What a way to feel valued as a teacher...

[FruitChicken]

I earn $42,000 a year....where are these $100,000 jobs?

In regards to sports, I will not see kids for almost a week at a time because they're in this tournament and that tournament. I'll eat in a restaurant at night and watch a schoolbus from a district 250 miles away roll in with their athletes and feed 40 kids a $12/person dinner after a game...how many textbooks could be purchased with the cost of playing a basketball game on a Friday night 250 miles from home? This isn't the kind of place where the kids would be paying for their own meals.

You're right that they fall short in science. I should know that, as I teach science. You know what though? I teach high school and many of them can barely read. They honestly think that 9 + 16 is 24. They panic if I ask them what the square root of 9 is. They have asked me how many months my birds are pregnant for before they give birth. They don't know how to spell "doorknob" or "physics." I wish I was kidding. It's not all of them but I would say it is a good 60-70 percent of the children.

These are all deficiencies that developed LONG before I even got to meet these children. Quite honestly, I was even a child when they were being educated in these important things. By the time they get to me, it's too late.

I do what I can to fill in the cracks of their foundation but the apathetic, welfare benefits-rich environment of the town I live in gives them the message that school is not important. They know that their 16 year old friend can have a baby, go on maternity leave, drop out/get a GED later on and get enough benefits that she can go on shopping sprees in Target and sit home in her apartment all day. They look at me with my beaten-up car and bargain-store clothes, and then look at their siblings who engage in shady things with their new cars and new $120 sneakers....who are they going to take more seriously for their futures? They have the NBA, NFL, and MTV giving them their values...what good am I?

Yesterday, I had to discipline a child for repeatedly coming to my class and refusing to do any work. He treats me like I'm the crap under his shoes and openly disrespects me. I've tried politely sitting with him, speaking to him privately, offering him alternatives that would meet his needs, etc. What's the end result, you might ask? His MOTHER doesn't show up to school even though she was home...his 20 year old SISTER does, dressed inappropriately for an important meeting, and spends 20 minutes loudly telling me off for "picking on him" while the kid sat there smirking. No apologies, nothing. I have to "understaaaaaand" why he treats me like I'm a piece of crap and disrupts my class.

Priorities have become skewed. Teaching has become a battleground. I love the job but I don't like the blaming of teachers that goes with it. I did not give birth to these kids. I did not play a part in the first 15 years of their life. To say that I am worthless, useless because a lot of the parents I deal with don't care enough and treat their children like crotch-droppings instead of important little human beings does not give someone the right to say I can't do my job. I do my best every single day I go in there.

 

[WyandotteTX]

In Texas, Teachers have to pay for their own retirement. The state doesnt contribute any to that. The state tells us how much we can get once we do retire and is in control of our money. I pay over a $100 for health care out of my check(district pays the rest) but as for retirement contribution...I pay over $350 a month and my district pays nothing.....and its mandatory as well!!
Fruitstand.....it is really sad how kids in our classes just dont care about learning anything. They are too busy worrying about what new video game or technological device they can get to worry about intelligence. Seems like there is just an absolute lack of common sense about most anything....I teach World Geography and love it, always have. I try to stress each and every day how there are millions of children across the world that would do anything....anything to be sitting in their desk getting an education. We seem to have a generation of kids lost in pop culture and technology. Of course there are exceptions and exceptional students.
I am a coach but I am not going to berate or try to change anyone elses mind about the value of what we do. Many teachers love to degrade coaches but yet they are the first person they ask for help when little johnny is acting like an idiot in class.....Have sports and all extracurricular activities gotten out of hand? Yes. But we need to have these kids involved in something or otherwise we have lots of idle hands....
Many kids wouldnt show up to school at all if they didnt have some sort of outlet. In all honesty as well, many times the students coach may be the only smiling face they say each day. We may be the only one to ask them how they are doing, we may be the only one who seems to care about them. Thats a very sobering idea but it is very true I am afraid.

 

[FruitChicken]

Quote:
You ARE important! I would never want to eliminate sports, or any other extracurricular. I'm not against sports, or any extracurricular, but I do think that especially with the new UIL changes to district meets, that 250 miles each way of traveling is a bit insane when kids need to be learning and budgets are straining.

 

[michickenwrangler]

To the OP,

I got laid off from a district 2 years ago so I know EXACTLY what you are going through, waiting for months to find out if I was going to get laid off or not ... it was almost a relief to finally hear the bad news so I could start making decisions about my life.

Unfortunately some political and other rhetoric has changed the perception of teachers. Teachers make too much for working 7 hours a day and 9 months a year, teachers get cushy pensions, teachers don't have to pay for health care, it's teachers' fault that Johnny can't read and that the Chinese are smarter than us, etc ... It's very frustrating.

I spent 4 hours last Wednesday at a professional development where we talked about technology in the classroom and teaching skills like creativity and critical thinking in the classroom. The presenters basically said with today's youth we can't just sit them down, expect them to sit and pay attention. They need technology to manipulate, hands-on and visual methods of learning.

