teachers (are nuts)

I ran into a friend at the library yesterday. Told her I was applying for teaching jobs.

“Why?” she asked. She works at a school. “I don’t know why teachers do it.” She’s at a Title I school where test scores and morale are at an all-time low. The principal rules whip-in-hand. Sad. Makes me want to go in and turn things around—not that I could or am in a position to do so. 

Teaching anywhere is challenging, but some schools are definitely more challenging than others. So far I’ve tried to apply for jobs at schools I would enjoy working at—the types of schools I would be happy sending my kids to. I’ve had four interviews, which I consider pretty good in this market, but no offers yet. 

I have to say, I wasn’t upset that the local high school rejected me, after I’d learned that the teaching load is six sections of 36 students.  Can you imagine grading over 200 papers?  How can a teacher possibly give frequent, constructive feedback to 200 students? In contrast, at the charter school where I interviewed this week, teachers have five sections of 25 students each—125 students total.  Some college professors have as many students.    

How do charter schools do it? Well, their teachers aren’t unionized and are often paid less than their district-school counterparts; starting salaries are comparable, but median salaries are much lower at the charters (in part because all the charters are new, so the teachers haven’t been there long).  I for one would take the lower pay for the smaller classes.  Not that anyone around here pays teachers well: the median teacher salary in Utah in 2011 was $45,329; $46,448 for district schools, $35,000 for charter schools.  Median starting salary: $32,889. 

I’m not—teachers aren’t—in it for the money (at least, not in our fair state).  Like most or all teachers, I’m somewhat idealistic—I like the idea of doing good in the world, changing lives, teaching kids.  Maybe I could make a bigger difference in a poor urban school than in a prep school, but frankly I can be a better teacher in the prep school where I have 40% fewer students and supportive administrators.  And I want my kids in schools where their teachers have a reasonable teaching load and supportive administrators (let me say that my local high school is neither poor nor urban and seems to have supportive administrators).

Our society has unrealistic expectations for teachers—we overflow their classrooms with students and drown them in mandates, then blame them when our students don’t perform as well as students from other states or nations. 

So, why is it so hard to get a teaching job? 

     

overheard

Mother to child at Costco: "How would you like it if I licked all your food?"

4 year old: "Speaking of which, I am going to play by myself."
5 year old: "You only say, 'Speaking of fish' if you are going to say something about fish."

Ellie (age 4.9) to Anna (age 12.9): "You always talk and you never listen to anything I say."
Anna: Nothing
Me: "Anna, did you hear what Ellie said?"
Anna: "Oh. No, I wasn't listening."

unbroken

Several of my neighbors LOVE this book. When I told a friend that I didn't like it she was speechless--and this friend is never speechless.  I later noticed that she'd listed it on her Christmas card as her favorite book she'd read this year. 

A couple years ago I sent Unbroken as a gift to one of my parents. They never read it--looked liked a downer. They were so right. I admit, having suffered through the book, I gained appreciation for people who serve in the military and an understanding of why we dropped bombs on Japan.  But I don't enjoy vicarious suffering and this book is chapter after chapter of starvation, deprivation, abuse, detioration. War stinks. The book is very detailed--well-researched--but I wish Hillenbrand had an editor who told her to cut half the details. (But then, I feel the same about Disney's Snow White and It's a Wonderful Life. Way too long.)

'tis the season

. . . for runny noses.

We have a cold virus making its rounds.  Ellie has been snotty for weeks, but miserably so since about Saturday.  We're talking coughing half the night (ah, for the days when doctors could prescribe cough medicine for children), lying listless and silent half the day. Poor dear.  So today I am very happy that she is smiling and making macaroni crafts (quote of the morning: "I'm busy coloring my noodle").

cakeballs!

When my neighbor announced a cookie exchange for December book group, I wasn't excited. I'm not sure what it is about cookie exchanges--maybe it's that I don't really want a tray of 24 assorted cookies sitting on my kitchen counter (and taking on each other's flavors), and maybe I'd rather cook 24 of my favorite cookies than take my chances. But I think part of my reluctance is that as much as I love cookies, I don't make Christmas cookies (I make syrup), and I'm not about to show up to a Christmas cookie exchange with normal chocolate chip cookies.

 

Then I got an idea--I'd buy red and green M&Ms or chocolate chips and stir them into a favorite cookie recipe. Voila. Christmas cookies.  But then another neighbor announced a party the same week as book group and I thought, "What they hey, why not make cake balls?" As some of you know, cake balls are pretty labor intensive, and as a rule, I avoid labor-intensive cooking (most laborious activities, in fact). But I do love cake balls and hadn't made them in over a year. This time, I mixed red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, dipped them in white mint candy coating, and sprinkled with crushed candy cane. This was my first time using the candy melts and they worked great--the coating is thinner than melted chocolate chips, but then, candy melts tend to be more expensive.  The 14 oz. bag covered about 2/3 of my 50 cake balls, so I used chocolate chips for the rest.  Then I told my kids that red food dye is carcinogenic--more cake balls for me.  

Mitt's bump (or, fickle Americans)

Mitt won the first debate--66 percent of people polled agree, and the remaining 34 percent are delusional.  He won not because of the strength of his argument, but because of strong delivery.  And after the debate, his standings in the polls jumped.  I haven't heard many discussions about causality, but the obvious conclusion is that image matters more than content.  Before the debate people knew the platforms of Republicans vs Democrats--big business vs big government; guns vs butter; drill-baby-drill vs stewardship; vouchers vs public schools; imposed bedroom values and voluntary charity vs marry-who-you-will and imposed charity--the debate wasn't terribly enlightening regarding policy.  It's hard for me to understand how undecided voters could make a choice based primarily on speaking performance when the differences in values are pretty stark.  But maybe--and I find this explanation both reasonable and hopeful--the bump in the polls is less about values than about likeliness to vote.  In other words, based on the debate, maybe right-leaning undecided voters are now more likely to vote than left-leaning undecided voters.  Part of me (the Mormon part) was glad to see a strong performance by Mitt; I just hope President Obama shows up for the next debate and can inspire people as he did 4 years ago.   

competitive dancing, part 2

We're back in the world of competitive dancing, this time, with our son.  In seventh grade he and several friends tried ballroom dance and loved it--a bunch have stuck with it.  Yesterday morning he came in at 6:00 am and asked for help with his make-up.  Nick later said, "If I'd known 15 years ago that one day my son would come into my room at 6:00 am to ask for help his his make-up . . . " (I won't print the rest).

I'm getting used to the hairspray, mascara, and fake tans. Sort of. I noticed that most kids from most schools didn't look tan (unlike the kids from our kids' school), so I might protest silently.  I suppose I should get used to competition culture, because we have several competitions this year.  I didn't mind going to yesterday's meet--it was 10 minutes from home and I like watching dancing.  But I now understand why each school holds its own: to benefit from judge bias (and to make money so teams can compete at all the other meets).  In the team events, the host high school won both of the events they competed in and the best thing about their performances was their costumes.  Their formations were pretty good too, but they didn't deserve to win.

Then I got to thinking that judge bias factors into every competition, though it's not always clear what the biases are.  We like to think that judges are fair and awards are earned, but judges are biased and sometimes award winners are lucky.