LRB Ruling & BCTF Action Plan

I was at the Metro-East-Fraser-Valley Zone plenary when the LRB Ruling came through. It was interesting to be in a room of teachers when this news came through and we quickly put the ruling on the screen and read through it.

http://www.lrb.bc.ca/decisions/63382%20-%20Order.pdf

It confuses me how the LRB ruled in November 2011 that report cards were not "essential" when BCPSEA tried to penalize teachers 15% of their wage for not completeing formal report cards, yet they now require teachers to immediately 'submit marks and prepare student reports'

I do feel that the communication throughout the school year between parents and teachers should provide enough feedback until final marks at the end of the year. I also feel that parents who do not feel they have enough information should request information from their child's teacher.

I feel like this leaves teachers' with only extra curriculars to withhold to try and get fair negotiation... or a fair mediator... or a fair ANYTHING! When will students education become a priority?

It is extremely frustrating to know that my teacher colleagues now have aprox. one week to prepare report cards for all their students. How thorough can these reports be given that time line and the circustances under which they are ordered to write them?

As a Teacher-teaching-on-call I do not prepare report cards, however, I have had temporary contracts in the past in which I had to prepare report cards and I know that this timeline is completely unreasonable, especially given the volume of students and classes many teachers have. Furthermore, given the current political climate and stresses facing teachers, this added demand and amount of time to complete is fairly ridiculous.

But, we move forward...

I wonder what will happen next. The BCTF voted 73% in favour of the proposed Action Plan and so we move forward with that now, however, I don't know what to expect when the 'cooling off' period ends, nor do I know what to expect from this 'mock mediation' with Mr. Jago, who helped write Bill 22. Lastly, I do not know what to expect in September and I feel like public education is once again needing support and teachers are once again (or still?) fighting for students learning conditions.

When will public education become a priority in BC? Why is it a balanced budget always falls on the backs of public education and our students?

I am frustrated - again.... at where we are at and worried about where we may end up!

Bully Movie Review

Today I saw 'Bully' the movie, previously called 'The Bully Project' directed by Lee Hirsch

There had been controversy over the rating (originally rated R) but I am glad they made it PG (in Canada, PG13 in USA I believe) by only removing a couple swear words.

I want to share this movie! I want children to see this movie. I want educators to see this movie. I want parents to see this movie WITH their children... and to talk about it...
Bullying needs to stop! It is killing our children, physically and emotionally.

There are some things to be aware of about this movie. There is talk of suicide. Both 'f' words are used a few times. There is some physical violence, though nothing with blood or graphic. It is very emotional. You will cry.
With that knowledge, I still want to share it with kids! The message is worth it!

This documentary introduces and follows the lives of a handful of families and their experiences with bullying. From the parents who's son commit suicide, to a young girl who was pushed too far and reacted and is now in juvenile detention, the stories are very real and very moving.

What I liked about this movie was the honesty. Parents and kids speaking about the reality of bullying.

I would have liked to have seen the "girls" side of things, but thought the stories shared covered a broad spectrum of circumstances...

A young boy who is socially awkward and desensitized to the severe bullying he endures, the lesbian teen who's parents pull her out of school after repeated harassment, the parents of a teen who commit suicide, the best friend of an 11 year old, yes 11 year old, who killed himself, the young girl who brought a gun on the bus after being bullied and gets put in juvenile determination.

What was hardest for me about this movie was the administration and politics of it. Assistant Principals who do nothing, superintendents who talk the talk but don't act to stop a problem... or worse.. deny there is a problem! I was so angry listening to these people, especially when heartbroken parents came to them for help.

I cried, I laughed, I smiled, I got angry.... the movie was real. I want you to see it!

The end brings many of them together. It sends the message that children need to reach out to that lonely kid who is at risk of being picked on.

So go see this movie.....

Exit Slips

A nice way to end a class is to use exit slips. It is a way to touch base with each student as they leave the class. Often I will stand at the door to "collect" the exit slip. I always let students know ahead of time what the exit slip is and how it works.

"Before you leave today I will be collecting an exit slip. As you leave I will be at the door and you will .... / the exit slip today is....."

Generally 'exit slips' are written format and answer a question or use a writing prompt. Students are given time to fill them out and hand them in as they leave. However, I have modified this to use in different ways as a TTOC. When using the exit slips traditionally, I leave them for the classroom teacher to read through if they choose.

Here are some suggestions for 'exit slips' as a TTOC in various classrooms:

For High School:

• A piece of paper that lists the most important thing discussed today or 3 words to describe a topic discussed in class.
• Their in-class assignment

For Middle School:

• Same as Highschool
• High 5 and tell you the most important thing discussed today or favourite part of the day/class.
• Show you three pieces of garbage or recycling they picked up from the floor

For Elementary School:

• Same as Middle School
• Often instead of a high 5 I do a 'pound it' or 'fist bump' or 'elbow tap' or head nod. I just decided to change it up with the young kids because of all the germs on their hands.
• If you end the day at your desks or in circle time you can use exit slips from there as a method to chose who is dismissed or lines up to leave or gets their stuff from the cloak room also.