Yet the politicians and other higher ups still have the outdated and ineffective testing that they insist on. Unless things get changed at the top, nothing will get changed in the schools. Believe it or not, but many teachers ENJOY teaching controversial subjects. In my middle school Spanish classroom, we have a discussion on bullfighting and they write a paper on their own stance on the subject (Importance of tradition vs. animal cruelty), we do a little bit with comparative languages (I'll write the word for "mother" or "horse" in 10 different Indo-European languages and we discuss the similarities they see, then I'll add the Nahuatl [Aztec] word for horse, "Cahuayo" and we discuss that. Many students are able to make the connection to Spanish and know that they had to invent the word because there were no horses in Mexico before the Spanish so they adopted the Spanish word "caballo.") At least in foreign language Michigan is now trying to emphasize vocabulary and comprehension over grammar drills and verb conjugations.

 

[FruitChicken]

Quote:
Isn't it interesting though that they're always telling us how we're teaching them the wrong way by making them sit down and pay attention, yet they force us to sit for hours on end getting lectured to with nothing to do but play with our thumbs? ;-)

 

[Katy]

My kids had some good teachers who should have earned more and others who weren't worth one thin dime.

There are no perfect jobs and we all make the choice which vocation to follow. We're self employed farmers. We pay for our own health insurance to the tune of $9000 per year ....and that's with a $10,000 deductable per person. We have very little retirement savings......we certainly haven't been able to put enough away to live on. My husband is 64 1/2 and would like to slow down, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon. I don't mean this as anti-teacher by any means, but there are a lot of us out here who would like to have the benefits that some of you have.

Quote:
Sports were a big part of my kids' life (especially the youngest 2). Our school district didn't pay for meals....the kids either took a lunch or money to eat at McDonald's.

 

[country lady]

I agree with some of both sides of this discussion. Read "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman if you want a frightening glimpse of the future of our country. I think in general that our society is rude, crude, undisciplined, and completely disrespectful, and we have the worse parenting in generations. Anything goes. To use the "F" word to a teacher would have had major consequences when I arrived home. I think schools should teach basics mainly and not use schools to "socialize" our kids. Fluff courses waste too much precious time. I also think our kids do not spend enough time in school. There are so many vacation/holidays now. We are not an agricultural society any more. What with divorces, single moms (and dads), drugs, pregnant teens, etc., our society is a mess. So many people are losing good jobs, skilled jobs, that will never return. Teachers should not expect to be a special group with special benefits when even high tech jobs are leaving. It is scary for us all and this country is BROKE. Everybody must share the pain. My two cents.

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
Sports were a big part of my kids' life (especially the youngest 2). Our school district didn't pay for meals....the kids either took a lunch or money to eat at McDonald's.

I was thinking the same thing when I saw that someone has to pay $100 a month for health insurance. Now that is a benefit that is RARE!!!! Most people have to foot a $700/month for health insurance that basically sucks.

Teachers are only as good as the person behind the title.

 

[booker81]

Quote:
Exactly - we all can choose to do what we wish for the most part, but each and every one has is upside and downfall. Sure, I like having pretty much free health insurance through DH, and a guaranteed pension, but the likelihood of him even surviving his job to retire is not very good - in fact, it's pretty dismal.

Jobs pay what they need to pay, and teachers are deserving of what they make. Everyone wants to make more, but it's pretty stupid to punish people for the career they chose. I'd like to see the folks in congress seats - state and federal - start taking cuts long before they impose them on folks who work in a career.

 

[soap&eggs]

I.M.O. my sister is a special needs child teacher in wi...for many years led mom dad..me..other family members.. to believe she has not had raise since 1993..& pays own health insurence. i believed her. originally i listened & took pity..support my sister who was a underpaid teacher..you bet ! i even voted for gov. walker....i made a big mistake in saying.." all over paid govt workers "...Bam !!! i got lextured & same quotes ive seen written on here when others dared to make their opinion known..if you never did the job you shouldnt comment unless you know what you are talking about,ect ect..i was told same things..also alot more nasty stuff..next day i did what i have never considered doing..checked on line for teachers wages for her school....talk about being shocked !!! most factory workers in area make approx $30,000 - $50,000 pay own insur ...her salary wages are over $85,000..plus free pention,plus she pays less then $5. a month for health insur.....plus any other benifits given..granted her job is tough & long hours..but so is mine..nurses aides, farmers..babycare workers..ect ect ect..for many yrs when my kids were younger i worked 3 jobs..at once..2 were farm work which did not even have to pay you minum wage and i worked groc store 38 hrs a week...husband had fact job...what blows my mind is the lies she told family..about her low wages..i paid her health insur for family ..i couldnt afford our own .i just found out also from another sister..my teacher sisters husband..makes $350. an hour for his profession....i have never complained of much in life..this is the life i chose..but for her and many others who are getting that pay from us..shame on them..if you are a professional with contracts for us small little no bodies paying your insur & pens. you are called a teacher or govt worker..if you need a helping hand in tough times..its called welfare & called lazy...yep it pays to go to college so others will pay your life stlye..