I’m a teacher, and it’s a thankless job.

"Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection" (itsalwayssteve)
02/21/2019 at 20:30 • Filed to: Worklopnik, Middle School

I’m a teacher. I had to deal with lockdown this morning.

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The kid who brought the gun to school is in my 4th block science class. He just returned from the turning point academy - the alternative school in Char-Meck. Crazy happens all over. I already break up fights at least once a week. Yesterday I got my shoes all messed up:

My classroom is falling apart and I don’t have time or funds to decorate the way I want:

And the cafeteria has seats that break regularly.

I would love to invite any politician who talks about “failing schools,” as an excuse to cut funding to spend time in my middle school. We aren’t failing. We’ve been set up to fail. Our tax base can’t cover all of our expenses we have 20 homeless families in our school.

We don’t have much of anything we need. We have to constantly scramble for donations just to get supplies that we need. The title I funds that bought chrome books for each student in 2016 have been cut for this year. Whenever we have a computer that breaks, or gets dropped, or needs repair, we have had to pull it out of circulation. Because of this, all work is done on paper. Last weekend I spent five hours manually grading quizzes.

I have to stop class regularly to redirect or discipline kids - 30+ 8th graders is a huge responsibility.

We can’t get a substitute so whenever a teacher is absent - and that’s frequent because of the additional stress we undergo - the kids are dispersed to other classrooms. About a week ago, one of the kids took a swing at the last sub that we had and he said “fuck this,” and never came back.

And yet I soldier on. Because I love it. The feeling you get when a group of kids ooh and aah over a simple science experiment is one I never want to give up.

Oxidation of steel wool in a closed system to demonstrate law of conservation of mass

I love the kids. And I can’t see myself doing anything else.

DISCUSSION (35)

whatisthatsound > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
02/21/2019 at 20:35

You want to give me an email address and I can send some aviation posters? and maybe a wish list of things you think would be essential?

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
02/21/2019 at 20:38

fuck me.... and i thought schools over here were underfunded

(well... schools over here are underfunded)

kudos to you mate.. i couldnt do it

dogisbadob > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
02/21/2019 at 20:40

Who’s the one who said “fuck this,” the kid or the sub?

Interesting desk setup btw

Monkey B > whatisthatsound
02/21/2019 at 20:40

to add, are you allowed to fund raise? Gofundme and the like?

Tristan > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
02/21/2019 at 20:41

Thank you. My wife used to teach second grade. I spent my own time and money to decorate and repair things around her room. Forget getting money back...

People who put up with the teacher life are society’s best.

wafflesnfalafel > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
02/21/2019 at 20:41

M y dad was a jr high/high alternative school biology teacher for the last 20 years of his career - he did more good for more people than I ever will.

Sovande > whatisthatsound
02/21/2019 at 20:41

That’s a really great idea. I’m in.

Also, forward this to the school board. Let them hear again what they already know to be true. There are people dedicated to making a difference in those kids lives and you aren't getting the support you need.

CompactLuxuryFan > Monkey B
02/21/2019 at 20:43

https://www.donorschoose.org/ is the GoFundMe of teachers. If you ever feel like supporting a classroom in that way, there’s more than enough projects in there to go around.

CompactLuxuryFan > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
02/21/2019 at 20:45

Teachers are saints!

As far as I’m aware, any district that has ever purchased Chromebooks for every student is already way ahead of most when it comes to technology. Just imagine!

Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection > Monkey B
02/21/2019 at 20:46

Donors choose is the main platform that educators use around me. But I’m still trying to get through a lesson. One of my colleagues got me a milk crate full of Ehrlenmyer flasks and 100ml beakers so we can do basic stuff but a large portion comes from my pocket. And I’m only making $40k a year.

Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection > CompactLuxuryFan
02/21/2019 at 20:49

It was a combination of Title I funds and a grant from Verizon that allowed CMS to get them. But as they’ve been in the hands of middle schoolers for three years they’re worse for wear. We only bring them out for testing just so we can be sure we have enough.

phenotyp > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
02/21/2019 at 20:49

Man. This hits the heart. Thank you. If I can contribute help, let me know what’d do it best.

Monkey B > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
02/21/2019 at 20:51

a periodic table would look good on the wall. Maybe try and fund a small project where the kids make it and it’s a permanent installation, or at least reusable . They’d learn, you’d get decoration and they feel a sense of pride. Just a thought...

random001 > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
02/21/2019 at 20:56

Well, thank you.

Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection > dogisbadob
02/21/2019 at 20:57

It was the sub.

I like the desk setup because it allows me room to move around and observe that kids are doing their work. Also everyone can see the board.

gettingoldercarguy > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
02/21/2019 at 20:58

See, you don’t need money. Let’s privatize the school system, but not before all of us sponsoring that deal invest heavily in companies who would post a profit.

Then, let’s give vouchers which poor families can use to barely pay for their child’s education, but will hopefully have to take a small loan, subsidized and guaranteed by the government to fully cover the costs.

The wealthier families can have an ESA or education savings account where one can take money out of your paycheck pre tax to help cover additional costs of sending your children to a quality private school. Because a voucher clearly won’t cover all of a high quality private education. If you over contribute, don’t worry! It can be rolled into your investments without any tax exposure! It’s a win win! When you withdraw, it’s capital gains.

This is the future of the education system that quite a few greedy assholes I know want.

Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection > Monkey B
02/21/2019 at 20:59

That’s genius

Monkey B > dogisbadob
02/21/2019 at 21:03

I used to sub for the local vo-tech system. They liked male substitutes in the predominantly male shops and I’m usually slow in the winter. The substitute likely didn’t care...he’s getting paid . That said it was sad to see the state of the average kids psyche in these times ...technology was the beginning of the Idiocracy decline.

Funny, but sad, story, I went to high school with my gf. I was in shop with her hs bf at the time. I was subbing a few years ago and had to physically help remove his son from my classroom. When I was roll calling I asked about the last name as I went to school with a guy with that name. Turns out it was his dad . I mentioned I hadn’t seen him in 20 years...he said “ neither have I” . The apple really didn’t fall far sadly. It was awkward.

CompactLuxuryFan > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
02/21/2019 at 21:06

As in you only use them for standardized testing?

Tech in education is still such a young field. Stuff just moves slowly. Nobody’s even remotely close to cracking the code for adoption to reach a point where we can even decisively say tech benefits education.

Monkey B > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
02/21/2019 at 21:08

set it up...this is a good community. I’m sure it’d generate a few willing donations. There are good people in this world, even in the internet! This place seems to be a magnet for them.

NKato > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
02/21/2019 at 21:35

If I go to a school district board meeting, the first question is going to be: do you have kids attending school here? If the answer is no, I'd toss them from the room.

Spridget > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
02/21/2019 at 22:02

I know it’s not exactly your subject, but I can send in some maps that I have; if you really want to get off-topic, I can pull some old car ads out of some magazines I have and send those.

f86sabre > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
02/21/2019 at 22:14

You are a hero. For all the shit heads there are kids that you are getting to. I wish we as a country would do more for education. That needs to be our continuous moonshot scale effort.

As whatisthatsound mentioned, let us know how we can help and we can see what we can do.

shop-teacher > gettingoldercarguy
02/21/2019 at 22:18

This. Exactly this.

shop-teacher > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
02/21/2019 at 22:20

I’m sorry it's all such a big mess, but I'm glad to hear you're enjoying teaching despite the challenges.

Shour, Aloof and Obnoxious > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
02/22/2019 at 00:01

Middle school band director here.

Your class size is ATROCIOUS . But you already know that.

