transplantbillsfan

Aloha! I'm on O'ahu, the gathering place. You're an architect? Is that what you mean? What school did you design? Define "shoes." No one's showing up barefoot to school, but most people wear slippers (you'd know them as flip flops) year round. My first year of teaching I showed up to school for the first couple months in pants, nice shoes, and a long sleeved shirt with a tie. I soon realized I was way overdressed for the islands. Now I sometimes wear an Aloha shirt, khaki shorts and brown leather slippers to work and I'm plenty dressed up. It's definitely a different world from where I grew up. Am I supposed to be "the guy" in this little rant?

You sound bitter. Or drunk. Or both, more likely. I live in Hawai'i, not North Carolina. Students are back August 4th. Put down the bottle.

"More" And no. Back to school for me. I say school not work because I've been working this whole time anyway. It's what teachers do on their vacations, believe it or not.

Wait, what is "the system?" High School systems all across your county? Your state? The country? The world? Just trying to figure this out because you've directly proclaimed you're the guy we all need to turn to in this discussion. Want to make sure I don't step on the toes of the Sultan of High School education.

All the states not fully going back are now doing it for political reasons?

I don't even know if I have a will or a health care proxy. I know I have life insurance in multiple forms that sets my wife up with plenty of money for the rest of their lives. But me not having those things would have jack squat to do with my credentials or ability to teach Expository writing and literature to Juniors and Seniors in High School.

I had to look up what the hell TDSer is. Trump Derangement Syndrome. Sure sounds like something a Russian bot like @Deranged Rhino probably came up with that while working for Cambridge Analitica with Brittany Kaiser during the campaign leading up to the 2016 election. You guys need to lay off Twitter and Facebook so much. You're being targeted. And I'm only half joking.... Maybe a quarter...

Then I finally feel like a real member of this forum since this is all I see over here from you. Minus the political affiliation, of course

Except I didn't and you're dumb

Wait, what is a "normal discussion" to you? Is that when everyone agrees? To me, that's far from a normal discussion. @Chef Jim brought up what I thought were somegood and bad ideas and I asked him follow up questions. He answered a few with what I believe aren't reasonable or feasible answers. I stated so. In your world apparently everyone agrees. At least you've made sure to diversify the type of people you've surrounded yourself with opinion wise.

No. You misunderstand. I read every single one of your ideas. Most of them I asked you questions rather than outright dismissing them. Heck I think you had some good ideas actually. I just followed up with questions like, for one, how do you pay for it? Believe me, I'm okay and will be doing my part in the classroom and through distance learning to help my students. As someone who clearly cares immensely about children without having any of his own and without being in a profession that even interacts with them, I think you should get involved a bit more. Bring your good ideas to your local school board, for starters.

But not so busy you've been able to follow along up until now in this 15 page thread and insert several of your own whining diatribes.

It's tax day and tax time is just another reminder of how terrible Donald Trump has been as a President. The guy screwed over people who itemize at tax time by getting rid of things like the Personal Exemption--a boon to middle class tax filers--in favor of a tax plan where the wealthy reap the greatest rewards. Tax benefits of home ownership have gone the way of the dodo. I have NEVER owed taxes when claiming 0 until Donald Trump came along.

Again, source? You said virtually everyone has that view of the Lincoln Project. Yeah their mission is to get rid of Trump. I know. And with good reason. But you implied that everyone on the right views them as a charade with further implications that everyone on the right disagrees with them. Source? I provided you a source with people who probably agree with them.

Soooooo... do you have a source for this or is this purely anecdotal? Are you really saying everyone you know on the right sees them this way? How does everyone you know feel about these people?

Annnnnnnnnd @Chef Jim realizes one of 2 things: 1) He's lost an argument 2) He's been discovered trolling I'm going to assume the best of him and believe it's #1.

I'm in the classroom not getting paid for my endeavors trying to make the upcoming school year as enriching and beneficial to the students as possible. You're sitting here without kids of your own in a profession where you likely never even see kids complaining that all kids better get back to school full time while doing nothing at all productive in relation to those kids or your goal of getting kids fully back into class. And you call me a whiner.

