R.E.S.P.E.C.T

Teachers, generally, are not hated as a whole profession. There are a few bad apples, sure. But for the most part, people often do not find us all that horrible. Now dentists, no one likes dentists. There are fears that are endless and the pain of dental work is unbearable. I can understand why people hate dentists. There are all the Wall Street bankers and corporate workers that really seem to bother people recently. The one percent making gobs of money, yes they seem to bother people as well. There are also jobs people take for granted that really seem horrible: trash collectors, mail carriers, slaughter house employees, road construction workers and the like. We think little of them yet they make the world go round.

Teachers don't really carry a bad reputation or go unnoticed like the afore mentioned careers. People seldom fear teachers. No one protests our over paid salaries. We hardly get forgotten about in the grand scheme of things. I have even had numerous people go as far as to say they find my chosen career path admirable, respectable or even daring...until one man.

Now this was barely a blind date...a first meeting would be a better descriptor. He is one of the gems people describe when talking about online dating. We had ordered a first round of drinks...our last round as it turned out and started some of the basic "get to know you" questions. These questions are basically just a recall of everything on our dating site which spurred this first meeting originally. As we are talking jobs he asked me what I did again. I reminded him I was a teacher and then time stood still. He slowly opened his mouth and uttered the words, "I don't respect teachers."

It was not unlike the scene from A Christmas Story in which Ralphie slowly utters "fuuuudddgggee" while helping his father with the flat tire. We all remember the scene. We all know the terror Ralphie felt and the shock of those around him. This scene played out rather similarly and I blinked in disbelief. Did I just here those words uttered out loud? The knee jerk reaction to throw my drink in his face never happened as I was too stunned to react. Who actually says something so horrible, to a teacher at that?! He had no real basis for his thoughts. No bad memories causing this attitude towards a profession shaping the minds of the world's youth. It was just a general disrespect for a teacher, not unlike how I feel about strippers. Nothing completely wrong with strippers, I don't hate them, no bad experience, I just don't find it completely respectable. (I don't however compare teaching to stripping all that often. I mean, after all, a stripper makes much more than I do.)

Now correct me if I am wrong, but I have a rather naive belief that most people find most teachers somewhat respectable. To think so strongly in the other direction makes me really question a person. Do people truly not understand what a teacher does? Is this a feeling that is widespread among the general population? If this all happens to be the majority rather than the minority opinion, please contact me directly. Upon removing my foot from your ass I will escort you to my classroom to see what I do everyday. Maybe then you will understand.

Its been a long time...

It has been almost a year since I last blogged. Why may you ask...well sometimes life gets in the way and it is easier to update on Facebook with a few quick keystrokes as opposed to a long winded blog that most will not read.

A lot has happened in the last year. I finally finished my Masters degree! Yes, 3 years and thousands of dollars later got me one extra letter behind my name, turning my BS into a M. Ed...the job stayed the same. December 2010 was bittersweet. I was so glad to be done with my 23rd year of school, yet unsure how life is supposed to continue on with "free time." In my new free time I decided to put all my time and energy into two things: running and dating. Both had many ups and downs. Both required training, tears, and stress. I am happy to say I met the most amazing guy and we now live together. Our life is just starting together and I am looking forward to the future with him and his daughter. I also trained for and successfully completed a half marathon. With these two life accomplishments under my belt I feel I could get back to this lowly blog and expand my growing audience of readers' minds! (See, I am still sarcastic, that hasn't changed!)

I did get a new job which has swelled me over with happiness. I am again working with students with Autism, this time in a public high school setting. I am hoping this new job leads me to more great stories to share with you. I intend to pass along happenings that will make you laugh, make you cry, make you ponder, well hopefully just laugh.

