Goader

“Have you seen the mess the rats left in our TPA (Teachers Planning Area),” my co-teacher asked me as one might ask another if it’s raining yet.

“What,” I retorted in disbelief.

“Rats as big as Easter Bunnies dragged packets of hot chocolate off the table, across the floor, and up next to the fax machine. They left half-eaten packs of instant hot chocolate along with rat pooh in the corner, she said to me. Go look!”

I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. Just like she said there in the corning, next to fax machine were torn open packages and pooh scattered about.

“You got to be kidding; I thought to myself only to see that what she said was true. Those must be big rats, I exclaimed! So what are they doing about it, are they going to exterminate,” I querried after regaining my composure?”

“They gave us a couple of mouse traps,” my co-teacher said rather sheepishly.

“That’s it! They gave you two rattraps and that’s all they did, I uttered in renewed disbelief. Where are you supposed to put them and what do you do with the remains that are caught?” I asked still trying to grasp what I was hearing.

Let me see If I have this straight. We were awarded $100-million dollars from Bill and Melinda Gates, and the answer to cat-size rats is a couple of rattraps that they expect teachers to deal with. How much does it cost to rid a school of rats? Surely, with coffers newly stuffed with cash and lots of it, we can pay a professional exterminator to get rid of the rats.

“Bill… Melinda, got any spare change to help out a brother and sister in the math department that got some mongo size rats in the belfry?”

My daughter, Karyn, wrote the following essay for a class she is taking in college. It is so well written and I’m sure will resonate with some that I asked if I could publish it. This is the first formally constructed essay I have read of Karyn’s, and I am pleased to present it to you.

She shows a concise conversational style of writing that draws the reader along as if speaking with her face-to-face. She has always shown an understanding of good grammar and she can talk up a storm. I didn’t know she could write so well though, and I must say I am quite proud.

I have had numerous unsolicited compliments on my writing ability, so it’s not simply conceit to say that I write decently. It’s rewarding for a parent to discover a talent or characteristic in progeny that must be written in the genes.

My Perfect, Stressful, Wedding Day
By: Karyn Curl

December 1, 2007 is a day to remember. This was my day! This was to be the happiest day of my life, a day for a bride to feel like a queen. No worries, no stress, just go with the flow. Well, not quite in my case.

“Honey, our budget is $18,000.” When my husband uttered these few words to me I thought, “Great! I can make a nice wedding for us with that.” I figured I could hire a wedding planner who could do everything for us.

What little research I had done. The wedding planner, alone, wanted $8000 for her services. That left me with $10,000. This seems manageable, right? Then there’s the venue, reception hall, flowers and centerpieces, party favors, dresses, shoes, tuxedos, limo, rehearsal dinner and the list goes on. Boy, was I wrong in thinking I could have a coordinator. And here my planning began.

I knew that I wanted our ceremony to be held in our church. Since it was a December wedding, the Christmas tree and every other accessory was on display, along with the gorgeous décor that was available to us for weddings. It was exactly what I was looking for. It was simple yet beautiful. Our church included setup, tear down, sound and lighting. Perfect!

Next, was the venue for our reception. Our guest list was 150 so, it had to be somewhere that could hold that many people and still have room for everyone’s comfort. I called a couple of hotels but, we had to use the vendors that were on their list. This left a bad taste in my mouth due to the fact that I wanted to be able to choose my own vendors. That idea was out.

My husband works for the city of Oldsmar and at that time, a beautiful Recreation Center had been built. We decided we’d take a tour. The occupancy was 250 guests. I thought, “YES!!!!” With him being an employee he got all rentals half price. Other pluses to this choice were a full kitchen, bathrooms, a playroom for kids, tables, chairs, lighting, sound, parking, and a city employee to help keep things in order. Plus, the basketball court had flooring that would cover the wood floor for the DJ setup and dance floor. With all of these positives we decided to sign on the dotted line.

Now it was time for dress shopping. I was so excited! I saw the dress I wanted online so I went to the store that carried it, turns out it was unavailable in my size. No big deal, I can just order it. Nope, not in my case, that dress had been discontinued. I was crushed, how could I look and feel as gorgeous in any other dress? I went to a few different stores and tried several dresses on and finally was very happy with one. This dress turned out not needing any alterations, I couldn’t believe it. At that same store I found the most adorable flower girl and bridesmaids’ dresses so, I went ahead and got them as well. The attire was set.

Flowers were next on the list. I wanted Lilies and orchids with lots of greenery mixed in. Well, the florist informed me that Lilies were not in season at that time of year. I was still able to get them but, they would not all be in good condition. I didn’t want flowers that weren’t beautiful. I then asked what flowers were good for December.

“What about poinsettias? I can put them in a cute little basket and just use a few lilies and orchids for the cake table and head table,” the florist said to me.

This sounded like a great idea. Poinsettias are Christmassy and we were having a December wedding. We thought it would fit well and went with them. They ended up saving us around $1000. That worked for us!

