IPS B.S. wishes all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving. We may not have much to be thankful for with the IPS administration, but hopefully there's a student that you've reached and made all the difference in their life. That is what teaching is all about.
As a taxpayer and not a teacher, I am thankful for all of the teachers in the state of Indiana - a state where teachers are not appreciated (by the state government and individual school boards), treated fairly, and paid commensurate to their education and experience.
ReplyDeleteI will be very happy and thankful when IPS teachers can someday be treated with respect and appreciation from their administration. Let's hope we live to see that day.
I am thankful for all of the good friends I have made teaching in IPS schools and for all of the wonderful students and parents I have had the priviledge of serving. To the poster above I hope that day comes soon. That would complete the picture.
ReplyDeleteLike the above poster, I have made a lot of lifelong friends among teachers, and even a few administrators. Thee are many outstanding parents and students in IPS who are unfortunately overshadowed by the neglectful and unmotivated students. I hope IPS will wake up soon and put all disruptive students where they belong--HOME WITH A COMPUTER TO DO THEIR LESSONS ONLINE. Who better to enforce it, than the parents!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, we cannot rely on the parents to enforce anything. It is hard to get homwework done ever, let alone on a daily basis. While I think disruptive students should be home, the law entitles them to an education like that of their peers. Try homebound instruction sometime and it will be clear to you that parental enforecement of anything with their children (especially schoolwork) is a lofty and fanciful goal at best. I think we might try madatory military school for those disruptive enough to be put out of school.
ReplyDeleteI am thankful for the students I have that try every day and the teachers I work with who also try every day to make a difference in the lives of students. I am also thankful to be employed in a wonderful profession. Despite the problems that may exist, we ALL need to remember why we teach. THE STUDENTS! Everything else is secondary.
I, too, am thankful for all of the wonderful friends I have met through my years in IPS.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for making an impact on my life.
I am thnakful that I have some class and would never wear red Gucci slippers with a black suit that was too tight while speaking to my peers.
ReplyDeleteI am thankful that even though my job is tough and challenging, the coworkers at my IPS school are generally positive and professional. Reading this blog, I realize how many teachers are completely burned out, and I'm thankful I don't work with very many teachers like that, as I'm sure that kind of negativity would be contagious. White gets under my skin and IPS administration is a mess. But I am thankful for my job and the parents and children who make my job possible. I didn't become a teacher for the perfect families. I became a teacher because teachers have the power to make a difference in the imperfect families. I'm thankful for the challenges because they make teaching rewarding and meaningful.
ReplyDeleteI am thankful to be an IPS teacher who has had a frontal lobotomy, who is a Stepford Teacher, and who believes that is a nice thing to be abused and treated terribly by administrators, principals, the students themselves, their parents, the state government and the local news media.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy it when the Indianapolis news media say that we, the teachers, are the REAL reason for the problems in IPS.
Yes, I am thankful for the high rate of chronic illnesses of more veteran teachers in IPS and the high rate of psychological disorders related to stress suffered by a significant percentage of teachers.
Yes, I am so happy to have the privilege of being an IPS teacher.
Now, honey, please pass me my Prozac bottle. I want to become even more happy and more thankful.
I'm not a Stepford Teacher. Maybe I'll eventually burn out. But I'm not burned out now, and most of my coworkers don't appear to be (yet?) either. And I'm thankful for that.
ReplyDeleteI am thankful that Tech High School will soon be getting a new principal.
ReplyDeleteI am thankful that I still have enough integrity to NOT cheat on scrimmages to make my rotund principal feel(falsely)good about herself.
ReplyDeleteGood grief.
ReplyDeleteCould we get some teachers on here that are grateful enough to at least truly be thankful for something? We get mad at our students for having unappreciative demeanors, yet we do the same in this forum.
I agree that we are underpaid and treated horribly, but I am trying to find the positives in my job still!
I am thankful for the HP laptop that IPS furnishes. It is fast and never fails to work. I keep it under lock and key in my classroom file cabinet when I'm away from work. I'm also grateful for the HP LaserJet printer that IPS furnishes.
ReplyDelete"I am thankful that I still have enough integrity to NOT cheat on scrimmages to make my rotund principal feel(falsely)good about herself."
ReplyDeleteYour rotund principal may feel good about bogus and/or inflated scores from Scrimmages, but the results of the Benchmarks are far more important. Benchmarks are designed by the State; whereas, Scrimmages are designed by the District. Let's wait and see how happy she is after the Algebra I ECA is completed in a couple of weeks and the scores are returned.
I am happy that my son graduated my college and obtained a job on his own. He did not have to rely on his daddy who was a superintendent to make up a job, not post it and then get the bobble head school board to waive the nepotism policy just so he could have a job.
ReplyDeleteWhat are "positive" and "negative" and what relevance do these terms have?
ReplyDeleteThere is truth and there is untruth. There is right and there is wrong. That's all that matters in this life.
"Positive" is what you hope to see on a battery charge indicator when your car won't start out in the parking lot.
Seeing things as "positive" or "negative" is failing to live in the world of reality - most often an excuse to live in a world of denial.
