Big Brother school board - a little rant

[jenny_ravenclaw]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "lupinesque" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
 
> Way to go, NYC.  How about making teachers use coin-op copiers too?   
And you'd better get rid of paper towels, too.  It's so easy to  break 
into the dispensers--those sneaky teachers might walk off with a whole 
pack.>

*Sigh*  Well, most schools don't let teachers use copy machines 
themselves.  If I need multiple copies, I must request them a day in 
advance.  Guess we're just too darned clumsy and might break one of 
those complicated xerox machines - oopsie!  We're just teachers, after 
all.

Paper towels?!  Like we have them at our disposal every day.  I fairly 
regularly must dry my hands with toilet paper.

Joanne - really, the blocking was set up so kids can't access porn 
sites and other such inappropriate internet possibilities.  However, 
many sites that students might use for research could easily have 
adresses that the Board of Ed would deem as inappropriate anyway.  How 
will we know?

As sad as it is, I shouldn't be surprised.  We teachers are already 
required to film a lesson we teach and send it to Albany to get state 
certification (boy, is it comforting to know that the government will 
have my face on tape - which is why I've been so reluctant to do it.  
They had to threaten to take my licensing away if I don't do this 
soon).  Nor do we have our own phones or extensions, or even a private 
place to make phone calls at all.  I can't call my mom or anyone 
outside of the five boroughs either, as those area codes are blocked 
(what happens if students want to call a college?)

I don't have my own classroom, my desk is broken, all three of my file 
cabinets are broken and one came directly from the garbage.  Of all 
the computers we have, most of them don't work anyway.  We only have 
one VCR because the other one broke and we have no money in our budget 
to fix it, but that's okay because I was told I could no longer show 
movies in their entirety this semester.  We're not allowed to use the 
gym in my school and we are down to six classrooms for 100+ students, 
all of whom came from other schools because they messed up.    

If I told you my salary, you'd seriously wonder why I do this at all, 
but I love my students and that pretty much explains it.  Mostly, 
though, they're the ones who get screwed; I *chose* this profession.

Ah, New York!

--jenny from ravenclaw, who took a personal day today because it's 
been sickeningly stressful and I haven't been sleeping 
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