Are you sick of "highly paid" teachers?

I saw this on the Reading is Thinking blog and followed it over to addictinfo.org!  This is amazing.  I hope all those people who think teachers get paid too much really stop and think about all of this.   

 

Are You Sick Of ‘Highly Paid’ Teachers?

November 13, 2011

By Guest Writer

By Author Unknown (if you know who wrote it, PLEASE let me know)
Teachers’ hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or10 months a year! It’s time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do – babysit!
We can get that for less than minimum wage.
That’s right. Let’s give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan– that equals 6 1/2 hours).
Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day…maybe 30? So that’s $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day.
However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.
LET’S SEE….
That’s $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).
What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master’s degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year.
Wait a minute — there’s something wrong here! There sure is!
The average teacher’s salary (nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30 students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student–a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!!
Make a teacher smile; repost this to show appreciation for all educators.

Off the Grid

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted for so long.  So much has been going on the past few weeks that although I have had time to catch up on others blogs, I didn't have time to sit down and post anything on mine. 
I have so many things going on right now that I would like to have input on, that I don't even know where to start.
I guess I'll start with the Common Core Standards.  Illinois doesn't seem to be doing much in the area of really helping teachers understand the standards and all the changes involved.  I have had to do much web searching to see what other states are doing to find out more information.  I teach in a private school, so we don't have a team of curriculum specialists that are laying out steps to incorporate the core into what we are doing now.  And most of the people I work with think that just reading the standard will tell them exactly what they need to do and what changes to make.  I am finding that it is just not that simple.  Especially with the ELA standards.  Sometimes I wonder why they have to word things so abstractly and make you look for what it is that should be taught.  We only have 2 years before the testing changes to reflect these standards so if we don't get on board now, our results won't look so good!  I am supposed to be changing from a sixth grade self-contained room to teaching the junior high language arts next year and I have to say that planning for this is a daunting job.  There is so much conflicting information out there that I don't even know where to begin. 

Now, if you add to this the fact that our school is in a very depressed area and is lacking in money, that ups the anty even more.  We have to prove ourselves with standards we don't totally understand, no team of curriculum people to help us, and a population of students that are already challenged.  And no real support from home.  We don't have the technology that so many other schools are touting and no money to obtain it. 

I have to say I get pretty angry when I see things like DonorsChoose.org and they won't let teachers from private schools participate.  Do they think WE don't need things too?  Or that our students don't deserve the same as those in the public schools?  The school I teach in is a Catholic preK -8 in a highly hispanic community with an overcrowded public school system that scores poorly on state testing and has numerous safety issues.  The parents that choose our school do so because we can provide a safer environment for their children and an overall better education.  They sacrifice immensely to send their children here.  Many are on reduced tuition or scholarships and free lunch.  We have children with learning disabilities yet the public school system only shares a pittance of its massive special education money with us.  They share only what the state says they absolutely have to share.  To service all the students with special needs in our building, they only give us $3000 a year.  That is total, not per child!  The parents still pay taxes to support the public school system, so why shouldn't they have access to the funds that are allocated for their child????  I don't know if a voucher system is the way to go, but something needs to change.  It isn't fair for the students in our building to receive less just because they are not in the public school system.  Who, as a parent, wouldn't choose a safer environment for their child?  But they are now punished by the govt. because of it???  And why is it that Catholic schools consistently score higher on all standardized tests then the public schools yet we educate with far fewer dollars.  And don't say it's because we don't have all the special ed kids that the public school has.  Percentage wise I could assure you it is comparable.   So why is it that we don't have access to the same things as the public school system?  All of our teachers hold the same certifications that are required in the public school system and are required to accumulate the same hours of professional growth, so what is the big deal?  We are accredited by the state, have to pass the same tests and regulations and follow the same rules, the only difference between us and the public school system is we teach religion and talk about God.  So don't give us any money for that.  But to not realize that our students deserve the same as those who choose public education is a crime.  We are not allowed to even apply for certain grants because we are a private school.  That is ridiculous.  I can already hear people out there saying, "well, the parents choose that so they just have to deal with the fact that they won't have access to the same things" or "you choose to teach in a private school so deal with it."  That is a bunch of horse manure!  ALL children deserve the same opportunities no matter where you send them to school.  If a public school system isn't meeting the needs of its community, then why shouldn't a parent be able to send their child to a private school that is doing a better job AND be afforded the same opportunities there that their tax dollars pay for in the public schools????  

