A Shout-Out to the Teachers of DU.

[DonRedwood]

I was just reading what the Chicago Teacher's Strike accomplished. Nearly every benefit won helps out the students in some way or other. Books on the first day of school instead of having to wait 6-8 weeks. Teachers who open their doors to special ed students for mainstreaming won't be fired when the special ed kids are forced to take the No Child Left Behind tests that drag the whole classroom down score-wise. (Did you know kids with special needs also have to take the tests and that those tests are thrown in with the whole school's results? I've personally witnessed tests being given to kids in near vegetative states. The teacher reads the question: "What is the volume of a rectangle that is 13 meters by..." and waits three minutes for the student to answer. No answer? Put down a zero. A student getting a near zero needs 3 perfect hundred scores from other kids to average out to a passing average.)

Chicago teachers also get reimbursed now for money they spend on their class. (my district just implemented a "no cash" rule. If we spend cash on an item we cannot get reimbursed. So now anything we buy at a garage sale or a flea market comes out of our pocket. Since we only get $250 for our room to spend anyway, it means we can no longer buy cheap things, we have to go somewhere that will take a credit card. This means teachers will suck it up if they find something awesome and need to pay cash).

It just seems so many things are stacked against teachers having any type of success with their classes these days.

So, I just wanted to give a shout to the teachers in Chicago for standing their ground but I also wanted to give a shout out to the other teachers on DU. We all know what teachers are facing in this day and age and I must say that DU often is the only support place for quite a few of us distraught teachers. I must say, the only time I feel that my back is covered these days, is when I am on DU.

Hey DU teachers, you all are my heroes!!!

[smaug]

1. That's the point

Make the profession so chaotic and repressive as to drive out teachers, so the education deform companies can move in and make profit off of the government dole. Corporate welfare is the death of our country; notice how Mr. Romney took $480 million to 'save' the Salt Lake Olympics.

And this is reprehensible: http://www.democraticunderground.com/101648354

Arne Duncan, who falsied (read LIED) test scores so his tenure at Chicago wouldn't look so terrible is talking before a education privatization hedge fund. Education is not a profit center; how long will it take for the education deformity corporations to boot all the nonprofitable kids out so they can rake in more taxpayer dollars?

[DonRedwood]

14. I fear for the next generation's education.

A whole generation could come out with a really substandard education.

[narnian60]

2. Retired Texas teacher here.

Wow, 250.00 to spend on your room? Non-union here, of course, but I would have LOVED to have had that to spend every year!!! We got zippo.

[yardwork]

3. Rec

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Thanks for the shout out!

I've never - in 33 years - been reimbursed in cash for anything I used my own money to buy for my classroom. That would be a miracle.

But your point is well taken because district policies like this force admins to use high priced vendors to stock classrooms. We just a month or so ago got a library of themed Math and Science books for each classroom. They came in a nice slick cardboard box they call a 'library'. The vast majority of those books are available at WalMart in the children's book aisle. And at a greatly reduced cost. I was appalled when I looked at the invoice.

And yes, three cheers for Chicago!!!

[Camballo]

5. Thanks so much! OK teacher here...

The focus on testing is, has and will continue to ruin schools. Chicago teachers are my heroes!

[DonRedwood]

16. Welcome to DU! Always nice to have another teacher around here.

I'll bet the poor teachers in Oklahoma, with that red legislature, have taken a beating in Oklahoma.

I kept hoping the National Teachers Union would take up Chicago's rally cry and call for a national strike--get some support going for the schools out in the rural areas and red states.

[Sadiedog]

6. Head Start teacher here and

we are testing kids too, and it breaks my heart sometimes. I spend so much time assessing that I barely have time to teach the kids the useful skills that they will need to succeed later on in school. Not to mention that so much of it is not developmentally appropriate anyway. I am very frustrated and saddened by it all.

[WinstonSmith4740]

7. Thanks for the shout out!!

I came back to teaching 7 years ago after being away for a lo-o-o-ng time. I work in N. Las Vegas, and the first couple of years I spent banging my head against the wall saying, "What was I thinking?"

We're underpaid and under appreciated, but it's all about the kids. They make me crazy sometimes, but if I can save one a year from going down the wrong path, I feel like I can hold my head up in June. And when that kid hugs me and says "Thanks, Ms. M. I know I was a pain in the ass sometimes, but I appreciate everything you did for me this year", well just TRY to keep from crying.

It's the greatest job in the world.

[reteachinwi]

8. Diane Ravitch for Education Secretary

"There is something fundamentally antidemocratic about relinquishing control of the public education policy agenda to private foundations run by society's wealthiest people; when the wealthiest of these foundations are joined in common purpose, they represent an unusually powerful force that is beyond the reach of democratic institutions.”
― Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education

[LibDemAlways]

9. Don, I posted this a month or so ago and I don't think

it was as widely seen as it deserved. I hope you don't mind my using your thread to pay homage to a teacher who was very special, indeed. I wrote it in response to Ann Romney's comments that public education should be "thrown out."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021654110

By the way, I'm currently a lowly "sub" and see daily the hard work and dedication of teachers at all levels. A shout out is very much in order!

[DonRedwood]

13. A shout out for Subs too!!!!

:0) Subbing is a very hard job! Managing a roomful of kids you don't know... YIKES!! Hats off to you for subbing. It takes a special kind of person to be a good sub.

[LibDemAlways]

17. Thanks! I appreciate the kind words!

[Overseas]

10. K&R. Well said.

[madokie]

11. I love teachers

We have binders full of teachers in my family (-:

[HiPointDem]

12. kr

[ancianita]

15. Thanks! Much appreciated. Even though I'm retired now, I'm still in touch with my old colleagues.

[forest4qt]

18. just retired after 37 years

Support your local schools even if you don't have kids in them. They need all the help they can get. I live in AZ only because I can't afford to move and they have cut more than any other state. AZ also has more charter schools per capita than most other states. Voters turned down a chance to make a 1% sales tax increase permanent in the election. One reason I retired was being placed in a classroom with no materials to teach with at all. It's beyond ridiculous the neglect of public education. I supported the president but his Race to the Top is a bad joke. Teachers have been used and abused and now they are going to tie student achievement to a teacher's evaluation. All the research says that the biggest factor in achievement is socioeconomic level. With growing levels of poverty and hunger public school students really are facing bleak prospects. Good luck to all current teachers!