Cut back on the Prozac.
I am thankful for all my friends and great co-workers I have worked with over the years in IPS. (There are always a few sour grapes.) I am also thankful to one of my old bosses who was always there when I needed her and had a heart of gold. She was one tough cookie, but she pushed me to do my best, with dignity and positive critiques.
ReplyDeletePositive/negative, idealism/cynicism, empowerment/helplessness, inspiration/defeat, productive/destructive. Whatever words you want to use. Truth may be objective. But what we as teachers do with that truth varies widely on a spectrum of "positive" and "negative." That's a truth that can be proven. Change is more often affected by positive, idealism, empowerment, inspiration, and productivity than through negativity, cynicism, helplessness, defeat, and destructivity. That's a truth too. We all want the same thing, respect and encouragement. Kids, parents, teachers, and administration. Respect and encouragement instead of disrespect and criticism. Positive versus negative. You get what you give.
ReplyDeleteWhat are "positive" and "negative" and what relevance do these terms have?
ReplyDeleteThere is truth and there is untruth. There is right and there is wrong. That's all that matters in this life.
"Positive" is what you hope to see on a battery charge indicator when your car won't start out in the parking lot.
Seeing things as "positive" or "negative" is failing to live in the world of reality - most often an excuse to live in a world of denial.
Cut back on the Prozac."
Spoken like a true union hack
Jane Kendrick, get over your obsession with the teachers' union and your hate and mistrust of teachers. There must be something you like, what is it?
ReplyDeleteWell, I like how the blogmaster here made a big deal about ISP's not being detectable here, yet every time I post, regardless of what I say, I am referred to as "Jane Kendrick"...even when I make a positive post.
ReplyDeleteWhile I am not Jane Kendrick (thank God), just a hard-working, non-union teacher (thank God, again), it's curious that the blogmaster knows which posts are mine, and has indicated as much.
EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE CAREFUL. THE BLOGMASTER CAN AND DOES LOG YOUR INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER ADDRESSES. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SAY. YOU ARE NOT NEARLY AS ANONYMOUS AS YOU ARE BEING LED TO BELIEVE.
"Spoken like a true union hack."
ReplyDeleteI made that post you are referring to and I am not a member of any union. In fact, I am not even a teacher.
But your comment illustrates the derision and condescension that the administration has for anyone who tries to advocate for fair and just treatment of IPS teachers.
Except that I am not an administrator...just a teacher who is smart enough to see how the union has done little for teachers, and much to screw them. It might be interesting to explore how we ended up with only one insurance company choice. i hear that was quite a "negotiation".
ReplyDeleteI know your type. You wear your non union status on your chest like a badge of honor. The first time your principal decides he has a relative or friend he wants to give your job to then you run to the union for protection. You are the first to ask about the pay raises. You are among the first to ask about benefits like insurance but you never inform yourself. If you had, you would have realized that only two companies even bid on the IPS teacher insurance and they both made it a requirement that their company would be the exclusive carrier. The union had a choice which was go with one carrier or no carrier. How would your non union butt have liked to have had no medical insurance??
ReplyDelete"How would your non union butt have liked to have had no medical insurance??"
ReplyDeleteGood point, previous poster. I think the IEA needs to improve in many aspects of its operation, but without a union, teachers would have it much worse than they already have it.
Before teachers' unions, a female teacher had to resign if she decided to get married. Before teachers' unions, teachers lived in much worse poverty than they do now (if you can imagine that).
When I was a kid, the best math teacher in my school would carry my family's groceries out to the car on nights and weekends as a part of his second job as a grocery carry-out man.
This boggled my mind - that such an excellent and intelligent and classy man was resigned to being a carry-out boy on nights and weekends to support his family.
When I lived in a small rural community in Indiana, a school board with an average IQ of about 70 tried to fire a teacher because she wore a "tank top" to that community's county fair during the summer. The state teachers' union stepped in at that point and saved her job.
Yes, the IPS union does need some improvement. But you take the union out of the picture and you have living hell for teachers.
I think some of these younger anti-union teachers need to learn some history about the days before teacher unions.
Your butts are being protected from all kinds of things and you don't even recognize it or appreciate it.
I think that this blog has been created by a Central Office employee. In fact, I am no longer doubting my theory.
ReplyDeleteHow does the blog master know so much about the "insides" of IPS?
I think Big Brother may be watching, more so than we think.
Several years ago I was coming up the stairs behind a girl who had on a low rider pair of jeans, a belly shirt, and thong underwear, which was well above the top of the jeans and below the end of the shirt. I took her to the dean, and while we were waiting to see the dean I watched her shimmy, trying to get her jeans up and the shirt down, finally the dean saw us and she asked what was the problem, I had the girl stand up, and I gave her jeans a little tug, revealing the top of the thong underwear and said "If I were thirty years younger and thirty pounds lighter and going to a club this is what I would be wearing, it is darling and very sexy, but not school appropriate" The girl laughed and said "I've got different pants in my locker, I'll go change." Kids, you have to love them and for this I am always thankful.
ReplyDelete