Teacher Pay

I know I am ready for this as a teacher!!!! :-)

ARE YOU SICK OF ALL OF THOSE HIGHLY PAID TEACHERS?

"I, for one, am sick and tired of those high paid teachers. Their hefty
salaries are driving up taxes and they only work nine or ten months a
year!

It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they
do...baby-sit! We can get that for less than minimum wage. That's
right...I would give them $3.00 dollars an hour and only the hours they
worked, not any of that silly planning time. That would be 15 dollars a
day. Each parent should pay 15 dollars a day for these teachers to
baby-sit their children.

Now, how many do they teach in a day...maybe 25. Then that's 15 x 25=
$375 a day. But remember they only work 180 days a year! I'm not going
to pay them for any vacations. Let's see...that's 375 x 180=$67,500.00
(Hold on, my calculator must need batteries!) What about those special
teachers or ones with master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum
wage just to be fair. Let's round it off to $6.00 an hour. That would
be $6 times 5 hours times 25 children times 180 days = $135,000.00 per
year. Wait a minute, there is something wrong here!!! (There sure is!)

Make a teacher smile :) Share this with them.

Dog Fight

Ok, not really, more like a sibling spat. My greys had a little disagreement yesterday when we got home from school. Hubs was pulling up in the back and they rushed to meet him at the gate. We think one stepped on the other and someone got mad and the next thing we know they were on their hind legs going at one another. They have never shown any signs of aggression to each other so we were shocked to say the least.

Dagwood, our red fawn grey, lost. We took him to the vet because his ear was torn up and we thought he was going to need stitches. Well, the doc took a good look at him and let us know he was going to need reconstructive surgery on that ear. Can you say cha-ching?? He had surgery last night and I got the call around 10:30 letting me know he came out of anesthesia. That was my biggest concern knowing how greys are with that.

I got to pick my boy up tonight after school and here is how he looks. The pics look pretty bad, but he is in good spirits. The worst part is the cone. I feel like I have the "special" dog on the block now. Hubs says no walks for him until the cone comes off, too embarrassing for us and him.

Here is my "special" dog in his cone.

This picture shows both ears, the one on the left is the one they had to do reconstruction on and the other has a laceration with a staple in it.

Here is a better shot of the reconstructed ear.

I think now is a good time for hubs and I to look into pet insurance. I wonder if it is worth it.

Peace out.....sleep well.

National Teacher Appreciation Day

For those of you who may not know, tomorrow is National Teacher Appreciation Day. Take a little time and tell a teacher this week what a great job they are doing. Remember, we aren't in it for the money but for the kids and the chance to make a difference to one of them.

Week in Review

This week one of our teachers had her students write thank you notes (I REALLY wish I had thought to bring them home. Will have to take pics and share later) and some of these notes were delivered to teachers in the building. You know, it seems, right as I can't take anymore and I don't want to do this job and I hate everything about it, someone will do something like this and the kids remind me why I am a teacher. I swear to you, I hate admitting how much I love those kids some days.

I got a few thank yous and they let me know how I had made teaching fun and how much they enjoyed being in my class and getting to know me. One of my former students who is in the 8th grade made me a clever thank you (this I will HAVE to share a picture of) that was a paper hat. He told me that I got through to him on how wearing one of those when he goes up will not be an option! LOVE IT!! I got through to one. It is like the starfish story, "made a difference to that one". If you don't know it, let me know and I will be happy to find it and share it with you.

So then two of my girls in my 5th period gave me a card and two gifts (a delightful body spray and lotion). The card let me know how much they would miss me next year when I wasn't at the school anymore.

Guilt trips?? I think not. Pulling at my heart and reminding me that I do important work.....definitely.

Peace out.

Needed a break

Today I am taking a day to rest. I was so shell shocked by the kids reactions to the incidents on Tuesday that I needed to be away from them today. With only 20 days left until the end of school I wonder how I am going to make it each day. I know what everyone says: "They are kids and don't see things the same way as adults." I agree. However, I don't think someone getting a broken bone while dealing with utter chaos something to find funny. I am sure many of the parents would be shocked to find out that their little darlings were behaving this way. I just don't have the energy to fight, so here I am at home.

Today I have some goals though. I am going to get some things done in the house, go grocery shopping and while out do some warm chatter and get names of women I think might like to have a Mary Kay makeover and who look sharp enough to share the opportunity with (I need to really focus on building my business), I am going to go get my nails done, and from there the only other thing I have to do is getting ready to debut one of my team members tonight.

I hope you all have a great day!!

Peace out.

New Visa Commercial

1 - Middle School in the 12th largest district in the state of Texas: $2.5 million
2 - Safety Glass windows broken: $600
3 - Teachers hurt during student fights: With GISD insurance $300 deductible
4 - Staff members needed to control 1 student: $210,000 salary
5 - Student fights after-school: 30 days total suspension
6 - Police cars after-school: $240,000 in taxpayer money
8 - Student fights during the school day: 48 days total suspension

Saying you teach at ______ School (Name with held to protect the innocent): Priceless or Worthless?

