Tag: guest blogger

Blue Cereal “Share The Love!” Month!

~ Blue Cereal

Candy Hearts & Saccharine Souls

Oh The People Cover

As you know from the rapid replacement of holiday displays which began at midnight on December 26th, Valentine’s Day is coming. February, it turns out, is the month of love.

Well, not REAL love… but exploitative, crass, commercialized love, packed with artificial ingredients – cultural pressure to overspend, unnecessary emotional theatrics, and the obligatory scarlet flora whose lifespan will fall WELL short of the concomitant credit card payments.

In other words, it’s the most American holiday this side of the 4th of July!

ClaudiaSLunchBoxBlue Cereal would like to SHARE the love this year throughout the month of February. Initially I thought I might stick with the tried-and-true…  Daily lingerie pics of myself in lacy garments of the sort which inevitably SCREAM, “I’m trying WAY too hard.” Whitney Houston (or whoever the kids are listening to these days) belting out that “Eye…hee-eye… will always love youuuuu…hee-oooouuuu!” Maybe even some of those little candy hearts with wacky messages like “Diabetes turns me on!” or “It’s OK – I’m #11FF!”

But it all seemed too obvious. Too crass. Too commercial and not at all useful. (Well, except for the lingerie shots. I may still do those. Viewership has been down and I could use the clicks.)

Instead, February will see the return of a few things I’ve enjoyed doing in the past.

Killer Blue Serials

BrettHLunchBoxOur first “Share The Love” feature will be a weekly installment of “Blue Serials” – summaries and commentary on the best recent edu-blogging, edu-news, and anything else which catches my attention. It’s my goal to use whatever platform I have to promote the lesser-thans, the little people, the wish-we-were-more-like-Blue-Cereal crowd. I can think of nothing more noble than wanting to be more like me, and I’d like to encourage these aspirations.

With that in mind, I’m asking you, my Eleven Faithful Followers, to recommend posts or articles related to education (or not) from the past month or two which deserve a wider audience or a second look. You need not limit yourself to blogs or publications of a particular size – my readership may not be as large as whoever you have in mind, but that doesn’t mean the same people read us both. Email me at [email protected] with links and a brief explanation of why you like whatever it is you’re recommending, and we’ll see how things unfold. When in doubt, send it on – we define “related to education” rather loosely around these parts!

CarriNLunchBoxIf I use your suggestion, I’ll send you a Limited Edition Rare Inspirational Full-Color Collectors-Only Blue Cereal #11FF Lunch Box – one of the longest-named gimmicks in all of edu-bloggery! These were a big deal a few years back, and I recently discovered an untapped stash of a few remaining items which remain homeless and alone. If I understand the laws of supply-and-demand correctly, that means that the more you talk them up and project a desperate desire to secure one, the more status we can BOTH pretend this lunch box conveys on any who wields it.

Sharing Is Caring

RobMLunchBoxThe second February “Share The Love” feature will be an open call for guest bloggers. Whatever you’re willing to share with fellow teachers or say about the world of education (or even the world in which education occurs), this is your chance. I’m not talking about you weirdos who want to promote your herbal supplements or low-cost imitation iPhones here. I’m looking for classroom experiences, lesson ideas, successes or failures, political issues, etc. – actual writing by real people about education, or kids, or life, or whatever’s on your mind.

SarahP LunchBoxRecommended length is 1,200 – 1,600 words, although I’m flexible if it’s any good. Email me your post and if I use it, you’ll receive one of the same #11FF Lunch Boxes I was carrying on about above. (I hope you were paying attention because I REALLY don’t want to have to repeat all that.)

Finally, anything else which might pop up here during February will either be about faux love (maybe a collection of my favorite “tainted love”-themed songs?) or about you and I actually sharing REAL BRILLIANCE and REAL LOVE with one another and the world at large. Either way, I hope you’ll play along. Otherwise, it’s going to be a long, lonely, depressing February!

