Friday, January 22, 2010
AW
I thought since my last post was a little debbie downer woe is me, I should AW myself out. I am one step to getting my SMARTboard. I wrote a proposal through donorschoose.org This is a wonderful site, for me! Donors choose is a nonprofit organization that connects public school teachers with people who want to support classroom learning. The only catch is I don't have enough points. For proposals that cost $1000 or more you have to have 6 points. Since my SMARTboard costs $1575 I am one point short of being able to write the proposal BUT there is a solution! The solution is to write a smaller proposal and get it funded. When any project gets funded, you earn a certain amount of points. I have written a smaller project because my kiddos need dictionaries. It's a PASS objective and it's kind of hard to teach my class when there is a 5 to 1 ratio. Check out this site to see my proposal: http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=340879 Thanks to all those people who have donated already! My class really appreciates it and so do I! More than you'll ever know. Oh and if you find someone who wants to donate a SMARTboard, I'll make you cookies/cakes/pies/candies for life!
Funk..look closely that's an n not a c.
I'm in a funk, bad mood, whatever you want to call it, I'm just blah. I took today off so I could catch up on some NB stuff. I have yet to wrap my brain around all of it and feel a like a fraud. The questions are confusing and I feel like such an idiot because I should know what they are asking. I do teach America's youth which is a bit scary since I can't seem to answer simple comprehension questions. Can you hear the whine?
As we are all aware, our economy sucks, which in turn has filtered down onto the education budget. Cuts are everywhere. Some smaller more rural school districts are being forced to combine or even worse, close. We have no money. We can't go on field trips, make copies, get new equipment etc. I have written a few grants to help off set the budget crunch so the kiddos don't suffer. Good God, they already have their crappy home life against them and now we are adding this set of problems to it. This also adds a strain to the NB stipend. Talk of no stipend, decreased stipend, stipend for only those who were NBCT's prior to the 09 school year, has spun the rumor wheel for awhile. While I won't sit here and tell you the money wasn't a major deciding factor into taking this adventure, I would like to get something other than a title when/if I pass. I know that's greedy but it's the way I feel. Maybe that is the source of my anxiety?
Back to my bad mood. I checked my school email on a break from working. That's when things went down hill. I got a ridiculously snarky email. Maybe it wasn't ridiculously snarky maybe I just took it wrong but nonetheless, it really irritated me. Lately there has been a lot of middle school drama going on with the adult staff members that is really getting on my nerves. Everyone seems to come and dump their issues on me, which is fine, but be proactive about the situation. Don't just gripe and then do nothing about the problem. Gripe, take a few minutes, hours, days to think it over so you don't react irrationally and then discuss the problem with that person like we ask the kids to do on a daily basis. We ask them to be problem solvers but yet we can't do that and have to start petty backbiting stuff?
Lets talk about the email shall we? The email went like this: "Someone from the HS called and asked me about the committee you are on. She said committee members get paid and the chairman gets paid more. Is that true? If so how often do you meet and how long are the meetings? Do you get paid by the hour? I didn't know anyone got paid for being on any kinds of committee in a school." Now, I may be reading between the lines or taking it personally because I am on the committee and work my butt off but I took her email to ask the following questions without really coming out and asking them. I even color coded them.
Are you the chairman and how much do you get paid.
I feel like since you are getting paid I should make sure you are earning your money so tell me when you meet, what you talk about, what you accomplish, and how much of your time you give up to these meetings.
Again how much do you get paid.
I'm going to make sure I get a little jab in there about being on a committee that has paid members.
I guess my whole thing might be the fact that every time we have these meetings EVERYONE in the whole entire district is invited. There are no secret meetings. We don't have secret chat sessions or powwows so save the I didn't know bit. Then to top it all off, after we meet I take the notes home and put them into a newsletter, copy them and place them in staff mailboxes so people who couldn't make it to the meetings are still in the know. Let me just restate something...I know this happens because I DO IT!!! And the how much do you get paid question irked me as well. I don't discuss money with people because A-I'm old school and think it's rude to discuss stuff like that because it puts people in a really awkward situation and B-Everyone had the same opportunity to apply for the paid positions so don't have beef with me because I get a stipend and you don't.
Well...enough venting, more working.
As we are all aware, our economy sucks, which in turn has filtered down onto the education budget. Cuts are everywhere. Some smaller more rural school districts are being forced to combine or even worse, close. We have no money. We can't go on field trips, make copies, get new equipment etc. I have written a few grants to help off set the budget crunch so the kiddos don't suffer. Good God, they already have their crappy home life against them and now we are adding this set of problems to it. This also adds a strain to the NB stipend. Talk of no stipend, decreased stipend, stipend for only those who were NBCT's prior to the 09 school year, has spun the rumor wheel for awhile. While I won't sit here and tell you the money wasn't a major deciding factor into taking this adventure, I would like to get something other than a title when/if I pass. I know that's greedy but it's the way I feel. Maybe that is the source of my anxiety?
Back to my bad mood. I checked my school email on a break from working. That's when things went down hill. I got a ridiculously snarky email. Maybe it wasn't ridiculously snarky maybe I just took it wrong but nonetheless, it really irritated me. Lately there has been a lot of middle school drama going on with the adult staff members that is really getting on my nerves. Everyone seems to come and dump their issues on me, which is fine, but be proactive about the situation. Don't just gripe and then do nothing about the problem. Gripe, take a few minutes, hours, days to think it over so you don't react irrationally and then discuss the problem with that person like we ask the kids to do on a daily basis. We ask them to be problem solvers but yet we can't do that and have to start petty backbiting stuff?
Lets talk about the email shall we? The email went like this: "Someone from the HS called and asked me about the committee you are on. She said committee members get paid and the chairman gets paid more. Is that true? If so how often do you meet and how long are the meetings? Do you get paid by the hour? I didn't know anyone got paid for being on any kinds of committee in a school." Now, I may be reading between the lines or taking it personally because I am on the committee and work my butt off but I took her email to ask the following questions without really coming out and asking them. I even color coded them.
Are you the chairman and how much do you get paid.
I feel like since you are getting paid I should make sure you are earning your money so tell me when you meet, what you talk about, what you accomplish, and how much of your time you give up to these meetings.
Again how much do you get paid.
I'm going to make sure I get a little jab in there about being on a committee that has paid members.
I guess my whole thing might be the fact that every time we have these meetings EVERYONE in the whole entire district is invited. There are no secret meetings. We don't have secret chat sessions or powwows so save the I didn't know bit. Then to top it all off, after we meet I take the notes home and put them into a newsletter, copy them and place them in staff mailboxes so people who couldn't make it to the meetings are still in the know. Let me just restate something...I know this happens because I DO IT!!! And the how much do you get paid question irked me as well. I don't discuss money with people because A-I'm old school and think it's rude to discuss stuff like that because it puts people in a really awkward situation and B-Everyone had the same opportunity to apply for the paid positions so don't have beef with me because I get a stipend and you don't.
Well...enough venting, more working.
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