This is courtesy of Hubs based on the day at my school yesterday. I will be posting more about it tonight.

Working in the ghetto

Oh how I love my job.

So here is a slight run down of yesterday:
8:00am - Faculty meeting to discuss the last 23 days of instruction with the students. How we need to keep them in the classroom and give them "engaging" lessons (I would like to engage some of them, but lessons isn't what I am thinking these days). How we need to be in control at all times. Got it.
8:40am - From my classroom I can hear about 5 whistles blowing in the main hallway. Any teacher knows that whistles means there is bad stuff going down. So I go up the main hall. Let me paint the scene for you: 300 kids yelling, laughing and making the situation in the middle of the mob worse (go figure, right?)....once in the middle I find that one of my students in being restrained in a two man hold and they are trying to take her to the floor and can't. The men trying to do this hold can not get her under control, she is just a 7th grade girl and two grown men can't hold her. I try to help calm her down and it isn't working. Even with 4 people holding her she is still bucking kicking and nearly too much for us. She has officially gone out of her mind.
8:55am - I make it to my classroom. My students are wild as hell. All they want to do is talk about what was going on in the hall.
4th period - Students are so far gone by this time I can't get anything done. No teaching, no make up work, nothing. Apparently there had been more fights and this continues to be the main topic of conversation. My day continues on this downward spiral straight through 7th period. By this time I am just trying to make it through the day.
I leave promptly at 4pm. I do not believe in staying any later as many of you know after the incident in January. Seems that 5 fights broke out at the end of the day and there were 6 cop cars at the school.

Update: I know that at least 2 teachers were badly injured. One with a broken hand. Here is what gets me though. I talked to the kids yesterday and they found it funny that teachers got hurt, they blamed us for getting in the way of their fights and that we should have just stayed out of it.

Yes my peeps, I do believe it is the ghetto.

St. Somewhere

I think I am finally getting to the point of complete frenzy for summer and vacation. I know what I am planning now for next Spring Break. I think there should be a trip to Key West (Hubs, we really need to look into this). Today I realized I am wanting some boat drinks and time somewhere even farther south where there are palm trees, white sand, and clear blue water. This little frenzy started as I was cleaning and thinking some things over. It is amazing how quickly these little fits can grow to a level of just-gotta-have :-)

I have also decided there is a need for an end of school blow out!! I am not sure where to have this just yet and not sure how far I want to go with this, but I really think some of us should consider getting a group together (hubs, you know some of the people outside of my realm of hell that we should invite) and I think we should all get drunk and kick off summer right (ok, maybe everyone doesn't have to get drunk, but there is going to be alcohol)!!! Now those of you that read here that might be interested....let me know your thoughts so I can get an idea of who might be up for this. I think I will even get together my "special" e-mail list of non-moles in the building and see how many of them might be up for it. I think this would be a hell of a lot of fun!!

Off to listen to Buffett and clean a little more.

2 whole weeks

Wow a lot of time has passed. I am really going to have to find time to be on top of the blogging.

A lot of things have gone on the last couple of weeks. I have signed two more team members, even though one is unofficial at the moment. I am working on building the team a little at a time. I want to be a director so bad and hate that I have to be at school and not working Mary Kay.

Good news....my sister....my best friend and person least likely to judge any of my behavior, thank God for people like her in my life LOL......She finally signed on her first home!!!! I am so happy for her and she called me Friday to let me know I am going to be an aunt again!!!!!!! I seriously started crying, I was so happy for her. I was so worried she was going to be broken like me. I can't believe she is going to have another little one!! And I get to spoil her during her pregnancy like all pregnant women should be. Those of you out there with pregnant women around you....take care of them!!!! They are amazing wonderful creatures. Treat them with the love, admiration and respect they deserve!

As for me.....I have been a little bit of a dark place, but I am emerging and starting to feel better. I am not sure what has been going on, but I don't have time to be down.

I have some funny stories I will share soon.

Peace out my peeps!! Have a fab Sunday!

Mellowed out

Tonight I am very mellow. I am not really sure why. I have been contemplating a lot lately. I haven't had my buddy to really talk to and so I have internalized a lot of things lately.

My out look on life is so different today then it was 8 months ago. I am not sure when the change occurred. I know that over the last 8 months I have come in to contact with some of the greatest people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. I know that my life is taking another turn and I never know if these are good turns or not. I am ever the optimist and feel that it will all be good in the end.

Today I talked with hubs about maybe moving down to 2nd grade for a year. I know my plan is to get out of teaching altogether, but should something happen, I can't take food from my family's mouth. So I am looking at applying for a couple of second grade positions in the district. Who knows, I might have to teach one more year and if so, I would rather deal with 7 and 8 year old attitudes than 12-14 year old attitudes LOL.

Today I realized that I really am just a double digit midget. I don't want to be at that school at all and I really feel like I am just biding my time. Only 31 more days with kids and even less for me if I can sign up 5 more people.....Lord help me find the people that WANT to know about Mary Kay :-)

Peace out my peeps.....I am off to dream land to see how the house that I built inside a house next to a trailer looks (long story, but a truly trippy dream)