Here are some templates and examples of ways to use exit slips:
http://datadeb.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/exit-slips-wahlstrom1.pdf

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/printouts/exit-slips-a-30772.html

http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/exit_slips/

http://inclusiveed.wikispaces.com/file/view/Entrance+and+Exit+Slips.pdf

Rock Cycle Project (Middle School)

Last Year I was teaching in a temporary contract last year for grade 6/7 and a colleague of mine shared so many great ideas for Science. This one was for the Rock Cycle and she had dice made up that had different things that could happen to a rock to change it's form. There were also stations set up such as "the river" and "inside a volcano" and so on.

The first thing we did after the unit on ROck Cycles was set up the stations and students could start wherever they wanted. They would roll the dice and do as it instructed. For example "the volcano erupts and you become particles in the air" or from the clouds "rainfall takes you to land" or "you wash down the river"

Students would go to the next stationa nd record their journey as a rock.

Then they got to create a comic to show the journey and the changes they undertook as a rock. They had a lsit of vocabulary to use to accurately describe their journey and were able to talk about the type of rock they started as and the changes the went through.

Here are a couple examples:

They really enjoyed this project because of the interaction during the stations and the creativity they could use for the comics. I loved this project because it clearly showed who really understood the unit and could explain it and who wasn't quite there.

This could easily be adapted for other levels.

BULLY Movie

I really want to see BULLY. The trailer alone leaves me in tears. It is a documentary on bullying and coming to Vancouver April 13.

What Bill 22 does to Class Size & Composition

Staff Room Confidential broke down the numbers and the possible risks:

The formula for additional compensation basically calculates a "cost per student" by taking the average teacher salary and dividing by thirty. So, if the average teacher salary is $60,000, then the cost per student is $2000. Thus, a teacher who has 32 students enrolled in a class all year full time would be paid an additional $2000 per student, which in this example would be $4000. The formula also only pays nine of the ten months of the school year (so the actual amount paid would be $1800), and does not take into account additional costs such as benefits and overhead costs.


What does this mean?


It means that for any given grade or subject area, it is cheaper for a District to overload classes than to hire additional teachers. If an extra 29 students can be spread around into oversize classes, that will be $2000 less than the salary of an additional teacher. Not until a whole additional class of 30 is reached does it become economically equivalent to hire another teacher. Anything less, and the cheaper option is to overload.


Consider, for example, a school with 105 Grade 6 students. The cost of having three classes of 35 would be $210,000 (based on the $60,000 average salary). The cost of having four classes - three of 26 and one of 27 - would be $240,000.


Not only is Bill 22 likely to lead to increased class size, up to as much as in the 50's potentially, but it will also lead to fewer teachers. Consider the example above where the school creates 3 classes of 35 instead of the 4 smaller classes. This also means for the existing 4 teachers, now only 3 are needed. If you spread this across the District, a worst case scenario would see up to 25% of teachers lose their jobs. Now this is not likely to happen immediately, but remember that in the first year after Bill 28 came into effect, approximately 2500 teachers province wide lost their jobs - close to 10% of the contract teachers currently employed. Given that the budget for school Districts next year does not include an increase to even cover inflation, it is reasonable to expect at least 3-5% job losses, if not more.

This frustrates me, not only because my daughter is in Grade 3 and has over crowded classes to look forward to, but because as a "new teacher" (wrapping up my 6th year as a TTOC now) I fear even longer waits to get my own classroom.

My daughter required extra help last year with her reading. This year she didn't get that help because there was only enough room for 3 students from her class and she wasn't "the most needy"

What will happen when her class size increases? What if you child needs extra help... how will they get it when they have to "compete" for attention?

I hate Bill 22. I don't get how anyone can see any value in this Bill?

I have heard some say "well there is some money coming back into public education" but that "money" is not even CLOSE to what has been taken away....

It is so upsetting that THIS is the future for my children and for my colleagues and for my career!

6am Phone Calls...

I thought this was cute. Though we are called 'Teachers-Teaching-on-call' here, the idea is the same...

Our system in Coquitlam calls starting at 5PM Sunday - Thursday evening and starting at 5:30am Monday - Friday. We also now hace advance call-outs so during those times it isn't just calls for the next day/same day but up to 10 days. This is nice for planning ahead, though has some problems if you accept a future call out as it may mean you can't get an earlier call that extends for longer periods / until further notice.

Every district has slightly different rules and methods of call outs, but those early morning calls are probably my least favourite thing... though they do mean work and for a TTOC, work is always a good thing!

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