My first Post

Well here I am. It is me. This is my first post. I really don't know what to say but here goes my ramblings.

The big issue we are seeing here in Iowa, for teachers any way, is an increase in pay for teachers. The Iowa legislature is debating this issue at this very moment. The Republicans also want to increase the school year. We presently must attend 180 Days. This includes teacher meetings and early outs. The Democrats think teacher pay should be increased.

I know I sure could use the money. My wife is a stay at home mom for our 3 year old. The cost of Day care is very high and when she was working almost all of her check went to day care. We also don't know the quality of the care that he would be getting. We did not like how he was cared for before she started staying home.

Well back to be a teacher. I am a teacher at Norwalk high school in Norwalk Iowa. That is a subburb of Des Moines, Iowa. I teach something called NASA. This is a class that helps teach the fundamentals that students need to be successful in a regular education classroom. Other than one class per day the students are fully included in the regular education classroom. This, as we are told will be the model for other classrooms in the future.

This is my first year at Norwalk. I really enjoy it here. In the past I have taught at Dubuque Hempstead, Des Moines Hoover, Saydel High School, and Southeast Polk High school. I know this sound like a lot of moving around but there are simple expolinations for all of them. Here it is..

I taught special ed in Dubuque for 4 years. they were goping to faze out my position and move me to another school. In the mean time I met my wife, Laura. She lived in Des moines and convinced me to look into what Des Moines offered. I also wanted to get out of town to get a way from my ex-wife. (that will be another post)

I than moved to Des Moines and taught special ed at Des Moines Hoover. I was also a defensive cordinator for the varsity football team and an assistant track coach. This was my worst year ever of teaching. I thought it was a good day if a couple of chairs were thrown in my class and I was told to F off three times a day and had to break up to fights every day. I decided I needed out of there after one year. I was offered the chance to be a social studies teacher and a Head Varsity football coach and Head Girls Tennis coach at Saydel High school, another Des Moines subburb.

Saydel was great at first. Football practices were going good. I brought the offensive cordinator from Hoover with me to Saydel. The kids were excited and were trying hard. Saydel had a loosing tradition, 54 games in a row, but I was determined to change that, and I believed I could. The problem was we played 5 teams ranked in the top 10 of the state football rankings. But we did win our first game in 6 years. things went down hill from there. Put it this way, I did not have control of my own budget and the athletic director and the principal would not let me run my own team. They wanted to tell me how to coach and make my game plans for the week. (this is an understatement by the way, if you want more of the story you will have to ask)

So after two years I left Saydel and went to Southeast Polk, another subburb, and got back into teaching special ed. I really liked it there. The teachers and theadministration were great. Excpet for one administrator, very controlling. Well any way they had to cut teaching positions after one year because of a decrease in the special ed population.

I am now at Norwalk and teaching special ed again, and an assistant football coach. I love it here. It has been 7 months since I have been here. I like the teachers, the administration, and the kids. I would like to stay here for quite a while, I think. However I miss being a head football coach, even with all the head aches. The only problem here is that I am being paid less. So that is why I have picked up teaching Adult ESL at DMACC, the local community college.

Wish me luck.. Here I go