Another busy week of filling my teacher brain...

I spent a couple days in Williams Lake to present the New Teachers' SURT (School Union Rep Training) workshop to a group of new teachers' and TTOCs from Cariboo Chilcotin teachers.

It was awesome to talk about Professional Development, the History of the BCTF, Professional Relationships including the code of ethics and boundaries, Professional Autonomy, and the Collective Agreement. I found it so educational as the facilitator to learn some of the local language and how it differs from other locals I have presented in or my own local I work in.

Thank-you to the teachers' in Williams Lake as well as the BCTF and the CCTA for having me!

When I returned from Williams Lake I had a mentoring session with our district mentor team, where we went through some strategies and protocols to try with our own "mentees" or "prtoege" groups. I find these sessions so valuable as a mentor and hope to bring some of the strategies we practiced into our next TTOC Mentorship meeting.

Finally, on Friday, I joined the BCCLA PSA (BC Co-Operative Learning Provincial Specialist Association) at their annual conference. I am part of the new District Leadership Series and was excited to get a sampling of what we will be focusing on this year. We also had our CTA 1st VP, Chris King, as a keynote. Although I work with him often, it was incredible to listen to him speak on Safe Schools and SEL (Social Emotional Learning) and how important it is to have those connections and a safe environment so that students CAN learn.

Overall, this week was busy, but so educational! My brain felt so full at the end of each day, I am so glad I have my notebook to reflect in and return to, so that all these fabulous revelations do not get forgotten!

CTA AGM 2013

Last night was the CTA AGM. This meeting, held the last Wednesday of May most years, is where Coquitlam Teachers elect their executive committee, pass the budget, including fees, and discuss issues in education through motions and reports.

Last night I was successfully elected for a two year term as Local Rep, a position I am excited to take on. I am so grateful to the teachers who voted for me, most appreciated!!

Last night, Charley King was elected as our new CTA President, as Teresa Grandinetti steps down as past president and returns to the classroom in September. Chris King stayed on as 1st VP and Ken Christensen was elected as 2nd VP.

Ken resigned from his LR position and Jason Giles was elected for a one year term as LR, while Henry Theissen and myself were elected for the two year terms as LRs.

Finally, there were five members at large elected: Shelly Hawley, Natalie Malakoff, Sheila Drysdale, Mike Galliford and Deither Malakoff (who dropped down from 2nd VP running)

After the elections however, things got even more interesting.

While the gym started off packed with over 300 teachers, many left after elections. One teacher, for whatever reason, decided to call quorum and after a count it was discovered that there were only about 132 teachers left. Quorum is 150 teachers. This teacher decided to call quorum, which is allowed and is in the rules of order, but meant the meeting ended immediately and will now need to be rescheduled.

Now, we started the meeting with quorum, 300 teachers, well over 150 needed. The meeting has been set for a year (no joke, the CTA office books the gym well in advance and spends hours upon hours planning and preparing for the meeting) and all the teachers still there, then had to go home.

Now, we wait as the CTA Office tries to reschedule this meeting before the end of the school year (finding a venue, printing budgets again, booking the accountant to come review and answer questions on the budget, etc. etc.) It is another evening teachers have to spend away from their homes, families, friends, committments, to be at the meeting, which may not have quorum again.

I guess my frsutration is that in the past, even without quorum, business has continued, because those who want to be there are, and it is open to all teachers, it is their choice to attend, or not, to stay, or not....

More frustating is that this teacher left promptly, and I still do not know WHY she called quorum... was it in protest of the budget and proposed fee increase? Was it because she hoped to achieve something in particular?

No idea...

But, we got through only about half of the business of the meeting and will have to attend another meeting again in the next couple weeks...

That meeting will address the budget and all other matters we did not get to, my question is this... will be have quorum? Will teachers return to a 2nd meeting? Will others who weren't at 1st meeting attend?
Time will tell.

Preferential Call-Out

Coquitlam is among many districts in BC that uses preferential call-out. While it is an ongoing debate as to if this method of call-out for teachers-on-call is fair or not, I can see both sides of the arguement.

I feel that new TTOCs who had their practicum int he district may have an advantage with preferential call-out (or requests) because their school associate and teacher's in the school they were at may call them in. Additionally, TOCs in the district a while may have an advantage because their name is well known and they get requested often. On the flip side, however, if a TOC is not known they may not work as often, making it unfair that a classroom teacher decides when a TOC works.

Surrey TOC Glynis Cawdell summarized both sides well when she wrote:
  

The debate continues in Surrey and across the province. To request, or not to request? I’ve spoken to many TOCs and contract teachers on this issue and yet I still struggle to know what’s right.

The truth is, there are some good things about preferential call out. When you’re one of the 800 plus TOCs in Surrey, and you can be dispatched to any of our 120 school sites (at 5:30 AM no less) it’s no wonder TOCs love to get requested. Being called back to the a school allows you to make connections and feel like a member of the staff. The students already know your expectations so less time is spent on behaviour issues. For special needs students, who require more consistency, this is especially true. As job requests often come in days or even weeks in advance TOCs know where they’re going ahead of time and can communicate with the classroom teacher beforehand. You feel prepared. You feel confident.

That’s not to say requesting is without its dark side. Should teachers really be acting as the employer and choosing who gets work and who doesn’t? Is it ethical to evaluate a TOC you have never seen teach? If a teacher legitimately felt a TOC did an inadequate job they have an obligation to contact that teacher and give them feedback. Unfortunately what happens more often is that the teacher just chooses not to request that TOC back, even telling colleagues to do the same. Sometimes teacher’s request TOCs just because they chatted in the staff room at lunch and the TOC was outgoing and friendly. Is this fair?

Glynis highlights some of the main arguements on both sides and while the BCTF is working towards seniority call-out across the province, I know that there are Coquitlam teachers-on-call and teachers-on-contract who support preferential call-out and some that do not.

That being said, Coquitlam implemented a new feature in their call-out system last year which has a "consistency clause" as I call it, though the SBO calls it "call-back with a cancel"

This is how it works....

If a teacher is away within 3 days of a previous absence, the call out system (CADS) will call back the TOC that was previously in the classroom (with in those 3 days). This will over ride a request (so if classroom Teacher is away on Thursday and TOC A comes in, but then classroomTeacher is away Monday and requests TOC B, because TOC A was in within 3 days, TOC A gets the call first, before the requested TOC B gets the call.

Further to that, if TOC A already has accepted a call on that Monday, they will get a "call back with a cancel" option which essentially lets them choose their job for that day...if they want to return to that class they were in Thursday and give up current call out, or turn down the return to the Thursday Classroom and keep the already accepted call out.

This feature essentially eliminates preferential call-out to an extent because it is the first stage of call-out before requests.

Now, the other "change" I think would make things more fair, is to give teachers only ONE or TWO requests. Currently there are multiple requests, so if your first TOC request declines or is not available, it tries #2, #3 and so on.

If there were only one or two spots, then classroom teachers would keep their option to request, but teachers who are not requested would have more of a chance of getting a call since it is more likely that two requested TOCs may be unavailable than say five requested TOCs.

I have seen the benefits of requests, as I often get request call-outs and enjoy being back in the same classes and schools, but I also know that from a union stance, it is not fair to have teachers "hiring" other teachers.

I do think there is a happy medium, but it will take time to explore those options and find one that works best for all.

Until then, the debate continues and I continue to hear both sides and remain unsure of what is the best way....