Chicago Teacher Strike?

Started by LadyAVA, September 17, 2012, 01:43:30 AM

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LadyAVA

Im a HS teacher and what Chicago is striking is what my district set in place 3 years ago (teacher rating based on what a minor bubbles on a state assessment - "student performance") AND I def dont get paid what they are asking for in that 30% salary increase. Holy hell man :) Im a teacher and yes its "hard" but seriously, we are off for 3 months a year! I get paid to sleep till 2:00pm for two months every year :) Its glorious!

The problem with teachers these days is that they are NOT culturally and globally relevant and refuse to show respect to get respect. Now days, students dont just respect adults becuase they are adults. My students know I respect them and I truly like them as people. I dont look down on them becuase they are young or they arent as "educated as me" (yeah some teachers I work with are very much into "Im the teacher you listen to me"). The success in my classroom is credited to the sheer fact that I get to know my kids! I know where they work and if they have a kid or if they have a dad or mom in jail. I eat at the resturants they work at. I go grocery shopping where they work. Its important to me to be as real as possible for them some that they will learn from me and be open to my knowledge I have to share with them.

I dont get it - teachers these days dont understand that kids these days dont care about what you know until they know, REALLY KNOW, that you care about them!

Trieste

Of course the teacher's strike is about the students. Teachers deserve to be recognized for the jobs they do, given appropriate resources, and they deserve to work under a fair and equitable system of discipline. In any job whatsoever, if your boss doesn't give you the tools to do your job, then complains when it doesn't turn out to be top-notch - you'd quit. You'd find another job and you'd quit because that boss is clearly being unreasonable. Yet this is what we do to all our teachers. No good.

I found this humor article enlightening and amusing. Can't argue with straight math.

LadyAVA

I like the system in that article :) Hell - I have 175 students spread out over 6 classes lol hahaha I would be ROLLIN!!! LOL

Koren

I think the thing is that in part as well, a lot of teachers I know dont understand just how importaint they are to good education

I dropped out of many a class in high school, and many a music program including private singing and violin, because I couldn't stand the teacher or the teacher made it perfectly clear they couldn't stand me. When you have a bad teacher it ruins absolutely everything, and down in australia at least they certainly dont get this. The few teachers that were good and I managed to have this discussion with were truely surprised that students really did think that having a good teacher made all the difference to enjoyment but also marks in a class and how much further they took that class as well.
I had one teacher push a kid he didn't like over a table and scream in his face (Class average: C)
I had another verbally abuse me for not being good enough for her time (Class average: B [I got a D that then got ammended])
Another who told me I knew nothing when I corrected him on basic musical theory (Class average: most failed)
Another who just didn't show up to class whenever he felt like it (IN FINAL YEAR) and then got shitty when we all almost failed. (Class average: D)

On the other side of it:
I had a teacher who sat down for half the class and chatted to me about books we'd both read and made recommendations (Class average: B+)
Teacher who know I found the work easy so gave me and a few other strong science students her uni text book to look through (Class average: A)
A teacher who took another student out of class when she broke her pencil, and saved her life by letting her admit to someone she wanted to die (Class average: B)
My favorite teacher who ran out across the street and half way around the suburb chasing a student who randomly had a schizophrenic break in the middle of class and manage to stop her running in front of a car (Class average: B)

The reason I post the class averages is because we did this at the end of every year, we totalled up the average of the classes so we as students could keep a record of the teachers etc and we handed it into the co-ordinators anonymasly in our last day as proof that our system of student based teaching worked
These were just the main events I remember from those teachers but they were good or bad in other ways as well and that made all the difference in the class.

I applaude you for being a good and smart teacher though

AndyZ

Quote from: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/jack-kelly/greedy-teachers-taxpayers-are-getting-tired-of-paying-ever-more-for-ever-less-653543/#ixzz26uky34Qe
The average salary of public school teachers in Chicago is $76,000, the highest in the country, according to Chicago Public Schools. That's more than double the average wage of Chicago taxpayers ($30,203). For college graduates in Chicago, the median wage is $48,866.
The gulf widens when health and pension benefits are factored in. Nationwide, government workers contribute about 15 percent of the cost of their health insurance premiums, according to a study last year by the Manhattan Institute. For workers in the private sector, the average is about 25 percent. Chicago teachers pay just 3 percent.

Anyone out there honestly believe that these teachers aren't getting paid enough?
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Trieste

That article doesn't cite a source, which always makes me suspicious - especially when the article is clearly biased one way or another.

I took a look through the employee roster that CPS posts online, complete with salary information. There are teachers that range from 12k a year to 100k a year, it's true. The only thing is that they include vacant slots on the position roster, and those tend to be the higher-paid slots. There are instructor positions that pay 105k a year, sure, but nobody is in them. So the first part of my skepticism is: where exactly did those mean and median numbers come from.

Secondly, the fact that the teachers make more than other college graduates in the area is irrelevant. Educators are not just college graduates, they are normally professionals with advanced degrees. The education required to teach, especially early education, is often onerous and extensive. So comparing educators to 'college graduates in Chicago' is misleading and dishonest. Or ignorant; I'm not sure which category that author falls under.

Callie Del Noire

I dont see what there continuing education, school loans and such are too. Some of those high paying degrees cost as much as a music degree (or ARE a degree in music.. 25 years ago when I first tried college, my room mate was paying half again as much as I was..because he had MUSIC labs.. 300$ a credit hour)

Silverfyre

#7
Quote from: AndyZ on September 19, 2012, 06:33:24 AM
Anyone out there honestly believe that these teachers aren't getting paid enough?

Do you have an idea how much work goes into being a teacher?  Are you familiar with the cost of living in states like Chicago versus other areas?  Salaries are determined by so many factors, as Trieste kindly pointed out, and the scale goes from rock bottom starting all the way up to those public school teachers who hold doctorates and advanced degrees.  For instance, once I get my accreditation handled, I can expect to make 36,000 a year starting with benefits.  You take out the pay deductions and the percentage we have to pay into retirement and insurance and I maybe have a take home of under 30,000 dollars.  That's not a lot these days, especially living in an expensive area like Florida.

Shall we talk just how much it costs to get the degrees and training teachers are required to have in my state?  In case you were wondering, we do have to pay out of pocket for our licenses, renewals, advanced in-services, and the like.  It is not just handed to us. 

Being a teacher is not some easy 9-5 job that ends when we get home.  Our county took away planning periods this year.  I watch my wife lug home work every weekend and have to spend her time off working.  Handling 25 kids in one room while trying to teach them is not an easy accomplishment either.  I'd love to see how those who complain about "teachers make too much" would handle it. 


Callie Del Noire

25 Kids in a classroom? That must be a nice school one of my buds is teaching around 40 or so.

Silverfyre

States establish class room size mandates.  They vary per grade, subject matter, etc.  I once taught a class room of about 40 high schoolers.  Mind you, it was a gym class but still, wrangling that many kids is not easy. 


Valerian

That's another aspect of the strike, apparently -- there's a cap of 31 students per classroom, but in practice classes are often larger than that.  And there's a plan in the works to close down as many as 100 schools over the next few years, which obviously won't help.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/09/10/chicago-teachers-go-on-strike-5-things-theyre-fighting-for/
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Silverfyre