A life without laughter is far from worth living. Laughter can stop tears, bring people together, ease physical tension and promote an overall sense of well being in the body and brain. I am glad I have chosen a profession in which I laugh daily, smile often, and rejoice in the small things in life.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Despite what people say, the three reasons that teachers choose to teach are not June, July, and August. Lets be honest, any free time we get in the summer is highly cherished...but many schools now are year round, if they are not teachers often opt to teach summer school. (Fine, plenty teachers will disagree with me, but I like to think of us as more noble than this!)

I, however, do very much enjoy my holiday free time the best!!! I cannot imagine having to go to work the day before or after Christmas or Thanksgiving...been there done that. Retail helped get me through school and I am happy to say I will probably never have to worry about working the holiday season again!

That is all...a very pointless blog you may say, and I would have to agree! I just wanted to express my great joy of having 5 days off for Thanksgiving and 2 weeks off for Christmas! My joy is bubbling over and I had to share it with the whole interwebs! Please don't hate me...in fact feel free to buy me presents or send me pie!! :P

Education and Tea Parties...

I know people do not often approve of my ranting and raving about my political views. However, in light of the current elections I feel some things must be mentioned so the fives and tens of people who read my blog stay up to date and informed.

On a blustery Tuesday 5 days ago a Dr. Rand Paul became the Senator of Kentucky. Now, the Tea Party is becoming notoriously popular for their grass roots movement, the extreme right views and of course their opposition to the terrorist based masturbation movement. Rand Paul is a proud Tea Partier. (Google tells me partier is not a word, but apparently there is no other way to suggest his affiliation in this tense.) Dr. Paul has made quite a few lofty claims regarding his beliefs and his plans for America's future. Before I launch into his educational beliefs, please recall that this is the gentleman who feels Civil Rights laws should not be enforced!! (Seriously?? We already won that war sir...please don't bring it back! I do not mind eating in a restaurant with people of different skin color and neither should you!)

Alright, so to keep with the theme of the blog let me explain his views on education. TO HELL WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION!! Well, maybe he never said those words, exactly, but I do love poetic license! He does feel taxes should be cut towards the Department of Education. As a teacher I know the Dept of Ed is far from flawless and yes, No Child Left Behind has literally left America much further behind all other developed nations...(but that rant shall be saved for a posting about George W in which there is no blog big enough.) Despite the major flaws in our education system, please try and imagine where we would be without a body to govern it! Pure chaos is all I can imagine! Not only does he want to cut funding, he wants to do so in order to support homeschooling. Now am I against homeschooling? Yes, as a teacher and my 5 years of education for my undergraduate degree and my 2 years for my Masters in Special Education, I do feel I am more qualified than SOME parents at educating children. After all...if I was arrested and on trial I would feel a lawyer would be more qualified to represent me rather than myself giving it a go. If a parent is against the health care system I would surely not think of suggesting they provide their own medical care to their children when they are ill, however, this is the alternative being provided for parents who don't support the education system. Should homeschooling not be an option? Of course not! Their are some excellent curriculums parents can purchase and if a parent is qualified then by all means I would support home schooling. I do still feel that there should be some laws and government departments to place guidelines and protective measures on homeschooling which is what Dr. Paul is against. If this ever happens it is basically telling the average American to go ahead and homeschool however they like. After all, they are the parents and to hell with highly qualified teachers. I can only imagine the disastrous outcomes that would occur if his thoughts on education actually caught on around the country...Our test scores are already trailing many countries, can you begin to fathom what would happen if a country who supports Nascar and fast food were left to their own devices for educating children??

In the Age of iEverything... Pt C

I have spent the last two posts talking about technology in the classroom and what an avid proponent I am of such technology. My current school just put up Smart Boards in every classroom which is SUPER amazing! (This post is not about Smart Boards or their awesomeness so please access the link if you are unaware of this great technology for teachers.) I stand behind any school who is willing to go the extra step or dollar to make their classrooms interactive.

HOWEVER, every up has a down and every positive has a negative. Despite my huge support of technology I thought I would take a minute to share the downsides it can have in a classroom, with a very true to life tale.

