Welcome to the Tweep Trends podcast. Hey, Evette, what's trending today? Hey, I'm Evette, hey girl! And you are tuned in to Tweep Trends.
It's the quickest way to find out what's trending today. It's back to school time. Let's get started. You know, August, September time.
This is that time of the year when that target commercial used to come out all the time. I haven't seen it so far this year, but the one that spoofs that Christmas song, the most wonderful time of the year where the parents are skipping through the aisles of target and the kids look absolutely miserable, and the parents are throwing the back to school supplies in the cart and they are loving it that their kids are getting ready to go back to school. Well, that was the attitude I used to have about going back to school. I loved going back into the classroom because it was something about being there, being with my students, helping students to learn things.
I absolutely loved it. And pretty much for the majority of my teaching career, that was the attitude I had. That was the feeling I got around back to school time. And in the times when I didn't feel that way, those were the years that I was counting down the days.
I'm like, you know what? I signed this contract and I'm going to honor this contract, but come the end of the school year, I will be moving on and finding some other place to work because it's clear that they do not respect me here, they do not respect my knowledge, and what I bring to the table, and therefore it's going to be their loss, and somebody else is going to reap the benefits of this amazing teacher. Simple and plain. That was my attitude.
I'm a math snob. All schools need a math teacher. So I don't have to put up here with your shenanigans. Simple as that.
I said all of that to say, when our daughter was born, I made the decision to step out of the classroom. I said, you know what, God? I can, I have what I need. You've given me the things that I need to be able to not have to work.
So I'm not going to. I'm going to stay at home with my child until she gets to a point that I think that it's okay to go back into the classroom. Well, do you know when that was? Around 2018 is when I was saying, you know what?
Maybe I should be considering going back into the classroom, but 2018, OMG, that was a year for us. Every two months we lost a family member. Every two months. So 2018 was a wrap.
So we go into 2019. Our dog died in February. And after that, I was like, you know what? We've almost run out of everything to lose at this point.
Maybe this is the time to consider going back in the classroom. So I started getting all my resume and everything together. And then COVID happened. Okay, God.
Well, somebody's trying to tell me something. I'm not saying COVID happened to keep me out of the classroom, but guess what? COVID kept me out of the classroom because at that point it's like, you know what? Everybody's having to come out.
Teachers are having to go virtual. And I feel bad for teachers because like my daughter's teacher, she was in the first grade at that point in time. And her teacher had never taught online before, whereas I had taught college level math online. And so I was familiar with it.
So in my mind, I'm like, you know what? I could still go back in the classroom because I got this online thing down. But for other teachers, literally in Virginia, they said, okay, schools are shut down. And by the end of that first week, the governor was like, nope.
It's a wrap. We're not going back to school. And I respected that though, because at that point, our governor was a doctor. I can respect somebody looking at the situation and saying it's not safe for the kids to go back, nor the teachers, nor the other people in the building.
We got to be safe. So we're going to stay at home. We're going to do this virtual thing and ride this wave out. Well, after that, when schools started opening back up, I'm sitting there thinking to myself, and I'm like, well, this ain't the time to go back because I'm looking at it.
I'm feeling some type of way about this. Are they really making teachers go back into the classrooms right now? They have their own children, their families, and how they were saying that children seem to be spreaders more than what they were as far as contracting and showing signs. Wow.
So that's how you respect your teachers. I said all of that to say that it's unfortunate, but teachers feel disrespected in so many ways on so many levels. It's not even funny. I was reading a couple of articles.
One of them was saying that 70% of the teachers in the state of Texas are on the verge of quitting. And people are trying to say, oh, it's because of the pandemic, and there's no such thing as a pandemic anymore. And sure, partly due to concerns that still linger about the pandemic, as well as these other crazy diseases that keep coming out, let's not discount those. Teachers have to wipe noses and stuff.
Oh, my gosh. Let's be realistic here. Teachers touch your kids on a day to day basis. They're there.
They're in their face. They're talking to them. Whatever they brought from home, you're bringing it to the teacher. They don't bring apples anymore.
They bring germs. Now, along with though, that whole lingering pandemic issue, there are other major factors out there that have teachers kind of like, you know what? I don't know if I can keep doing this. Another one being inadequate pay.
Now, that's been since the beginning of time. Inadequate pay has been an issue for educators, and it's unfortunate because we can pay athletes, gazillions of dollars for these contracts that are only a couple of years long. $190 million for five years. Are you kidding me?
Teachers don't make that. But we are preparing the children. We prepare the athletes, you know. There's ADs and cheer coaches, basketball coaches, all the coaches that were in school that helped to mentor these children, these kids, these people that go off and do great things.
But people forget about the teachers. They're like, oh, but that's their job. Yeah, and it pays them peanuts. So on top of that, though, there's more.
There's more. What about the political attacks on educators? And this whole critical race theory nonsense shenanigans, mumbo jumbo, is amazing how even back when I was in the classroom, there was this whole thing about teachers being the ones that they would blame when children didn't do well on their standardized tests. And I hated that idea, that concept, that thought.
