The state of teaching in the United States

     I have not written a blog in quite a while. Life has been busy and I always say to myself..."I should blog about that..." and then life gets in the way.
     But here I am with some down time and  I haven't wanted to blog about teaching in this country for a while so here goes...
     I read an article today about the legislative changes that have taken place in many of the States in our country. From losing collective bargaining rights, to changes in tenure teachers are being punished and hurt all over our country. Some of the states that are making changes are not known for their quality school districts as it is, and being a teacher, I can tell you, by making changes  that hurt the teaching profession they will lost quality teachers.
     The States that are going to do well in this day are the States that say "Yes we value what good quality teachers bring to our schools." The States that recognize teaching as a difficult, challenging and deserving profession. In the present day more and more States are requiring teachers to obtain higher level degrees (Master's, CAGS, and PHDs) and yet teachers often do not receive much in return. I read a statistic (and I'm not quoting so my wording and exact data may be wrong but...) that said something like, "15 years ago, an entry level teacher and an entry level associate at a law firm (read law degree passed the bar...) made the same amount of money. Now teachers make something like 75% of what the associate makes."
     We are constantly being devalued by society and we are constantly being asked to provded more and more services for our students. This must stop if the state of education and the teaching profession want to find the same page in the book and help our students succeed. We must acknowledge that teachers are where our students find their inspiration, education, courage and drive. And we must realize that a standardized test is a horrible way to tell if a teacher is doing a good job or not.
     Many students come from borken homes, homes with addiction, abuse, violence, busy parents, parents that don't care, and parents that aren't there. Couple that with increasing loosening of morals, higher unemployment and poverty, more gang violence, more chances for kids to be exposed to drugs, alcohol and sex at an early age, less money in the school systems, less afterschool programs to serve more kids and many other problems we are facing in this modern age.....and we wonder why our state of education is in such disarray....and we blame the teachers.
     If we want to compare ourselves to other countries, we must not only look at student achievement (or lack thereof) but also look at poverty, crime, unemployment, social services, marriage rates, etc.... If these are equal with ours, then yes, we need to fix the educational system...if they aren't....then we can't blame the educational system for society's flaws...it isn't right. Public schools worked for MILLIONS of Americans. We all turned out better than fine. We can't blame the public school system when things haven't changed within it when we all received a quality education. Has technology improved? Yes, and public schools have added technology. Has history changed? Yes, and public schools have updated their text books and curriculums. Do students learn differently? Well they always did and now we are recognizing that more and more and making the changes we need to make.
     So why is public education and subsequently, it's educators being blamed for all of the problems we face today? Well we need a scapegoat....why not blame the group that some say has the most influence over our students today? Because that group, that is made up of dedicated, hardworking, well-educated people will walk away. Not because they want to, because trust me, I will never be happy if I'm not teaching, but because government forced their hand. People will move to States who support educators, they will move to countries who will pay them well to teach in their American and Private Schools, they will retired instead of teaching an extra 5-10 years, they will find some other profession. It will happen if we do not recognize how important our teachers are. We must--or the state of our educational system will falter and fall apart.

Pride-I hate it.

