As a follow up to Sharon's letter, why is it that other departments (citizenship, history etc) get paid for projects and receive extra hours? We as professionals English teachers need to take our contribution as seriously as other departments do, and thus insist that the ministry cancel the project section on the Bagrut until all teachers can uniformly prepare their students and receive just compensation for it. It is not seemly that Histadrut teachers prepare their students for the projects and Irgun teachers don't; thus, creating confusion and disharmony. By combining forces and working for the good of all, we can achieve much more for the students as well as for the English departments. Either we all agree to do projects or we all agree not to until English teachers are adequately compensated. -----Original Message----- From: etni-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:etni-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David Graniewitz Sent: Sunday, February 07, 2010 10:09 AM To: ask@xxxxxxxx; Etni Subject: [etni] Re: Fw: penalizing students whose teachers are on sanctions Sharon, You have hit the proverbial nail on its proverbial head. However, I think that you are rather tilting at windmills, if you think that anyone at the Ministry is going to take a blind bit of notice at your well-written and well thought out point of view. I'm sure that they have been well aware of the unfair situation that has existed ever since they tried to make work done in class count for a substantial part of the final grade without enforcing an effective system of supervising that everyone works in the same way. To do so would have created a lot more work on their part. As long as we, the teachers, kept quiet, everyone was happy. I can't see them backing down over their decision to penalise pupils without projects somehow. Well done on your effort. David Graniewitz Jerusalem penalizing students whose teachers are on sanctions ----- Original Message ----- From: Sharon Tzur - sharontzu5@xxxxxxx Subject: penalizing students whose teachers are on sanctions Dear Etniers: I have just sent a letter to Judy concerning the latest clarification. If I understand correctly, students who come in to the oral without a project will get a maximum grade of 40 on the oral bagrut, even if the reason for their not having a project is that their teacher is upholding the Irgun sanctions. If it turns out that I misunderstood, I will send an appropriate posting. However, if I understood correctly, I think it is unfair, and I wrote so to Judy. Here are my arguments" It is a departure from long-standing ministry policy which has always been to minimize damage to students that results from teacher sanctions. For example, in the year of the 2 month strike, bagrut exams were postponed and the mikud came out early so that damage to students' bagrut grades resulting from the strike would be minimized. I can remember no precedent of students being penalized 12 points in a bagrut subject because their teachers upheld sanctions. I suggested that the ministry change its policy and either: 1) Students whose teachers upheld sanctions and did not do projects get a grade out of 100 based on their interview. or 2) Students whose teachers upheld sanctions and did not do projects be allowed to present a book report or present a piece of literature in place of the presentation on the project. I anticipate that one response to my letter will be that students who did not do projects can't get the same grade as students who did projects because that would be unfair to those who did projects. To that, I gave a rather lengthy response. It is no secret that ever since the bagrut program was changed, some schools and some teachers do not teach literature or do book reports. In fact, the non-teaching of literature by many teachers is openly given by inspectors as one of the reasons that the ministry has decided to put literature back into the bagrut. And yet, during all those long years, students who did no literature, and read no books were never penalized - nor were their teachers. At the same time, many of us continued to loyally carry out the program as dictated by the ministry, teaching and testing literature and doing book reports. In fact, in cases where the lit grade and book reports led to students having a lower school grade than their test average, we often had to take flak from students, parents and principals, but we stuck to our guns and followed the ministry guidelines. That was not fair. As to the project, a similar problem exists. Some of us have carried out the work on the program as dictated by the ministry. We have taken the students through the process of finding sources, we have had the students do process writing, which means checking at least one rough draft and then checking the good draft against the rough draft, etc. This is a great deal of work for which we were never paid. And yet all of us conscientious teachers are well aware of the fact that many schools were taking shortcuts - having students turn in only one good copy (no process writing), having students do the entire project on their own over summer vacation, accepting projects that are mostly cut or pasted or even downloaded in their entirety from the internet. That was not fair. Even in the event that teachers penalized students in their project grade for cutting and pasting, when it came to the ORAL bagrut, the students were not penalized. They could give their three minute talk and get 100 even though they never really did a project in the full sense of the word. That was not fair. That is not fair. Therefore, I do not think that an argument about equality or fairness to those who did do projects is sufficient reason to penalize students 12 points on their English bagrut. Students who were guided through projects by teachers in Histadrut HaMorim, or non-union teachers, or even Irgun teachers who chose not to carry out the sanctions (at least not in their entirety) benefitted from the knowledge they gained by doing a project. Furthermore, the three minute presentation is something that students can prepare for and do well on - so it is to their benefit that they can do it on the oral bagrut. For the sake of equality, the ministry can make the project presentation optional for all students. I also pointed out that in our school, my students did their projects in 10th grade, so this does not affect me personally this year. However, I felt that I must speak out on behalf of many conscientious teachers (who also happen to be conscientious union members) If eventually the irgun manages to negotiate pay for projects (as the Civics teacher are to be paid), then all English teachers will benefit. I call upon the Ministry of Education NOT to penalize students whose teachers are carrying out the directives of the Irgun. Yours, Sharon Tzur ----------------------------------------------- ** Etni homepage - http://www.etni.org or - http://www.etni.org.il ** ** for help - ask@xxxxxxxx ** ** to post to this list - etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** ----------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------- ** Etni homepage - http://www.etni.org or - http://www.etni.org.il ** ** for help - ask@xxxxxxxx ** ** to post to this list - etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** ----------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------- ** Etni homepage - http://www.etni.org or - http://www.etni.org.il ** ** for help - ask@xxxxxxxx ** ** to post to this list - etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** -----------------------------------------------