Recently I have been shocked by the number of shared or re-postings that contain false information. I believe that as users of social media we have a responsibility to ensure what we posts is truthful. The internet is full of half truths, old information and yes even false information. It is every social media users responsibility before sharing the information you read to research and see if it is true or not. If you find false information it is also your responsibility to let the person who shared the information know what they have put out there is not true or only partially true.
In the past month I have seen a number of politically charged headlines with stories that are taken from a truth to a distortion so great it literally becomes false. I have seen statics about charities that were posted as if current but the "facts" actually were dated back to 2006. Today I saw a great post that encourages everyone to write Holiday Mail for Heroes. This sounds wonderful, unfortunately it no longer exists except on a local level. So spreading this information actually will burden not help.
So please re-post, just be sure what you are re-posting is factual, current and something you are willing to stand behind. Take a stand and let your friends know, in a tactful way, that what they have shared is false or outdated. Or the world may start believing there is a way to detect if your pregnant using a phone app (true story saw it on Instagram).
Monday, November 2, 2015
Saturday, April 4, 2015
Oklahoma Teacher Pay
Oklahoma teachers again rallied at the capital Monday. While not as large as the gathering last year, still an impressive group of people showed up. The message I think was we are experts in our field and our voice should be heard before laws are passed. Of course teacher pay and compensation was also a big part of the rally and that is what really got most of the attention. The response seems to be there is no money.
I know there is a budget shortfall, I realize the price of oil is bad. I also know that when the price of oil was high, as a state we did not take advantage, and we tend to give everyone tax breaks. I also realize our state legislators are the 15th highest paid in the nation, taking in $38500 per year. That year consists of being in session for 4 months, five months less than those teachers. Keep in mind that does not include any per diem they may get paid. Oklahoma teachers are 48th with an average of about $44,000. This figure can be slightly higher or lower depending on the source. There is no per diem pay for travel, summer classes, on-line professional development, extra hours spent planning during the summer, etc.
A number of my fellow teachers have advanced degrees. Granted most of us have stopped with a Masters degree but a few have continued on to earn their Doctorate degree. These are the same people that have second jobs so they can afford to take their kids on vacation, help one of their kids attend camp (sport camp, summer camp, technology camp) or other small extras that families enjoy. Oklahoma's average salary for teachers is said to be $44,126. This means a number of those teachers have years and years of experience. I am close to that mark and have 17 years of experience and a Masters. My friend's daughter recently graduated from college with an accounting degree. Never even interned as an accountant, so has absolutely NO experience. Starting salary - $45,000/yr.
This week I was at my neighborhood weekly get together. I love my neighbors, they are warm welcoming people. As talk turned to the kids and their future education plans, I suddenly realized something amazing. Sitting at a table with ten adults, there were 2 of us with advanced degrees. Both of us are in education, me a public school teacher and the other owns a business that contract with schools to work with special needs children. The truly amazing thing I realized was everyone (including the retired guy) makes more money than me, a lot more money.
I knew when I became a teacher I would not be highly paid. I did expect to be able to earn a wage to keep me in the middle class. Teachers teach because they love what they do. Those who don't love teaching are those people who teach for about five years and the move on. These people always put teacher on their resumes, because it looks good. No, it looks great. Who wouldn't want to hire a teacher? They come to work every day, sometimes even when they are sick. The work overtime with no expectation of extra pay. They can juggle three conversations at the same time, and change a lesson at the drop of a hat if the boss is having a bad day. They are well-educated, and have common sense! Believe me they have to have a lot of common sense or those kiddos would eat them alive! Oh and teachers rarely complain. Maybe that is our one big downfall.
My hope is that we start using our voice (voting voice). I hope that those non-teachers ask us questions and understand what it is we do everyday. I know teachers are priceless. Think of those people that gave you a spark, made you believe in yourself, truly believe you could do it. I bet one of the first people you named other than your parents was a teacher. I know mine was, so thank you Mrs. Stamp, Mrs. Kolasinski for believing in me, and than you Mr. R for making me so mad, I had to prove you wrong!
