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kendoman1
Joined: 14 Jul 2005
Posts: 69
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 Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 2:11 am Post subject: Has your job got you down? |
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Has your teaching job got you down? Have a look at this teacher and get pumped up about your teaching.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw1MFobWD_o |
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nonsmoker
Joined: 20 Apr 2007
Posts: 352
Location: Exactly here and now.
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| Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 2:14 am Post subject: |
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It won't load in my browser  |
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partialtone
Joined: 09 May 2007
Posts: 137
Location: CA
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| Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 2:25 am Post subject: |
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Heh, I have loved that poem for a while now. There's a great response to it though on, "Why teachers suck."
One of the things I love most about teaching in the USA is how much pity goes towards teachers. In California at least, there's a myth perpetuated that teachers are underpaid. A college graduate with only one year of post grad education starting at 40,000 with 3 months vacation is not too bad at all. The beauty of it too is that the more years you teach the easier your job is, yet you get paid much more. So I'll take all the misplaced sympathy the public wants to give if it means initiatives for teacher pay raises and benefits.
Oops ... maybe I've said too much. |
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kendoman1
Joined: 14 Jul 2005
Posts: 69
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JaredW
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 105
Location: teaching high school in Sacramento, CA, USA
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| Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 5:26 am Post subject: |
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| partialtone wrote: |
Heh, I have loved that poem for a while now. There's a great response to it though on, "Why teachers suck."
One of the things I love most about teaching in the USA is how much pity goes towards teachers. In California at least, there's a myth perpetuated that teachers are underpaid. A college graduate with only one year of post grad education starting at 40,000 with 3 months vacation is not too bad at all. The beauty of it too is that the more years you teach the easier your job is, yet you get paid much more. So I'll take all the misplaced sympathy the public wants to give if it means initiatives for teacher pay raises and benefits.
Oops ... maybe I've said too much. |
As a high school teacher in California, I can tell you that we get paid really well considering that I can always supplement my income after school and during the summer. Where a lot of the griping comes from is the exorbitant costs of health care and poor leadership.
As for health care, my health insurance each month for my family and me is $1300. The district covers 80 per cent and I the rest. It is a benefit to have the district cover that much but not all districts in the state provide that much coverage to their employees, and the prices rise each year.
As for administration, a lot of power over hiring and firing resides in one individual, the principal. Some would say that is reasonable and how it should be. Personally, it's not reasonable because usually the principal is a lackey of the district superintendent, has less than a year of education more than me, and hardly has the time to adequately observe individual teachers.
The tenure process in the public schools is tenuous at best. In California, tenure is granted after two years. Usually, new teachers are ass-kissing and taking on extra duties during the pre-tenure years so that they won't get unilaterally non-reelected (fired) by the principal that maybe only observed him/her once or twice in a year. If it were up to me, I would opt for a longer tenure process--five to seven years--if I knew that I would be able to be assessed by a committee of administrators, fellow teachers, and parents. As it stands, the principal can fire a teacher in the public schools before they get tenure.
But, there are a lot of benefits to teaching in the public school system beyond the satisfaction of teaching the kids. My salary after 5 years of teaching is approaching 60K a year. And, after 20 years, I can retire. That means when I'm 50, I'll have 28 years of teaching under my belt, and I can retire at 80 per cent of my income. Because of these two benefits, I hesitate to go to Japan even though I really want to get back there.
There is still a lot that can improve. There are too many ideas for this post, but I'll be more than glad to discuss them. |
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partialtone
Joined: 09 May 2007
Posts: 137
Location: CA
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| Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:04 am Post subject: |
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| JaredW wrote: |
| partialtone wrote: |
Heh, I have loved that poem for a while now. There's a great response to it though on, "Why teachers suck."
One of the things I love most about teaching in the USA is how much pity goes towards teachers. In California at least, there's a myth perpetuated that teachers are underpaid. A college graduate with only one year of post grad education starting at 40,000 with 3 months vacation is not too bad at all. The beauty of it too is that the more years you teach the easier your job is, yet you get paid much more. So I'll take all the misplaced sympathy the public wants to give if it means initiatives for teacher pay raises and benefits.
