21st Century School Teacher

It happened to me for the first time last year... I found myself daydreaming about being a P.E. teacher--the coveted class--the comfortable shoes--fewer papers to grade...  Wish as I may, I'm not highly qualified in Phys-Ed, dampening my delusion--so fear not young children... 

It might not be PC to say, but as an English  teacher, I work longer hours, investing many hours after school and on the weekend to assess student writing...   That has always been just fine with me.  I love the content, I love preparing for my lessons, and I love the reward of getting to know the students through their work.  And I know that in any profession, there will always be those that invest more of their personal time--given that, is the way that we pay teachers a symptom of something greater?  If we compensated teachers based on their performance, would student learning improve appreciably?  One school is going to find out soon...  I ran across and interesting article in Teacher Magazine about a New York charter school that is going to pay teachers a starting salary of $125,000, Charter School Offers Revolutionary Salary--I'm not from NY, and I'm not a math teacher either--but that equates to about double what 10 year teaching veteran with a MA and National Board certification makes in my state.  Schools need reform--and maybe if we began to reward teachers for the quantifiable strides that they are making in their classrooms, some of the measurable apathy that so often lurks behind closed doors would wane and we would see assessable academic improvement. I'm going to be keeping my eye on The Equity Project (TEP) Charter School.