What happens to the money?

 

I listen, sometimes on a daily basis, to people open their mouths and spout off about money for education. I know I pay a lot of money in property taxes which are supposed to fund the schools in my district. I also know I live in a rich area, which amounts to lots of property tax money, which creates good schools. I also know money comes in from other government entities like the state and the federal government. 

I always thought this was suppose to equalize the schools which were in an area that was not so wealthy, so all the students would receive a good, quality education.

When I became a teacher, I found out just how wrong I was. I found out that many of the supplies which I took for granted when I was a student and then a parent, are a struggle for many to have in their classrooms. When you must make sure you have pencils and paper just to start; you have students whose families cannot even provide those simple things; you have needed expensive things that are not anywhere to be found, your expenses go up considerably.

Everyone wants to talk about schools and how students are behind. They want to throw teachers under the bus for low test scores or falling attendance numbers and then, to top that, they want to withhold money when a school district makes a decision in the best interest of the school and community. That is always held over school boards as the end all of the discussion. "Do/don't do it or your money will be withheld. 

What money? What would you deprive us of if we don't do as you say? Most schools don't have supplies enough to prevent teachers from having to spend out of pocket. How about trying to figure out a way to not use as much to help conserve supplies when we have all this money?

What about big ticket items like computers? I teach at a school that is not 1/1 and I hate to break it to the ignorant folks who have no idea what teachers go through, but students cannot type a paper on a phone.

I watch teachers post wish lists for beakers for science class and maps for history classes. I am big on posting for classroom sets of books for my students. What? You mean you want me to teach from the textbook. Okay. Can you provide enough copies for all my students? Use the online textbook? Okay, how about computers so we can? It seems for every problem we experience as teachers, the powers who control the money have answers that don't play in the real world of schools. 

Oh, no textbooks? Use real world lessons so the students can learn to think for themselves. Really? Okay, but don't mention slaves, or religion; leave politics out and don't vary from this or that standard. Video? Not allowed unless it has been pre-approved by your boss to watch for violence or a curse word and don't even try to use a National Geographic video on Africa. There may be a topless woman in a tribal scene. Documentaries? Only short clips. We want you teaching, not watching movies. 

There is an excellent organization, Teach Rock, which has lesson plans for free. It is an awesome resource. There are many organizations which help with free resources. As a history teacher, I use many of these to help create more interesting lessons that the students fall in love with. But I need computers to get there. 

A history teacher, Charles Best, began an organization to help teachers get resources they need that are not paid for by their school districts. The idea came to him when he was trying to copy Little House on the Prarie for his students to read. I have had 18 projects funded through Donor's Choose. 18 projects for things that the schools needed. Things that there was no money for. Most of mine were books. Classroom sets of books. The results in most cases were improved reading scores. 

What on earth would happen if schools were actually funded as they need to be? What would happen if a teacher needed a classroom set of books and all they had to do was ask? How nice would it be if we all really did have computers we could use when we needed to? That paper and pencils were not having to be paid for out of pocket? How far could we go?

So you tell me: where does the money go? 

Observations from behind the 8 ball

 

Writing is cathartic for me but yelling at people in the privacy of my truck with my windows rolled up seems to release more of my pent up feelings than even putting them down on paper. 

I have a short drive from work, only about 12 miles, but the early morning drive is a great time for reflection of the previous day and a great time to mentally plan for the upcoming one. Then, out of nowhere, some yahoo comes barreling by me going fifteen or twenty miles over the speed limit, whipping in and out of traffic and bringing out the anger in me. Anger should not begin a day. Why, at 5:30 a.m. is this person so intent of driving like a maniac? This begins my day but the drive home is even worse because there is more traffic. 

Yesterday, as I was driving home and approached the traffic light at Tuttle and Fruitville Roads, the roads slick from rain, an accident had occurred where a car ran off the road and was sitting in the CVS parking lot on its' side. Numerous emergency vehicles were there and by the time the traffic had been sitting through three red lights, even though the intersection was not blocked, people seemed to lose their minds. Trying to squeeze in a hole meant for a tricycle, a huge dually pickup was insistent they were going to turn around in the intersection because they did not want to wait for the light. Patience, Grasshopper. Patience. 

Once I finally made it through the light, cars hit the gas, speeding by Girls, Inc., even with stopped school buses and red stop signs, and then comes the school zone flashers on Tuttle. I slow down to the posted 15 miles an hour and two cars, at least, came whizzing by me with no thought to those elementary school kids standing on the corner. I swore I was coming home, parking my truck and not leaving the house this weekend.

