Relocating to Baltimore and scared as hell!!!! (Ellicott City, Towson: relocation, budget)

[ScipioA]

The limp is because they inject themselves with Heroin using a dirty needle and their body is reacting to it..gotta love B-more!

[ScipioA]

Hmmm..look what our new dem gov did...6% it is! More liberal reform

[Madaviso]

mtbchick:
I just got accepted to be an elementary teacher in Baltimore City. These forums are scaring me to tears. Do you have any advice as to which elem. school would be the best to try to start at or the top 5. And also i need a good place to live that i can feel semi safe all by myself. Any advice from you would be great. -Melanie

[barante]

Madaviso -- Stop crying. This forum, for whatever reason, is populated by people who post the same ill-informed city-bashing stuff under several names. Baltimore is just like any American city, with good and bad.
Having said that, I am full of admiration for you. To be a teacher today anywhere takes a lot of courage.
If you come to Baltimore, I am not sure that you will have that much say in your assignment. But you certainly can choose where you want to live. If you read the forum, you will get a pretty good idea as to what is available and what the pros and cons are.
Race is a big factor in Baltimore, although everyone seems to deny that. So when you read the reports you have to always look for code words.

[rudy_d]

Originally Posted by Madaviso

mtbchick:
I just got accepted to be an elementary teacher in Baltimore City. These forums are scaring me to tears. Do you have any advice as to which elem. school would be the best to try to start at or the top 5. And also i need a good place to live that i can feel semi safe all by myself. Any advice from you would be great. -Melanie

You might be interested in the Astor Court apartments in Charles Village, which are designed especially for teachers.

Introducing Astor Court Apartments

There's a similar project underway nearby in the Census building at Howard and 26th St.

[barante]

An excellent suggestion, rudy_d. This project, which I think is funded by the Abell Foundation, was germinating for so many years that I lost sight of it.
Astor Court is ideal: A Safeway supermarket is just around the corner (literally), Penn Station about four blocks away, Mount Vernon a dozen blocks away, Charles Village town center four blocks away. And if there is any need for the school headquarters, it also is within six blocks.

[bawlmer]

Originally Posted by barante

Madaviso -- Stop crying. This forum, for whatever reason, is populated by people who post the same ill-informed city-bashing stuff under several names. Baltimore is just like any American city, with good and bad.
Having said that, I am full of admiration for you. To be a teacher today anywhere takes a lot of courage.
If you come to Baltimore, I am not sure that you will have that much say in your assignment. But you certainly can choose where you want to live. If you read the forum, you will get a pretty good idea as to what is available and what the pros and cons are.
Race is a big factor in Baltimore, although everyone seems to deny that. So when you read the reports you have to always look for code words.

I agree. This forum is filled with people posting positive information about Baltimore using several different names. I admire your career choice. My daughter is a teacher in a HS, but would never teach in Baltimore City. In spite of what you have heard Baltimore is very unlike most other cities. It has many similarities with Detroit. As a matter of fact, these two cities are often vying for one title or another.

[helenejen]

Originally Posted by bawlmer

I agree. This forum is filled with people posting positive information about Baltimore using several different names. I admire your career choice. My daughter is a teacher in a HS, but would never teach in Baltimore City. In spite of what you have heard Baltimore is very unlike most other cities. It has many similarities with Detroit. As a matter of fact, these two cities are often vying for one title or another.

It's not the negative or positive opinion of Baltimore that has led people to make that conclusion about certain posts written under one name and similarly written posts under other names being, in fact, written by the same person. It's certain shared micro-level linguistic features, which were already pointed out, so I won't repeat. The fact that a certain group of posts has led to that same-author, different-names theory has nothing to do with negativity. Certainly other people who have posted and don't like Baltimore haven't been accused of creating pseudonyms, as you have been, whether true or not.

On another note, I teach a number of graduate students who teach/work in the city schools and love it. It is challenging, but they feel like they are making a real difference for inner-city students, many of whom live in less than optimal conditions. Luckily making such a difference (one that goes beyond the still important differences that teachers anywhere make just by being teachers) is important to some people.

[KRB97]

Originally Posted by NoHometoCallMyOwn

I just saw this after being away awhile. I know I'll be moderated for this, but you are truly an idiotic fool to post anything like that. This is the typical lowlife, trashy Baltimore/ghetto area Maryland attitude. The city trash that run the streets 24/7 don't own the city, or aren't supposed to. Hopefully, one of these "good chil'ren" assaulting people in their vehicles will be smashed into the asphalt by a speeding car that just doesn't quite see them in time. Tired of mincing words.

Funny how they run when confronted too.

I totally agree with you. If stupid, rude teenagers get hit for not obeying the laws of traffic, it should be natural selection. And even if they were obeying the laws and you were in the wrong, there is no excuse for throwing something sharp at a car.

[KRB97]

Originally Posted by Madaviso

mtbchick:
I just got accepted to be an elementary teacher in Baltimore City. These forums are scaring me to tears. Do you have any advice as to which elem. school would be the best to try to start at or the top 5. And also i need a good place to live that i can feel semi safe all by myself. Any advice from you would be great. -Melanie

I am also a teacher in a bad neighborhood, and I love it. I don't know about you, but reaching out to children who really need you is the most rewarding job you can ever do. Don't worry, even if you get a bad school, children are still children no matter where they live and they need good teachers too!