Wait a sec here, you say that like it’s asking too much. Whiny little teachers. 
(I know I put a wink in there, but just to be totally clear, that was a joke!!)
Dude, get your arms around the concept of annual income. When viewed comparatively, as annual income, to the annual incomes of many if not most other professions, you do so have what for all practical purposes is "three months paid vacation.” It makes no difference how your salary is disbursed (hell, as you even mention, you get a jump on the time value of money for about three months worth of income).
How fucking simple is this to comprehend?
Looking at it your way, you have an even sweeter deal; because the other bloke out there making the same “40k/year” salary at his job doesn’t have the three month “unpaid” stretch to fucking moonlight. If you want to say a teacher making $x amount a year is underpaid and someone else brings up the example of another professional that gets the same amount per year, you better be prepared to deal with the fact that the teacher’s $x/year salary most certainly includes a three month break. Christ man, it’s a really simple concept. Otherwise, compare your $40k a 9 mos. to a $53.3k a year job.
Are you delusional?
amen and I’ll sign that. I don’t see the sense in the argument of “you think it’s easy, come do it”, although I even used it in my last post. :smack: It’s not easy–but it’s not the hardest thing, either.
I don’t have a strong desire to be a teacher ('sides, most of nursing IS teaching, just not the three Rs). The fact that I am not going to be one doesn’t make me ineligible to complain or make observations about the field. Teachers whine–alot. Do they have cause? Sure–but not above and beyond all other professions–that’s my point. I loathe the teaching of the test and the forced “make a dollar out of 69 cents” mentality we have in this country. Kicking a kid out for being bad doesn’t make any of that go away. And I would think that between tutoring and summer school or (insert money making hobby or interest here) that summer would not be an issue. Tutors make damned good money.
I just don’t think that teachers are all that underpaid. I think the system is FUBAR with the testing etc and the expectation that somehow schools can replace caring, involved parents, but underpaid? Not so much. (depends on the geographical region, of course).
The OP seems to me to 1. lack assertiveness, 2. be teaching the wrong age and 3. want- I dunno-sympathy for her plight against the big, bad 15 year old? She needs to get a grip. She needs to learn some group dynamic skills–she sounds like a new teacher, to me. I hope she learns fast, we need her.
So she’s a new teacher. There’s a reason for that: junior high teachers have a phenomenal turnover rate. Before I went into teaching, I talked to a lot of folks who had taught. Most of the elementary school teachers I talked to enjoyed their profession. Very few of the high school teachers did. None of the junior high teachers were still teaching: they’d all left the field.
I hope things get better for her, too, but underestimating the effect of size in a junior-high class is a bad mistake to make. If she’s having problems because she’s short, those are real problems: she’s got a significant disadvantage in her height.
And you’re right: we do need her. I can’t imagine teaching junior high, and I’m very glad there are folks out there who can.
Daniel
Dude, get your arms around the concept of compensation for time worked. We regularly hear from IT types on this board about the insane hours they put in for their annual salary. Frankly they are getting boned. We also regularly hear about lawyers and their “billable hours” racket. My union negotiated a contract where I receive a specified amount of money for working a specified number of days. I’m not getting paid for the summer any more than a non-teacher gets paid for having the weekend off. If you want to look at it as us having more down time, that would be valid. You are using the concept of annual income, though, to paint this as compensation when it is not.
Um… No.
Why do you ask?
I see your point, but I fail to see how it’s relevant. Nobody here claimed teaching to be the worst of all professions.
UPDATE TIME: Kid is in fact suspended now, rumor has it his schedule is changed, and I will get to threaten him (well, his mother) with criminal charges one more time. Meeting with principal was rescheduled for tomorrow, and will now cover how the referral got back into the kid’s hands and how he was allowed to approach my room twice before the conference with the administrator and myself.
The administration’s still unhappy with the e-mail I sent, and a mentor fears I might lose my job over this. However, my department chair is happy I said it and even is happy with the way I said it. There’s no pleasing everybody, and I don’t regret my actions.
To clarify what “being a blonde has anything to do with this:” It’s an easy way to say “I’m white, while the other parties in question probably aren’t” without actually saying it. I only bring it up now because it has come to light that other teachers in my department (black, white, etc.) all have no qualms about saying that the AP in question gives preferential treatment to black students. Not for this to become a discussion of race, but I feel like I can’t say it in my meeting tomorrow, so I have to get it out there somehow.
And to state for the record, I don’t plan on growing a set of gonads anytime soon as I am a woman, I don’t need spare ovaries, and I would like for my heterosexual life partner to continue to be attracted to me, so testicles aren’t in order either.