The second observation of the week is how hard it is to try and remain positive in life when the setting around you continues to be so negative. I asked on social media if people who were not teachers understood the stress we were under and just about got attacked by someone in the medical field. I get it. I know the stress medical personnel are under must be horrendous but every day, 5 days a week, I am responsible for children. I have watched as my classes dwindle due to students either contracting Covid-19 or being exposed to a positive case. After last year we all know that once they are quarantined, school is not even a thought until they return.  You may receive an obligatory email from a parent that first day, then nothing. Keep smiling. Then you receive even more forms to be completed for even more data to be computed for even more lessons that no one is going to do because there are not enough students in your class. Keep smiling. So you revamp everything to fit what is going on in the world today and someone sends you another email to hawk even newer pedagogy that is going to bring your kids even higher test scores on a test that does nothing but stress the students out and lowers your VAM scores so you are perceived as a struggling teacher. Keep smiling. 

My dogs are my confidents and love me unconditionally, regardless of the craziness which our world has apparently become a part of. Everyone should have at least one. They will enrich your life. 

Having people in your life that you can call, not text, and vent to is very important to maintaining a level of peace. I am lucky in having several and they always seem to pop in just when I need them to. They don't seem to mind when I begin letting it all out to them. My son, who is great to talk to, simply asks at the beginning of the conversation if I want solutions or empathy. He comes up with both, depending on what I say.

I hope all my students have a safe weekend and return to school on Monday. I hope those crazy drivers I experience on a daily basis don't hurt anyone. I hope you have a restful weekend to regain your positivity. I hope we have a turnaround soon on the virus. I hope, hope, hope. I still have that, because if you lose that, you have lost the process of life. 

The Value of Travel

One of my favorite travel destinations, the Colorado Rocky Mountains, 

 The more I experience being a teacher in today's world, the more I wonder what needs to be done to fix some of our misguided thoughts. 

Although teaching is my second career, this trend of individualism being all important began way before I began experiencing it in my classroom. As I approach topics that are as familiar to me as my address, my students are lost. Ask a simple question about the Roman empire and the looks on their faces are blank. Try to discuss child labor throughout the world, and receive no response. Talk about the Industrial Revolution and they become bored. Their prior knowledge of the world is minimal or non-existent. 

Traveling, whether it is to a local museum or across the country is one of the most valuable tools in education today. The problem is not having the money to do that. The expense of arranging transportation, hotels if there is an overnight stay, admittance fees for students can be astronomical for a school district who cannot afford to provide enough computers for each child. 

When I was a new teacher, I tackled an overnight field trip to Lake City, Florida. I took 80 8th graders to watch a Civil War reenactment of the Battle of Olustee. I got the idea from a professional development I took through the Florida Humanities Council and the planning began the year before. I had to receive principal approval, school board approval, parental approval, medical approval and then find teachers who were willing to give up their weekend to travel on a bus with middle school kids for 4 hours. 

I had to find a hotel to accept these kids and some way to feed them dinner on Friday night. I had the whole thing planned down to contacting the head of the committee who was responsible for the parade and fair after the reenactment. I could not have asked for more receptive people or received more compliments on the behavior of my students. 

The students came home with lots of photos and memories. Many of them had never been out of their county. Many of them had never seen an indoor swimming pool and had a blast, especially when I jumped in. These kids were curious, asked all kinds of questions and were a joy to take on a field trip. I don't know how they fared as they entered high school. I know some of them went on to college and are reaching for stars. I do know that once that trip had concluded, the students had changed. 

I have taken students to Ringling Museum, Gamble Plantation, The National Florida Panther Wildlife Refuge, the Everglades and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. I have tried to expose them to as much as possible and although virtual field trips do provide some exposure, visiting in person is so much better. 

I was lucky in having a father who was in the military and being able to live in a variety of places and traveling around those places to experience a variety of history, both good and bad. I continued that trend when I was younger and have seen and experienced things that enrich my life. I wish I could do the same for my students. 

Can't one of my super smart friends start a non-profit just for travel exposure for students? I know the insurance side would be astronomical, but surely it is possible. Most of my students cannot afford a $600 or $700 prepayment to visit places that would inspire them to reach further. 

