#OklaEd Rally Day

For those of you who do not know, I coach high school soccer. They joy that comes with being a part of the lives of the young women who play the beautiful game cannot be put into words! I Rally for them!!

For those of you who do not know, I teach high school math. The conversation killer math classes: calculus and PreAP Precalculus. The awesomeness that happens when they reach understanding of a complex topic never ceases to amaze me. I often feel like they are smarter than I will ever be! I Rally for them!!

I am the parent of three amazing grade school children. I watch them work hard, I see every AR score, I go to every parent teacher conference (and get even more testing scores), I watch them grow up knowing that they have/had great teachers but the system makes it difficult for them to flourish. I Rally for them!!

I work in a great school with the best administrators you can find. They have supported me when I get crazy ideas (give flipclass a try, it can be a challenge). They do so much with so little and I worry that the time is coming when they will not even be able to do a little. I Rally for them!!

Basing a third grade student’s ENTIRE YEAR on a test that is 50% reading and 50% language (forgive me if my percents are not quite correct, 3rd grade is next year for my middle kiddo) and calling this a reading test and failure means repeating 3rd grade. This makes no sense! I Rally for my 3rd Grade Teachers and their STUDENTS!!

I have the utmost respect for our Superintendent Dr. Goin – a man that only comes along once in a great while.  He has been a leader in our community for so long, people cannot remember who was before him.  The choices and decisions that he will have to make, I do not envy.  I want every Superintendent to be able to do what is best for their school district and make decisions that benefit the students, not decisions where you have to determine which cut hurts least (all of those and then some have been made).  I Rally for them!!

And at the bottom of this list, I Rally for myself!  I am a public school teacher!  I have three children smack in the middle of public schools!   I love what I do!  And I don’t think that its to much to ask that our State Leaders and Policy Makers listen to what we have to say. Trust me to be a great teacher, to make good decisions for the students, I WENT TO SCHOOL TO DO THIS!!  If our leaders listen and change the climate they have created about teachers in our state, we would not have a teacher shortage.  I Rally for myself and my Colleagues!  I Rally for my future colleagues!!  I RALLY TO MAKE A POSITIVE DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF PEOPLE I HAVE NEVER MET!!!