Sources:
http://www.newson6.com/story/15081983/tonight-at-10-oklahoma-lawmakers-among-best-paid-in-nation
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/08/23/how-much-are-your-legislators-paid/)
I know there is a budget shortfall, I realize the price of oil is bad. I also know that when the price of oil was high, as a state we did not take advantage, and we tend to give everyone tax breaks. I also realize our state legislators are the 15th highest paid in the nation, taking in $38500 per year. That year consists of being in session for 4 months, five months less than those teachers. Keep in mind that does not include any per diem they may get paid. Oklahoma teachers are 48th with an average of about $44,000. This figure can be slightly higher or lower depending on the source. There is no per diem pay for travel, summer classes, on-line professional development, extra hours spent planning during the summer, etc.
A number of my fellow teachers have advanced degrees. Granted most of us have stopped with a Masters degree but a few have continued on to earn their Doctorate degree. These are the same people that have second jobs so they can afford to take their kids on vacation, help one of their kids attend camp (sport camp, summer camp, technology camp) or other small extras that families enjoy. Oklahoma's average salary for teachers is said to be $44,126. This means a number of those teachers have years and years of experience. I am close to that mark and have 17 years of experience and a Masters. My friend's daughter recently graduated from college with an accounting degree. Never even interned as an accountant, so has absolutely NO experience. Starting salary - $45,000/yr.
This week I was at my neighborhood weekly get together. I love my neighbors, they are warm welcoming people. As talk turned to the kids and their future education plans, I suddenly realized something amazing. Sitting at a table with ten adults, there were 2 of us with advanced degrees. Both of us are in education, me a public school teacher and the other owns a business that contract with schools to work with special needs children. The truly amazing thing I realized was everyone (including the retired guy) makes more money than me, a lot more money.
I knew when I became a teacher I would not be highly paid. I did expect to be able to earn a wage to keep me in the middle class. Teachers teach because they love what they do. Those who don't love teaching are those people who teach for about five years and the move on. These people always put teacher on their resumes, because it looks good. No, it looks great. Who wouldn't want to hire a teacher? They come to work every day, sometimes even when they are sick. The work overtime with no expectation of extra pay. They can juggle three conversations at the same time, and change a lesson at the drop of a hat if the boss is having a bad day. They are well-educated, and have common sense! Believe me they have to have a lot of common sense or those kiddos would eat them alive! Oh and teachers rarely complain. Maybe that is our one big downfall.
My hope is that we start using our voice (voting voice). I hope that those non-teachers ask us questions and understand what it is we do everyday. I know teachers are priceless. Think of those people that gave you a spark, made you believe in yourself, truly believe you could do it. I bet one of the first people you named other than your parents was a teacher. I know mine was, so thank you Mrs. Stamp, Mrs. Kolasinski for believing in me, and than you Mr. R for making me so mad, I had to prove you wrong!
Sources:
http://www.newson6.com/story/15081983/tonight-at-10-oklahoma-lawmakers-among-best-paid-in-nation
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/08/23/how-much-are-your-legislators-paid/)
Monday, January 19, 2015
Interactive Classroom
As a technology teacher, I come across a number of websites and apps to help teachers in the classroom. Too often I use them once or twice then simply pass them along in a quick mass email to my co-workers. This year I am trying something new. I am picking one website or app to use in my classroom for 3 - 4 weeks then I will post my thoughts on my blog.
My first find is Socrative an interactive feedback site, but also a site to use to test your class. Students can interact through a website or apps. This FREE app shows student responses immediately or after a question has been answered by the entire group. There are a number of similar sites, I find this one to be the easiest to set up and use.
You can use it for immediate polls, multiple choice, true/false and short answers, exit polls and more. You can enter in questions in advance or use it as you want to question your class. Results show from your project if you want the students to see where they fall. Entering questions in advance enables you to decide if students can answer and go at their own rate, or if you want to control the pace to show and discuss each question. Your questions remain on line so you can edit and reuse as you need. There is also a way to leave feedback or correct answers making this a useful review tool.