I don’t bat an eyelash at class sizes over 40, but that’s kind of expected in my job. In fact, I fight for bigger numbers, since that guarantees the existence of my position. You? You’re a CORE subject. You’re literally at the forefront of the continual outcry of, “STEM STEM STEM! We have to get better STEM education because America is falling behind!”

“About a 40:1 student-teacher ratio for our STEM classes is probably the best way to fix that!” - said no educator, ever. Ugh.

No successful business ever inserts someone with zero business experience as the head of the company. No hospital worth its salt is chaired by a board or a chief of medicine who was never a doctor. Yet it seems that everyone EXCEPT actual educators are running our education system into the ground, and no one EXCEPT ACTUAL EDUCATORS seems to understand why things keep getting worse.

It’s not about test scores. It’s about KIDS. And kids are not assembly line products, and no matter how hard you try, you cannot build them the way businesses build products. So frustrating.

I feel your frustration, man. But I feel your joy, too. I teach in a very privileged area (we are also Title I somehow...I don’t get how), so you and I see different problems. But our kids are getting into fights every day here, too, right now...good lord, it’s usually not until April or May that the aggression ramps up, but February 2019 has turned our in-school suspension room into a continuous revolving door.

And you and I keep showing up, because of the hope that we’re making them better people somewhere down the line.

God bless you, man.

Shour, Aloof and Obnoxious > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
02/22/2019 at 00:20

The general public would be astounded to know how much we spend out of pocket just to have functioning classrooms.

And those who do know often have general amnesia until they read it again that some teacher spent several hundred of their own money just to be able to teach properly.

Shour, Aloof and Obnoxious > shop-teacher
02/22/2019 at 00:26

What was the old rule? If you can survive Year Seven, then you’ll be able to do this as a career, right?

I think they’re telling the ed majors now that if you can survive Year Three. That’s where we are now - where the system burns out new teachers in less than three years instead of less than seven. Come to think of it, it was probably in the decade after NCLB was instituted that the change happened. Geez.

MiniGTI - now with XJ6 > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
02/22/2019 at 00:31

My sister and sister in law are both teachers . I consider it a noble profession. I can’t think of any school teachers I disliked and many I remember quite fondly.

shop-teacher > Shour, Aloof and Obnoxious
02/22/2019 at 07:06

This is my 14th year, and I think they were telling us even when I started that year three was the burnout year. I almost didn’t make it past that myself. Some completely insane things happened to me and a co- teacher I was working with that year, and the principal threw us to the dogs. We both survived, but to be perfectly honest I may very well have bailed if I had any alternatives. That was 2008, t he building bubble had popped, and the only other way I knew how to make a living was in construction. I'm glad I stuck it out, but it wasn't easy.

Neil Can't Think Of A Good Name > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
02/22/2019 at 11:14

You’re a better man than me. I taught at a school that was very similar to yours in Central Louisiana (Louisiana! Last in education but first in juvenile diabetes!) and it was a living hell. I made it two year teaching Jr high English before I was ready to lay in traffic. Luckily I got a job the next year at a rural school (my alma mater actually) and its been tolerable.

I admire your dedication but man, I can’t. I show up every day and feel like I’m spinning my wheels. I teach 11th and 12th grade now but I still feel stuck...I’m going on my 7th year teaching and I want out but none of my side jobs (or my wife’s job) make enough to make up the difference.

Teaching is kind of soul crushing unless you love it and I’m glad you do. Its nice to see there are teachers that still try.

Thanks for doing it.

MattHurting > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
02/22/2019 at 11:46

Holy shit to the number of desks in there. Keep fighting the good fight sir, it is appreciated.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
03/26/2019 at 19:23

How is it hanging? I randomly thought about you and wanted to make sure teaching was going ok!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
04/26/2019 at 15:17

“...because I love it...”

That’s what I’m talking about. And the kids can tell.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Monkey B
04/26/2019 at 15:21

“The apple falls close to the tree.” I had never heard that expression until I started teaching.