As promised, here are photos from the 2008 State DFL Convention the first weekend in June. Anytime you stay up until 3:00am talking politics and sharing beverages, it's a good time. We also voted on new platform issues, decided on the at-large delegates to the DNC in August in Denver (I WISH I could have thrown my name in the hat, but it's way too much money and it's the week before school starts), and we nominated a Senate candidate: Al Franken! There was another fine candidate, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, who Alan from my delegation strongly supported. But he accepted the loss gracefully and we're full steam ahead! I've been very busy with my new role on the County Executive Board and now as the database and volunteer coordinator for Kory's campagin. I love politics, but only from behind the scenes, although I do get all hot for Robert's Rules.

Me: Day One, Purple Delegate Badge.

My new friend Mandy. She's also active in the local DFL unit and it was great getting to know her during the convention and walking in some parades over the last few weeks with her.

Yeeeaaaaahhhhaaawww: Howard Dean! Sorry for that secret service guy's dumb head.

Night One: Michelle and Mandy with Al Franken at his party. How come I'm the one taking the picture? Aren't they ridiculously cute?

Me during the 5 minute demonstration period for Al before the vote on Saturday. We made an ass-load of noise and it was all coming from the floor (delegates) versus Jack's noise which came primarily from spectators (non-delegates). Al won with one ballot (over 60%)!

Making nice and trading buttons. Alan and I ribbed one other all day long about our respective candidates, cracking jokes about switching sides. Notice the silly number of buttons I have on my lanyard. Out of control!

Former Senator Mark Dayton. He holds a HUGE unity party each election year at the state convention. Awesome food, free drinks, and cool blinky DFL buttons!

Current US Senator Amy Klobuchar - one of the only DFL-ers who can win in my county!

Update on Adam's job search:
He had an interview in a neighboring community today for Jr. High ALC. It's the perfect transition for him to a 'real' district - one with a chance for tenure, accountiblity for the leadership, and a much more solid job overall. Plus, it's only 15 miles away. It's the next best thing to him getting work at my school, which is seeming increasingly unlikely as his coworker from the Recovery School who only has one year of experience (mostly in IT - he only taught a few elective courses) got one of the two jobs here at my school. Adam couldn't even land an interview for that. But Adam's daddy is not a big-wig in the community. There is another job here which just closed on Friday, but I'm not thinking he'll get an interview for that either, as it is now Wednesday, and the job he interviewed for today also closed on Friday. They called first thing in the morning on Monday for that interview.

He says it went very well. His last interview about three weeks ago also went very well, but they called and told him he was the 2nd choice. What a shitter. We also heard through the grapevine (friend of a friend) that he was in the top 10 of over 90 applicants (of those who were qualified and meet minimum standards) in another neighboring community, although we don't know if they have called for interviews yet and if he will be among those interviewed. At least they are considering his applications, which is good.

God, I hope he gets another job so we can begin to heal. I am so angry at his director. On top of it all there is an article in today's paper where he is lying through his teeth, makes no mention whatsoever of how they are SCREWING their staff (giving large pay cuts but increasing the number of student contact days by 30), and that they let a staff member go. There is a comments section where you can write on the online version of the paper (which has been pretty heated lately, especially on gas prices, dems vs. republicans, etc) and call this asshole out. The issue with this is the fact that all the meetings have been closed and no one is supposed to know what I know, so it will be obvious that a staff member or spouse did it. But, oh how I want to call him out for his lies, his deciet, and for letting an amazing teacher slip through the hands of a school that needs all the help it can get.

In other news, our neighbor is an asshole. More to come on this later.

I just realized I sound like a total bitch. Hmmph. So be it. Maybe I am, but I get shit done.

I saw this article on MSN yesterday, with the title of "5 Recession Proof Jobs" so I checked it out. Guess what one of the jobs was? That's right - teaching. Recession proof my ass. I couldn't believe that whomever wrote this article was such a moron. This is what I posted on the message board in response to the ding-dong who didn't do enough research before writing an article which pops up on the MSN homepage:


I'm not sure who compiled this article, but I'm pretty sure they didn't speak with any teachers who are fairly new to the profession. If you can stay in your first job long enough to get tenure (3 years with continued contracts, at least in Minnesota) you are an anomaly.

I am lucky...I'm just beginning my third year at the same school and hope to be tenured after next year. However, my husband is at his second school in 4 years. And your tenure time does not follow you - for instance, you can do three consecutive contracts, but if you are not renewed for the fourth (when you would be granted tenure) you do not start over again at your next school, should you be lucky enough to find another job. My husband has been looking for months and has only landed one interview.

The only job security with teaching is that you can make it through the year with your contract (unless you are a complete moron, like to hit on kids, etc.) and will get paid through the summer. If you are lucky, you'll find out in May or June (at the earliest...our contract calls for untenured teachers to find out by July 15th at the latest) if your contract is getting renewed. That's not job security at all.

