Parent-Teacher Conferences
It has been a long time since I have posted something and now I remember why I wonder about people who have the time to update their blogs so often - when do they work? I have many times thought about writing an entry, but then I had to talk to a student or something.
It's funny (in an odd, not ha-ha way) that usually when I meet people who aren't teachers I get one of two reactions: "You guys are not paid or honored enough," or "what a cushy job, you get the summers off." In neither case do I know what to say.
It's true, that compared to people with similar education, degrees, and experience in the private sector, I make less than they do. But most people who work for the government do, it's just the nature of public service. Am I envious of those people who make more? Heck yeah. I had two friends who bought their first house within 3 years of working. It has taken me 9 years, and that was with the combined income with my husband. But I also realize that the market does not pay for my job and the government cannot afford (or rather the taxpayers can't) to do what the market does. And my job is more stable than those who rize and fall by the economy. I just get bigger classes as they let go the teachers with less seniority.
The summers off thing really chaps my hide for several reasons. One: the first 3 years I taught I temped every summer in order to pay rent and eat - I just didn't make enough. Two: Every summer since then I have taken classes, worked on curriculum and met with other teachers regularly. Three: I usually work 50-60 hours a week during the school year. Every summer I crash - get sick and sleep for days. If I didn't have the summer I would've burnt out years ago.
Now maybe I am not typical. I haven't asked other teachers their hours. Theorectically my working hours are from 8am to 3:30pm with a half-hour lunch. Right. Most of my lunches I spend helping students, talking to students, finding papers for students. I stay for meetings with teachers. I choreographed the musical and the Broadway Revue last year (oh wait - I got extra money for that - a whopping $500 for 3-5 hours every day for 2 months, plus that Saturday rehearsal, etc). I take papers home to grade. All the time. I help students after school. I put files away, make my lesson plans, and enter grades after school. I am meeting every Monday with my school's We the People team and coaches.
I am not complaining about my hours. I love my job. I love kids, I love teaching, I love history, I love law. (I hate grading, but it's necessary) But when people come up to me and say "You guys get the summer off" as their first comment it makes me want to take them through a day or a week and see if they can function by the end, let alone be a good teacher.
You know that's the other thing. I have had other jobs. Ones where you sit at a desk or at a computer and go to meetings. You know those days that you have to give a presentation at a meeting and you are stressed because you want to have enough information? That's my job, everyday. I can't phone it in. I can't say "Hey guys, feeling really out of it today, just talk amongst yourselves." You know what would happen if you said that to a bunch of 14-year-olds? Chaos. It's like being onstage everyday. It takes a certain kind of energy.
So please, don't walk up to a teacher and say either of those things. Just know that I am a professional, I work hard, and accept that I didn't get into it for the money.
And so why haven't I posted recently? Well this week was Parent-teacher conferences. This day I taught my classes, but because of moving things around we got out early, and then parents could come and talk to us. This is so stressful. You have to be very up on your grades, and be prepared to have meaningful conversations with every parent.
Not that it's not great. I think it needs to happen and I want to see parents. But this is like the presentation that you have to give to your boss, not just the regular ones. And it goes all day. And some of the bosses are nice. And some of the bosses are angry. And some of the bosses think you are a young whipper snapper who doesn't know anything. And some of the bosses think you are an overeducated stuck-up umm--person who reminds them how much they hated high school. (Actually this year people were mostly really nice)
So the days leading up to the conferences are grading, grading, grading. And then the conference day is just exhausting. And then the next day you are back to the regular presentations. Which is really tiring after the day before.
So anyway - I haven't made a post. Which is kind of okay because I still haven't told very many people about my blog.
It's funny (in an odd, not ha-ha way) that usually when I meet people who aren't teachers I get one of two reactions: "You guys are not paid or honored enough," or "what a cushy job, you get the summers off." In neither case do I know what to say.
It's true, that compared to people with similar education, degrees, and experience in the private sector, I make less than they do. But most people who work for the government do, it's just the nature of public service. Am I envious of those people who make more? Heck yeah. I had two friends who bought their first house within 3 years of working. It has taken me 9 years, and that was with the combined income with my husband. But I also realize that the market does not pay for my job and the government cannot afford (or rather the taxpayers can't) to do what the market does. And my job is more stable than those who rize and fall by the economy. I just get bigger classes as they let go the teachers with less seniority.
The summers off thing really chaps my hide for several reasons. One: the first 3 years I taught I temped every summer in order to pay rent and eat - I just didn't make enough. Two: Every summer since then I have taken classes, worked on curriculum and met with other teachers regularly. Three: I usually work 50-60 hours a week during the school year. Every summer I crash - get sick and sleep for days. If I didn't have the summer I would've burnt out years ago.
Now maybe I am not typical. I haven't asked other teachers their hours. Theorectically my working hours are from 8am to 3:30pm with a half-hour lunch. Right. Most of my lunches I spend helping students, talking to students, finding papers for students. I stay for meetings with teachers. I choreographed the musical and the Broadway Revue last year (oh wait - I got extra money for that - a whopping $500 for 3-5 hours every day for 2 months, plus that Saturday rehearsal, etc). I take papers home to grade. All the time. I help students after school. I put files away, make my lesson plans, and enter grades after school. I am meeting every Monday with my school's We the People team and coaches.