 

Steady Blue Party-Planning Koalas (Guest Blogger: Megan Harju)

~ Blue Cereal

Introduction

Megan Harju

My name is Megan Harju. I am a sophomore at the University of Oklahoma pursuing a degree in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Nonprofit Studies. Usually at this point in my introduction, I get asked questions like, “Are you crazy? How do you plan on using both of those when you graduate?” My answer goes something like, “I hope to someday work for a nonprofit as an engineer that puts solar-powered microgrids in villages without electricity in developing nations.” 

It makes me sound WAY smarter than I am, I promise.

I’m in a challenging phase of life right now. I have this passion for alternative energy, but I also have a passion for public education. As a college student, living this passion right now means staying in touch with past teachers and letting them know how grateful I am for pushing me to be creative, think critically, and never limit myself on what I could achieve. I’m thankful for the scientific method and PEMDAS too, but the biggest impact of my time in public school was the confidence I gained to use those things in meaningful ways. 

Many of you, Oklahoma teachers, MY teachers, are that same inspiring voice now to the generation below me. I come humbly to this edu-blog to share some tools I’ve discovered in college that have shaped how I interact with people, see the world, and solve problems. In the right context, they can help students develop into proactive, passionate young adults capable of changing the world. 

Personality Tests in Context

In my past two years of college, I have taken more personal assessment-type tests than I can count. Personality tests, leadership styles, communication styles, strength and weakness finders, career interest surveys. I have taken them in everything from my Nonprofit Management & Leadership class to a weekly meeting with my Engineering Research Laboratory. The goal of these tests is two-fold: to learn about yourself, and to learn about the people around you. When moderated properly, these assessments can transform a room full of apathetic, socially awkward, and/or over-committed students into an interactive, stress-free haven of personal discovery.

Below are some of my favorite assessments with brief descriptions, stories of how they helped me, and ideas for how they could be implemented in the classroom.

UZoo – Leadership Style Assessment

The UZoo test is the first one I took in college, and I really enjoyed it. This assessment rates you on how much of four different animal personalities you possess using a point scale. The four animals are the Directing Lion, Interacting Porpoise, Steady Koala, and Cautious Eagle. Your dominant animal personality identifies how you, and people like you, typically behave in a group of people when given a task. 

For example, let’s consider the shy girl in class. She is smart but constantly second guesses herself on answers. She HATES group discussions in class, but will share a thought or two when her grade depends on it. On test days, she will come ask you to clarify a question whenever there’s even a hint of doubt as to what it means. She is a Steady Koala, through and through. 

Next, imagine the class clown. He loves cracking jokes and pushing your buttons. He’s one of your best participants in class discussions, but sometimes you wonder if his brain and mouth are even connected with some of the things he says. He sometimes gives incomplete answers on tests because he doesn’t read the questions fully. He’s an Interacting Porpoise.

Sometimes a person will get almost equal numbers for all four animals. I think of this as if there were a fifth choice, the Chameleon – a favorite of mine, since I am one. I survey my surroundings and adjust accordingly. 

If I’m working in a group of people who are only thinking about the big picture, my mind will notice no one is paying attention to detail, and that becomes my focus. If my group is overly concerned with details, my mind insists on thinking big picture. It’s a trade-off: chameleons are able to consider many ways of doing something, but they have a hard time picking one process and sticking with it.

This short Prezi includes most of the information needed to use the UZoo test in class.

I don’t have handout documents readily available, although if you are really inspired to use this or another test after reading this post, I could probably find some files for you to print. But this Prezi might actually be very useful as-is in a classroom setting, especially if paper is in short supply. Feel free to reach out and ask follow-up questions!

True Colors – Personality/Behavior Test

True Colors is similar to UZoo, but not identical. Instead of animals, there are four colors: Blue, Orange, Green, and Gold. Again, this assessment uses a point system to denote how much of each color/personality a person has in them. The main difference between UZoo and True Colors usually comes from how the facilitator frames the activity.

