McTeaching

*A recent job posting for a fully certified, bilingual teacher:


3^rd Grade Interventionist
Preferred Qualifications:
• Valid Michigan elementary teaching certificate
• Spanish language ability
• Experience working with students with social, emotional, academic, and/or behavioral issues.
Qualifications:
• Demonstrated success in promoting positive behavior and academic success in students
• Demonstrated success in the use of assessment data for improving student achievement and behavior
• Ability to communicate, interact and work effectively and cooperatively with all people including teachers, principals, students, and parents
• Demonstrated strong interpersonal relations, a willingness to listen and accept viewpoints of others
• Ability to promote and follow Board of Education policies
Responsibilities:
• Communicate with parents regularly
• Evaluate students’ growth, prepare records, monitor progress in all areas of students’ school life
• Identify students’ needs and make appropriate referrals
• Develop strategies for education plan for individual students
• Access community resources to benefit individual students
• Reinforce content and behavioral expectations of students’ classroom teacher
• Work closely with the Elementary Dean of Students and Principal
• Attend student support meetings and other relevant committee meetings
This position is for the 2012/2013 school year starting on September 4^th, 2012. This position will be for 149 days per year 7:45 – 3:30 each day at $75.00/day. Please note, because the paraprofessional works with students, work days are limited to only those days when students are scheduled in the District (i.e. no paid PD days, record days, holidays, etc).



*According to PayScale.com, the average national pay rate for an assistant manager at McDonalds is roughly the same ($10.82/hour) as an "Interventionist".


Depremido,
Profesor Suave

A letter to the Editor, Grand Rapids Press, May 23, 2012:

A Teacher's Ode to SB 1040
While others work a full calendar year, I enjoy gobs of vacation. While the Average Joe could lose his employment at whim, it is harder to fire me than it is to sell Amway in Canada. I receive guaranteed pay raises, and I get free donuts each time one of my clients has a birthday. Although I have enough college credit to fulfill a PhD program, I am an expert at zilch. Although the Average Joe would rather have his job than mine, he offers unsolicited advice about how I could do mine better, cheaper, and longer. By virtue of my humble position, I am an underachiever; suspect of laziness, pedophilia, and ignorance. Were I to debate the above, add whining, too.
Here's the rub: I don't care. Sure, it is disheartening when the bashing hits a critical mass; when one cannot open a newspaper, scan the Internet, talk to a friend or relative, or overhear a restaurant conversation without absorbing the mass critique of the job. The zillion irritating, belittling, frustrating things that happen weekly on the job are only bearable because I know I'd miss it. I'd miss the potential of actually teaching something, which has the same odds as a batter hitting a ball - often leaving me feeling like I've struck out. I'd miss children at their most precious stage of life - before they become Average Joes. I'd miss the perverse dichotomy of the huge responsibility I have without the accompanying authority.
Shame on me.

Tim Fournier
Teacher
Grand Rapids