Snow Days Eliminated

Being a graduate student has its ups and downs.  Some days I am so eager to become a teacher that the wait is almost unbearable.  I’m incredibly eager to get into the classroom.  On other days, I feel unprepared and almost fearful of what is to come.  It’s not that I don’t think I will be an amazing teacher; my perfectionism just gets in the way, and causes me to stress.  Stories from current teachers and my professors often help and hinder either side of these feelings. 

One of my biggest qualms is not having enough time in the day to educate my students successfully.  Not only do I want to be a thriving teacher, but let’s face it, these days our jobs are on the line if our students don’t pass certain unnamed tests.  Specials, sicknesses, assemblies and the more unexpected barriers like snow days all contribute to the uncertainties and panic.  So I ask myself, “what can teachers do to counteract these obstacles? “ As I considered this, I fell across this article from USAtoday.com

Goodbye Snow Days!

This article is exciting!  We are learning in class how we can use technology to better our classroom.  Why don’t we use it in this way as well?  Wouldn’t it be nice for students who get sick for long periods of time, to be able to ‘log on’ and keep up with class?  What about if the entire school is out for a week because of a blizzard?  I think most of us have been there whether as a teacher or a student.  Although snow days are nice, it’s frustrating when we have to make up for them.  Of course, there are holidays or special activities that can be sacrificed to allow make-up time.  But even with these added days, it’s often still impossible to fit it all in.    

Let me back up.  In my last blog, I was infuriated that technology was going to eliminate teachers in Idaho.  This is NOT what I am looking to move towards.  But if technology can be used to enhance our schools and to help students get caught up (especially when it comes to testing years), I think this is a phenomenal idea. 

Technology has come so far in such a short amount of time.  I am sure in just a few short years; we will be able to utilize these ideas.  I only hope   that all the schools will have the resources to use them.  That is another blog altogether.  

Idaho-Schmidaho, what are you thinking?

Coming home tonight after a long day of first work, and then class, I began to ponder about what I could write about tonight.  As I sat in the parking garage, waiting for the long line of cars, filled with students soaking up knowledge, to pass through the gates, I considered endless possibilities.  Tenure, standardized tests, use of technology, lack of arts, child development, literacy…. Classes always get my mind churning, and I was having a difficult time focusing on just one topic.  So I decided that maybe I should start with what’s in the news today.  I started to browse education headlines for some fresh ideas.  I didn’t need to look long, because after only a few minutes of online surfing, I came across this eye catching article, which pushed aside any other inspirations:

Idaho to Cut 770 Teaching Positions

By the time I finished the short article, my mouth was so far open, it would be easy to shove a whole fist into it.  And that is what I felt had happened.   I don’t even understand the reasoning behind this idea.  Other than saving money for the school district, I don’t see much value in it whatsoever.  As someone who has taken a few online classes during my collegiate career, purely for the sake of the convenience, I would never recommend it for someone if they could avoid it. No matter the material, or how well the technology is set up for the class, there are people who still need personal interaction to learn correctly.  Not to mention, isn’t this world moving to cyber-land enough?  I can’t imagine taking away the relationships that students get to have with their teachers, just to ‘save money’. 

I am beyond angry.  I do understand that every school district has a budget, and many are in the red.  Some schools are struggling to make ends meet.  Still it seems so frustrating the amount of teachers who are being cut throughout the country.  770 teaching positions seems absolutely preposterous.  This is the most farcical idea I have heard yet.  What’s next, getting rid or text books, cancelling music and art programs, getting rid of the heat… oh wait, there are some schools that are already doing this! 

Being one of the richest countries in the world, I am just baffled at the lack of importance we give our education system.  Our country would rather spend it on making another lame blockbuster, or building a new stadium, rather than putting resources into our schools.  I realize that this topic really is certainly not new, and there are many causes to consider.  But why is education one of the last?  All through the United States’ history, there have been examples of schools and situations that would blow the minds of the upper and middle classes.  There are schools that are definitely not suitable for any human being to walk through, let along stay in for 6 plus hours.  Yet, I continue to find numerous articles related to this topic, with no solutions to counteract them.   In addition, as a future educator, one of the scariest questions we must ask ourselves is, ‘will I get a job after I graduate?’  The economy is tough out there, and although it seems to be slowly getting better, it has a long way to go.  For most of my fellow grad students, we are changing our careers to follow our passions.  What if there are no jobs left out there? 

