It's been a rough one in Vegas this past week.
However, it was also kindness week.
Here were some of our activities:
We made a kindness chain. I modeled a sentence stem:
Gave them the time and space to discuss kindness:
Then hung it outside our door.
We took those same ideas to create leaves, which went on our school kindness tree:
(Our art teacher made this because she's amazing.)
We read:
We made:
They wrote compliments to one another to be bucket fillers:
I took home enough to make each kid a compliment from me:
We dedicated an entire bulletin board to our bucket filling:
It will stay up for about a month.
We watched this {Respect Rap} and made posters for Friday's respect march and pep assembly.
We all wore blue on Friday. Not only did it symbolize our grief over the last weekend's events, it also serves as a stand up to bullies color and helped our school feel unified. This was a district wide spirit day.
I previously {shared a letter} that my coworker, Erika Barber, penned and sent to the governor, the superintendent, the state senators, the board of trustees, and local media outlets.
She was invited to appear on John Ralston's show on Vegas PBS. Her nerves got the best of her, so two other coworkers (and a third teacher I have no relationship with) appeared on the show.
View {here}.
I've never been more proud of some of my friends. Teressa and Rob remained calm, didn't place blame, but firmly shared the unfortunate facts of this depressing scenario.
It's not just about the repeated pay cuts and increased wages.
It's not just about the increased class sizes and responsibilities.
It's not just about the ridiculously high number of substitutes in the classroom.
It's not just about the misinformation we receive from those who are supposed to support us.
It's not just about the unfair allocation of funds. Why do new, out of state hires get a hiring bonus while everyone else takes a pay cut?
It's not just about teachers who are single parents needing to get second jobs to afford health insurance for their dependents, while married teacher couples pay nothing for their families.
It's about the unfair treatment of teachers. I am a professional, with college degrees, and don't think fair compensation for my work is asking too much.
Our next Rally for Respect will be at 8 am on 11/25. I'm hoping it won't be so ridiculously cold outside. I'm also hoping parents stand with us.
