media | Mama Cormier

….it took six of us about five hours to pull it off

It’s been a tough day for me, emotionally. The press was very critical of teachers today. Apparently last Friday over 1600 teachers in the school board next door to the one I work for, called in sick and there weren’t enough supply teachers to cover all the absences. We knew that this might happen when the government took away sick days that teachers had saved over the years and cut back the total number of sick days a year that teachers could use. Any unused days can no longer be carried over to other years so as a result many teachers feel that they have to use them up or lose them.

The problem here is that your colleagues suffer when there aren’t enough supply teachers to cover your absence. Library classes get cancelled, MART teachers are pulled from their class and sometimes teachers lose their prep periods to cover these unsupervised classes. Listening to the radio this morning on the way to school and then again on the drive home left me feeling very depressed. Everyone who hates teachers seems to come out of the woodwork when stories like this are written. These haters paint all of us with the same brush. We were described as greedy, selfish, uncaring, liars and dishonest.

I also spent a great deal of time today dealing with the school that didn’t show up for our soccer game yesterday. The time I suggested yesterday didn’t suit them. At this point I really didn’t feel that I needed to make anymore concessions. They wanted me to play through my lunch hour and they even offered to pay for a supply teacher so that the schools could play in the afternoon. I’ve had to leave work for supply teachers in the past and it’s a great deal of work, especially for art. In the end I told them that there were no more options. They finally agreed to come at the time I had first posted.

After school today a group of us stayed behind at school to organize next year’s timetables. Our principal ordered in chicken and salad for dinner. Even though it took us 5 hours it seemed too easy this year. Either we’ve gotten really good at it or we’ve made a huge mistake that will be discovered in the next day or two. Even if it is correct I know that we won’t please everyone. Each teacher has been given the number of prep periods that they are entitled to but we know that some teachers won’t be happy with how they’ve been distributed. Some want them all in the morning, or all in the afternoon or evenly distributed or only in periods 1 or 5 and some people may not like who is delivering their prep or which subjects are being covered. The funny part is that anyone who wants to participate in organizing the timetables is welcome to join us but it’s always the same people every year who do the work.

Everyone is a bit on edge these days. Report cards are due next week and people are struggling to finish teaching the curriculum or marking tests and projects. We’ve just finished the grade 3 EQAO province wide testing and we we’re still preparing for the spring concert.

The highlight of my day today was teaching puberty to the grade 5 students. I actually volunteered to do this because I love teaching this part of the health curriculum. My principal thinks I’m crazy. I also loved my art class where most of my students were completely engaged in creating their Picasso portraits. I can’t wait to share them with you next week.

Cheers!

….. and the public only hears what they want to hear

It’s never been about the money or more PD time or discontinuing extracurricular activities. It is about taking away years of negotiated benefits at a moments notice, no discussion, no vote….just a quick passage of Bill 115. The ability to negotiate a fair and equitable contract between teachers and their boards has been removed.

In the first meeting the unions were met by solvency lawyers, with no Ministry people in sight. The government was unwilling to discuss rules and parameters for negotiations. As a result, ETFO, the elementary teachers’ union walked away from the table. The attitude was take it or leave it. ETFO always said it would return to the table if there were clear rules and parameters.

Talks between unions and the government are short and problems remain unresolved and yet the minister of education leads the media to believe that teachers are not willing to talk. In recent weeks, a meeting occurred with Ministry people, including the deputy minister but Broten shut that down.

The media has been brutal with the teachers. According to them we are to blame for the province’s entire financial mess. Radio talk show hosts clearly have a ‘hate-on’ for teachers. The scenarios and misinformation that they broadcast to the public is shameful and unprofessional. They whip up a frenzy of hate calls from their like-minded listeners and anyone who supports the teachers is quickly dismissed and their calls are cut short.

At our school we have continued with most of our normal, daily activities, including extracurricular activities. The students and community, up until this past Monday, probably haven’t witnessed any strike action by the teachers and yet according to the media all teachers have stopped offering extracurricular activities, extra help and refuse to write report cards. Not true!

As of Monday we have gone on work to rule and every board across the province is participating in rotating one day strikes for the next two weeks. Of course the media is trying to create a crisis by making it all about the ‘poor’ students. Why then is it all right for parents to take their children out of school regularly for extended holidays, competitions and tournaments? I don’t hear the media chastising the parents for doing irreparable damage to their child’s education when they miss days and sometimes weeks of school.

Don’t get me wrong; I know that for some parents finding daycare for their children will be difficult. Tomorrow the parents in my board will be given 72 hours notice so that they can make alternate arrangements for their children. We as teachers, however, have to take a stand, not just for us but for everyone. If the government is allowed to violate the charter of rights and freedoms act and the right to negotiate fairly under the labour relations act who will they target next?

I know that the media will be highly critical when we walk, especially since we are the largest school board in Canada. I need to stop listening to the radio for a few days. I find myself yelling at the box in the corner when ‘they’ get it wrong. They don’t want to hear the truth. It doesn’t make for ‘good radio’.