Example: This semester in my Nonprofit Management & Leadership class, my professor had us take this assessment at the beginning of the semester and collected our results. She used our results to divide the class into groups for an extensive project the last month of school. Each group was made so that they had a mix of Blue, Orange, Green, and Gold personalities. It promoted an awareness of how each member of the group handled things differently throughout the process. 

If someone gets equal scores for all four colors, it’s called a Rainbow. Rainbows can think and function like any of the 4 colors depending on the situation. If they’re in a group of mainly Blues and Oranges, who love people and interaction but aren’t as good about details or decisions, they’ll identify holes in the plan and work out details. If they’re with a bunch of Green and Gold engineers, Rainbows bring emotions and empathy into tasks to promote group unity and a sense of fun. 

There are more explanations and resources on the True Colors website, should you be so inclined.

Conflict Management Style – Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI)

This test is used by many corporations to help their employees better understand and overcome conflict in the workplace. It’s more advanced and would probably only hold the attention of high school students. It is a great personal development tool, though, if you care about your students’ well-being outside of just the classroom and are looking for a way to impact their lives with more than just US History or pre-Calculus. I imagine it would work well in tandem with a group project assignment.

Application

The best way to maximize success with any of these activities is to encourage and facilitate discussion and understanding of each category through describing examples and situational role play. One highly effective activity I have seen is to have students plan a party. Don’t give ANY details.

Split the classroom up into groups by their most dominant animal. Give them 5-10 minutes to plan their party. If they ask questions, give open-ended answers. “How much money can we spend?” It’s up to you. “What’s it for?” It can be a Birthday, holiday party, or just for the heck of it. Anything. “How many people can we invite?” As many as you want. The goal is that each group of students will plan a party that is predictably in line with the character traits of their animal group.

Next, have each group share their event with the class. See what group volunteers to go first: it’s probably the Lions or the Porpoises. You will find that the Porpoise group has absolutely NO details worked out, everyone is invited, and they will have lots of inflatables/activities/crazy stuff to do and eat at the party. The Eagles will probably plan a smaller gathering, with exact numbers already planned out even to the number of pizzas they will order. The Lions probably have a lot of details worked out, and their event will probably be classy. They might have a guest list because it’s a high profile event. And the Koalas just want to be together and make sure everyone is happy and feels loved. 

It’s fun for students to see how their peers think when put with people who think like them. Speaking from the student’s perspective, I also really enjoy when the teacher/facilitator shares their animal/color. It gives students a way to see the teacher as a person who has certain ways of acting, just like they the students do. Maybe they’ll FINALLY understand why it drives you crazy when students move their desks out of line, because you’re an Eagle and you function best with orderly patterns.

The Benefits

Both teacher and students can benefit from any one of these activities. Teachers learn valuable information about their students that could help teachers effectively give instructions or advice to individual students when need be. Students learn about their peers, but more importantly, about themselves.

So often, we as humans are blind to our own actions. I like these tests because they show you your habits without condemning them. UZoo can make you realize, if you are a Porpoise, that you highly value what other people think of you. Or if you are a Lion, that sometimes you forget about other peoples’ feelings when trying to accomplish a goal. 

Thanks for reading! I hope these activities have given you some ideas and momentarily taken your mind off of the stress of being an Oklahoma educator. If you’re interested and want more information, comment here, email me, or hit up Google. I would love to hear from you!

Megan Harju / [email protected]

Talk About The Passion (Guest Blogger: Kristen Perkins)

~ Blue Cereal

I’ve issued an open call for guest bloggers for the month of October and through Election Day, but this post didn’t come from that call – it came from Facebook.

Some of you remember Facebook – it’s where people not on Twitter talk about things, but with more puppies and fake news sites mixed in. The funny thing is, there are some quality folks writing there who still don’t blog or even tweeterize. Go figure! 

I came across Kristen Perkins, who’d written an passionate explanation of why she taught, with vigor, even in Oklahoma. (For you out-of-staters reading, we don’t care much for no book learnin’ round here.) A friend insisted she send her FB post to me, which she did, and I asked her to revisit it and then let me share it here.

