Today was a snow day, so I decided to look through some paperwork for my student loans that just went back into repayment. I finished my Master's Degree in June last year and have been slowly receiving all of my repayment information for my loans.

I still have a large chunk left to pay on my undergrad loans, and now with my graduate loans tacked on top, I'm starting to get nervous. And angry.

I got my Master's Degree for two reasons: 1) I felt the need to learn more about the field of Instructional Technology so I could be a better teacher 2) to maintain my PA teaching certificate.

If I didn't attain a Master's Degree or Master's Equivalency by my 5th year of teaching (my Level II certificate) I would have lost my Level I teaching certificate and my job.  Now, true I could have just taken a free course here and there or a cheap class when I could, but that's not how I do things, and it just seems like a silly way to improve myself as a teacher.

Part of NCLB states that schools should be filled with highly-qualified teachers. This definition includes that teachers be certified and hold higher degrees.  While I don't agree that this model ensures that a teacher is a good teacher, it is a huge part of how teachers are hired and considered qualified to teach.  But who is paying for these extra classes?

No other field I know of requires an employee to pay out of pocket to develop their skills or lose their job.  Most corporations pay for employee professional development and while many suburban or more affluent districts help teachers pay for their higher education classes, many don't. Philadelphia's public school district offers $1000/yr while funds last, and it does a great job of hiding this initiative on its website. I found out about it in my last semester of school.  Did I mention that $1000 didn't even pay for one course?

I did get a tiny bump in pay when I filed all of my Master's Degree paperwork with the state (a few hundred dollars a paycheck), but nothing that could cover the extra $360/month I now owe for my degree.

Again, I could have made a choice to take free courses (there aren't any in Instructional Technology) or I could have gone to a different school (I chose the only school in the area that offers the degree) or I could have chosen a cheap online program just to satisfy the requirement. But would that have truly made me a better (highly qualified!) teacher? I doubt it.

So now I owe about as much as I make in one year to student loan companies and the Federal government.

Is it really such a surprise why teachers deserve to be paid more? I have more education that many people I know, I make at least $10,000 less than they do and I owe more than I'm worth.

Most teachers say "I'm not in it for the money." I say this tongue-in-cheek all the time. But why do we have this attitude toward a profession that is molding the future of our country and our world? Why shouldn't we be as proud as CEOs and corporate employees about our paychecks?

Sigh.

Some resources on loan forgiveness:

Forgiveness of principal balance for public employees
Forgiveness for 5 years working in Title I school

Recently I've been contemplating what I teach, why I teach it and how I teach it. As a technology teacher I know my job is to teach, well, technology. But these days there's no such thing as teaching technology in isolation. Correction. There should be no such thing as teaching technology in isolation.  As such, I try to find ways to incorporate the core academic standards into my lessons while also teaching students how to use technology to achieve learning goals, process information and collaborate.

I've been struggling with whether maybe I should be focusing more on teaching technology more specifically. After all, my students lack knowledge and skills in basic technology tools like word processing and finding, saving and manipulating files.  They learn most of these skills through the projects we do, but is that really my job? Should I be doing less long-term integrated projects and more short term projects that teach specific tech skills?

Another thought: why is it important that my students learn these skills?  I always tell them that when they are looking for a job they will need the skills that I am teaching them.  But how many of my students will actually enter such kinds of jobs? Or, by the time my students are employable (for some that is 3-4 years from now) will even the most menial jobs require a basic knowledge of computers and using technology for productivity, problem solving and collaboration? 

How should we be teaching technology skills to our students? Should the plan be different for students with limited access or limited skills?

This past week I was honored to do a guest blog post on Richard Byrne's blog Free Technology For Teachers.  You can read my post about creating and managing student Diigo accounts through a Teacher Account here.

If you don't already subscribe to Richard's blog, you should. He provides a plethora of useful links and resources for educators of all kinds.

Today started with our new prep schedule on the counter and a note about us teaching our scripted reading program TWICE a day now, with a 30 minute period added at the end of the day.  Yay! More robot teaching!

In addition, I have students who, due to snow storms, coverage, holidays, etc.. haven't completed enough work for me to give them a grade and now I won't see them ever again.

Also, after all of our hard work, our school store schedule won't work anymore and has to be redone and rethought.  The best part: this new schedule starts Monday with no practice run through for the students.

Before my first class, my eye caught my friend Steven Anderson's tweet:

For those of you who participate in #edchat (more on what that is here and here), please add to the conversation on our wiki: http://edchat.pbworks.com

Jerry Swiatek already updates the wiki with an archive of both weekly discussions, but we have added a page for participants to add resources and success stories.

As a moderator, I have noticed people asking how our discussions are being applied to 'real life,' or that "we're preaching to the choir." Our fast-paced discussions leave the brain spinning, and often spark heated debate, so how are we transforming these conversations and ideas into action?  This new page allows for us to share our successes or those that we come across on the web or in our schools/districts.

In addition, it is hard to keep track of the many links that fly by during the conversation. Use this new page to add links to a discussion, even if you come across them weeks later.

To edit the wiki, just click the 'Join' button. You may need to set up a PBWorks account.

You can also become more involved by joining the #edchat group on the Educator's PLN Ning community.