Newest Reality TV Show - Are You Smarter than a 5th Grade Teacher

[Scuba]

Have you heard about the next planned "Survivor" show?

Three businessmen and three businesswomen will be dropped in an elementary school classroom for 1 school year. Each business person will be provided with a copy of his/her school district's curriculum, and a class of 20-25 students. Each class will have a minimum of five learning-disabled children, three with A.D.H.D., one gifted child, and two who speak limited English. Three students will be labeled with severe behavior problems.

Each business person must complete lesson plans at least 3 days in advance, with annotations for curriculum objectives and modify, organize, or create their materials accordingly. They will be required to teach students, handle misconduct, implement technology, document attendance, write referrals, correct homework, make bulletin boards, compute grades, complete report cards, document benchmarks, communicate with parents, and arrange parent conferences. They must also stand in their doorway between class changes to monitor the hallways. In addition, they will complete fire drills, tornado drills, and drills for shooting attacks each month.

They must attend workshops, faculty meetings, and attend curriculum development meetings. They must also tutor students who are behind and strive to get their 2 non-English speaking children proficient enough to take the SOLS tests. If they are sick or having a bad day they must not let it show.

Each day they must incorporate reading, writing, math, science, and social studies into the program. They must maintain discipline and provide an educationally stimulating environment to motivate students at all times. If all students do not wish to cooperate, work, or learn, the teacher will be held responsible. T

he business people will only have access to the public golf course on the weekends, but with their new salary, they will not be able to afford it. There will be no access to vendors who want to take them out to lunch, and lunch will be limited to thirty minutes, which is not counted as part of their work day. The business people will be permitted to use a student restroom, as long as another survival candidate can supervise their class.

If the copier is operable, they may make copies of necessary materials before, or after, school. However, they cannot surpass their monthly limit of copies.

The business people must continually advance their education, at their expense, and on their own time. The winner of this Season of Survivor will be allowed to return to their job.

Pass this to your friends who think teaching is easy, and to the ones that know it is hard.

[Fumesucker]

1. Clever, recced.. n/t

[ejpoeta]

2. i'd love to see that!! i think anyone who thinks teaching is 'easy' and a part time job

should have to go do it themselves. i mean, it's so easy, it should be like a vacation for them. I know how hard my kids teachers work. just having to deal with MY kids is difficult and I only have three of them. I don't know what it is that people think teachers do, but personally I think they don't get paid enough. They deserve to get paid a hell of a lot more than they do. I mean, these are the people who spend all day with your kids teaching them. Wouldn't you want the BEST teachers? Wouldn't you want those teachers to be able to be exclusively teachers and to be able to help your kids when they have trouble?

I was a good student myself for the most part. But when I struggled with a subject, it was a teacher who helped me to succeed. And though I was a straight A student, it was that C in Chemistry that I stayed after for that I have always been the most proud of. The thing that defined me the most because I asked for help and a teacher was there to help me.

There is something that people do not consider as well. Passion for a subject. It was a teacher's passion for a subject that would draw me in. Science, history.... even math... teachers who LOVED what they taught got a lot better results than ones just put there because they needed a body in the room. I am not denigrating the ones dropped there because they need a body. Just making the argument that we all do better when we have teachers who love what they are teaching who teach what they love to teach.

Instead of worrying so much about tests and teaching to tests, if we let teachers be teachers and what teaching is supposed to be: the exchange of ideas. Creating critical thinking. Kids who become men and women who can think for themselves and function in society.

When my oldest was in preschool, I paid $60 a month for her to go 2 days a week for 2 hours a class to preschool. It was a lot for us. We scraped for it. And that was the year we had the fire too and lost everything! But this was something that was important to us. To have our kid go to preschool with the kids she would be going to school with. And to go to preschool. Our school did not have that at the time. It was an investment in our kids future. Just like our school taxes are. An investment. Not only for ourselves, but for all the kids in the district.

I guess our esteemed governor Cuomo is gutting education. Were we to increase our school taxes to cover it, our increase would be about $100 from what my husband estimated. Not sure how he got that, but would I accept an increase of $100 for my school taxes to keep intact our standard of education? Yes I would. Personally I feel that perhaps taxing those at the top of the scale would be more beneficial than cutting yourselves off at the knees, but I feel education is such an important thing. How much would it cost me to send my kid to a private school? a lot more than to pay school taxes.

I consider this idea of how to cut the budget like not putting gas in your car to save money. Now, I know from personal experience what happens when you don't put gas in your car. It's a running joke in my family that I ran out of gas all the time simply because I hated putting gas in the car. I would put $5 in at a time (this was like 15 years ago) and then would end up walking to the gas station because I ended up sitting on the side of the road. At some point (after I had kids) I realized that I better just buck up and fill the tank so that I didn't end up on the side of the road. Sure it cost more at the time, but it saved me in the long run all that time walking to the gas station!!

Why are we not willing to invest in our own kids futures? In OUR future? We want the diamond ring without having to pay for it. Do we not want our kids to have a better life than we have? For sure there are some people who are threatened by their kids being smarter than them. I for one relish every time I learn something new from my kids. I want them to be smart. I want them to be able to succeed.

I have worn shirts with holes in them and stained. I have foregone buying new shoes for myself. We as parents have sacrificed a lot to make sure that our kids have that education. Have the things that they need. As many parents have. As many of us in general have, to care for kids or parents or siblings. I think we know about sacrificing. Teachers have sacrificed to be teachers. We are willing to make that sacrifice. When are the ones at the top of the economic chain going to be asked to sacrifice? To forego that yacht. that third vacation home. that jet. For sure they aren't going to starve for having to pay taxes. To invest in this country in our future. In THEIR future as well.