Need Advice....from a Teacher

[AztecGringo]

I am a teacher in Los Angeles. I used to have a bilingual classroom and was compensated $5,000 per year for my ability to speak Spanish. However, about 4 years ago, the district stopped paying the bonus and an arbitrator just decided that the district can NOT pay us anymore. THat is all fine and dandy....

However, for parent conferences with latino parents, I am tempted to ask for a translator because I don't want to GIVE AWAY something that the school district valued to the tune of $5,000 before. I learned Spanish as an adult and resent the expectation that now I am supposed to continue to provide the district with my language resource with no compensation.

What would you do in a similar situation? And, I HAVE HEARD about putting everything aside for what is best for the children. But I work my ass off every day and this seems to me to be a question of self-respect...Advice???

[AztecGringo]

1. Teacher advice

Great point...wait, that's my thread....

[Kerrytravelers]

2. Well, fellow teacher, I can see it both ways.

Honestly, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Somebody else pipe in here because I don't know what I would do. I'm the kind that I actually followed my special ed kid's bus all over town taking them home because my kids lke to jump around on the bus and scream. My principal wouldn't do anything about it, so my solution is to follow them home and when they go nuts, take them off the bus and make them wait in my car for the parents to come pick them up. I'm a sucker.

[kwassa]

3. I would do whatever makes me a more effective teacher

I would speak Spanish to my Hispanic parents if I knew how to do it, and I am sorry I don't know Spanish. I would speak Farsi to my Iranian students, French to the Francophone kids, many from Africa, Korean to the new immigrant Korean kids, Hindi to the Indian kids

it is common in local schools to have children that have immigrated from 90 different countries.

[hickman1937]

4. You learned a skill to advance your career.

Should you be giving it away for free? Maybe only with the parents of your own students, but I wouldn't be doing any translating for teachers who didn't do the same. That's a big maybe too. Why did the district decide that they didn't want to pay?

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. Fuc k 'em - you HAVE to stand up for your rights,

even if it means inconveniencing the students. Otherwise, the bullshit will continue, and the school system will continue to screw over teachers.

Call in a translator for every meeting. And convince every other teacher to do it as well. Eventually, the system will get the hint.

Gandhi could have taken the easy path, but he chose justice.

I think it's bullshit what republicans are doing to the education system. FOr the price of one haliburton no-bid contract, we could give every teacher the pay they deserve. For every war we don't engage in, we could quadruple the money we give to build and upkeep schools and maintain decent learning materials, like labs and textbooks and classrooms.