any of them with a background in education or ESE should have been on the front page demanding an apology for how ESE was portrayed to the public. It's an exceptional job for exceptional people who do wondrous things to help children fighting tremendous obstacles succeed in school and in life.

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  3. I'm a great teacher and I agree with most of what you say. So do all the other teachers I know, good and not so good.

    ReplyDelete