It’s that time of year again. I’m taking the day off work to help Xy get her classroom in order. Mostly this involves putting educational posters up on the wall, which is easier for me because I’m taller. The kids don’t read the posters, but every competent teacher has to buy them (out of their own pocket) and put them up or they’ll look bad. Of course they can also be used as teaching aids, but that is a secondary function. Mainly they’re intended to create the impression that this is a place where learning happens.
As a science teacher, Xy is lucky to have a sink. Unfortunately the faucet yields only a trickle of water, and the school has no money for a plumber. However, they do have money to fly all the teachers out to Epcot Center for a three day retreat. Still trying to figure that one out.
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The school probably has a grant to pay for retreats. Grants are often very strange that way– you can easily get one to do pie-in-the-sky programs or teacher enhancement, but CANNOT easily get one for basic needs, building rehabilitation, etc.
when I was a public school librarian I wrote & won a small grant [$1600] for a reading project I did with my kids. I could not use the money to actually buy books, but I could use it to buy tape recorders & supplies to make books on tape. And I had to spend evey dime or me & the school would have been auditited by the feds to find out why we didn’t [they think you are wasting their money they do come looking for it, guns blazing]. One of the other teachers in my buliding got a grant to go to Tokyo to study how some ten year olds use technology first hand. Of course there were no computers in her class [this was 1998] and the grant did not provide for how to impliment the first hand knowledge or add any tech to her class rooms [or allowed for her to buy any], but welcome to the land of grants…
As a science teacher, Xy is lucky to even be doing any experiments that require water. Most helicopter parents and insurance companies are so worried that kids are going to blow up the school with baking soda and vinegar that they’ve banned any kind of real chemistry programs and gone to CD-ROM based coursework. My sister’s a science teacher in Indiana, and also said they can’t dissect frogs anymore – you just look at some web-based program or something. I wonder when they ban pens and pencils. They could take an eye out – think of the children!!!!
JORDAN LET’s RAY DAVIES’ shooter GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Again!
WE MUST STAND UP AND REVOLT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No apostrophe in lets … sorry