My husband just found out a week and half ago his job was being cut because of the budget - the state didn't increase funding for years, gave about a 1.5% increase this year (like that keeps up with inflation, huh?) and because of the past cuts or lack of increases, it's caught up with the school. Additionally, my district is also in the red for the second year...which means my job could be on the line next year...luckily I have a few people under me. And that's including already teaching most classes with 35-42 kids. Try correcting 42 papers for ONE class - multiply that times 3, include the fact that it takes approximately 20-30 minutes to properly correct...you do the math.

One bright spot - being unionized; not that it does anything if you get pink slipped because you are the low man on the totem pole, even if you are a highly effective teacher in comparison to the 30 year vet who is just treading water for a few more years to squeeze out that last bit of retirement money.

However, if you are a math or science teacher - this is all null and void - because they can't seem to find those types at all.

Oh, and did I mention the sweet pay we get for dealing with kids telling us to f-off, the knives, the gang bangers and their bandanas (right or left wrist and red or blue tells you which gang they belong to) and their parents who blame you because their 18-year old kid can't read after you've had him for six weeks?

Yeah, it's a sweet recession-proof gig all right.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE my job. I do; I love literature, reading it, talking about it with my kids, and seeing the affect it can have on their lives. I love seeing that light bulb go on in their heads. I love how they come back to bring me donuts after they've graduated. I love when they bring in their babies (although they are too young to be having them). I love having an IMPACT. In fact, I'm heading off to some grad parties right now. But I LIVE my job, and when an article like this is posted and it makes it sound all sun-shiny and recession proof, well, that tells me that someone did not do their homework.

Since this morning, the Facebook page created for Kory Kath for District 26A Minnesota House of Representatives has over 250 members. Now that's the power of the youth. The beauty of this is that I now have an automatic pool of 250+ young volunteers. Thank you Facebook!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=48175790141&ref=ts

Well, in order to help get our minds off of yesterday's events, some of Adam's co-workers came over last night, which is a bit funny because we rarely have people over (we don't know too many folks who hang out with us here!) and usually the house is at least put together, if not a bit messy; in that state I can handle someone just dropping by. However, we just put in our patio door the other day, and all the finishing work is not yet complete, so it looks like we just tore a huge hole in our wall and stuck in a door, which we did . And to top it all off, there is shit everywhere - my hutch is in the living room with all of its contents strewn about on top of one of my buffets (is that the plural of a buffet?) which has also been moved. Of course, throw in the dining room table, the chairs, the plants, and everything else in the path of the door, the contractor, or my husband being a bit over-zealous in the clearing, and what results is the clusterfuck you see below.

Anyway, so the co-workers came over and brought a cooler full of beer. If it's one thing they know how to do right in this town it is to drink, especially when mourning something or someone. Needless to day we sat on our patio next to the pile of wood, scraps and sawdust left by the contractor for hours, only to move over to one of their houses at dusk.

I wish I had more time to write now, but I've got to go to school and meet with the other English 10 summer school teacher. I'm such a glutton for punishement, I'm doing summer school. The original purpose for doing this was so that we could do our floors (ugly white carpet in bathroom - I know, gross! - hall, and dining room, and disgusting and stained yellow fake tile in kitchen) but at this point it might just need to be squirrled away in case Adam doesn't find a job by the time school starts. If that turns out to be the case he might become a regular working many, but I can't see him doing anything else. He claims he'll go drive a truck or something, but what a waste of his education and passion for kids! Yikes.

Well, it's official - Adam's lost his job. We sort of knew it was coming, but it's nonetheless painful. He has been blowing the whistle on the director for some time now and it's backfired. This guy is totally bilking the school - he drives their vans instead of his own, he "gets his pay" through gift cards purchased by the school, screams at employees in front of students, questions staff members' committment to the school (although he routinely disappears and no one knows where he is throughout the day), tries to hold staff to things which are not even remotely part of their contracts...I could go on and on and on.

To make matters worse there have been a total of 3 Social Studies jobs and 2 SpEd jobs open at my school and Adam has only gotten 1 interview. I don't know what the hell is going on in this town but it sure seems like someone is trying to tell us to get out. The problem is I'm not done with what I want to accomplish here (like getting tenured, starting up the video journalism program, and kicking ass with Mock Trial) and we now own a home in this community. But I'll say that I'm wanting to stay here less and less at the moment.

We are extremely hardworking people totally and utterly committed to education and our students and for Adam to continually get screwed and passed over for jobs he deserves, well, that's just like a swift kick to the gut over and over again. I'm so angry I'm writing, crying and shaking all at the same time.

Anyone want to hire a fantastic, committed, and passionate Social Studies/EBD/LD teacher?

It's the end of the school year, and that means I'll be blogging again! Look for updates over the next few days - I'm currently at the state DFL convention and got some fantastic photos I'll post. My summer's shaping up to be extremely busy with both school and politics and I can't wait.