You read it here first.

Last winter when the sub-prime mess started its domino-like collapse I suggested maybe something good would come out of this mess. This last week we saw the financial markets implode, too. Am I still willing to say something good will come out of this? You betcha!


Maybe, just maybe all those folks who wanted to be wealthy and are now out of a job might think about going into teaching (or any of the helping professions, for that matter.) When I went to college in the 1960’s, yes I AM that old; women went into teaching, nursing or business. The ones with business degrees became secretaries and were often more educated than their bosses. I went into teaching because I came from a family of teachers, actually from generations of teachers going all the way back to Prudence Crandall, one of America’s most famous educators.

We were often told in our education classes that “You don’t go into education for the money.” Now I would guess professors could tell their students, “You can go into teaching because they will always need teachers.” It could be that there might even be a teacher glut, as happened when I graduated in 1970. Also, here in Arizona we were told, jokingly (or not), that we were paid in sunshine. Actually, we were paid far below the national average. The districts in the teacher glut days were in the position of the business, financial and computing worlds of the last couple of decades, of being able to pick the best of the best and for a few years, being a teacher was a job of respect.


Maybe this is coming full circle. Now (most teachers my age have taken early retirement) age is actually on my side and I get the respect that older folks used to get. My students and parents know that I am teaching because I want to, not because I have to.


Young people entering college, and perhaps those who have lost their jobs in the business, financial and computing worlds, will decide that teaching is a secure job. Yes, my job is secure, but, and I know I keep saying this, it is a job where the perks never show up in the paycheck.


Yesterday, my husband and I went to Subway where a former student who was working there called out to me. I asked her if she was going to college, because I have always pushed higher education. “You said I had to! Remember? And boy, you were right!” Sweet words. Maybe she’ll decide to teach.

Planning Time (or Previous Blog, Part II)

Here are some updates, of sorts, from the previous blog:


We are finding out that most schools in our district have a supervised recess time, usually 3 to 5 times a week. Our principal says that the teachers complained they needed blocks of time to teach and were given that. I think that there was some miscommunication. No one knew they were giving up our 3 time a week recess. On Tuesday and Thursday we have no break after P.E., which is first thing in the morning. We then go 3 1/2 hours straight until lunch. It's a long haul.

Junior high and high school teachers get the 1/2 before and after school prep time, plus a full 50 minute period EVERY day. Our 30 minute specials are really 20 minutes because we, of course, have to walk our kids back and forth. Also, we lose an additional 30 minutes prep time per week due to duty schedule.

I knew when I started teaching, in 1970, that it wasn't easy, but the paper work has become enormous and absolutely everything MUST be documented. I have an Autistic child in my class which means he has a 504 aid with him. She, however, is not my classroom aid. She is entitled - by state law - to a 15 minute break every day. She does not have to go with him to specials. Why am I not entitled to that same break? Oh yes, teachers don't go to the bathroom.

I know there are many of teachers who are strictly from the book and never create any of their own materials. I can't do that, so I suppose I could get back a lot of time that way, but the students and I would be catatonic. The results from tailoring the material make it worth it to me.

Would I go into teaching today? I truly do love what I do. It is so enormously gratifying. I do feel I make a difference. The public doesn't respect teaching because so many teachers don't respect themselves or value what they do. Yes, I would still teach. It is my calling.

ATTENTION ALL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS!

Here are my questions:
(1.) What are your specials (P.E., Music, Art and Media Center/Library) and how often do you have them?
(2.) Do your students have a recess? (Not including lunch recess.)
(3.) Is it a daily recess?
(4.) Morning or afternoon, (gulp?) both?
(5.) Does an aid supervise or do you supervise your own students?
(6.) How much planning time do you get per day/week?
(7.) Are there days when you you get no am or pm breaks?
(8.) Do you have a computer lab?
(9.) Do you have a full time person to run the computer lab?

Here are my answers to the above questions:
(1.) P.E. - one half hour, twice a week
Music, one half hour, once a week
Art, one hour, every other week but on Monday so we lose quite a number to Monday holidays.
Media Center/Library, one half hour, once a week
(2.) One 15 minute recess every other week on the Monday we don't have Art.
(3.) No daily recess.
(4.) Neither
(5.) No recess
(6.) Planning time: 30 minutes before and after school, and the days we have specials. A total of 7 1/2 per week. (These include the times for specials.)
(7.) The Mondays we don't have Art we have no breaks from 7:50 -12:05.
(8.) We have a computer lab.
(9.) We have no one to help in the computer lab.

Please let me know. If I just put in that time I would never get anything done. As with most teachers I come in very early and stay very late and more often than not work on weekends. That is the way it has always been. However, we used to have a 15 minute supervised recess everyday and it was necessary for both the teachers and the kids. Now that is gone. Maybe we were just terribly spoiled.
P.S. For those of you who say to quit my bitching because I ONLY work 9 months of the year, I would remind you that I don't work a 40 hour week. It is, as with most teachers, at least 60, and we now work 10 months. By the way, I spent 2 weeks of my summer vacation taking classes that were required for my certification. I did not get paid for them, either. The best part of the job is, of course, the kids. There are few jobs that have that benefit.

A Sad Day for Public Schools

One of the teachers at our school came in to talk with me. She commented about a list of words I had on the board. I explained it was one of our language lessons where the class had brainstormed about words that were trite, words like cute, nice, awesome were among the most obvious. We filled up the board and the kids came up words that were insightful and clever, for example, the sarcastic, "What?What?", always said in a sneering manner. They understood that it had become overused and meaningless. The journal entry for the next day was for the students to listen for people using trite words. Lastly, the kids used their thesauruses to look up words to replace their favorite trite words. The lessons, quite obviously, were about raising their awareness of trite words and how they do little to foster written and spoken communication. The kids got it and were genuinely surprised at how often we use trite words. The teacher continued to look at the board and finally said, "What does that mean? What does trite mean?" This woman is probably in her thirties and was more than likely taught by teachers who didn't know how to write. Teachers who didn't have a love of language and its nuances. I can't blame her, but I can honestly say that for just a second I thought she was joking, but no, she didn't know what trite meant. It makes criticism of public schools valid. It also made me feel immensely sad.