Moral Monday Protest!

On Monday, July 29th, myself along with some fellow teachers attended the Moral Monday protest in Raleigh North Carolina. For those of you who do not live in N.C. or are not sure on the legislation that is currently happening in this state with education, let me give you a brief synopsis of what is going on and why we went to protest.
In the 2007-2008 school year, North Carolina teachers were ranked 25th in the nation for teacher salary. Though this is not the top dollar in the nation, half way is not bad. However, in the past 5 years, things have taken a turn for the worse, much worse. This past school year, North Carolina teachers were ranked 48th in the nation for pay and it seems as though we may hit 51st this school year, very dead last.  Just recently, a bill was proposed to both the house and senate and in a nutshell this is what the bill included:

1. No raises for teachers. However, Governor Pat McCrory graciously gave his cabinet members an eight percent raise in which they were already making 128,000 dollars a year!

2. Eliminate teacher tenure.

3. Eliminate the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program. This program was ranked number 1 in the nation for recruiting teachers. I was a NC teaching fellow and eliminating this program is one of the biggest mistakes the NC legislature could make!

4. Eliminate the 10% raise for obtaining a master's degree.

5.Cut teacher assistants and teaching positions.  Hey, why not add more kids to a classroom and get rid of the extra help?

6. Cut funding for text books and other supplies.  Being that us teachers make so much money, we have plenty of it to go around to buy things for our classrooms!

7. Retired Educators will not receive cost of living adjustments. Hey, we have eaten Beenie Weenies and Ramen for years, why stop now?

There were a few more points stated in the bill, but these were the major components.  This bill passed in both the house and senate so now our only hope is that Pat McCrory Veto this bill.  So, in order to make our voices heard, hundreds of educators, parents, and friends gathered on Halifax Mall to stand up for education! With that said, I do want to make one last point about everything that is happening and let people understand why us educators are taking a stand.  I feel like legislatures and other people looking in feel that us teachers are complaining because we want more money and want our jobs protected.  I know some people feel that teachers should not have tenure being that in what other profession does that even exist? I agree.   This protest for me was not about keeping tenure or getting a pay raise, it was about earning respect and showing people I love my job.  The truth is, I could eat Ramen and Beenie Weenies the rest of my life if need be, however, even those items do go up in price.
The reason I need the raise and the master's pay is because both my husband and I struggle now to pay our bills. On a monthly basis, we pay everything including car payments, student loans, mortgage, power, phone bill, etc.  After all is paid, we really have no money left to do anything else.  I am ok with that now but one day I would love to start a family and with what I bring home, I absolutely could not afford another mouth to feed or day care for that matter.  Us educators, do not do this for the money or for the fame.  However, we do need money to pay our bills and we need raises to keep up with cost of living adjustments.  Also, I know that this summer I easily spent 400 dollars of my own money to buy things for my classroom because I was only given 200 dollars in which I had to purchase my own paper for copies, glue sticks, and scissors.  I am not asking to be handed any favors and I am not asking to be paid six figures, I just want to be respected and shown a little bit of gratitude every now and then and unfortunately the passing of this bill does just the opposite.  I just want to be able to live comfortably and do my job well and if things do not change, teaching in North Carolina may not be in my near future. Not from choice, but from necessity.

With that said, here are some pictures from our adventure in Raleigh!

This was Beth and I in the "beetlejuice" car. When we arrived in Raleigh, the parking attendant was fantastic and let us sit in his vehicle!

Holding our signs before the march!

The legislative building where nothing good seems to happen!

Mom, Kelly, Beth, and I on Halifax Mall!

I loved this sign that a guy had made!!! People are so creative!

Bethany Girls Holding up our signs!

Moving In....

 So, I have not posted in over a week and I feel a bit guilty because I really wanted to try and post weekly. However, I was gone to beautiful Emerald Isle last week for my cousin's wedding and did not have much to post other than my view from our beach house and a sun burnt face. However, now that I am home, it is back to the real world......the world of school.  I finally moved all of my belongings and lets just say my room is a bit of a mess! But, after seven hours of hard work today, I got a lot accomplished and I am excited about sharing some things I have already done!

Here is my mess of a classroom! This looks good compared to what it looked like three days ago!

One of the first things I did today was set up my reading space.  I moved in the bathtub (one of my favorite things in the classroom) and set up the space. I still have to make my crate seats and bring in a chair but other than that this space of the room is complete!

Another thing I did was move in my monster filing cabinet.  I hated the blank side of the cabinet so I decided to put my brownie points behavior system on the side. The way brownie points work is if no one in the class gets in trouble that day or if the class gets a good compliment from another teacher, they earn a brownie. Once the entire pan is full then they earn a treat from me! It could be brownies or some other surprise that I decide to bring the students.

The last thing I did today was put up my letters for my word wall. I decided this year instead of posting every word on a large wall, I am going to put them on rings and hang them under the a appropriate letter.  The current words we are using will of course be posted on the board but once we move on to new words they will be placed on the appropriate ring.  This way, the students can access the rings of vocabulary words when they need them or can even use them to study with a friend when they have free time.

Once the room is all set up, I will post every nook and cranny on my page on the blog that is dedicated to my classroom decoration!