J'Espere

I have become obsessed with lunch boxes. There. I said it. It’s out there.   Now we can all move forward into the dilemma that comes with obsessing over something like a lunch box post elementary school.   I think for most people lunch boxes aren’t a big deal, because it’s just lunch. And if you forget lunch you can always run out and grab it. Unless you’re a teacher. And only have half an hour on a good day if everything is running smoothly and on time. If you’re wondering how often that happens, I’m going to go out on a limb and say 70% of the time. The other part of this is that even if everything is going great, and running on time, and no one is sick, injured or otherwise engaged, it’s not like we’re bringing in the big bucks. So for most of us, eating out is both unrealistic and physically impossible.             Of course the upside is we are healthier, right? We’re pulling things out of our pantry and putting together beautiful lunches to enjoy peacefully during the   twenty m

            This year was the most normal I have ever felt on 9/11. I cried on the way to work, but didn’t really think about it once I was teaching, and honestly, not a single one of my students asked about it.   I handled storytime and activities, a research project, finding band aids for small cuts and bruises normally and soon the day was over and I was out on the Greenway running.             13 years ago, I was 19 years old. I was in the process of rushing, and I was in early morning classes, and I was busy almost all the time. That was during the time of my most successful yoga practice too. On the morning of September 11, 2001, I got up early and ran from my apartment to the gym (it was about 1 mile). Once there I was running on the track, listening to a morning show, when it was interrupted in what I thought was a joke at first. There was someone talking about a plane crashing into the North Tower of the WTC. I thought it was the most awful prank I had ever heard. Then, at

    Our sweet, always diligent legislature passed the new teacher pay schedule this summer, and with it touted the "largest teacher pay raise" in NC history. Except is it really a pay raise? Again, I question it, this time with numbers in front of me.       So I started looking at the numbers, reminding myself of the scale I had been handed when I began teaching. It showed small but steady increases for each year I taught. In case you are one of the many who believe that teacher pay is ridiculously high, the numbers were usually around $400, with larger jumps at certain increments.  Our legislature argued it wasn't competitive enough with other teacher salary scales around the country- it isn't, it didn't offer many incentives for teachers to remain in NC after finishing their education degree- it doesn't, and it needed to go. So it went.  NCAE and teachers everywhere were hesitant, but at least something was being done, right?      It turns out that is wher