One of my favorite features is the reports. Yes these reports are stored for later use. You can go back and see which questions each student missed and what answer choice they made. This feedback is priceless when reviewing to see what information may have been missed in your presentation of the materials.
Needing a quick review or short time filler? Use the space race to have teams race to the correct answers. Students in all subjects in all grades love to compete against each other to see whose the best.
Give it a try - students can use anything that connect to the internet. The space race works even if students are sharing devices.
My first find is Socrative an interactive feedback site, but also a site to use to test your class. Students can interact through a website or apps. This FREE app shows student responses immediately or after a question has been answered by the entire group. There are a number of similar sites, I find this one to be the easiest to set up and use.
You can use it for immediate polls, multiple choice, true/false and short answers, exit polls and more. You can enter in questions in advance or use it as you want to question your class. Results show from your project if you want the students to see where they fall. Entering questions in advance enables you to decide if students can answer and go at their own rate, or if you want to control the pace to show and discuss each question. Your questions remain on line so you can edit and reuse as you need. There is also a way to leave feedback or correct answers making this a useful review tool.
One of my favorite features is the reports. Yes these reports are stored for later use. You can go back and see which questions each student missed and what answer choice they made. This feedback is priceless when reviewing to see what information may have been missed in your presentation of the materials.
Needing a quick review or short time filler? Use the space race to have teams race to the correct answers. Students in all subjects in all grades love to compete against each other to see whose the best.
Give it a try - students can use anything that connect to the internet. The space race works even if students are sharing devices.
Saturday, January 17, 2015
Why Teach
This year I am teaching Web Page Design and Fundamentals of Technology, I mix in programming because that is a passion of mine. As I was helping one student work through editing an image for his webpage, he asked "You know how to do all this stuff, why don't you have a real job making big money?" My response was an internal sigh, then a smile as I told him the truth. I have a real job and more importantly I love my job. Do I make the same money as I would if I went to work in corporate American, well of course not. Would I get respectful nod of the head instead of the slight sneer when I told people what I do for a living, probably. It made me think, why do people not see the value of the teacher?
Teachers are not only college graduates, but required by law to keep adding professional development by attending classes annually. A number of us have advanced degrees, we spend summers in workshops, days off in seminars, evenings listening to webcasts to keep current on the latest and greatest. So we are smart people, so that can't be it.
Teachers have to be prepared for anything. I mean ANYTHING, have you seen the news? We have drills for fire, tornadoes, intruders, and active shooters. We have students who come to us with fevers, stomach illness, diabetes, hearing or seeing impairments, learning disabilities, hungry bellies, full bellies, We can start a day with a plan and suddenly have a change of schedule, due to any number of other things. We have to quickly assess a number of situations and react quickly and more importantly correctly. So we are dynamic thinkers, so that can't be it.
Teachers can't have a bad day. Really? Everyone has a bad day! True, but teachers can't let that bad day effect their work. Headache, just not feeling it are not part of your day. There are 25 - 30 faces looking to you to encourage, show, share. There is not an option for not giving your best every time, so that can't be it.
Teachers have a lot of time off. This is a true statement, but that time off is NOT paid time off. Somewhere along the way I thing the general public has decided that since we don't go to school June and July we are getting paid vacation. This is simply not true. We get paid for the 180 days we are required to go to school with or without students. We do not get paid when we go to those week long summer institutes, or workshops. Or at least the districts I have worked for do not pay you to attend, they do however usually pay the fees for the workshops. Could this be it?
I just know the teachers I have had the pleasure of working with became teachers because they are passionate about the subject they teach and the students they get to see grow. Teachers share knowledge and techniques they are using. They are unselfish and not motivated by profit. Teachers give up a lot to be teachers, money, respect, the ability to write whatever they want on Facebook (that is a post for another day). Industry would be lucky to have a teacher working for them. We show up on time, work hard before during and after hours, and we love our work.
Think back, name the top 5 people who inspired you to be who you are today? I bet there is a teacher in that list.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)