And the reason I felt so strongly about it is because as a high school math teacher, I have no bearing or contact with that child's teachers from middle school and elementary school to know if there's a disconnect to know if there was something that they missed, that they transfer into the school late, and then therefore they missed a chunk of information. And therefore, that's why they don't understand how to multiply, divide, add, subtract. Because as a high school math teacher, I shouldn't have to teach you how to add or subtract. But I found myself having to figure out how to do lower level math, how to teach people.
I don't know how to do it. But how to teach people how to do lower level math. As a secondary certified educator, we didn't do classes on teaching people how to add and subtract. That's one of those things where you come to me with that information.
You come to me knowing how to multiply. And then I can show you how to integrate and differentiate and do all the other cool stuff with geometry and the other math subjects. They're out there like calculus and those that are higher up. But yet I'm going to be held responsible.
If you don't do well on your standardized tests, when I have no handle on what I'm getting, and you just get a batch of kids. And then you have to figure a sort of do whatever you can do, work your magic. Talk about teacher magic. Oh, I'm G.
But I got to step down off this old box because this type of stuff really gets under my skin. So I read another article though. I want to say this school district was in Wisconsin. They have about a 200 teacher shortage, not to mention there's other faculty and staff issues shortage that they have.
And you know, they're saying that teachers are having to get side hustles. You got teachers working at restaurants trying to make ends meet for themselves. And on top of that, you know what they do, right? They spend their own money to get the supplies in their classroom because like this year at my daughter's school, they're saying that the teachers don't get to send out the specific list of what they need for their class.
Well, that sucks because I've been in that position before. I had a classroom with one, two, three, four dry erase boards. Do you know what I got issued at the beginning of the school year? Chalk.
What do I do with packs of chalk and a classroom with dry erase boards? I don't have chalk boards. What is that going to do for me? So if you're not giving the teacher the things that they need to be able to instruct the students, it's pointless.
Save your money because you buying me boxes of chalk is doing me no favors. But I'm going to step down off of my soapbox and get back to what I was saying. So this school district in Wisconsin, they were saying that, you know, we do have a teacher shortage, yes, but guess what? We found people.
They are qualified substitute teachers. And I had to go look that up and find out exactly what is a qualified substitute teacher because I know what substitute teachers look like when they come in the classrooms. I know what they look like when they come in the buildings. They're random people.
They can sit in a classroom. Random people. Now, if you're a sub out there, I'm not trying to poop on you or anything like that. You're probably a great person because there are some subs out there that have an education background.
I know that I understand that personally. I'm a substitute snob. I will not substitute in anybody's classroom. You may be saying, well, you know what you're part of the problem.
Maybe I am. But I know that as a regular classroom teacher, I don't get respect. So why would I go in as a substitute? And I don't know these children.
I don't know their parents. I don't know phone numbers to contact them. And I don't know that I'm going to get the support from the front office to do anything should anything pop off. So no, I'm not going down that lane.
Not going there. So back to the qualified substitute teachers. Here's what it said. They had an advertisement on Indeed.
So I'll advertise it. Here's what it said. To be qualified, you had to have 15. You had to be 15.
Excuse me, 18 years older, older, simple. That's pretty standard. Background check, COVID vaccinated. I was shocked by that one.
We'll say I was shocked. You had to have the other typical stuff. They'd have you do the TB test and whatnot. Now, here's where it got interesting.
These are these are the different things you can have. You can have three university credits in early childhood education. So technically, that's one class in college. Or you can have a similarly related course under your belt.
Still one course. Or you can have a 40 hour technical school course that's approved. Well, that's interesting. But okay, that's another or or get this one.
The last one is a doozy. Hold on to your seats. A willingness to read packets for information about childcare skills and strategies. A willingness to read packets for information about intro to childcare skills and strategies.
I'm sorry that I had to shut that last second down because I was about the fall off of my soapbox. I was so hot when I finished reading that thing. So you mean to tell me that a qualified substitute teacher is someone who's 18 years or older that's done a background check and passed it, has their COVID tests, they've taken their vaccinated. They've done the TB test and whatever other tests that they have to take to make sure that they are a safe person to be in the classroom.
But then the only other thing that they have to have is a willingness to read packets. OMG. You've got to be kidding me. But I digress.
Because you know there are other things that those subs end up having to do because these are people covering the classes that we know from the jump aren't being covered. But if all of your subs for your district are going into the classroom positions, what about when the teachers need subs? Guess what happens? Those same subs, now they don't get a break because they get separated throughout the day.
Whenever the teacher that they're who's class they've taken over, whenever they have a free period, now they get moved to another classroom to cover that class period for a teacher who's absent. I've seen that. I know it happens. And then the other thing, nowhere in the information where it said what you would be required to do, did it say anything about grading papers?
You know why? Because the actual teachers in that department are then going to have to divvy up that work amongst themselves. So not only do they have their work to do, they've got that teacher's stuff to do as well. They're creating the tests.
