Documenta-thon

Ok, so I have a bit of an obsession with documentary films.  I love learning and movies, so documentaries are awesome.

I'm currently on documentary 2 of 3 tonight.  I heard something about a sporting event, but didn't really feel like watching it.  Added bonus of not being bombarded by commercialism in fun forms.  At least I had a beer?

What I want to talk about is the second doc.  American Teacher was awesome.  I'm not sure if it was encouraging or discouraging about being a teacher.  It talks about the benefit of good teachers, the problems with teacher compensation, and the way that our society treats teachers.  The movie claims that teachers are not valued in society, which I don't know if I agree with completely.  Yes, looking about how much money teachers make, one could say that we are not highly valued, but I think the issue is more that we are taken for granted.  Add Fox News into that equation, and you get a big mess, but frankly, if you add Fox (faux) News into any equation, you'll get a big mess.  [I can say what I want, it's my blog.]

It was definitely a thought provoking film, highlighting the fact that society's expectations of teachers have increased, but the compensation has not increased by anywhere near a comparable amount.  The film says that teaching is still seen as a secondary income, and not a particularly necessary one at that.  A lot of the movie focuses on the fact that teachers have a hard time making a "decent living."

I definitely had flashes to my intended life style, but I don't think that tiny living should be mandatory for people who want to be teachers, but it really seems that way.  So many teachers have second jobs, either tutoring, after school help, coaching, or even just working outside the education system, just to make ends meet.  I met a teacher when I was working at the sandwich shop in Mt. Vernon who told me that she has to take on a job in the summer.  That feels like a crappy way to reward the people who help our children to succeed in life.  One of the statistics mentioned was that a good teacher can help a student earn $20,000 more in their lifetime than an average teacher.  If that teacher has only 20 students (a small class), that's $400,000 that the teacher has helped his or her students earn.

Lots for my brain to chew on.

On a completely different topic: my January's Resolutions.
Verdict: :-P  Bad, boo, blech.  The resolutions were good ideas, my follow-through and willpower was teh suck.

So, for February, I'll be renewing my resolution to write down my three things to accomplish, and moving a little every day.  I know I should try to limit my media consumption again, but that one was really hard and came with problems of its own, like missing important emails, and needing to communicate with clients.  Also, I was really enjoying a facebook game.  ... *chirp chirp*... *COUGH* Well!  Ok, maybe I'll try to cut back again.

On another completely different topic (or going back to the original topic), I have a semi permanent gig as a Saturday School teacher (half day, full salary), and I am really enjoying subbing so far.  It's exhausting and stressful, but there are moments that make the whole day worth it.

Lastly, and certainly not least (ly), my handsome nephew was born on Friday!  He's tiny, and cute, and sweet, and we're very excited for him to be here.  He apparently was, too, since he's here a month early!  But, he's doing really well, and hopefully won't be in the NICU very long.