<nitpick>
Geography class or not, I don’t know which is worse: Referring to Africa as a country - or Egypt as a city.
</nitpick>
Fumando, you might want to be careful with this. Someone on these boards recently lost his job over a blog posting, if I recall correctly. Don’t be posting anything here that could be used, even unfairly, against you: before you post again, you might want to imagine what nefarious ends the other parties in this dispute could put your posts toward if they got hold of them.
Daniel
Maybe I should introduce a third contestant, then. They gave a list of statements like, “Although pasta is my favorite food, I live near the Dead Sea,” from which we were supposed to realize they were talking about Jordan. One of their questions said something like, “Although my best friend speaks Spanish, you can go swimming in the Caribbean sea off one of my country’s coasts.” By process of elimination, the intended answer was Africa.
All errors were in the original.
Daniel
God, I hate to beat this horse, but here goes. When COMPARING your annual income as a teacher to the annual incomes of other professionals (most of whom don’t run on a 9 months on, 3 months off schedule) for all intents and purposes, you do have what amounts to a three month paid vacation in COMPARISON to other income earners with the same annual income but no 3 month break. You must see this; please don’t be dense.
The only way couching it as “paid vacation,” as I have done, could be misleading is if I took your semi-monthly paycheck and said you get so much a semi-month, plus 3 months paid vacation – that would be misleading because I would be insinuating that you got the same paychecks in the months off, BUT when you set out up front what the annual income is and what the amount of “down time” as you say is, then it is in no way misleading to refer to that down time as paid vacation.
One problem here is we’re using an hourly wage-earner term to discuss a salary situation. A weekend is, in a sense, paid vacation, because you’re not losing money for not working it – it’s “down time” built into your SALARY, or as some say – PAID VACATION.
Is it obvious to everyone else that you’re both right, depending on how you look at it?
I love teaching middle school (what we call junior high). I have taught every grade between 7-12, and 7th is easily, far far and away, my favorite. I plan to teach 7th grade English until the day I retire. They are awesome and regardless of what I feel is insufficient compensation and benefits (doesn’t everyone feel that way about his job?), I love my job, so put me down as someone who is grateful for the gig I have and a big fan of tweener-aged kids. They are the best.
9th grade is not considered middle school here, which might be part of the problem. 9th grade is where puberty launches into overdrive, and kids who are going to get wild get wild. I would not go back to teaching high school unless forced.
To Ms. Fumando: glad that the kid got suspended. I hope you don’t get fired for the e-mail to the AP. The first year of teaching is very, very difficult, and it does get better. Don’t let the harsh comments made on this thread get to you. You will survive and it’ll get easier. Feel free to e-mail me for random pep talks. Good luck with your meeting.
Why was the meeting rescheduled?
Sure sounded like it from here. That’s all. The whole “we never go out, she works 16 hour days, for minimum wage, no shoes, in the snow, uphill, both ways etc”.
9th is HS, no? And what is wrong with middle school? If I were to teach, that’s what I would teach–that or HS. I subbed in elementary because all I needed was my bachelor’s-to sub in HS here, I believe you must have a Master’s–not sure about middle school.
Most of the jr high teachers I know have been there for several years–one was there when I was there(!). Same for HS. I think this may be idiosyncratic per district and not a general trend.
I like kids-so maybe that’s my puzzlement over this. I find the “blonde” reference as a way of alluding to possible racial issues here distasteful and unprofessional. Lord knows I don’t think the OP needs to be disciplined, but she may well be happier in another school. Would you say you were blonde if the AP weren’t black?
I dont’ buy the whole “blonde and fragile” thing. And you do need to grow a set–unless you plan to trade on that petite stereotype. I’ve known teachers who were 90lbs soaking wet, but they commanded the classroom.
Unasked for advice: Study some teachers techniques on how to control a class etc. It’ll help with your next job.
So I misinterpreted what you said in post #136? Let me refresh your memory:
Every two minutes sounds like “constantly” to me.
Perhaps I was reading too much into that. It’s clear to me from reading your posts in this thread that your children are brought up in a calm, rational environment with little or no blatant hostility, and that you clearly are opposed to violence in any form. I’ll just let it go now.
I was originally a secondary ed major. EVERY teacher I’ve talked to say that middle school is the worst because the kids are in that in between stage-they’re too old to be considered “little kids”, but they’re not quite teenagers yet. That and puberty-raging hormones, and the beginning of the cliques, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.
Actually, if you’re the kind of person who can harness that energy, and direct it, middle school is the best gig there is. The problem is it’s exhausting for the people who are good at it, and they burn out quickly.