158/365 - My Second Home

This is my home away from home. I spent on average 12-14 hours a day at school. A day. I love my job though and I don't know why I was so afraid to dive right in. I absolutely am in love with my team. Jodi, Pam, Theresa, Sally, Miranda, and Christen are all phenomenal and I value each and every one of them in their own ways. They have been so supportive and swept me right under their wings. I look forward to seeing them every day among many other staff and students at school.

Teaching certainly is not a six figure job, thought it should be. Check it out. I found this somewhere and messed with the numbers to make it applicable to me.

Let’s put things in perspective and pay us teachers for what we do, baby sit! We can get that for less than minimum wage. That's right. Let's say $3.00 an hour and only the hours we worked, not any of that silly planning time. That would be $19.50 a day (7:00 AM to 3:30 (or so) PM with just .25 min. off for lunch). Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for us teachers to baby-sit their children.

Now do the math. How many do we teach in a class, 20? So that's $19.50 x 20 =$390.00 a day. However, remember we only work 180 days a year!!! They're not going to pay us for any vacations. LET'S SEE... That's $390 x 180= $70,200 per year.

What about those special teachers and the ones with master's degrees? Well, they could just pay them minimum wage, and just to be fair, round it off to $7.00 an hour. That would be $7 x 6 ½ hours x 20 children x180 days = $163,800 per year.

Wait a minute, there's something wrong here! My salary for this year is 30,430/180 days = $169/per day /students = $8.45/6.5 hours = $1.30 per hour per student. A very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even try - with your help - to EDUCATE our kids! WHAT A DEAL... And the parents don't even have to buy pizza!

All in all, I would never trade my job for the world. I don't teach for the money. I could care less. I always said that if I could live off hugs and volunteering I would. I live to see smiles on my students faces or that moment when something finally clicks and they GET IT. I live for teachable moments; moments that aren't planned into a lesson but just happen. I am looking forward to a long career ahead of me.

158/365
Rockfish Hoke Elementary - Raeford, NC