I would love to sign up, if they ever really have one. I always hear "rumors" on the internet about teacher reality shows. It occurs to me, that they are all written in jest, as no one would actually make a reality show about teaching.
Here's how I know it would never make it past the pilot. This week, I spent a professional development day in another classroom. It was hella boring. I was yawning. I was trying to take notes. I was yawning some more. This was a great teacher, with interesting lessons and even some excitement (a finger slammed in the door!) The kids were sweet and adorable, and they even sung a cute song that I had in my head all evening. However, it was still boring as fuck.
Somehow, when you're the one teaching the lesson, managing the owies, and singing the songs, it flies by quickly and suddenly you're at lunch, slumped over a stale cup of coffee and trying to get into the bathroom before that one teacher who stinks it up every lunch period.
Now, if there ever was a reality show, I think it should be like WifeSwap. A business professional with children would switch jobs for a week with a teacher. The reason that business professional must have children, is because generally people with children think they know how to teach. It's more entertaining to see someone proven wrong than watch them simply fumble about.
So, on day 1, the teacher gets placed in the nice little business office. She has to do all the things business people do. File, answer emails, create forms, fill in forms, look stuff up online, make phone calls, answer phone calls, keep records. Should be a snap. We do all that stuff every day. And, it should feel like a vacation, because the teacher would get a business lunch, time to play online games, and do a little shopping on Amazon.com.
The business person would start day 1 on Monday morning, around 7:00 am, entering a classroom. The business person would have to follow the first day's lesson plans (we wouldn't be too mean! They'd at least have one day of plans). However, they'd have to make copies, set out materials, gather materials, and be ready for the kids to arrive all before 8:15. The fun would start when the kids show up. Will the business person be able to keep them seated, listening, meeting standards, completing work?
Day 2, would be much the same for the teacher, as she continues to answer emails, go shoe shopping during lunch, and work on whatever work a business person does. For the business person, they would be required to plan 6 hours worth of lesson plans, meanwhile, meeting the state standards and creating material that's just right for the ELL students, the learning disabled students, the low group, the high group, the middle group, and the gifted students. They would have to a behavior plan in place for the children with behavior problems.
As the week goes on, the stakes get higher... formal observations, a visit from the superintendent's office, a class performance in front of the whole school, integrating technology when the technology is practically all broken, and dealing with the unfortunate experience of having to call CPS, have an emergency parent meeting, and having the class pet die.
The show would conclude with the teacher and the business person meeting one another. The business person "wins" when they realize that the teacher deserves double her salary!!
I'm reserving all rights to this show. If anyone wants to produce it, I get a fair share of the royalties!
Stellar idea!
ReplyDeleteJennifer
First Grade Blue Skies
I love it! This show must go on!
ReplyDelete"The business person "wins" when they realize that the teacher deserves double her salary." Indeed!
I want to sign up for that show!
ReplyDeleteLike!!! You forgot the "challenge" round where the business person has to create sub plans which aren't just "busy work" to take off the next day for the boring professional development, while the teacher forwards her calls to Jim or better yet puts on the obligatory "I'll be out of the office on Friday but will return on Monday" auto-reply email.
ReplyDeleteLove, Love, Love this idea!!!! Would be a reality check for all of those "business paople"!
ReplyDeleteHi, randomly encountered this blog post via research for another topic and wanted to chime in, even though it's not recent. I agree with you that teachers do deserve better pay since they have a huge responsibility handling children. However, I think you're belittling people in other professions, by saying they just answer emails and calls. There is a lot of responsibility attached to business communication and it is usually a part of working towards completing a project, so there is a lot of pressure. Also, the majority of websites are usually blocked at most companies, so you can't play games or "do shoeshopping' during lunch. Mostly because people try to leave during lunch otherwise they'll end up answering emails and etc. and wouldn't have a break. In reality, most office workers don't get paid much more, especially now when a person is expected to fulfill 2-3 different functions and still receive the same salary. So what you idea is of office life applies probably only to the boss... but bosses don't even have time to take lunch if they want to move their business forward.
ReplyDeleteSo hope you reconsider and see we're all kind of in the same boat and have to work hard, even though it's different things we have to work hard on. :) Cheers, and have a good day!
I was just talking about this yesterday. It's good to know that even teachers across state lines are experiencing the same things. If it weren't for these stinkin' kids that I love, I would quit yesterday. When are we going to go on strike like NFL ref's?
ReplyDelete