Money, Money, Money

We’re all frustrated with the money situation.  Our money.  The government’s money.  The way the government is spending our money.  All of it.

So what are people doing about it other than whining?  Not much.  Most people are spending less, true, but are they still getting credit cards?  Are they trading in their ‘clunkers’ for cash, not thinking about the car payments that WILL indeed come in a few months?  Probably not. 

Here I have a very busy day job and am trying to find  a second job in order to afford to save money.  I know, shock.  I have plenty of money for bills and a little for spending, but not much for saving.  Most people spend everything they have plus a bunch they don’t in the form of credit cards and no payment ’til items.  How can our economy get better as long as all the credit is an option?  I am paying off all my old debt and most people are aquiring more debt trying to stay afloat.  What’s being done about it?  Yeah- I don’t know either.  I’m doing my part, but I’m outnumbered by a few million.

Purgatory

First of all- I do not believe in a real purgatory.   However, if there were a real purgatory, it would be made up entirely of bus duty, professional classes, and watching paint drying.  Our bus duty, mandatory at our school, consists of different positions and responsibilities, each lasting thirty minutes before and thirty minutes after the regular school day.  The position I think most qualifies as purgatorial is my current on- the gym.  In the gym, all students not eating breakfast sit… silently… for thirty minutes.  The teachers walk around… silently… for thirty minutes.  I know of few other schools that find this an effective use of their staff’s time or a great way to get their students ready for the day.  At the end of the day, teachers are, as they should be, monitoring students as they depart.  I just find that making students sit still and quiet for thirty minutes, allowed to only read a book or study, is a way to put students back to sleep, not energize their minds for learning.
Professional development can be a worthy avenue for increasing one’s knowledge in their field of expertise.  Sitting for four hours every week listening to a person talk about computers, however, is NOT a way of increasing one’s knowledge.   Doing activities that can be actually be of use in a real, live classroom would be worthwhile.  Learning how to create blogs and actually expect elementary kids to use them for only educational projects and ideas is ridiculous.  Of course they can use a computer, but blogging their ideas about science?  It can be encouraged, monitored, and scored, but what are we actually teaching them to do?  Write on a computer?  I think Word can do that already.

I don’t know.  Just my opinions.

The Julie/Julia Project/Me Project… slash other stuff

Well- everyone else in the world blogs so I figured I should start.   Maybe not everyone… but close. 

I suppose the title deserves to be explained.  I saw the ”Julie/Julia” movie over the summer (not as great as I though it’d be) and marveled at how a blog was bought by Showtime (the friend) and one was turned into a movie (main character).  SO, quite frankly, here’s to hoping Showtime or a film director finds me interesting!

I find myself having a very difficult time beginning my first blog, or rather choosing a topic.  Lots of people say it’s a great way to relieve stress and take a load off of your mind, but what if you have too much stress to make a sensible blog about it?  What if everything you’re thinking comes out in rambling, incoherent, irritated blurbs that make sense when you think them but certainly don’t make sense to anyone else who might happen to read them?   I suppose I sound like George’s dad on Seinfeld with his “airing of grievances”.  I don’t exactly think I want to air my grievances–mostly because you, whoever might be reading this, are surely not the people who are causing any grief.

The first and foremost thing to start with is what involves the majority of my time- my job.  I am an educator, most days.  I am daily finding new areas of expertise, however, such as law enforcer, secretary, baby sitter, mom, doctor/nurse, and custodian.  I’m pretty sure my paycheck covers just the one occupation, but perhaps it will soon cover my extended job description.  Today’s particular main issue is communication.  If I say I like apples but hate oranges, one could assume that I do not want to be given an orange in my Christmas stocking, despite the tribute to Little Women that it may be.  Within a school, one could assume the same thing and then be blasted for not providing an orange.  You might be thinking- but you don’t like oranges.   Well- you’re only partially right.  I said that I don’t like oranges.  I could very well have meant I don’t like shades of orange.  But you said oranges and apples together so you must have meant fruit.  No- I just said that to totally confuse you, right?  If an educator is told, “Provide accurate, detailed, and timely feedback to students because it is the only way for a person to know they are doing well,” then couldn’t/shouldn’t it stand to reason that the very educator who is providing the so valuable feedback to her students should receive the oh so valuable feedback from her superior?  They did say it is the only way a person can know they are doing well… so is that only applicable to little people?  Only if you’re under the age of 19?  I’m not sure.  I’m not sure either how one person can say “Yeah!  Let’s build up the morale of the school staff” and then purposefully and deliberately seek ways to cause hurt feelings or to point out trivial wrongs on the part of other persons.  Did they say they like apples or oranges?  Who can really tell whether they meant it or not?  At what point does communication become null and void and need to be read into and analyzed so as to not misinterpret any little thing said. 
I just don’t understand the lack of judgement where communication happens.  If I say I want ice cream, I want ice cream.  If I say discipline is important, don’t expect to cut up in my class.  If I am hired as an educator, I expect my boss and the students to be seeing me educate.  There’s no secret.  I don’t mean that I’m an educator, but I want to have everyone win a track meet.  I am not a coach.  I don’t expect my students to pass a driver’s test… that’s not what I teach.  Only within the realm of what I teach can I expect my students to succeed.  Likewise, only within the realm of what a school/district/state/nation properly teaches/equips teachers to do can teachers accomplish reasonable goals.  Not outside that realm.

Now… I’m pretty sure I accomplished the rambling part.  Not sure I accomplished anything else.