Oh, right, I have a blog, or something. Well. I've been working at the magnet school for a semester and a bit now, and I like it well enough, although I'm pretty sure I'm going to get on this grad school thing ASAP so I can move up to higher education. I love high school but dealing with high school is hard--not just because of student drama, but because of the education system, particularly North Carolina's.
On Ace and TJ the other morning, while Katie (the math teacher who's next door to me at school) and I were driving to Mooresville for a conference, they were talking about a survey where they asked people what would constitute a survival income. Based on the people they asked, "How much would you need to make a year to get by?" the answer was $33,000.
I don't make that, and I probably never will if I stay in K-12 education here.
Since I started teaching the salary scale has been frozen. I'm a third and a half year teacher on first year pay. I know fifth year teachers still on first year pay. And the state's base salary is $28,000. Not only that, but the NC Education Lottery? Yeah, we rake in some money from that, but the state decided that since we're getting money from the lottery, that money can be removed from the education budget to go elsewhere--or they reallocate the funds to other budget areas. Say we get $1 million for education from the lottery. They can then rewrite the budget so that education loses $1 million, because that money will be coming in from the lottery, right?
Georgia and South Carolina have it worked out better, I think, but basically we haven't made education a priority and it shows.
So I don't think I'll be teaching high school five years from now.
On a happier note, crazy baby is talking up a storm. He's two and a half now, y'all. Still a ginger. Tonight we went to see the Hickory Community Theater production of Winnie the Pooh and I think it was the greatest thing he's ever seen. He clapped and cheered and jumped around and split the time between sitting like a normal human in a seat, making me help him turn somersaults, and running around the theater.
He also hit me in the face with one of those magnetic golf putting rings, and left a bruise, but you know. That's not what matters. What matters is, at night he says prayers and makes me read him Dr. Seuss's ABC and the book about my monster mama, and he says "luh you, mommy" and gives me hugs and kisses and is generally the sweetest, most adorable baby on the planet. When he wants to be.
Further reading about the lottery: http://www.wral.com/news/local/wral_investigates/story/11319416/