Which, as you’ve probably guessed, is what this is. 

I even made her write her own intro. I figured it would be better than whatever I could cobble together, and it is. I added the aesthetics after the fact because I just can’t resist that sort of thing. But the good parts are all her. 

If you have something on your mind or anything you’d be willing to share, you have a couple of weeks left to let me know. There are few if any limits on topic or length – I merely ask for basic decency and sincerity. It’s ideal if you disagree with me about something, but given how difficult that is to do once basking in Blue, it’s not a requirement. I’m looking for other voices – whatever the angle or passion in play.

Perkins Wordle

My name is Kristen Perkins. I teach 2nd grade in a Title I school in Moore, Oklahoma. This is my 15th year of teaching, and I have a Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction. My decision to pursue an advanced degree baffled most of my friends and family, because my post-degree income would increase by about $40 per month, or $20 per paycheck. They couldn’t understand that it was simply about better preparing myself to do what it is I am driven to do every day.  

Moore Schools

This has been on my mind, and on my heart, so I’m going to try to put it into words. Please don’t think this is about teacher raises or even classroom conditions. It is about having a passion.

For the past two weekends, I have either gone to school to work in my classroom or have run up to open the building to let other teachers in, so they can work. At one point, I counted nine of us there on a Saturday. Those who left before I did took work with them to continue to work on at home. On Monday, rather than appearing rested, we look at each other and ask, “Didn’t we just leave here?”

Those outside the profession often shake their heads at us and say, “It must be a calling.” We are often asked, “Why on earth do you devote so much time to something that barely pays your bills?” It’s about passion, and if you’ve never had passion for something… for anything… I’m not sure you’ll understand.

Perkins Couple

I have had many jobs prior to this. Before teaching, I even worked in a career where I made much more money than I ever will as a teacher. I was given profit sharing, monthly and holiday bonuses, and a clothing allowance. I was routinely taken to restaurants for staff lunches with colleagues in other offices, where we ate great food, chewed every bite, and never once worked on paperwork while enjoying our meal. I had all of the freedom to negotiate the salary that I wanted. Which I did. Successfully.

Still, when payday came, I opened my check and thought, “Well, two more weeks until I get another one of these. Back to the grind.” It was about a paycheck. I left that behind, not because I was “called” or because I have some noble desire to live barely above the poverty line. I left that career for this one, because every day spent in the other career with all of its trappings was another day spent pushing aside, dampening, desperately trying to quiet… a passion. 

Have you had nothing in your life that excited you to the point that you stopped counting the days or hours until payday, and instead looked forward to the next day, when you get to return to that place that fulfills you, inspires you, exhausts you, tests you, challenges you and completely defines you? That’s why I do it.

Perkins Moore StrongIt’s worth it to me to spend my Saturday cutting out laminated flashcards and creating custom activities if I believe in my heart that using them will help a little boy who is two years behind in reading learn a handful of new words. It’s worth it to me to grade papers until I doze off, or to spend my weekend at a conference, because those things are an important part of the big picture. It’s worth it to me to shut my classroom door after a Friday dismissal and cry because my heart was broken in five different directions that day. If I can’t love them like my own, their struggles remain obstacles rather than mere hurdles. It’s worth it to me, because one day, that little girl who isn’t sure when she’ll see her father again, or that little boy who doesn’t believe he is smart and thinks he’ll never learn to read… might have a passion. They might want to pursue it. It might burn inside them, and they may have to struggle to follow it. 

I want to be a part of putting all of the pieces in place so that they have the best chance possible to live their dreams, however exhausting, challenging, heartbreaking, and completely fulfilling they may be. It doesn’t mean I love my family any less, or even that I find this “job” more important than them. It means that I’m not completely who I want to be unless I’m pursuing this passion at the level that I feel is my best. Only when I’m THAT person, can I be a completely good mother, daughter, girlfriend, friend, sister or teacher. 

