Sara, thank you for your fine writing. I am especially appreciative of your dedicated effort to remain neutral in your reporting.

In not remaining neutral, I urge everyone interested to PLEASE listen to the "debate" on the Marc Steiner show between Dr. Alonso and Marietta English, president of the BTU. I'll paste the link below. My point: on one side we have a man who has incredible experience combined with academic prowess (taught for 12 years + Harvard law degree, etc...) in contrast to an "elected leader" that loses her train of thought the moment words start coming out of her mouth. Ms. English's logic is non-existent and her reliance on "principle" is dangerous to teachers as well as students. It is a depressing state of affairs. I taught in the City for two years, and I absolutely understand the fear of losing planning time. However, the bottom line comes down to this: the old system didn't, hasn't, and isn't working. Children in Baltimore City have been suffering for 20 years because of "Old Baltimore politics" of the M. English age. It's fascinating to see that now BTU is looking to bring in the Glen Middleton (through proxy, Stacey Middleton). Change is coming.. the writing is on the wall... but if the English/Middleton folks find a way to paint over the letters, this city is in trouble.

Change for changes' sake is worrisome. Change based on the opinion of a man who earned numerous awards for revamping the NYC school system is welcome and exciting. I know that there are numerous young, energetic, and motivated teachers in the field that are praising Dr. Alonso's initiatives. This is not an old v. young issue, it's an issue of the professionalization of teaching.

Good luck, Andres, please don't let the back room politics of the English/Middleton tyranny flourish.

It's no wonder that all of the state delegates in Stacey Middleton's council district ran as far from her as possible to back her young, energetic opponent, Liz Smith. The force of Middleton/English/L. Johnson is a combination for retrograde disaster. Keep up the good work, Dr. Alonso - fight the good fight.

Link:

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wypr/local-wypr-636091.mp3

I am a young, energetic and motivated teacher. I do not support anyone at North Ave. or anyone in charge of the BTU. I support the other teachers at my school and across the city because they don't get respect from anywhere else--the administrators, the bureaucracy of North Ave., the parents, the students and definitely not the public.
I haven't seen enough of Alonso to make a decision about his leadership, but I'm sick and tired of "leaders" in this school system deciding that the best way to lead is scare tactics and intimidation under the guise of "caring for the kids." If it weren't for the kids, I would no longer be here. BELIEVE ME.

I couldn't agree with Steph more. I would just like to add that as a city teacher, I have a compromise. Add more planning time to our contract (one per day) and designate one of those planning periods as a team meeting. Lastly, while the idea of mandating professional development may seem great, we need to make sure that it is quality professional development. Too often the professional development insults teachers' intelligence and does not provide new or relevant insight.

The BTU has always done a good job of representing the best interests of its elected officials. Only rarely do its interests coincide with those of the teachers. I believe that most teachers do not want to be forced to give up their planning time (as I've said before, we do agree that co-planning is great, but given the realities of our jobs, we are struggling to balance so many responsibilities in so little time). I DO NOT believe that most teachers agree with the BTU's call for Alonso's ouster. If the Union actually calls for a vote of no confidence, they will likely be surprised to find themselves on the other side of the fence from the rank and file.