It would be one thing, if the school was justifying this change to online classes to benefit the students.  It’s nothing new that students need to learn to live and be in the cyber-world.  Technology is vast, and growing at a rapid rate.  But no matter how much someone tries to convince me, a computer will never replace the sensation of human interaction.  I only hope that I am not the only one that is at an uproar over this article. 

Related articles about budget cuts (it took me all of 30 seconds to find):

UFT: cuts-teaching-jobs-loom-mayor-bloomberg

Charlotte, NC to cut teachers

Austin, TX: Hundreds of teaching jobs at risk

Giving Education Apathy the Boot!

Working full-time for a very demanding and fast-paced sales corporation while going to Graduate School for my Master's in Education is both exciting and overwhelming at the same time.  Time is precious, to say the least.  And the situations and challenges that I face on a daily base drive me to reevaluate priorities and consider life’s opportunities constantly.  When the going gets tough, I consistently remind myself that education is the most important thing in the world.  This is why I have chosen to become a teacher, among many other motives.  However, realizing the significance of education and loving children doesn’t seem to be a good enough answer for most of my peers.  They want to know why, and so the story begins…

A few weeks ago, a friend and colleague of mine, was observing me studiously reading a text on how to teach literacy in an elementary classroom.  While witnessing my struggles and determination to get things finished during my lunch break she asked me a simple yet tremendously blunt question about my choices in life:

“Rushel, why in the world would you take this ridiculous pay-cut, go through all this stress and drudgery, just to become a teacher?  Do you KNOW how much teachers make?”

The questions themselves caught me off guard, but the disgusted look upon her face paired with the tone her voice projected caused me to pause in my assessment and simply smile to her.  But then I had to ask, what does motivate me to become an educator?  It’s obviously not the projected salary, it wasn’t because my mother was a teacher, and it’s not because I want the summers off.  Of course I can list the numerous cliché, yet true reasons why I do want to become a teacher: changing the world, loving children, yadda yadda.  But the truth is: I want to do something exciting and worthwhile in my life.   But more importantly I think I was given a gift, and I would be selfish and ridiculous to just sit on it.  The short answer is, I LOVE education, and I want to be a part of it forever.

Another friend of mine has a brother who is a teacher.  Ever since I told her that I wanted to become a teacher the stories of her brother’s woes started flowing out of her mouth like projectile vomit.  She tells me tales all day long about her brother’s challenges and complaints about the education system and fellow peers.  One day she explained, “I don’t know how many times I have heard him say, ‘Mrs. So-and-so shows a video at least one day a week…she is so lazy!’”  In my sheltered mind, I refuse to believe that any teacher is lazy.  Yet, I am sure I am naïve, because they obviously exist.  And then I ask myself, what causes education apathy?  Do education boards and principals demand too much from teachers, especially for the salaries they are given?  Or is it that they do not demand enough?  Is it that educators are burnt out and just don’t care anymore?  Do educators choose to become teachers for all the wrong reasons?  No matter the motivation, these are not the type of teachers we want in our education system today. 

At some point or another, we all hear in the news about standardized testing and the United States falling behind other countries in terms of schooling.  As stated above, there are obviously many things to contribute to this dilemma.  But something that I am afraid of is that we just don’t care.  By, ‘we’ I mean teachers, board members, parents and students.  Education apathy is rampant across the ‘States’.  Is this because teachers are lazy or because students just aren’t given the right tools to learn?  Are we out of resources?  Do teachers not have the proper resources?  Have video games, television, internet-websites, etc caused children not to read or want to learn the basics?  What are the answers to all these questions?  Better yet, are there answers at all?  I am sure it is a combination of everything.  These facts only make me more determined to become the best teacher that I can be.  

By now, I am sure I sound quite redundant, as I do when I am passionate about a particular topic.  But to answer the question that my colleague posed of me not so long ago, I’m not just changing my career simply because I love kids, or because I want my summers off.  Perhaps I want to be an advocate to get rid of education apathy as a whole.  I believe I am very good at motivating people, and my passion and knowledge for education is vast. This, along with my passion for children and willingness to be open-minded and learn is what will make me a good teacher.  I only hope that there are more of us out there.