I’m fortunate that those closest to me are patient. My children have grown up watching me push myself, push my students, sacrifice my time, and throw my energy into children that don’t live under our roof. I hope they understand my motivations, and I hope that it pushes them to never settle for a “job” and a “paycheck.” I want them chasing their passion. THAT is what life is about.

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Collaboration: Popular Buzz Word, Under-Utilized (Guest Blogger: Lisa Hunt)

~ Blue Cereal

I’ve issued an open call for guest bloggers for the month of October. Partly this is just to break things up, and partly it’s because I’ll be doing my best to finish strong on #OKElections16. 

There are few if any limits on topic or length – I merely ask for basic decency and sincerity. It’s ideal if you disagree with me about something, but given how difficult that is to do once basking in Blue, it’s not a requirement. I’m looking for other voices – whatever the angle or passion in play.  

This post comes from Lisa Hunt, Library Media Specialist and NBCT for Moore Public Schools.  

Teacher Collaboration

Collaboration is a popular buzz word, and like most buzz words it has been losing its power. As humans we enjoy working together – as the old proverb (or Bible verse, depending on your preference) explains, “many hands make light work.” Collaboration, though, is not easily achieved. I’m an elementary school media specialist, and one of the things that drew me to my work is the opportunity for collaboration. I’ve engaged in strong collaborative efforts with teachers, students and parents throughout my career.

We have been hearing for the past generation from researchers like Keith Curry Lance that school library media specialists promote higher tests scores through collaboration, and as I said, I’ve been engaged in strong collaborative practices. Are our words ignorantly empty, though? Collaboration is just not that easily achieved.

“Collaboration is a ubiquitous term that has been defined in numerous ways across diverse fields.” This is a quote from linguist and professor Vera John-Steiner mentioned in her ALA position paper on collaboration. She suggests that we need training and a framework to achieve successful collaboration. Wait, ain’t nobody got time for that! More training?!? Who are we kidding? I see my role as that of in house trainer, and that is worth gold to administrators in this time of budget cuts to Professional Development.

I enjoy the opportunity of longevity in my job. This is miraculous or boring according to your side of the fence. I’ve been in my position for 20+ years in the same building. It is miraculous because school librarians are an endangered species in education. This is true in some parts of Oklahoma, and in large districts across our country. The fact that I work for a school district with a strong commitment to effective school library programs in a bonus for me and my school community. The fact that I’ve been in this space so long might be sad because it begs the question “Couldn’t I find something else, something better to grow into during my career?” Well, no. One of the biggest reasons I am still here is my love of the job and the challenge to collaborate!

Working in public education is a challenge in and of itself these days, but to be a collaborator means I must have a stable group of collaboratees. Is that a word? Well, it is today. I collaborate with teachers, students and parents. The latter two are always coming and going; and, that is as it should be. The teachers, though… well, that is part of the problem. We have an ever growing teacher shortage, and that means constant turn over. It means that each year I have many new people to work with in my school. I enjoy that because it keeps me fresh and helps me learn new skills. It makes collaboration tough, though. 

Collaboration more than anything is based upon trusting relationships, and that takes time. As a collaborator I am a partner. A big part of my job is building partnerships. Time for teaching is valuable, and my role is to engage with educators and teach with them. Is a lesson with me in the library worth sacrificing classroom time? You bet because I want to collaborate, embrace classroom objectives and reinforce what teachers are teaching. How can that be achieved if you are new? It takes time and I will work with you to build a relationship.

We keep hearing that schools should be run like businesses, and usually that means producing a product. The learning of children is not a product, so this doesn’t correlate directly when it comes to product; but, some practices are found in both schools and businesses.

Collaboration is one of those practices. Google has been promoting it for years, Go To Meeting is an entire industry based upon collaborative effort in the workplace, and advertising, science and medicine have embraced these practices for generations. Why are schools coming slowly to the game? It might be the punitive structures in place such as teacher evaluations, testing, and constant turnover! As national leaders have tried to improve educational practices they have inadvertently put barriers in place that impede growth in practice.