The last big thing for us was music. We originally wanted a live band but, during research found that good bands wanted around $5000 and would only give us 4 hours at a reception. That was a little too expensive and we wanted 5 hours. Next step was to look into DJ’s. I was given a reference from a previous bride for a wonderful DJ. He was $2500 for 5 hours. He also threw in 3 songs live on his trumpet included and at our discretion. We met with him twice and knew he was definitely the one for us!

All of the other fine details of our special day were taken care of by yours truly. It took many hours, tears, and headaches. This included: party favors, invitations, food, drinks, and tablecloth rental. Thinking back, it doesn’t seem like much but, one person doing all of this was hard work!

Wedding days are looked at as being one of the best and happiest days of one’s life. I would have to say that I don’t fully agree with that statement. All of the planning, things not going the way we wanted, and figuring out financing was incredibly stressful. However, looking back at the photos I have of that day brings a huge smile to my face, and it makes me not mind the stress so much. The memories are even more special and having all of our loved ones there for us made it a special day. I loved our wedding and wouldn’t have changed a thing but, I would never want to plan another one!

I sent the follow letter to President Barack Obama.

The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20500

Re: Moving to the left…

Dear President Obama:

I am a 54 year old high school teacher as a second career (My first career was in the wholesale industrial metals business.) I changed careers to go into public service. I love teaching. Additionally, I relate to liberal leaning issues: pro choice, although I waffle a bit I am anti death penalty, I don’t care if homosexuals marry, for universal single payer health care (although I have always had my own health insurance through my workplace), and other issues attributed to liberals like public education. I also am for individual freedom, a strong military, private enterprise, and some issues attributed to conservatives.

For the first time I am excited and emotionally moved by our president, which is you, Barack. In my opinion, the ideas you espouse when you speak are so good for our nation. When you say things like banks need to appreciate the average person and do more to help American families, I feel a surge of positive emotion. I almost cannot believe our president is finally saying some of the things I have thought all of my life.

Mr. President, your plan to help families in danger of losing their homes saved my daughter’s young family home. She is a wonderful young woman with a new family. They were struggling to pay all their bills including the mortgage. I suggested to her that she look into the program you started to help with mortgages. She applied to the program and after several months their mortgage was reduce so that they are now able to pay it. Thank you, sir, for helping my daughter when I was not financially able to do so! You’ll never know how grateful I am to you for helping my daughter’s family. Her husband is a wonderful, hard working young man and they have lovely children. Thanks again!

I do want to say that I have been concerned that you seem to be falling in line with the wealthy power brokers. For example, you dropped the single payer part of universal health care. Please, stand your ground and stay strong with the liberal ideas you espoused while campaigning. Even if you struggle to get approval from Congress members, stay with ideas for American families and the average hard working person. Most people in Congress are millionaires and they lean more towards Republican ideals, even those claiming to be Democrats. I know you are a millionaire; however, you have the fortitude to stand up and support those of us that make 40 to 50 thousand a year.

Please stay with the ideas you spoke about while campaigning. Average Americans can relate to those ideals. I look forward to feeling strong emotion again by your leadership.

Sincerely,
Steve Kemp

P.S. I am a real, voting American citizen who loves our United States. Thanks for reading this Mr. President.

Superintendent Elia and the Administration are planning to implement the 6/7 instructional schedule in middle schools next year. Surprisingly, hardly a peep can be heard this time around. (Remember when high school teachers got the news a couple of years ago?)
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I am keeping an open mind concerning the Gate’s Foundation $100-million donation over seven years. Perhaps having a group of teachers trained to evaluate other teachers is the right way to approach evaluations.
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I am beginning a series on interpreting the Hillsborough County Classroom Teachers Association (HCTA) Contract. I have noticed recently that some teachers seem to be unfamiliar with the provisions in the contract. I suspect there are many teachers who fall in this category.
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It warmed my cockles when I read the following:
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Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) received a grant for 100-Million dollars over seven years from the Bill and Melinda Gate’s Foundation. After a nine-month application process, the Gate’s Foundation made the announcement Thursday that HCPS would be the recipient of the grant. It was a monumental effort by the superintendent and others involved in the lengthy application process. The money is greatly needed especially in today’s down economy. Congratulations, goes to all involved for landing such a substantial sum of money, which will be used to implement a new teacher induction process and fairer teacher evaluation process.

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There are so many standards and revisions of standards; I’m not sure which standards to use. How many ways to evaluate a teacher are there? How subjective are teacher evaluations. Are teacher evaluations valid? If so, where is the confirming data?

I have only taught for six and a half years and I have seen enough elements of reform to make your head spin. During my first year of teaching more than one experienced teacher said, reforms come and go, just ride them out and eventually they will come full circle. Here are some observations I have made.
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Here are some questions well worth asking if we as a community want to improve education.

Here is a prelude to the questions above.