Graduate Student's Have Hard Time Finding Jobs

Like I said before, bringing the pink slips back in the mix. Though these pink slips are currently just said to be a precautionary measure, the Providence school district faces a $40 million deficit anyways, leaving teacher’s futures in jeopardy. Randi Weingarten, president of the national American Federation of Teachers, which represents the city’s teachers said: “A mass firing, announced in the middle of a school year, does not help solve a budget problem, the purported reason, but, rather, disrupts the education of all students and the entire community,” she said in a statement. “Mass firings, whether in one school or an entire district, are not fiscally or educationally sound.” During an interview with a teacher from South Windsor, Connecticut, her response was, “Last year they handed out a ton of pink slips in South Windsor, generally people who are low on totem pole are the ones being fired, you have to be teaching from 7-10 years so they can’t touch you, they put lower and newer teachers on the chopping block. However, usually they will raise taxes or find another way to keep them on.” Currently teachers are losing their jobs and students are coming out of school not being able to find jobs, “They are taking whatever they can get outside their profession; there are no jobs to be had. They end up taking half the pay just to get benefits so they can pay for student loans.”

Class Room Size Is a Dramatic Affect to Low Budget

With pink slips being handed out left and right, it is of no surprise that our teacher staff is now declining. This means that with fewer teachers, class room sizes will increase, making it harder for students to learn in an overcrowded classmate environment. In a Psychological Science journal titled “Class Size and Student Achievement” the psychologists discussed the correlation between class room size and student learning, they stated, “The number of students in a class has the potential to affect how much is learned in a number of different ways. For example, it could affect how students interact with each other—the level of social engagement. This may result, for example, in more or less noise and disruptive behavior, which in turn affect the kinds of activities the teacher is able to promote. It could affect how much time the teacher is able to focus on individual students and their specific needs rather than on the group as a whole.” It seems to me as though we should become much more aware of the affect that this can have on future generations. Especially within the area of not getting that one on one that you need with your teacher in order to gain respect and a relationship with your teacher. Additionally this will also cause a problem within communication and learning areas. In my opinion, I feel like smaller classroom sizes mean that there is a greater relationship among classmates, as well as  a greater response to homework and assignments due to the fact that there is more responsibility on the teacher to expect that from them.

Informative Genre

For my informative genre, I decided to talk about the situation that happened recently where nearly 2,000 teachers currently working in public schools in Providence, Rhode Island were each issued a layoff notice in response to a $40 million budget shortfall. I'm going to use this information as the center piece to my informative genre and relate it toward the lack of jobs there are for students majoring in education and the effect that the case in Providence can have on these students and on teachers in general. For my research I'm going to look into education in the past and how this budget shortfall can affect kids in the public schools in Providence, and college student's as well. I also will be interviewing college students to see reaction to the lay offs, and what their plans are for the future. I will additionally be interviewing people who work in the school system as well to see what their take is on the lack of jobs within their department. 
All in all, the lay off issue in Providence will unfold the many issues that people are experiencing within education worldwide.

Introduction

My name is Sarah, and I am a Junior double majoring in Communications and Public Relations, with a minor in English. I've never actually experienced public writing before in such a sense that I've never written about something that I have felt so strong towards. However, this public writing class has definitely opened a new interest for me, and I have learned that public writing is extremely important for our community. I enrolled in this class because I needed to take it for my major in PR, and I have come to the realization in why this class would be required for PR. Last semester, I took a writing in electronic environments class, and we had to create a blog for the class as well, so I have some experience with blogging, and I find it to be a very interesting way to express your thoughts. In Public Relations, it is necessary to engage in social media such as blogging, twitter and Facebook in order to represent the brand of a company and gain credibility. I currently am torn with what I want to do when I graduate- although, I'm hoping that my experience in working this summer will help me. This summer I was offered two internships where  I could either intern for a news station working in their news media department, or I could work for a radio/advertising company specializing in promotional events. Public writing is important in both cases and I feel that this writing class is preparing me to be outspoken which is required for both communications and PR.