They're having to grade those tests and get it back to this sub for them just to disseminate around the classroom. It's things like that that has kept me from going back into the classroom. I'm going to start my own school before I go back to some situation like that where I am clearly not respected for the professional that I am. Now, I'm going to step down off that soapbox again because I hadn't even finished all the stuff that I wanted to talk about in today's episode.
The other thing, the final thing, the last thing that I wanted to mention is that the federal free school lunch for all program is ending. So those of you that have children in school, you probably know that since 2019 they were giving lunches out in the community. And then once schools started back up, everybody, all the kids were eligible to receive free breakfast free lunch. The numbers are staggering.
That breakfast and lunch, they were giving out 26 million free meals daily across the United States to children. And guess what? That program has ended. It's expired.
And Congress is okay with that. As a matter of fact, Virginia, I want to say her name is Virginia Fox. She was up on the podium stating basically that aid should be targeted and temporary. So no matter about inflation and the fact that we've got issues with supply chains, slowdowns and all that stuff, staffing shortages, none of that makes a difference because this program ran its course.
And yeah, y'all will be fine. Figure it out because we're not going to extend it this school year. And you know, in reading the information about different people at different districts and schools across the country, the people in the trenches, they know that there are some families out there that are just over the threshold. Whatever the requirement is to receive free and reduced lunch, there are some people that are just a hair above that line.
And because of that, their children will not be able to receive free or reduced lunch this school year. There's even reports of schools prior to the pandemic. They were throwing meals away because when the kids got to the end of the line and went to use their account, if they were in the red on their account, they would take the meals from these kids and throw it in the trash. Wow.
You know, I know for a fact, our church went and gave money to a school district locally to wipe out the debt of the students on their meal cards so that kids could eat again. Because we didn't know it was a situation. We didn't know it was a problem until many, many children had been denied food. You want educators like myself to educate the children.
You want us to teach them. But yet you allow these children to be in bad situations. A hungry child can't learn. They can't concentrate.
They're too busy trying to figure out, okay, when I get home, can I go to someone's house? I wonder if their mom is cooking today. I wonder if I go there at just the right time. If they'll ask me if I want to stay.
Is mom going to be okay with that? If I do stay or is that going to be a problem? You know, they're thinking of survival. They're not thinking of seven times seven.
It's difficult. It's difficult. And so I look at all of this. School's needing overhaul from top to bottom.
I think that would be the best thing for everybody, for all people that are involved. The teachers, the children, the students, the parents. And instead you have some lawmakers that instead of trying to make the schools better, to fix the problems that are there, they're saying, you know what? We need more options for parents.
So let's do charter schools. Let's do private schools. Let's do other types of schools. It's as if it's an attack on public schools.
And I don't know why. I don't understand that. Is it a tax payer thing? Because they're, I mean, now when their taxpayers are being like, I don't even have kids in school.
I have to pay taxes. It's going to go towards making the schools better. But don't you want good citizens to come out of those schools and to be your neighbors and to work at the different places? It's almost like we can't see the benefit in improving our schools.
Thank you so much for listening today's episode and hanging in there with me. I know this is one of the longer episodes because I spent the majority of my time up on top of the soapbox. I know, I know, I'm very passionate about school. I'm passionate about education.
And therefore, I could not help myself. So once again, thank you for joining me with this being August going into September. Many students have already gone back to school and then there are some. There's a way that's about to happen after Labor Day where kids are going to be headed back to school.
If you care anything about education, then definitely look into the people who are running for a school board. Look into the issues of the schools. Go to a meeting. Find out what is happening locally for the schools near you.
And if there's anything that you and maybe your church or the community that you live in, there's anything that you all can rally together to do to help to support education. I'm thinking that it's a good thing. Any little bit helps. Any little bit counts.
And, you know, maybe you're the type of person that should run for a school board member or something like that and make your difference from the inside. Granted, I do know that it's difficult sometimes, like depending on where you live, there may be a name, a family name that's big in the area. And therefore, those people get the votes. But usually there's more than one seat available and you may not win the first time.
You're going to need money. You're going to need to actually have a real campaign. And you're going to need to advertise, all that good stuff. Maybe I should do a whole other episode on that because the other thing that I didn't mention is that the people two doors down for me that homeschool their children for some strange reason.
They have a sign in their yard where they're supporting a candidate for school board. So you know I want to go in their front yard and rip up that sign. Why do you have a say in this? You won't even put your children in the public schools.
But that's another story. We might have to talk about that on Thursday. Okay? So I'm going to stop here because if not, I will be talking to y'all until Thursday.
So until then, you know where to find me, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube at HeyVet, that's at H-E-Y-E-V-E-T-E, or just look for the hashtag tweet trends. And honestly, I think that it was the it was divine appointment that you were listening to today's episode because if you're the choir and I'm preaching to you, then guess what? You were meant to then take this on to somebody else. So share this with somebody and let's get the conversations going and let's get these schools back on track.
Alright, have a good one and I will see you on Thursday.