Can I Get a Witness?

A year ago, my colleagues and I were walking the line, the strike line, that is. Many of our students were "striking with us" by staying home, but some still came to school. The scabs that crossed the picket line gave our students packets of "busy work" and let them watch "Sponge Bob" and "Pimp My Ride" on TV in the classroom. We've come a long way from those difficult times, or have we?

Sometimes I forget about what my reactions were like when I first starting working in the public schools. I was initially outraged by the working conditions. You see, I was used to working for companies that made good money and treated their employees as important assets. The VENTILATED bathrooms were clean and stocked with tissues, lotion, etc., the kitchens were stocked with snacks and water, juice and sodas, while coffee brewed every morning for the employees. Food was ordered in for you if you had to work through lunch. All those civil "conveniences" disappeared when I started teaching elementary school.

Teachers who have been teaching for a long time don't even notice things that completely shocked me. They've become complicit in their own sub-standard working conditions. The first school I student taught at had teacher bathrooms that were converted from the kid bathrooms. The "conversion" consisted of the toilet version of a high chair. (See photo.) It was a "lift" that was set on the seat so you didn't have to squat so far to sit down. I didn't even know they made these! This same bathroom was also being used as a storage room so it was packed full of boxes. The sink didn't have hot water either. Then the first school I taught at had a staff lunch room with no hot water and a bathroom with no hot water. I was flabbergasted! Working in the "Petri dish" we call a classroom has you exposed to all kinds of germs and bacteria. I wanted to wash my hands with hot water! Is that too much to ask?

My current school has hot water in the bathroom. It also has hot water in the staff room. Hallelujah! This was certainly a perk! And Kathy, our office manager (and much more!), puts out snacks everyday in the office for us all to munch on as we pass through. I've never asked, but I'm sure she buys those snacks with her own money. What she may or may not know is that those snacks are a morale booster. It makes me feel appreciated. She also decorated the bathroom, so it feels like a real honest to goodness adult experience. It may sound silly, but those things make an impression on a person. (Thanks, Kathy!)

I've had to modify my belief that my work environment is a reflection of how I am valued. If I went into the public schools clinging to that theory, I would have quit after my first week. I think the schools/districts/state get away with it because most teachers are crazy when it comes to what they are willing to do. Why? Because it's for the kids. And what a way to exploit us! We are willing to put up with all kinds of crap because our goal is to make things better for the kids. So many teachers spend thousands of dollars a year on their classrooms and the kids. It's not as if they're buying laptops for everyone. They're buying, markers, pencil boxes, pencil sharpeners, erasers, copy paper, art materials, etc. Basically, it's the NECESSARY supplies. And most teachers never get reimbursed for everything, if anything. I ask you, what job can you think of where an employee buys things for the office or a client and they DON'T get reimbursed?

They've got us, though. Because "they" know that we won't stop buying what the kids need, because we don't want them to suffer. I realize I'm not being exploited like a migrant farm worker or something, but it IS still criminal, in my mind.

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Priorities

I lost my good friend Ingrid recently. She was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor two days after Christmas, and then she was gone less than a week later. It made me think about priorities. What do I hold dear? How do I want to be remembered? What matters in the big picture?

The day after she died, I sat in a long staff meeting after school going over all the paperwork that each teacher needs to fill out to show the state of California that our school is teaching the standards in the way the state sees fit. You see, our school district's test scores are "too low". We're a "PI" district which means Program Improvement. So the state sends in a team to poke around and decide why the test scores are not going up to their satisfaction. So all the teachers at my site sat there in this meeting making lists of our students who are struggling, documenting our daily agenda, showing evidence that we've been using the tests they want us to, providing our pacing guides to prove we are teaching at a dictated pace, etc., etc, etc.