Oops ... maybe I've said too much. |
As a high school teacher in California, I can tell you that we get paid really well considering that I can always supplement my income after school and during the summer. Where a lot of the griping comes from is the exorbitant costs of health care and poor leadership.
As for health care, my health insurance each month for my family and me is $1300. The district covers 80 per cent and I the rest. It is a benefit to have the district cover that much but not all districts in the state provide that much coverage to their employees, and the prices rise each year.
As for administration, a lot of power over hiring and firing resides in one individual, the principal. Some would say that is reasonable and how it should be. Personally, it's not reasonable because usually the principal is a lackey of the district superintendent, has less than a year of education more than me, and hardly has the time to adequately observe individual teachers.
The tenure process in the public schools is tenuous at best. In California, tenure is granted after two years. Usually, new teachers are ass-kissing and taking on extra duties during the pre-tenure years so that they won't get unilaterally non-reelected (fired) by the principal that maybe only observed him/her once or twice in a year. If it were up to me, I would opt for a longer tenure process--five to seven years--if I knew that I would be able to be assessed by a committee of administrators, fellow teachers, and parents. As it stands, the principal can fire a teacher in the public schools before they get tenure.
But, there are a lot of benefits to teaching in the public school system beyond the satisfaction of teaching the kids. My salary after 5 years of teaching is approaching 60K a year. And, after 20 years, I can retire. That means when I'm 50, I'll have 28 years of teaching under my belt, and I can retire at 80 per cent of my income. Because of these two benefits, I hesitate to go to Japan even though I really want to get back there.
There is still a lot that can improve. There are too many ideas for this post, but I'll be more than glad to discuss them. |
YES! You nailed it exactly. I'm amazed how many teachers are suckered in to applying to the "competitive districts; all they do it cut the benefits and up the pay. It's sad but it seems to be giving them their pick of the best teachers. I'm sorry to hear the principle does all of the hiring and firing in your district. It's the same here too. It's pathetic how the person who works with the teachers the least can decide who is in a department. I've heard of districts that invite the department chair to the interviews (what a novel idea!).
Really, increasing the years needed for tenure is a great example of how the union works against education. Remember that proposition a few years back that wanted to do exactly that (increase the years)? The CTA declares that they don't like it, Taylor Mali blows a wad all over the public, and the proposition goes down in flames. Meanwhile TERRIBLE teachers are safe in their permanent jobs.
Haha, anyways, this post isn't about griping about CA schools. I just love it when people blow meaningless sunshine on how teachers should be paid more. I too think that CA teachers do well.
What do teachers make? Well let me wrap up my rant with my idea. They'll make WAY more than they deserve when bad teachers stop being protected by the union. I want people to be literally afraid to enter the field of education. I want them to think their ass is on the chopping block if they mess up. Suddenly you'll see the amount of so-called "qualified" teachers drop, good teachers� salaries and benefits will increase, and the competition for real professionals to become a teacher will increase (hey, it worked for medicine and law). Meanwhile, as a decent teacher, I will have to change nothing and just sit back and watch as the fat gets cut away. Honestly, I know I'm not the best teacher, but I've told my students from time to time that they are lucky to have me as their teacher  (haha, but I don't tell them it's because I know how some other teachers are)
So to wrap up, I like the Mali poem, but I hope he follows it up with a poem suggesting REAL solutions.
PS. That's a tough call about going to Japan, but don't feel stuck just because of tenure. (that's another one of their tricks ) I don't have tenure in my district and it was never one I planned on staying in long term so I took the job in Japan before I got tied down. Heh, you have much more experience than me, so you'd know better than me, but I hope your decision is as easy to make as mine was! |
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JimDunlop2
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Posts: 2286
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 5:47 am Post subject: |
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Then, when you're done watching the above video clips, try this one:
http://www.makeadifferencemovie.com/
It's a bit too over-the-top saccharin sweet for me, but the message is valuable. |
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Yawarakaijin
Joined: 20 Jan 2006
Posts: 504
Location: Middle of Nagano
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| Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 3:02 pm Post subject: |
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Great video. Did anyone read any of the youtube comments? I got about 4 in before I cracked up.
Quote: "right after this speech, he went and invaded Poland." LOL  |
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