Highest Paid Teachers Reject 16% Raise - Go on Strike.

[Beatsong]

My class sizes aren't too bad, but when you try to do a lab, made for no more than 24 kids, with 32+....not good. You spend too much time trying to manage them and keep them from playing around, rather than teaching and helping them learn. The highest I know is some art classes a friend teaches - she has up to 40 in one class, and most are over 30. Another friend works in the credit recovery lab I used to work in, and she has one period with more kids than computers. Where is the sense in that?

Also, I had one kid (I'll only mention one) who refuses to do anything. I gave some web quests (the kids had laptops and used them to go to a website and look up the answers - try to figure them out at least). Both Monday and Tuesday he refused to do anything. Same thing when I went over the sites today as a group and discussed them. His work is negligible. We have a test Friday. If he fails, as I suspect he will - this is his second time in the class, since he did the same thing last year from what I understand, that falls on me. His mother likes to sue schools, so guess what's going to happen? Yet, my pay and everything else is, in part, based on what he does on a standardized test. It's no wonder most new teachers quit - the turnover is huge.

For the most part I like what I do, but if it gets too much of a bother, or causes my health to decline, I'll be gone to something else, even if it's just wal-mart greeter. Lol.

Now imagine if your labor contract were up, and the administration proposed increasing class sizes and tying your performance evaluations and pay raises to student performance, which studies have shown is inversely related to class sizes! Throw in classrooms with no air conditioning in a district where classroom temps can exceed 100 degrees (my guess is that doesn't improve test scores either)....

...and I think you reject that contract and go on strike.

But only if you're a Marxist collectivist dependant class proletarian, of course.

[Gerald McGrew]

...from Kenya.

[Cunt]

what I object to is them claiming injustice

Right. They should just accept larger class sizes and performance evaluations based on student test scores, even though one of the biggest factors in test scores is classroom size. Oh, and no air conditioning in schools either. Just shut up and take it.

and demanding that we all be in solidarity with them.

So when did they personally contact you?

They should behave ethically and fucking quit.

I remember this teacher being fired for going against his administration by marking uncompleted work with 'zeros'.

When other, younger teachers commented on it, they said that they wish they had their 35 years in so that they could be so courageous.

I see it another way. All those younger teachers who have accepted against their professional judgement, the kind of rules which forbid grading an uncompleted (FUCKING PHYSICS!!!) paper 'zero', are not worth having around. They are clearly more interested in the money than in doing a good job.

Can't blame them, they were duped into teaching by a system (run by educators) which assured them that going into huge debt JUST in order to qualify as teachers would be worth it in the long run.

Oh wait, I CAN blame them. Shame on any teacher who allows themselves to be silenced for money. Especially at the expense of the students (who, curiously, have little to no clout with school administrators)