As the library media specialist I provide direct instruction, instructional support, collection and resource management as well as technology integration. My job description includes providing professional development, and I do that every year. I collaborate, identify needs and address those needs through instruction. I teach students, teachers and patrons in my role. My greatest success comes from strong relationships.

This year I have 8 new certified teachers in my building, and another 8 or 9 that I have taught with less than 3 years at my school. That is high turnover! Building a collaborative team takes a minimum of 3 years and can only grow given time and opportunity. Notice I haven’t even discussed teaching skill levels. What if the teachers are Rookies? What if the principal is new? What if the librarian is not only new to the building but in the first year of running a library media program?

I am a champion of collaborative teaching. I embrace it, throw my library doors open (or even join the teacher in classroom or computer lab) and engage is some of the most powerful teaching I have seen. It comes at a price though. Teachers need to be given time to learn collaborative instruction techniques (I train them as part of my job!), develop collaborative lessons, and then time to deliver these types of lessons. Ain’t nobody got time for that! 

This is my perspective as the library media specialist, but there are other collaborators within our schools. Title 1 teachers, special education teachers who push-in with co-teaching, counselors and speech pathologists, as well as Music, Art and PE teachers can all bring collaboration to learning. How can we promote more collaboration within our schools? 

Collaboration might be a powerful buzz word, but effective implementation is more powerful. That implementation requires a stable teaching force, a commitment to supporting effective teaching practices, and the opportunity to build the trusting relationships that collaboration requires of us.

A Calling Or A Paycheck… Why Not Both? (Guest Blogger: Travis Sloat)

~ Blue Cereal

I’ve issued an open call for guest bloggers for the month of October. Partly this is just to break things up, and partly it’s because I’ll be doing my best to finish strong on #OKElections16.

There are few if any limits on topic or length – I merely ask for basic decency and sincerity. It’s ideal if you disagree with me about something, but given how difficult that is to do once basking in Blue, it’s not a requirement. I’m looking for other voices – whatever the angle or passion in play. 

This post comes from Travis Sloat, an English teacher at Okay High School, where he graduated in 2001 and where he once hit a game winning shot for the high school basketball team. He is a freelance journalist and photographer, a father of three, a college basketball junkie, and a lover of fine Mexican food from Taco Bell. In his minimal free time he can be found patrolling the galaxy in Destiny on his Xbox, or tweeting The Rock to try to get famous.

Travis Sloat

I was standing in front of two assistant managers, both barely five years older than I, and the words rolled off my tongue like I’d been selling used cars for twenty years.

“It doesn’t matter if I make five-fifteen or five-sixty-five, I’m going to push carts to the best of my ability.” 

I wanted a merit raise, an extra fifty cents an hour, and my dad had told me to come in and ask for one, because that’s what people in the workplace did when they wanted more money. I had done exactly that, and then delivered the above answer when asked, “Will more money help you push carts better?” 

The senior assistant manager—who I’d literally known my entire life—stared at me, eyes widening in surprise. 

“Wow! Did you take a class on asking for a raise before you came in?” he asked. 

I laughed and said, “No. That’s just how I was raised.” 

I got the raise. 

***

If the truth were to be told on that spring day in 1999, I was, in fact, raised that way. However, the words I spoke were hollow; empty palaver meant to please the bosses’ ears and get me an extra fifty cents an hour for slugging scalding scraps of steel shaped into shopping carts through the summer sun. Looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing; but the shoe is definitely on the other foot now. 

Now I am a junior high English teacher, English I teacher, Yearbook Advisor, Webmaster, Bus Driver, and Proofreader of All the Things for Okay High School in the booming metropolis of Okay, Oklahoma. That’s right, Oklahoma – as in, “that state who’s 49th in the nation for lowest average teacher pay.” 

I should add, I love what I do. I love my kids, and I love this town. I say this often, and I say it proudly: I will die here or I will retire here. There are no in-betweens. 