I keep hoping I will be able to do one more field trip before I retire, but Covid-19 may have put a stop to that.  I wonder if I could just be a travel person who plans field trips for history kids in school? Yeah, probably not but the idea is a good one. 

What so many do not see

 

Teachers seem to be the odd man out in society today. Florida, my beloved state, is divided on even the most simple things when it comes to teachers. It is one of the reasons so many teachers are leaving the profession and why so many of us are suffering from mental health issues that the public knows nothing about.

I am vaccinated and because I am, I feel relatively safe. I also live alone with two dogs and am not a social butterfly. I go out on occasion but live pretty simply and in the summertime, I may go a whole week without seeing another human or carrying on a conversation with anyone but the grocery clerk, where I still use them and not the self service checkout. 

When school began again, it was very freeing not to have to mask up according to the CDC and then boom, we should all be wearing masks because of the Delta variant. So now I feel unsafe again. 

After listening to the people who control my school, I have figured out that the smaller group, those who don't believe in vaccinations, some who don't have children in the schools, and some who are still spouting the "personal rights" and "I don't have to mantra". So as a teacher, now this is what I have to do so they can continue to deny science exists and keep insisting that we are in no danger. 

I wear a mask every day, although I am not required to. My students are about 50/50, which means half of them do and half don't. Then the number is halved again by those wearing masks around their mouths but not their noses and my not having the ability to say ANYTHING to them, or I will be in trouble. 

Now I once again must have my temperature taken and answer a questionnaire first thing in the morning but we can't ask the students to wear a mask. I have students who want the vaccine but whose parents refuse to allow them to get one. Somehow, this scenario keeps playing over and over.

And people wonder why we continue to drop like flies from our chosen profession because mentally we just can't handle it any longer. It still puzzles me why we let this continue to happen? Why we allow our elected representatives to treat us to much like peons? They are supposed to work for us, remember?  Why how we feel doesn't matter?

I have a ripped Achilles tendon and a hairline fracture in my ankle right now. I am in a boot and still manage to get to work each day because I worry so about my kids. I am old, with slight COPD and worry about Covid-19. Short of quitting my job and staying home permanently, I have no recourse but to continue working. I have no trust fund or rich husband. Someone needs to pay my mortgage and feed my dogs. But the toll on teachers, especially on the part you don't see, which is their mental health, is great. Please be kind and get your shit together. Your kids deserve us at our best. Our best is suffering right now. 

Teaching in a conspiracy theory world

Growing up in the generation that I did, I should be one of the millions of people who believe in these terribly damning conspiracies theories. But as a child of the 60s and early 70s, I also grew up with magazines like the National Enquirer and The Globe. I remember those two specifically, but the counter in front of the cash register was full of these. We made fun of them. We were educated enough to understand what they were doing and why everything in them was such a laugh. I mean, Archie Bunker believed in The National Enquirer. We also read things like books and newspapers, had dinner conversations with our parents, and generally were more concerned with the world than seems to be the case today.

Being a teacher during this time has proven to be a challenge that I never saw coming. I mean, kids are kids, right? I was aware of social issues which my students face today that were not faced by my generation. Ok, maybe some kids faced these things but the numbers were small and they had others who made sure they had what they needed. My generation was not, for the most part, raised by uncommunicative parents who believed they were the only ones who had a child's best interest at heart. My parents had much more of a tribal mentality in that other ADULTS were here to help kids. The government was not out to hurt children or the family unit. School was a place where facts were important, discussion and debate was the norm, and students were allowed to question but not curse the adults. 

I had one of my sophomores ask the most mundane question yesterday. At my school, they have begun to have a moment of silence and reflection after the Pledge of Allegiance. It did not exist last year so I am not sure whether it was there before Covid-19 or a relatively new development. He asked, "Why are we doing this now and what is it for?" (when I was in high school I actually told my father, a career Army guy, that I would no longer say the Pledge until things were more fair for women in this country)

I tried to explain the whole state and church separation, the fight against school prayer, why we now have a moment of silence etc. I think he understood but in my opinion, how sad that he doesn't even know the history of why we no longer have school prayer, how big the fight was when we still had school prayer and who seems to always lead the way, the parents. 

I guess when my students see so much conspiracy theory going on in their own homes, they cannot help but believe what they are hearing there. We should not have to fight against this phenomenon and I am not sure how we can. I do know that with each passing day, with each struggle to maintain my composure when ignorance raises an ugly head, my time as a teacher is coming closer and closer to an end. I sometimes feel like I have fought the good fight but I am tired of fighting. Teaching is the hardest job I have ever loved but I refuse to let it kill me. 