Once upon a time there was beautiful princess. She greatly upset the wicked queen and was banned to a life of low paying servitude in an education setting...

Fine, don't believe me...I was working in my classroom for children with Autism, but trust me, there was a wicked queen, errr director. Back to the tale!

I was assisting one of my high functioning kiddos who was quite smart. He worked on a reward system in which he could earn highly reinforcing items for appropriate behavior. For him this was the internet. As I sat with him on his 15 minute computer break I began multi-tasking, which is normally great but today proved horribly wrong. The additional work caused me to take my eyes off the screen for a bit. When I looked up, expecting to see some dumb anime website, I saw Google maps on street view. How peculiar, it looked just like my apartment complex neighborhood! Oh but it was! This little ankle biter had used the white pages to locate my address and searched for me! His plan was to "murder me while sleeping." Luckily he did not live in the same city as me and does not have access to reliable transportation. (Notice I left out my doubt in his ability to carry out murdering me.)

Whenever I get on my high horse about technology in the classroom, I just think back to this shining moment in my career and start to research the price of encyclopedias!

PS: I am forever and a day unlisted from here on out!

In the Age of iEverything... Pt Duex

If you recall my previous blog...which sported an awesome must see video, you will recall the great importance I place on technology in the classroom. I do try and stand by this. I have often allowed students to research on the internet as well as use different computer programs for creating reports that were not in document form. This might not always be the case, but I try and make it happen when I can. In fact, one time I was meeting with my supervisor and she told me she wanted the students to learn how to use research materials, i.e. dictionaries and encyclopedias. I proudly responded, "Fear not, they know how to search wikipedia as well as how to access dictionary.com and ninjawords.com." I take great pride in knowing my students were internet savvy. Not that I can take credit for this, I am pretty sure that group of students came out of the womb with a GameBoy DS in hand. She was upset because "EVERYBODY" should know how to use an encyclopedia....What??? WHY??? I surely do not go to my local city library and check out an encyclopedia to do research (Well mainly because you can't check them out, but you get the drift.) Heck, the higher up one gets in education the only research allowed is from peer reviewed journal articles which can mainly be found ONLINE! I do not see the value of teaching archaic methods of research when my classroom was equipped with two internet accessible computers. Well, the supervisor put her foot down...so I kindly asked for her to purchase me a set of encyclopedias. Magically Wikipedia worked just fine!

In the Age of iEverything... Pt 1

I heard a random quote while passing by a radio with a news station on...(I have no source for this information, unless "small counter in parents' kitchen" can be somehow sited in APA format!) This quote mentioned that the average child spends about 5 hours on some sort of computer equipment daily. Hmmmmm, sounds about right, but how often do you see children learning on computers in school? I mean as an adult, many jobs require the use of computers or internet access almost 24/7. Technology, social media, Smart Phones and all things computers are quickly shaping our lives and how our society functions! Holy geez, I make grocery lists on my iPhone, support my social life through Groupon, make plans via Facebook, take classes online, document my life through photos and twitter updates, heck even my mom just downloaded a new book to read! Why would we expect our nation's children to do anything different?

To drive my point home I considered composing a lovely essay on the importance of technological use in modern day classrooms...but I happened to stumbled across a video that clearly sums up my thoughts with fewer words and cute little kids! I thought rather than reading me ramble on, this video would suite you better! I really feel this is something everyone involved with children and schooling should watch. It points out some severe problems in the American education system and offers teachers a wide variety of options to make learning meaningful, active and hands on!

I will give you a minute to grab your popcorn....

3...2....1....

Now I am sure those who actually read my blog might have opposing view points. It should even be known that I too have denied my students the opportunity to create school work with technology as it might become harder for me to monitor. This is something I hope I can grow away from and learn how to better utilize in the future. I have some more thoughts that will hopefully be blogged in the near future to expand upon the use of technology in the classroom!