There aren't many things I hate in life...but I sure hate pride.
  Here is the background on how pride snuck up on me tonight:
     My dear friend's baby shower is tomorrow, and I love her and her husband very much. And I love their baby girl already, even though I haven't met her yet! And I am so excited! I love blessing the people that I love! Especially the selfless, caring, sweet, wonderful people that I know! So I finish wrapping her present tonight when I get home from going out for another one of my dear friend's birthdays (busy weekend!)
     Anyway, this will not come as a surprise to those who know me, but I put together a basket for her. I love making baskets! They are so pretty and so personal because you can really put thought into what you get for someone! I have made wine baskets and "kitchen" baskets for wedding showers, a "honeymoon survival" basket for a friend (that honeymoon weekend made a baby! hehe) and I have made baby gift baskets before. Its fun for me, and I really love and enjoys watching my friends and family opening them and enjoying their gifts...and I love knowing that what is in the baskets are useful gifts. It is a way that I show my love. But I don't do it with pride, I do it with all of the love in my heart...
     Now back to the basket I made. As I sat there yesterday and put all of the gifts that I picked out thoughtfully into the pretty little basket lined with pink gingham...I thought of this couple at Church. Now, we all have them...we loath ourselves for loathing them...but we have them...those people in our lives that we secrectly compete with and secretly feel contempt for. There may be no reason for it, they may not even know you exist...but they do exist and for some reason, you feel that you must compete with them...even if you don't talk to them, or know much about them...there they are...
     So I have this couple...and I'm wrapping my dear friend's gift...and I think to myself...I hope my gift is better than hers...and this is horrible...I am not this person...I hate this part of my person...and then I think...well it has to be prettier--because its a basket...ugh...and I pray. "God, please stop the pride. I do not want to be prideful" These people don't even know I exist (by the way, I don't think my husband 'competes' with them...just I do). These people have their own life, and family and careers and everything else. This is my battle and my struggle.
     And even as I sit here, I hate myself for it. And I'm disgusted with those thoughts...and I have no idea how to get rid of them. So tomorrow, I will still probably feel it. And I'll gloat if my gift is prettier and better...and if it isn't...I don't know what...I'm competing with a person that doesn't even have me on her radar...and what's more? Its not like she is richer, or prettier, or further ahead in her career....and the things she has...I don't want....her husband isn't more successful or better looking or any nicer than mine, and yes, she has kids, but instead of focusing on having a family I got my Master's degree, because I knew I didn't want to do it in the opposite order (I don't have 'insane' stamped on my forehead).  I'm totally happy with my life, I know that God has blessed me and even just tonight I was telling my husband that I had everything I wanted and I was completely happy with out lot in life....so why do I feel these pangs of jealously and this awful retched feeling towards this poor woman?
     And the only answer I have is....the devil made me do it...do I give him too much credit? Maybe...but since there is no logical reason...and I know that I should be happy for this couple...that is my only explanation for it...so tomorrow...who knows if this pride with turn me into the vain, competitive, snot that I am right...but I hope not...I hope the hour and a half of prayer and worship before the baby shower will do me some good and snuff this out. Here goes nothing!

Oh and here is the basket I made...just cause its pretty!

Cookies!

I love sweets...I crave them every now and then and I need something that is rich and decadent when I crave sweets....if I crave a cookie, I want a hearty, rich, decadent cookie...so tonight, I realized that I had purchased sugar free chocolate chips and I didn't want to wait until Saturday to use them in chocolate chip pancakes, so I decided to make cookies. But when you are trying to eat healthy and lose weight, cookies don't really fit in when they are in their "traditional form." I did a little internet hunting and decided to go to Bethenny Frankel's website to look for a recipe, because lets face it, I think she's awesome.

So I found this yummy recipe for your enjoyment! Its good if you like the taste of banana because you can taste it...however, there are no eggs or oils or butter but the cookie is still rich and satisfying! Oh and they are EASY and quick!

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2 cups oat flour (I substituted whole wheat flour)

3/4 cups rolled oats

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup raw sugar

1/3 cup chocolate chips

1 teaspoon canola oil
1/3 cup soy milk (I used skim milk)
1/2 banana puree (1 medium-size banana)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
3. Combine all the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together, until well combined.

4. Use a medium-size ice cream scoop or a large spoon to scopp batter onto a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. (I made some with an ice cream scoop and cut the other half of the batch in half to create smaller cookies) (I also found that I needed to flatten the cookies down, but I didn't puree the banana, I just mashed it a bit).

5. Bake for 12 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through, or bake until the edges of the cookies are light brown. (The 12 minutes is spot on!)

So enjoy a healthy, yummy cookie that tastes like something real!

Life is quiet in the snowy Northeast!

     So life has been very quiet up here in New England. We've had MANY snow days and I have not worked a full week since before Christmas break! Given that we have all been home bound, not much has happened.
     I did finally give in to the snow and get a new vehicle! I went from a little Ford Focus (which I did love) to a great Rav4!!!! I now have four doors, a trunk that is twice the size, four wheel drive and traction control!!! It has made this weather much more bearable and my husband likes me having a "real" vehicle!
     Being stuck in the house has also given me time to find lots of interesting things online...so here is a site I found that offers AWESOME savings on outdoor products...http://www.theclymb.com/invite-from/rachel03rwu
     The Clymb has great sales on items from companies like Merrill and Stanley at huge savings! If you use the above link and order something I get $10 credit! Then repost your own link on Facebook or on your blog and see who orders using that link so you can get $10 credit too!!!!

     Anyway, I will try and blog more as the weather (hopefully) warms up--39 degrees next week yay!!!!