I've been toying with the concept of this blog for several days now. I feel like it's going to come across as a shady salesperson, but that's not my intent. Take the following post with an open heart and open mind. So here it goes. . .
The state of Missouri cut funding for schools this year, again. In the 2009-2010 school year The Derrick Thomas Academy, took a 2% pay-cut. We as the teachers did not see that reflected in our salaries, however we did see it reflect in the money that was available for activities. Fewer field trips, fewer supplies available to the teachers. For the 2010-2011 school year, the school saw another 6% pay cut as of right now. The majority of that came from summer school funding. It's just not there. The state of Missouri feels that it's not important. For the first year, DTA will not have a summer school program. We use our program for a beginning of the next school year. We build the relationships with our future students, and gives us a 3.5 week advantage with our kids. What this means to teachers is that we had to take a 6% pay-cut. Summer school was a requirement at DTA for teachers, thus it was part of our salary. With no summer school, those days were taken off our contract and a mandatory pay-cut was put into effect. Along with this means that we still have a slight problem with money for supplies. Another cut is expected at some point from the state, and that could mean some teachers will be without a job. Maybe not at my school, but somewhere it is likely to happen.
Teachers spend a lot of our personal money to purchase supplies for the class. This could include basic supplies, supplies for crafts and activities, or basic needs of the students. With the pay-cut it makes doing things like this very hard. As a mother and a wife, I have to make sure the needs of my family are meet first before I look at purchasing things for my classroom. It breaks my heart that there are all these things in the world that I want to do with/for my students but the funding is not available. I was fortunate last year to have some good friends donate money so that my students could publish their own story book. It meant a lot to my students and me. I was humbled by the whole experience that random people (some of whom I had never met, just known through the internet) would give their money to make the learning experience in my classroom go up a notch.
I was introduced to a website called DonorChoose.org It is a website where teachers put projects up on the site and ask for donations for the needed supplies. I am not lucky enough to have not 1 but 2 projects on the site and I'm looking for people that care about the education of our youth to fund them.
The first project is math related. I am trying to make Math Tool Kits for my students. I have about half of the supplies needed and no funding to get the rest. I get $150 to spend at the school for all supplies that I will need this year. Most of my $150 will go towards basic supplies like pencils, erasers, dry erase markers, staples, etc. . . You will notice that to finish my kits, it will cost more than the $150 that DTA give me to spend.
My second project is writing based. I feel that it is very important that we express ourselves in writing. My students struggle with this piece, but once they get going, their thoughts are provoking and show you that they want to make a mark in the world. The journals I have asked for will provide different exposures to the different writing styles.
This means a lot to me, and I value the education that our children get. To some these things seem pointless and not useful to the educational process. I disagree. Children need different exposures to the same content to learn it. If you have $5 to give, please pick a project and help out my kiddos. If you don't have $5 to give, believe me, I understand. Help me get this around to people that might be able to help. Just go to the site below.
Thanks!
http://www.donorschoose.org/cassie.krause
No comments:
Post a Comment