I have taken this job knowing at no point in time will I ever sit in my principal’s office and say, “I’d like a raise please.” I am all too familiar with the economic climate of our state, and the horrendous mismanagement of funding at the state level. It’s not that I wouldn’t mind a raise, shoot, I could always spring for the bigger iPad, or buy my kids Lunchables so they don’t feel as though they are the most mistreated children in the world. 

However, to rephrase a timeless quote from great actor JaRule in the first Fast and Furious movie: “Everyone happens to know a few things, and one of the things that we knows is: teachers don’t get (big) raises.”

So why then, am I here? Why do I walk into this building every day and choose to stand in front of junior high kids who smell like hormones and weird dreams? Why do I choose to teach them how to speak properly, but remind them it’s perfectly okay to slip a “y’all” in sometimes? Why do I make your kid put their phone away and listen to Romeo and Juliet even though they already know the ending (“We know, Mr. Sloat. They all die at the end. Wait. She was fourteen?”)? 

The answer is simple and complicated at the same time, like Nicolas Cage’s success in film, and hopefully you have a similar one for why you are where you are: I had a calling. 

A few years ago, I was sitting pretty at Northeastern State University, with a fantastic (mediocre) GPA and an academic plan which led to a degree in Computer Science. I wanted to be a computer engineer, sitting at a desk and making $100k a year for typing lines of code onto a screen. I wanted to wear weird socks every day, and funny, clever ties with quasi-geeky meanings and joke with my coding buddies at the water cooler about the latest in Game of Thrones Reddit threads. It seemed easy enough, and it seemed like a salary that could afford my family and I all of life’s little delicacies, like large screen iPads and Lunchables and real Mountain Dew instead of “Mountain Lightning.” 

You might be asking why I gave up a potential luxurious life of name brand soda and premium cuts of deli ham with buttery crackers all packaged conveniently into one box for a life where two grown adults with college degrees and professional careers still qualify for free and reduced lunches, and I’ll tell you. 

One Sunday morning I was sitting in church and I heard a sermon preached on the detriments of chasing wealth. The pastor advised us that if we chose money over our passions, we’d ultimately regret our career and we’d never truly be happy. While listening to him break down the scripture backing up the points, I realized a few things. 

The most notable were that all of a sudden sitting a desk typing lines of code for forty hours a week seemed interminably boring, and that I could wear weird socks to school just as easily as to the office. So the next week I strolled into the office of a slightly annoyed registrar and changed my degree plan to Secondary English Education. To date, it’s been one of the best decisions of my life. 

In a few short weeks, Oklahoma will decide whether or not to give myself and my compatriots a $5,000 raise. If they are gracious, my paycheck will still rank in the bottom half of the national average for teacher pay, but it’ll be nice surprise, mostly because my wife is a teacher too, and we’ll be doubling up on it (hello Premium Lunchables!). I’m not one of those teachers who likes to gripe about how much we do and how little we get paid to do it. That said, we need this raise. 

If you’re on the fence, consider what you’re giving and what you’re getting in return. It means highly qualified teachers staying put for a few years. It means dedicated rookie teachers like me not having to worry about picking up side jobs or summer jobs. That in turn puts us in the classroom more, because as any educator can tell you, it’s not a “pack up and leave when the bell rings” job. 

If enough voters decide they simply can’t be asked to fork up an extra penny here and there, that raise won’t happen. The state will then hem and haw and try to pass some other legislation that glances our way and has the appearance of trying to solve the problem, but in reality is just subterfuge and planning to get reelected. It’ll be a mess. 

But you know what? I’m fine either way. I’ll show up on November 9 with a smile on my face, and I’ll teach your kids what a gerund is, how to properly use a semicolon, and I’ll even throw in an extra bit about the Oxford comma although that’s not in the state standards yet (I’m looking at you, Flores). Because it doesn’t matter if I’m making five-fifteen or five-sixty-five, I’m going to teach your kids to the best of my ability. 

I love what I do. I love these kids, and I love this school. I’ll die here or retire here. There is no in between.