Back to the grind

Thanksgiving came, and Thanksgiving went. I can't get over how fast those days flew by: everyone in Teach For America had been counting down to them like they were this giant miraculous milepost. If I had a dime for every person I heard say "If I can only make it to Thanksgiving..." I'd be a rich girl. But that great checkpoint flew by and kicked us all back to our classrooms this week with a new mantra: "Just a few more weeks till Christmas. Just a few, short weeks, and I'll be fine."

It's funny how in this job you're still plagued by the back to school jitters. I couldn't fall asleep Sunday night, in fact, I can't fall asleep most Sunday nights in anticipation for the upcoming week. It's sick how much time my mind dwells on my students, wondering if each lesson will work, navigating my strategies for each and every class. It's maddening to know that they'll never know how much of my soul and mind is getting poured into this job. It's crazy to know how much I hang on one student's dawning moment or one girl's smile.

But things are getting better. Even though I was nervous, and even though the kids were nuts returning from break, life is still better than I thought it would be. I was bracing for a fight after break, figuring some kind of drama would have developed in all those days off. But school is just school. I think it's a tribute to our administration working non-stop to whip this building into shape.

I'll close today's entry with a really funny chain email that another teacher forwarded. Keep in mind that my numbers are more like 40 students a class. I appreciate it a lot- you don't want to get me started about teacher compensation!

Teacher's Salaries
by Tom Osborne

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 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 them pizza!

_______

Peace and Love.