I am not complaining about my hours. I love my job. I love kids, I love teaching, I love history, I love law. (I hate grading, but it's necessary) But when people come up to me and say "You guys get the summer off" as their first comment it makes me want to take them through a day or a week and see if they can function by the end, let alone be a good teacher.
You know that's the other thing. I have had other jobs. Ones where you sit at a desk or at a computer and go to meetings. You know those days that you have to give a presentation at a meeting and you are stressed because you want to have enough information? That's my job, everyday. I can't phone it in. I can't say "Hey guys, feeling really out of it today, just talk amongst yourselves." You know what would happen if you said that to a bunch of 14-year-olds? Chaos. It's like being onstage everyday. It takes a certain kind of energy.
So please, don't walk up to a teacher and say either of those things. Just know that I am a professional, I work hard, and accept that I didn't get into it for the money.
And so why haven't I posted recently? Well this week was Parent-teacher conferences. This day I taught my classes, but because of moving things around we got out early, and then parents could come and talk to us. This is so stressful. You have to be very up on your grades, and be prepared to have meaningful conversations with every parent.
Not that it's not great. I think it needs to happen and I want to see parents. But this is like the presentation that you have to give to your boss, not just the regular ones. And it goes all day. And some of the bosses are nice. And some of the bosses are angry. And some of the bosses think you are a young whipper snapper who doesn't know anything. And some of the bosses think you are an overeducated stuck-up umm--person who reminds them how much they hated high school. (Actually this year people were mostly really nice)
So the days leading up to the conferences are grading, grading, grading. And then the conference day is just exhausting. And then the next day you are back to the regular presentations. Which is really tiring after the day before.
So anyway - I haven't made a post. Which is kind of okay because I still haven't told very many people about my blog.
posted by Portia | 10/21/2005 04:39:00 PM
4 Comments:
Portia, you are a great teacher. You are probabley the only teacher that cares about her students.
Way to go!
- a student
Uh-oh. Looks like one of your students has done found you out, missy.
Glad to see you posting again, Portia. Anyway, I just wanted to comment on the issue of teacher pay. It is in fact quite noble of you to accept as a given that the public service you provide is not going to pay very well. But I don't think that necessarily needs to be so.
There is a lot of money spent on primary and secondary education in this country. A whole lot. The problem is, most of it is generated through local property taxes, and because different jurisdictions have widely different property values, there is wide disparity in the per-student amount available to various districts. Most states have been forced to supplement local taxes with some state taxes, and a few, such as Texas, have resorted to "Robin Hood" measures, whereby the richest districts hand some of their revenues over to the poorest ones.
But none of this goes far enough. Under Texas' system, one of the wealthiest districts in the state, Highland Park, sends something in the neighborhood of $170 million in tax revenue to the state for redistribution. This is a one high-school district in a wealthy enclave of Dallas. Even losing nearly a third of its revenue, however, it STILL produces dozens of National Merit Scholars per year, remains nationally competitive in every sport and extracurricular activity, sends the overwhelming majority of its graduates to college, and even finds room in the budget to fund ridiculously extravagant activities such as sending not one, but two, science-club teams to a national solar-car competition. In spite of this continued success, success so great that it suggests HP could afford to send substantially more of its revenue to the state, HP and its ilk have fought Robin Hood tooth and nail and used their political power to dilute its effects and force the matter into the courts.
The conservative right often claims that there is no correlation between per-student spending and academic achievement, citing the example of huge urban districts that spend much more per student than the average suburban district. While in raw terms this is true, it fails to take into account the fact that suburban districts usually have much higher rates of two-parent households, parental involvement in their kids' education, parents who've graduated college and all the other factors that make suburban schools more successful than urban ones. Plus, the urban districts are encumbered by enormous bureaucracies and giant campuses, creating what is essentially a public corporation so vast and complicated that it takes an army of well-paid administrators just to get the doors open on time and the air-conditioning working.
What needs to happen is threefold:
First, funding needs to be better distributed on a statewide basis, directing funds to struggling campuses until the gaps narrow substantially, no matter how much you have to take from rich districts to do it.
Second, channel most of that extra money to teacher salaries, so that teachers in poor areas make six figures (because their jobs are harder) and teachers in rich areas make peanuts (because their jobs are much easier). Money attracts talent; a six-figure salary would also no doubt draw some people who would like to teach but can't swallow the pay -- such as me, for example -- into the field. The unions simply must submit to merit pay and allow the deadest weight to either leave the job or work in rich areas, where they can do the least damage.
And finally, the large urban districts must be broken into smaller, more manageable pieces, and consolidated with surrounding suburban districts, whether they like it or not. Partner Northeast Portland with Lake Oswego, for example. Eliminate the effects of white (and affluent) flight to the suburbs by legislative action. And if people move again, just move the boundaries.
The concepts of local funding, union-enforced teacher equity and local control are the underpinnings of our education system. Which is why it is such a godawful mess.
Granted, none of this will ever happen, given the disproportionate influence of the rich our our political system. But it is what should happen.
So I promise I did not pay a student to write that comment. Cool though.
Dave - your analysis of school funding is interesting and I have plenty of opinions. Your solution is also problematic, for it is the solution we implemented in Oregon in 1990. I will address my reasons in a later posting.
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