And so the fun begins...

Well its filing time which means two things. One, we find out who we get to vote for this year, and current state legislators will begin to do their jobs. Gov Fallin accidentally told the truth a few weeks ago. When asked about the budget process she mentioned that some legislators are probably waiting to see if they draw an opponent. See, if they don’t draw an opponent they don’t have to listen to their constituents. And they don’t. So some of the occupants of offices will probably find in in themselves to make a tough decision or two after seeing pictures like this

and stories like this.

It seems several someones have upset the applecart. I noticed a tweet earlier today that said today’s filings eclipsed the total day one filings by lunchtime...

Followed by this later in the day... 

This is good and this is how democracy works. And this is the only way democracy works. We are living the direct result of a disengaged population. I like that it's changing and people are getting involved. Win or lose, a difference has already been made.

I attended a state budget meeting prior to the beginning of session in which Rep. Scott Inman made a very valid observation. He stated in the several years the Republicans have had a majority they have never provided a bill to effectively raise teachers salaries. When times were good, they wanted tax cuts. Now that times are bad and we have no money, they see two democrats win special elections in traditionally republican districts and all of a sudden we had several Republican sponsored bills for teacher raises.

Our country is an experiment. It always has been one. Its an activity and inactivity doesn’t work. I’m glad several are stepping up and I wish them luck. And its a good thing too given this is a good account of what our current leadership sees as good ideas to fix the budget. We are better than this... and we have to work to show it. Let's lose this mindset.

We have to do better, and this is how its done better. There are two more days of filings. Then the work begins…

Here is what we started on Wednesday...

Troy Dyer,House District 3 Ag Educator

Collin Walke, House District 87, Former Educator, Pro Public Education

David Dickerson House District 82, Parent,Public Education advocate

Jim Beckham, House District 42, superintendent

Forrest Bennett, House District 92, public education advocate

James Albert Campbell, House District 19, public education advocate

John Croisant, House District 37, educator

Jacobi Crowley, House District 64, educator

Kelly Dodd, House District 82, parent and public education advocate

Mickey Dollens, House District 93, educator

Troy Dyer, House District 3, educator

Toni Hasenbeck, Senate District 31, educator

Judy Hopper, Senate District 47, retired educator

Brian Jackson, Senate District 37, education nonprofit employee and spouse of public school educator

Johnny Jump, House District 101, educator

Lisa Kramer, Senate District 25, local school board member

Chris Kidd, Senate District 31, former educator

Lee Ann Langston, House District 14, educator

Greg McCortney, Senate District 13, public school parent

Kelly Meredith, House District 87, public school parent and higher education educator

Matt Meredith, House District 4, local school board member

Darla Milligan, House District 12, educator

Monroe Nichols, House District 72, education nonprofit employee and Career Tech board member

Jean Oliver, Senate District 29, educator

Dewayne Pemberton, Senate District 9, educator

Roland Peterson, Senate District 19, educator

Jack Reavis, Senate District 9, educator

Jacob Rosecrants, House District 46, educator

Paul Scott, Senate District 43, spouse of educator

Shawn Sheehan, Senate District 15, educator

Paul Sullivan, House District 69, public education advocate

John Waldron, Senate District 39, educator

Tammy West, House District 84, local school board member

Rhonda Harlow, Senate District 19, Pro public education, reading specialist

Marilyn Rainwater, House District 28 Pro Public education advocate

Jeremy Wayde Coleman, House District 41 Pro Public Education Advocate

Joe Wilhelm, House District 5, Educator

Macy Gleason House District 29, future educator

This is a list as of earlier today. You can check updated filings here

These are my numbers... What are yours???

Gerry Brooks posted a video that has gone #oklaed viral (if that term has not been used can I take credit for it?) discussing bumper stickers and numbers. I can't find it, but it was all over the place...

It got me thinking about my numbers and what my “metrics” would look like. My father was a CPA (or as I told people when I was young a C3PO). I wasn't ever a big fan of math but I can count, and I do have some organizational tendencies. I try to hide them but they are there... Unfortunately I don’t have the time or resources to be exact but I know what I’ve done and I can put together some things.So here it goes...

I’ve taught for nine years in three schools. that is 18 semesters, 36 nine week periods. I’ve had, 3 Superintendents, 7 Principals, taught with easily over 50 teachers, and by my conservative estimates over 725 students have come through a classroom for which I was responsible. I’ve been a part of over 150 parent meetings and conferences.

I have logged over 150 days of Professional Development. I have attended 15 content specific lesson workshops for my current discipline in the past 4 years. Over all I have attended approximately 25 conferences, meetings, workshops, and events. I am certified in every social studies subject for Oklahoma Secondary Schools. And with that I have taught over 25 separate “preps” for social studies. (Yeah, some of these are the same course but I had to reinvent and prep due to class size, school mission, and student capability.) I have used over a dozen textbooks as classroom resources and countless internet and library resources (I really don’t know if I could remember all of the stuff I’ve used… )

I have been in  a school doing my job for 1,544 days. That is 11,508 hours. I’ve taught 7,131 specific class periods (not counting Advisory or study halls, that would add another 15 class periods). I have conservatively assigned 2 graded assignments a week, that totals over 469,000 grades. One exam a month means I've tested my kids at least 80 times.

What does this mean? Well, this is one way of looking at what I’ve done with my life for most of the past decade. There is a part of this job that is absolutely maddening to me, and it gets at why you can’t quantify what we do into an algorithm. These numbers represent what I’ve done, but there is no way of knowing what would have happened if i hadn’t done it. Well, the easy answer is someone else would have. And we’ve now come to the unholy and dangerous intersection of “Savior” and “who cares”. We have to find our balance somewhere in there. Somewhere between savior and cog in the machine…

Perhaps we could find a balance in our numbers, it couldn't hurt to try. I'm glad I did this, and I would encourage you to do the same. I am well aware and would love to see the incredible numbers some of us can put up. Let's see what we've done, and allow it to motivate us. And once we have seen what we've done, we know what we can and will do.