Okay so I wasn't mistaken. You really are just being an idiot. I've been at school working multiple times this Summer, including 7 hours in my classroom yesterday. I've been going into school sporadically for awhile to prepare my online curriculum and online databases like Google Classroom. I've been doing this, as have MANY other teachers who I've also been seeing on campus, on my Summer vacation at a time I'm not being paid for that work. I'm doing it because I care about my students' education and want to be the best teacher I can be in the upcoming school year. Today I have a pile of 40 AP Lit papers I'm going to start giving feedback on and grading. I will be getting more in the upcoming weeks that I will be grading on my vacation. I'm a teacher, not someone who sits in a Board of Education, in Administration or on a School Board. These decisions are not mine to make. I might have my own feelings about those decisions, but teachers don't have that much pull when it's all said and done. Schools won't be going back full time in the Fall most places across the country. Since that seems to be unacceptable to you and you care so much about the kids AND you have managerial experience, you should really consider a career change and go into Administration to enact some real change. In the immediate future, go to your local school board meetings and give them your input on needing kids to go back fully and how you think that should happen. School boards and PTSAs across the country always welcome the input from concerned community members who care so much about the kids like yourself.

The inevitable "Oh crap! I made a huge mistake!" vote countdown is on! https://rvat.org/

And this is Ad Hominem at its worst.

Then why does our state's pay scale have "10 Month Employee" and "12 Month Employee" separately? Look it up bro it's easy for you to find for almost any state. Don't be lazy and make a baseless accusation without even an attempt to gain some knowledge. Teachers are 10 month employees. I don't have answers to all your questions. I'm a teacher, not an unemployment expert. But if you're smelling bullschiff maybe it's because you just schiffed your pants.

Get over yourself. My standards for my class are VERY different from what I view necessarily happening as a result of this Pandemic, at least to begin the school year. And I don't see my students every day in a NORMAL year. It's 3 times a week in a 5 day week and 2 times a week in a 4 day holiday week. You seem to be at an alternative High School where you see your kids every day. Most schools aren't like that.

Don't worry. Good Teacher = Good Actor I'm a good teacher. Parents like me. Even the ones who annoy the hell outta me. Not a clue what you're trying to accomplish saying this. Are you seriously trying to accuse me of messing around with students? Seems to be your implication otherwise I don't see the point of you tossing this word salad my way. You're going to have to explain this to me because I don't get what you're saying. Now teachers make substantial money with cradle to grave entitlements? How does this fit in with any overall point? So first of all, I don't have a clue to any of your NY references to teachers because that's not where I teach. But I do believe overall, as a whole, you get what you pay for. I will reveal more about myself by saying I graduated from one of the best High Schools in the region in the 90s: Webster High School. I really did have mostly excellent teachers. My Wind Ensemble (band) teacher was old and nearly retiring and I know she was making 6 figures. We were one of the better schools academically--public, charter or private. I teach in Hawai'i and we max out at a salary somewhere around $90,000 at this point. That might sound like a lot to you. If it does, you haven't been to Hawai'i, and more specifically, O'ahu. We don't have one of the best public school systems in the country. We're closer to the bottom than the top. Now I was fortunate enough to somehow be hired to a fantastic public school in the state that consistently ranks as the #1 or #2 public High School every year, but that was luck. We have a siphoning faculty where approaching half of it rotates in and out because our district has a military base we serve and so a lot of military spouses come to our school for 3 year stints. Other schools aren't nearly as lucky and suffer because they can't draw more teachers in. That felt unnecessarily revealing. We're teachers not Administration. I would NEVER want to be an Administrator of any sorts, period. If people hate teachers because of poor Administrations or Adminisrative choices, I view that as an unfair correlation. I don't know how many ESL students you have, but living in Hawai'i I see them all the time. I think those teachers can be unbelievably valuable to helping students assimilate rapidly into our country and culture by becoming extremely comfortable with the language. I've had students who were ESL I never would have guessed because they so quickly became fluent. If there are a lot of ESL students in your area and you value assimilating immigrants into our language and culture, ESL teachers are incredibly valuable. I don't disagree that money should be accounted for or allocated towards things like devices for distance learning in the Fall. I don't know why you think I take anything here personally. I don't.

Here I have a question for you because maybe I've misread you and we've been arguing about something we actually agree on. I really think deep down you understand that teachers working 17 hour days with ALL students in a school coming in at staggered times each an every day isn't feasible, isn't fair, and just plain isn't happening, so: Do you believe the only answer is to get ALL students back on campus each and every day for full, in-person instruction?