There was so much noise in the hallways and rooms today that a fellow just walked in and started speaking into hes cell phone, saying, "can you hear me now?" We looked at him and one another, puzzled. Addressing nobody in particular, he said that he couldn't find anywhere quiet enough to hear his caller with good enough reception. Supposedly we're in a quiet room, or rather our room is quiet. A friend of mine who is also a teacher said he could probably handle the reassignment center, having heard that he could just sit and read here. I told him that it it quite noisy and busy. He said that he prefers background noise and goes to coffee shops to do work or read. I suggested that it's a different scenario that is in the detention center. There's people here who keep trying to engage me in conversation, and I suppose some of them are being friendly, but others seem hyperactive and unable to sit for great periods of time at length.
I think I am gaining a closer perspective to that of my students; who become agitated in their seats and increasingly unsettled at their desks throughout the day. I wonder how they ever would have managed in my school when I was a student, in which all the students remain in their seats in the same classrooms throughout the day and have teachers come to their classrooms, rather than the students change locations. I commend our students who have no recess (as I had when I was a student), and a cafeteria-only lunch that is just one class period in duration (unlike the whole hour that I had when I was a student - for which we were also permitted to leave the school building), with only three minutes between classes. I don't think I could spend effective days under such scrutiny. For what are our students being prepared, with such school schedules? To spend their working days suspended in detention centers? It doesn't seem that the people in charge care very much about the true well-being of those under their watch. And those who do care seem to be obstructed from their endeavors. We keep having to plead, "can you hear me?"
What is "The Rubber Room?" Simply put, "The Rubber Room" is a room where hundreds and hundreds of New York City schoolteachers presently sit, being paid full salary to do absolutely nothing. But, like so many things, it's not quite so simple... What Happens? Each year in New York City hundreds of schoolteachers are suspended. Their teaching privileges are temporarily, but indefinitely, revoked. Accused of a wide range and varying degrees of misconduct, these teachers are no longer allowed in the classroom. Instead, while awaiting a lengthy adjudication process, they are compelled to report to an off-campus location commonly referred to as The Rubber Room.
Read this newspaper article about it. Look at the trailer for a documentary film about the rubber-room. Look at the film's website. Listen to the radio broadcast on NPR's This American Life.
Read this newspaper article about it. Look at the trailer for a documentary film about the rubber-room. Look at the film's website. Listen to the radio broadcast on NPR's This American Life.
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