The excitement doesn't leave

 My ninth year as a teacher begins this year. I cannot believe my second career has already reached that milestone. This past week has brought me to the realization that I was meant to be a teacher, it just took me 38 years and a first career to get here.

I have been blessed to work at several schools and learned so much from each of them. I also learned how many people really don't understand the educational system today and the dance you must complete around them in order to survive. I have met teachers who were naturals; ones who should have chosen a different profession; ones who, with some experience will blossom, and some who have been teaching for so long they cannot adjust to the changes the system is going through.

This past week I was very excited to learn that my new journalism class was going to be able to meet in their own classroom and not share their space with my history classes. I have never been so blessed and then I began to try and make it a comfortable room for better creativity and for the students to feel it was a safe spot. 

I had tables removed because there were so many jammed in a very small room and I wanted the kids to have space to move around. One thing I have learned is a room where kids are creating, needs to be fluid. You cannot jam stuff in the space and make it inviting. 

I have plants and an old typewriter, posters and enough tables to sit and write or work on design. I have a big spot in the middle that is empty and with that in mind, I decided to make a small seating area, where the students could chill. What a journey that is going to turn in to. 

After perusing every site for educational furniture known to me an several Google searches, I have decided that companies have no idea how to create a comfortable area for teenagers. They are HARD on furniture. It gets knocked around and beat up, not because they are trying to destroy that expensive bean bag chair that looked perfect, but because they are not thinking about what they are sitting on, poking a pencil over and over in a bean bag, causes it to loose all the stuffing. Ask me how I learned that. .  

So today I am going thrifting. I am looking for two chairs and a table. Something like a coffee table and two side chairs. A seating area if you like, that the kids can kick back and relax in to peruse magazines and other newspapers for brainstorming. How do you brainstorm when your chair is designed by someone who wants bulk orders of indestructible over comfort?

So once again, I am excited to find the perfect setup for the class. I am excited to see my students back on Tuesday. I was excited to have so many of my students drop by my room during open house just to say hello. I couldn't wait to redo my history classroom or get my class lists. Every thing in both of my classrooms is designed for the students. 

After nine years I am still excited for the new school year. That will keep me up and  moving for even more years to come. There is no boredom, only smiles and welcomes to the new students crossing in to a new year., I love this job. 

I am masking up

Children wear flu masks in Starke, Fla., during the Spanish influenza outbreak of 1918. [ State Archives of Florida (1918) ]

Because I teach high school and we all know that teenagers know everything, I will be masking up when school begins for students next week. I am not leaving my health in the hands of a governor who could care less about teachers, or the students they teach. 

I continue to be stymied by the ignorance of adults. Kids I can understand because they are kids and they need adult guidance from the adults who are in charge of them. So if an adult doesn't want to interact with others and become a hermit in their home, let them choose not to wear a mask. I do not fit in that category.

I have been receiving vaccines of one kind or another since I was a baby thanks to the United States Army. It seems that every time we moved, we had to receive shots/vaccinations of one kind of another, especially when leaving Europe or going to Europe. I don't remember much about these except on one return trip from Germany. None of the Army nurses were available so we had to get our shots from a medic. His name was Sgt. Santiago and he hurt when he gave shots. He was very apologetic to my Mom, who told him not to worry that he had made me cry, but I have never forgotten that. 

I have had my Covid-19 shots. I am in a high risk category because of my age and slight COPD and I faithfully have not been out without my mask while teaching and out in the public. 

I am still wearing my mask. I don't go in the store without it on, not because I am scared of getting the virus, but because I have some respect for other people around me. I am not scared, but educated. 

Each year since I began teaching, I get a cold; it turns in to bronchitis and some years has turned in to pneumonia. I have had students sneeze on me, cough on me, throw up in my garbage can, leave used tissues on desks and on the floor, with no thought to the germs they may be leaving in the classroom or spreading to others.

I am NOT a germaphobe, but I do wash my hands, use Lysol to clean my desks and have done so since I began teaching. Last year, wearing a mask, I NEVER even had a runny nose. I had students who had to be reminded to put their masks on and numerous other incidents of students having Covid-19 or being exposed to Covid-19 and I remained free of any colds, flues, Covid-19, stomach bugs, or anything else the students bring to class. This tells me that masks work.

