walking across the parking lot to the laundry mat (its catty corner from our apt building) a larger man called out "hey where are your babies?"
I looked at him a little strange and said "excuse me?"
man " your babies? aren't you the one with the two pitbulls?"
me "haha... oh those babies...yup..they are inside"
man "I see you walking em...or really see them walking you"
HAHA so basically i'm known in my neighborhood as "that girl with the two pitbulls"
there could be worse reputations.........
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Sunday, March 4, 2012
a rant and a rage
most of you know I am a teacher...and let's be real...I'm a pretty great teacher (toot toot...thats the sound of me tooting my own horn) and while we are being real, not all teachers are great. I was just reading a few stats from legit US departments (corrections, employment etc etc) that just peeve me to no end. Soooo, since I am pretty great teacher...let me educate you
Yearly
1 in 57 doctors lose the medical license due to poor performance
1 in 97 lawyers lose the license to practice law due to poor performance
but only
1 in 2500 teachers will lose their job due to poor performance
Interesting eh?
In most careers if you are bad at your job you lose it, a company cannot (and most don't want to) pay you if you suck. However, if you are a public school teacher, part of the union, and have worked at the same school for two years you gain tenure and basically have a job for life as long as you show up and breath.
I talked to several real teachers in the city of Philadelphia who felt like it is infringing on their rights to be held to an accountability system or be judged on performance...what else would you like to be judged on? you want to see schools turned around, achievement gaps closed, drop out rates decreased...dont you WANT to get better, dont you want to open up your classroom and ask for feedback....you're a teacher for crying out loud....you should always be learning!
(let me just say that there is a lot of research and reform that still needs to be done on performance systems, scales, observations, etc etc but the conversation should at least be there! All teachers and students need the resources and support to be great...and unfortunately so many schools fall so short in that arena)
On another note,
In PA alone 60% of current inmates are highschool dropouts. The govt spends $33,000 per year on a prisoner...so over 4 years $132,000 tax money goes into that prisoners life.
Yet, an avg private school student education(who tend to have higher percentages of students proficient in reading in math according to the us dept of ed) cost $8300 yearly... over 13 years of education that would only cost the state $107,900, with money left over for college.
And yet the PA governor increased money to state prisons and cut more money to education? what the heck? who did that guy have for a math teacher? certainly not me!
Something is wrong here....something is seriously wrong....
I know that I wake up every day hoping to be a light of hope in those kids lives. I know there are many teachers out there who do too...so thank you!
Yearly
1 in 57 doctors lose the medical license due to poor performance
1 in 97 lawyers lose the license to practice law due to poor performance
but only
1 in 2500 teachers will lose their job due to poor performance
Interesting eh?
In most careers if you are bad at your job you lose it, a company cannot (and most don't want to) pay you if you suck. However, if you are a public school teacher, part of the union, and have worked at the same school for two years you gain tenure and basically have a job for life as long as you show up and breath.
I talked to several real teachers in the city of Philadelphia who felt like it is infringing on their rights to be held to an accountability system or be judged on performance...what else would you like to be judged on? you want to see schools turned around, achievement gaps closed, drop out rates decreased...dont you WANT to get better, dont you want to open up your classroom and ask for feedback....you're a teacher for crying out loud....you should always be learning!
(let me just say that there is a lot of research and reform that still needs to be done on performance systems, scales, observations, etc etc but the conversation should at least be there! All teachers and students need the resources and support to be great...and unfortunately so many schools fall so short in that arena)
On another note,
In PA alone 60% of current inmates are highschool dropouts. The govt spends $33,000 per year on a prisoner...so over 4 years $132,000 tax money goes into that prisoners life.
Yet, an avg private school student education(who tend to have higher percentages of students proficient in reading in math according to the us dept of ed) cost $8300 yearly... over 13 years of education that would only cost the state $107,900, with money left over for college.
And yet the PA governor increased money to state prisons and cut more money to education? what the heck? who did that guy have for a math teacher? certainly not me!
Something is wrong here....something is seriously wrong....
I know that I wake up every day hoping to be a light of hope in those kids lives. I know there are many teachers out there who do too...so thank you!
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