My wife sells jewelry! Treat yourself to some bling!Treat yourself to some bling!
I am an Amazon.com Affiliate, and I warmly invite you to shop using my store!

Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial
Join HBO Free Trial

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

A modest proposal

Today was our last field trip of the year, and I have to say, unfortunately, I really did not enjoy it. My kids were little punctuation symbols, we had a nose bleeding incident that cut our time short, and my patience is just plain gone.

So, rather than go on bitching and moaning for 6 more paragraphs, I thought I'd at least ATTEMPT something humorous. And something occurred to me. I started thinking about athletes’ salaries. They are usually fixed when the contract is signed, but several years back, Ricky Williams -- running back out of the University of Texas -- made news by signing a very detailed agreement. He would effectively get paid by the carry, by the catch, by the touchdown, etc.

More recently, poor Ricky has made news for other things, but at the time, I thought the idea of his contract was pretty darn cool.

So let's apply it to teachers.

Sign us on at some base salary -- let's say $25,000. But we can increase our take-home by documenting events from the following list. Teachers would get paid for every occurrence of the event, not just one time.


Staff meeting .........................................................................................$200

Fire drill .................................................................................................$150

Being pulled out of class to
attend a meeting ..................................................................................$500

Receiving a new child any day
after the first day of class ....................................................................$1,000
-- if they don't speak English ..............................................................$2,500

Parent conference -- on the phone ...................................................$100
Parent conference -- in person ..........................................................$300
Parent conference – w/ irate or
irrational parent ..................................................................................$750

Administering a standardized test ...................................................$250 per child

Child talking back ...............................................................................$25

Child cussing at you ............................................................................$75

Child flipping you the bird .................................................................$50

Child giving you the RING finger
and then saying, "What?!?
It's not the middle finger!
I never flipped the bird at you!!” .....................................................$49.50

Child whining, "They're skipping!”.................................................. $25

Child disrespecting your clothes ......................................................$10

Child disrespecting your hair ............................................................$15

Child disrespecting your car .............................................................$20

Child disrespecting yo momma ........................................................$150

Child threatening to harm you .........................................................$500

Child throwing and hitting you with:
an eraser .............................................................................................$100
a crayon ...............................................................................................$200
a pencil/pen ........................................................................................$500
a book ..................................................................................................$1,200
the student next to them .................................................................$7,500

Child slapping you .............................................................................$2,000

Child punching you ............................................................................$5,000

Child kicking you ...............................................................................$4,000
-- in the nads .....................................................................................$15,000

I'm sure that there are many other things they could be added to this contract. But I think that many teachers would agree to something that followed this kind of format. Heck, if I got paid $25 every time one of my kids cried, "They're skipping!" I'd be able to retire to the Caymans from this year alone!

So kudos to Ricky Williams for leading the way in performance-based contracts. Here's hoping it doesn't lead all of us teachers to smoking joints…

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ok, where do I sign up??? It's a brilliant idea.

I'd add the following (if I may) Student Cellphone going off in class: $50

Mister Teacher said...

Excellent suggestion!

Unknown said...

It's so good that you turn to humor rather than bitterness. Even in May! I will try to follow your example in the future.

graycie said...

I. Am. HOWLING! I wanna work here! Add:

Parent email that starts, "I know you must be so busy with final exams and reviewing, and state tests, but I want you to [do this irritating, time-consuming extra thing] fopr my child." $75

graycie said...

Oops. It should have been "for." I was laughing too hard.

MsM said...

How much for a student throwing a chair at you? That happened my first day subbing.

Nacho Lover said...

hilarious!

oh, if only.

us inner-city teachers would be SO RICH!

Unknown said...

This is brilliant! I love your wit! Only four more weeks to go!!

Mister Teacher said...

Maureen, four more WEEKS???
Try four more DAYS!!! WOOHOO!!!

Mrs. T said...

Add:
Student cellphone going off in class and answering it: $200
Then refusing to give it to you: $300
Class interrupted by crazy parent calling to rip you a new one: $1500

Oooo, I like this game. It's like Priceline, only better. I'm all for suggesting it to our union when they negotiate next year's contract.

Danita Russell said...

Too Funny! I loved it! Bless you for bringing some levity to our already stressed days.
danitarussell.edublogs.org

Anonymous said...

monetary compensation for all the students we are told to "pull out of a black hole" by parents, administrators, and counselors in the last term...
phyllis

Jen Barney said...

THIS IS GREAT!!!!

shineola said...

What about Disarming Students?
Of weapons...not cognition.

shineola said...

Going rate for disarming 2nd graders? Two boys,two knives in two weeks.Something with the number two? Since I don't have nads,balls,yes...$2,000?
The nads thing is an unfair advantage.