I don't like them. I don't wear them at home or in my truck. I can breathe just fine and wear a fresh one every day, sometimes 2 or three times a day, depending on my allergies, which they don't prevent. 

So even though I feel I am a better teacher without one, I will have one on next week when students return. They are not required to wear them this year. I hope parents understand the science behind the mask. I say a silent prayer for all of those who disdain science and reasoning and hope they do not lose anyone to this horrific virus but I am masking up. 

 

Things I Wonder About

 I sometimes wonder what my recent ancestors would say if they could come back for just a day or so and examine what is happening. These two wonderful people are my great grandparents. I never met them but they were instrumental in settling Lakeland, Florida after growing up in Florida. Daniel Henry's father was Orvil Sloan and grandfather was Daniel Sloan, who first came to Florida about 1840. Ruby's family descended from all the Carltons, Wilders, Hendrys etc. These are all old family lines I have been researching for over 25 years but that is not my wonder. 

My great grandfather, Orvil, was not very educated. Given the times, he married young and had a farm close to his parents. My great grandfather, Daniel Henry, according to everything I can find, only had a 9th grade education but he did not become a farmer. 

Orvil Sloan, according to the pension papers filed with the state of Florida, could not work any longer and only did a "piddling" amount of work for enough money to care for his family. His son, Daniel Henry, went to work at a general store and learned business. The store was somewhere around Plant City and when the owner began selling liquor, Daniel quit because it went against his upbringing, even though the owner offered him more money because of the success his business was experiencing with Daniel as the manager. 

So Daniel moved a few miles down the road to what would become Lakeland and with his brother, Aaron, opened the Sloan Mercantile Store on Main Street.  The photo above was taken in their front yard on Lake Mirror. I have the original with lots of detail, but there are copies all over the internet. I wonder what he would have thought of the internet? Or even that anyone would be interested in his life.

Daniel went on to own several businesses including the first car lot and several orange groves. He had indoor plumbing in his house and the first phone in the city. He served in the city government and also the state government, all with a 9th grade education. He and Ruby had 8 children, my grandfather, Edward, being the youngest. The above photo is on Florida Memory. It is his government portrait. 

What would he think of people today? He was, by every written account I can find, an honest politician in Tallahassee, which is why he left after two terms. He insisted his children attend school and was instrumental in creating the original Lakeland High School. He worked to better the city of Lakeland and my great grandmother did the same. Service seemed high on his list of accomplishments but he never wanted accolades. 

Did he wear a mask during the Spanish Flu in 1919? Was he against women or people of color having rights? Was he a fair employer? Did he take care of his workers and their families? The old First Baptist Church in Lakeland had a chapel attached to the main building named after him. It is filled with stained glass windows for each of his 8 children. He attended every Sunday. 

I wish I could find his papers. I wish I could track him through his writing like I have my other ancestors. There is a feed store where his home sat. There are even more crooked politicians than even he could possibly imagine in Tallahassee. I wonder what he would think about the state today?

Still believing in people

 I write two blogs, one on animals but this morning I felt this needed to be included in my regular one. Growing up in the military, I knew we had always taken our dogs, regardless of where we moved to and finding housing that would accept a dog. Living outside the military since I became an adult, this process seems to be foreign to a lot of people. It has caused great sadness in the plight of homeless animals.

About a year ago, I helped a friend find a dog for her family. This family had never had a dog before, only cats but the kids were clamoring and the decision was made. 

We visited several shelters but the black lab mix we met at one of the shelters stole my friend's heart so she called her husband to bring the kids. The pretty dog seemed perfect and she loved the kids so she found a home. She had been transported from a shelter in Georgia, a dumped dog in a rural area that was heartworm positive with very little history. 

She now lives with her two kids, her mom and dad, cats and has turned in to a part of the family. She had to have some training for the cats and to behave around other dogs on a walk, but she adores her family and is extremely smart. She figured it out. She had won the jackpot.

My friends are moving back to England next week. Rainbow and her kitty sibling are going with the family. She is not being returned because of the struggles to take animals to another country. She is not going to go back in to a rescue situation. She is being treated as part of a family. That is how you own a pet. That is what you do when you move. You take your family members with you. It should not even be up for discussion. 

So from being dumped on a rural road in Georgia to becoming a world traveler, Rainbow is having the time of her life and she is very loved. My only wish is that all humans who adopt animals would treat their new family members the same.