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I lost the information I had on a few websites where teachers could state what supplies they need and possibly be linked to donors. Can anyone help me out with some links?
My husband is teaching in an emotional support classroom with 9 students. He / they desperately need to get some cubicles set up so that the students can isolate themselves from the distractions of fellow students in order to get any type of academic work done. In this type of classroom environment, even if 7 kids come into school prepared and having a great day, the other 2 who are not (simply because this is emotional support) drag the other 7 down. Hubby did ES very successfully for 17 years, about 10 years ago, and always had this option of the cubicles, and the kids were able to do academic work. In this new, open environment, the students are not able to focus on academics. He has requested cubicles from the district, but it seems they have disappeared. In our stressed-out school environment, no one seems to give a damn about these kids.....
In addition to the tragedy of these kids not learning, my husband is extremely stressed out. He had a heart attack 10 years ago and that is why he left emotional support for learning support, because that was less stress, even though he has always loved his ES kids, too. And he's under stress too because the district admin has been told to target 10 teachers in each school to try to fire. After 27 years, he's at top of his scale in earnings, so in addition to his stress about not being able to actually teach academics except for maybe an hour a day, he's also stressed that he could become targeted because he gets paid more than a new teacher does. There are only about 35 teachers in his particular school, so more than 1 in 4 have been mandated by the school board to become a target, principal gets to pick! This is a quota, not a focus on any particular teachers with issues. His only relief from stress about possibly being targeted, is focusing instead on the stress about the kids he loves not being able to focus and learn. This doesn't help his health situation; he also has diabetes. He should have been able to retire Mar 2012, but now he can't because to continue health coverage would take half of his retirement income, and the house payment would take the other half. I just graduated Summa cum laude with the hopes of being a teacher myself, and we had hoped that I could get a job with benefits when he retired (I'm 55). But in July, the school eliminated 40 positions through attrition and layoffs. Now I feel very lucky when I can even substitute all week for about $10 an hour and no benefits. And next year, a charter school will be expanding and hoping to take 1/3 of our high school population, meaning more layoffs. Maybe I can get a job with the charter.... but I can just guess what benefits and salary in a non-union environment that hates teachers will be. No doubt the school board has mandated this quota because they are hoping to avoid higher unemployment insurance claims by firing 'for cause'. Sorry for the rambling...there is just so much going on from so many angles.
If we could at least get some cubicles in the room and get the students learning more, at least he/we could have the satisfaction of seeing the students focus on academics more and each other less. He and the students could begin to share success. You know, the real reason teachers become teachers in the first place.
Thanks.
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