I couldn't concentrate too well because I was thinking about priorities. Is it a priority to have a roomful of highly competent and qualified teachers filling out redundant paperwork? I thought about the irony of the state telling us we need to teach better so test scores will improve, but instead of letting us use this time to build our meaningful lessons, we are pushing papers so they can say, "See, we're making teachers accountable." What a crock. I'm tired of being dumped on by the district and the state. Here's an example: We are given roomfuls of students that are learning English, but no additional funding, resources, or teachers to help these kids. (There's a plethora of other examples that I will spare you.) Gee, I wonder why the test scores are low when the ONLY measure of success that is used by the state is a culturally biased bubble-in multiple-guess-test covering ONLY Math and English Language Arts.

Not only is this the hardest job I've had, it's the most impossible. You can't lift an elephant with a plastic spoon. (I don't know where that just came from...but I think it works.)

My friend Michele and I decided that our district needs to purchase t-shirts that read:

We're in PI
So I'm P.O.'d
Cuz it's PU
Ah, let's go to P.E.!

Or perhaps I can expand this into lyrics and send it to the Angry Tired Teachers band set to the music of "We Care A Lot" by Faith No More (as long as they remember to credit me).


P.S. The pictured bumper sticker and other precious gems are available at http://www.cafepress.com/

You Can Never Be Too Careful

The other night I was out at a Tiki bar for a friend's birthday. Everyone was having either a drink in a bowl or drinks that were lit on fire before partaking, all of which are basically rum punches. Needless to say, being a 5th grade teacher is the last thing on my mind, until....
I overheard a friend talking and she said, "Well, me and Shar went to [such and such a place]...". Suddenly I found my mind racing with grammar rules. Dammit! I can't escape it. If YOU are the subject, for instance, "me and Shar" went somewhere, then it HAS to be said, "Shar and I", because you are the subject of the sentence. Now, if you had said, "The bartender served me and Shar a drink," then YOU are part of the predicate and therefore "me and Shar", or better, "Shar and me" (always naming yourself last) would be grammatically correct.

Then suddenly I caught myself, standing there in the bar, surrounded by flaming Tiki drinks and Hawaiian shirts. What the hell is wrong with me? I'm correcting grammar at a birthday party. My only consolation was that this was all happening in my head...until now.

Next morning I'm driving to school and I'm still a bit grammatically feverish. I pass a CalTrans road sign that reads, "Roadwork Ahead...(next screen) Drive Careful". OK...so..."careful" is an adverb here because it tells HOW we should drive, so it should read, "Drive Carefully". It appeared, however that the character space was limited on this sign and they had to cut off the "ly" and were forced into this grammatical error ( I hope). Regardless, I passed this sign everyday for weeks after that and it bothered me every single time. That's not a good way to start your day. I would pass it at about 7:15am and then be expected to spread rays of sunshine over 30 ten-year-olds at 8:00am. That's just asking too much.

I Didn't Vote For Him

This is our governor. This is an elected official. This is the Terminator.
It took me a long time to get over the fact that we, Californians, voted Arnold Schwarzenegger into office. I'm reminded of the stupidity every time I see my Official Teaching Credential. You see, the governor signs our credentials, so I have the Terminator's autograph. On my credential.

I called it my cartoon credential when I first got it, but that didn't go over well with prospective employers.

Anyway, the whole reason I'm telling this story is because Arnold has been touring the state of CA to observe and eyeball the "underperforming" schools and districts in the state. In order to raise test scores on the ONE test that is measured for the year, some schools may need new teachers and new principals. There are only 96 districts in the state that are in this predicament. Hmmm...sounds systemic to me. But what the hell do I know?

Anyhow, the next news story (and I mean, next; right on the heels of) was about the state budget crisis. Major cuts are expected in certain areas like, well, you know, education. Teachers, school counselors, support staff will be laid off. Special programs would be eliminated such as technical education, family literacy, parent resource centers, after-school programs. Class sizes will increase...you know, stuff like that. No big deal. I'm just seeing a disconnect. More demands, fewer resources. Now, I'm no business major, but things don't add up.


P.S. Yes, I had to look up how to spell Schwarzenegger