Ask a teacher on Summer Break

[Cecelia]

What was Switzerland's position on "war loot" entering the country during WWII?

I'm on summer break!  Not in a classroom!

Generally though, Swiss Banks didn't question transfer orders from German banks, which made it even easier for the Nazis to steal from their victims.  Switzerland also was very happy to take Jewish money, but not so happy to take Jewish refugees.  

I taught in Berkeley, California.  After No Child Left Behind we started getting a new breed of administrator.  Any collegiality between administration and teachers pretty quickly evaporated.  When I started teaching, no one in administration had a clue about math education and the district didn't set very clear goals.  So I've experienced rudderless administration and I've experienced top/down, micro management.  Neither is ideal of course.

How is the administration at your school and district and has it changed since you started?

The administration at school hasn't changed in the 9 years I've been there.  It's... okay.  I mean I think they could support us teachers a little better.  But it's not awful either.  I mean it could certainly be worse.  Early on, I definitely felt the lack of support.  I wanted to do a women's history month program with our department, but that idea quickly got shut down.  And I gave a student a 0 on a paper, and the principal didn't back me up with the parents who insisted their student be given a 'better grade'.

I actually mostly like our district's administration.   We recently got a new Superintendent, and he's been pretty good so far.  Hopefully it stays that way.  It helps though that he's a former teacher.  In my first years teaching it was a lot worse.  It got to the point where even the taxpayers were like "Give our teachers their raises!"   You know it's bad when it gets to that point.