Friday, February 29, 2008

The Way I See It #279

Seeing as I haven't done a Starbucks post in a while, I figured it was time.
Happy Friday Starbucks day to you all!

"Beware of turning into the enemy you most fear. All it takes is to lash out violently at someone who has done you some grievous harm, proclaiming that only your pain matters in this world. More than against that person’s body, you will then, at that moment, be committing a crime against your own imagination."
-- Ariel DorfmanNovelist, playwright and essayist.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Teacher's Salaries

I got this email today from a fellow teacher, I think it's something interesting to think about. I don't feel underpaid...yet. But I do think that overall teachers are a little overlooked. And yes, there is a hint of sarcasm.


Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year!

It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do--baby sit!

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. That would be $19.50 a day (7:00 AM to 3:30 (or so) PM with just 25 min. off for lunch).

Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children.

NOW...How many do they teach in a class, 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day.

However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! We're not going to pay them for any vacations.

LET'S SEE....That's $585 x 180= $105,300 per year.

What about those special teachers and the ones with master's degrees?

Well, we could pay them minimum wage, and just to be fair, round it off to $7.00 an hour.

That would be $7 x 6 1/2 hours x 30 children x 180 days = $245,700 per year.

Wait a minute--there's something wrong here!

Average teacher salary $50,000/180 days = $277/per day/30 students = $9.23/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student.

A very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even try - with your help - to EDUCATE your kids!

WHAT A DEAL.... And the parents don't even have to buy us pizza!

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Quotes Of The Week

"I'm choking!"

"You played Bingo without me?"

"Can we do the Electric Slide without you?"

"Panda bears make their babies live in wooden nests."

"I won him!"

As you can tell, there was much educational value to all that I taught this week, including the Electric Slide.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

The Doctor Is In

I had strep throat two weeks ago. My prescription - amoxocillin for 10 days. I have a bronchitis thing now. My prescription - codeine, prednisone and a Z-pack.

I love my job, just not the side effects.

I will be spending the remainder of my day preparing for the heavily anticipated Valentines Festivus at school tomorrow. May the force be with me.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Then It All Makes Sense

I had a parent tell me today at conferences "Thank you for teaching my daughter." This is, to date, the first and only thank you I have received for doing my job. And, it was one of those moments, in the midst of chaos and stress that made me stop and remember that the reason I do this is because of the kids. All that I love about teaching happens in the classroom, and everything that frustrates me about teaching happens outside the classroom.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Conferences

Parent teacher conferences are quite interesting. I learn why the children are the way they are, sometimes good, sometimes bad, occasionally ugly. For example, I was told the following comment by a parent at a conference.

"I don't understand this s--t you send home for homework."

Well then, where do you go from that??? Awkward laughter, definitely. Offering a 2nd grade refresher course, perhaps. Smile and nod, sometimes. Turn it around so that some good comes of it, of course.

I am learning that the challenges of parent teacher conferences are not so much telling parents what their children need to work on, or even that their child has a horrible behavior problem. It is more that I have to respond to comments like that in a positive, gracious and professional way. That's hard. I didn't really want to have to deal with that particular incident, especially since a comment like that tells me that school is probably not the top priority in this parent's mind. But somehow I manage to graciously turn around even the most crude of comments, so that the parents leave feeling encouraged, the student leaves feeling smart and I smile and walk them to the door hoping my message, or even a fraction of it, has been understood.

Time will only tell.

Little Known Abi Facts

I’ve been tagged by Cheri.



I am to list 7 random facts about myself…

  1. My favorite sandwich is a BLT.
  2. In college I was in a lip-syncing contest to a Romanian pop song, inspired by this man
  3. I have not shopped at Wal-Mart in 6 months, and never intend on spending my money there ever again.
  4. My hair has never been dyed or permed. It is like baby hair.
  5. On Saturday mornings I try to drink an entire pot of coffee while watching the food network.
  6. I've had head lice.
  7. If it were up to me, I would wear flip flops year round, even in a foot of snow.
I, unlike Cheri, don't have as many blog friends, so I am going to tag Jess, my fellow Romanian pop star wannabe. We'll see if she rejoins the land of the blogging.

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Dirty Laundry

I am the proud foster-owner of a washer and dryer! My friends are lending me their washer and dryer until they move somewhere with hookups. Since my apartment has washer and dryer hookups, they asked me if I could keep them for a while. Hmm, no question there! I now can do laundry like a normal human. What a blessing!