I guess this is a pretty long post so I should save some of my other topics for another time.  If there is anyone out there reading this, maybe you have some ideas you'd like to share. 

What a Great Blog!

If you want lots and lots of freebies and great ideas for teaching, this is the place to go.  I can't believe I hadn't found this blog already.  Just click on the link below to go to Cooperative Learning 365!

http://www.cooperativelearning365.com/

Liebster Award

Thanks to Jena at Caught in the Middle who nominated me for this award.
The rules are you have to thank the person who nominated you, nominate 5 blogs with less than 200 followers and post it on your blog. I am not very good with trying to add links so if they don't work someone help me!!!!

I am nominating the following blogs!
1. Guys Lit Wire
2. A Teaching Life
3. Literate Lives
4. atychiphobia
5. Literacy Minute

HA! Love this quote!

"Peeing is like a good book in that it is very, very hard to stop once you start."
From: Paper Towns by John Green

First Day Back!

Well, the first day back was a busy one. We started the day with some grammar review. I am disappointed that most of my class still does not know the eight parts of speech. We will continue to work on this! I had them identify what the eight parts of speech are, write a sentence, identifying the given part of speech and tomorrow they will make an illustration for each part. Maybe some visualization techniques will help them to remember.
We began literature circles today. It took much longer than I expected to get the children organized. Most seemed happy with their groups and novels. I am having the high group read Mudshark by Gary Paulsen. I just love that author!! My two middle groups are reading Shiloh and Holes and my low group will be working on Esperanza Rising. I tried to match ability groups with Lexile scores, since that is what the common core is heading towards. My high group thought they had the easiest book because it is the shortest! Wait till they try to figure out themes and character development!!!!
In social studies we picked an important person to research. I actually had a list of people and the students picked a slip with a name on it and that was the person they were assigned. I can't believe that they didn't know people like John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill and FDR. UGH! Anyway, for this project they will be gathering some information about birth, country of origin and achievements and then they will write a short essay about their person. As a class, we will construct a timeline and each student will place their person on the timeline according to major achievements. Did I mention this is an illustrated timeline!! To top it off, we will make pop bottle people to represent our person! I found that cute idea on Pinterest!!!
Common Core has a focus on research in sixth grade, but not necessarily long research projects. This is a mini-research project that I feel meets the requirements of the Common Core.
Finally, we practiced a choral reading for Martin Luther King Jr. day. I still do not have all the parts finalized but I think after a few more read throughs tomorrow I will be able to assign all the parts and begin practice in earnest.
In math we started our unit on multiplication and division of decimals. We started slow with a review of estimating. I can't believe the number of students who have forgotten how to estimate, not to mention those that needed to ask what a product and a quotient were! Do you feel my pain???
In science, we finished our science fair papers and discussed any questions they had on finishing their display boards that are due on Friday. Anybody want to make a wager on how many DON'T bring it in on Friday!!!
We are finishing our unit on ancient Egypt in social studies. The students are working on second drafts of their informative essays, final copies of their group illustrated dictionaries and newspaper articles on their topics of research. I expect to have trifold boards completed for Open House at the end of the month. Wish me luck!!
Whew, it was a busy day! And I still have 3 more to go. For those of you who don't go back until tomorrow, I envy your 3 day week!

Did You Know?

I've watched this video a number of times and it still amazes me!