My name is Jessica but most people call JB or Jbizzle, This is the story of 27 year old Chicago teacher stumbling her way through big city life one lesson learned at a time. I write about teaching, random stuff, and fitness. This is me being a "whole person" on internet paper.
Come along for the ride.
Email? Sure! JBizzle329Tumblr@gmail.com
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Tell me #Education…
How much money does your district allocate per child?
Ours is $4,100/kid. Our school got its budget and it’s a million dollars short. And charters get equal funding.
I find it utterly amazing that a student who doesn’t turn in homework all year, even with verbal reminders and phone calls home, can remember to bring in a white t-shirt for tie-dye the day after requesting it… Without a reminder.
You can't negotiate math.
5th grader: Can I do some of the math and when I get far enough I can just guess?
Me: No. Math doesn't work that way. Do the work.
5th grader: But it's a lot of work.
Me: (in my head) This is why I push you. No one else does and you just give up and feel that you don't have to try. You do.
Me: (out loud) Why don't you start by drawing a picture of the problem.
“You were a top contender, so now they have to reshuffle and rethink their applicants”
-Coworker in response to me asking about my decision to pull myself out of the running for the Gen Ed job.
Nope. Benchmark years are 3rd and 6th grade. Those are the years that you can send kids to summer school for getting “below” and “warning” on the ISATS. It’s also when they evaluate the grades so that they can send them to summer school. So, now we have 3 1/2 weeks left of school and a few grades have lost the incentive to work. Not to mention the smaller amount of grades teachers have for them and the smaller amount of progress kids make on IEP goals.
I’m Not Engaging.
I’m not engaging in your comment on my Facebook status that mentions my feelings about 49 schools being closed in Chicago Public Schools.
I’m not answering your question that asks if I would take a pay cut to help “debt ridden CPS system to keep them open”.
Instead, I will sit back and not argue with you. We are on opposite sides, and that has been clear since the strike. Because I’m a teacher I’m supposed to fix the debt problem brought on by crappy mayors, stupid spending, and all around mismanagement of the 3rd largest school district in the country? It’s my job to say no to a raise that helps me put money away later in life because the state is stealing my pension and older people will get to the funds first. It’s my job to say “Yes! Take my money. I don’t need it. Close that debt gap!” No, that’s not my job. My job is to teach. My job is to think about your child, about their education, well-being, who they are, where they are going. My job is to be there for your child and support them, not fix the debt crisis by taking a pay cut. Maybe you should ask the alderman to do that. Maybe they could use part of their $100,000+ a year salary for their part time jobs could be split among their schools. (http://media.apps.chicagotribune.com/tables/alderman-salaries.html) Maybe our mayor could not be paying for a park for Maggie Daley that’s expected to cost $55 million (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-08-26/news/ct-met-maggie-daley-park-20120826_1_programs-for-chicago-children-maggie-daley-grant-park). Maybe that 55 million could go towards the schools and one gets named after her? Maybe our mayor could not be planning a 300 million dollar tourism project ( http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-05-17/business/ct-biz-0517-depaul-arena-20130517_1_convention-expert-heywood-sanders-arena-mccormick-place) both the park and the tourism project are funded by tax payers.
We gladly spend money on things like that, but we starve our schools. The union had to bargain for textbooks on time. Parents have to have fundraisers to pay for ancillary teachers. And god forbid we give them a classroom. We’d be considered underutilized and would be threatened with closing. I’m just unclear why our city government is so against investing in our youth? Won’t that make our fair city better? You might say that tourism will bring us more money…money to invest in schools! I’m just wondering if that’s where the money will actually go?
I understand that CPS has about 100.000 seats open. I understand that there has to be some consolidation. I do not think they are going the right way about it. Why not a plan that goes over few years. A plan that gives schools time to adjust, to plan, and support.
But, what do I know? I’m just a teacher who should take a pay cut.
The Mayor Appointed Chicago Public Schools Board of Ed Just Voted to Close 49 Schools.
This is a shame. My thoughts go out to all those teachers and students.
Career Moves. I’m making them…
Allison helped me on some resume stuff before school today.
I wrote a cover email (are those a thing?) to the school I used to work at. They have an opening.
I have had no less than 4 people today ask me if I was applying for the in house El 2 job. Those questions were followed up with the questions concerning Montessori training and if I wanted to do that.
I have to write a whole new cover letter for the in house job, and this is what I know.
- I know that I will have to pay for part of the training…$3,000+.
- I will have to spend a whole summer in training with no pay. (I know that sounds silly, but I typically work (this summer is different, I busted my ass all year for this trip). I won’t be able to work when in training, in the suburbs, on my gas or train money from 8-5
- I’m not sure I want to drink the Montessori kool-aid and I don’t know if it’s because of the training or that I truly believe that it’s *hocus pocus.
How do you write that sort of cover letter? Like this:
Hi, hire me because I’m awesome and you tell me that every day. Also, hire me because I’m not sure I’m quite into what you are doing here, but I’d love to run your multi-age classroom like a traditional classroom with super differentiation, and structure, and positive reinforcement. It’d be wonderful to have my own class, to collaborate with others, to be on the same team, do the same thing. But, yes ,but, I’m not sure I’m into spending my summer in training. That’s kind of a time suck. I’m young. I’m unattached. I have shit to do, and since our district took our year round schedule away, when am i going to get away? I can’t spend the next two summers in training. How about this? I do some training each summer for the next few years? Cool? Cool. I’ll set up my classroom now.
This cover letter will be hard. The more I think about what I have to invest in this, the more i want to run away, not let them waste their time on me. Then again, I could see it being something I want. But, I also want a self-contained sped classroom.
*It’s not hocus pocus. I know that a lot of our success comes from the types of families that are at our school. I’d really love to see this sort of program being implemented in a low income area where kids have more of a struggle and not so much parent support.
