So the NSTU has voted in favor (by 96%) to strike. While, as a union, they have a certain right to strike our children also have a right to a public education. These two "rights" are in direct conflict during this kind of situation. Parents will fall on either side of the fence, they will either support teachers or their child's right to an education. You simply cannot have it both ways.
Some would argue that by supporting teachers, you support children's education. But if you peel away WHY the teachers are voting to strike it becomes clear this has very little to do with a child's education and more to do with money and teacher's free time.
Teacher's reasons to strike #1: Service Awards!
Again and again I hear that this is a non negotiable issue for the teachers. The service award is a pay out (of upwards of $20, 000) at the conclusion of a teacher's career. It has absolutely nothing to do with how well they met the curriculum outcomes for which they were assigned each year, or how successful their students were. It amounts to a time-served in the union award. In addition to their hefty pension plan I certainly don't want my tax dollars giving them a huge good bye present when they retire.
Teacher's reasons to strike #2: The Workload!
A big complaint is the addition of extra student tracking responsibilities "forced" on the teachers. This whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. How can any teacher think that enhanced student tracking, which would lead to identifying student's needs and strengths that could be addressed in the classroom would be a bad thing? Apparently being accountable for how well they do their job is too much for teachers to handle.
Teacher's reasons to strike #3: No Time!
But wait teachers will cry. While they are tracking students they don't have time to modify lesson plans, or provide extra support during recess and lunch hours! Perhaps all of those PD days that happen once per month could be used as program planning days where you go through your curriculum and modify it based on the needs of your students? Or maybe use one of your off periods during the day, or any one of those March break days...or a day or two during summer vacation?? My point is that they do have the time. It's called time management.
Teacher's reason to strike #4: Class Sizes!
This is one I can get behind, but at the same time this government has tried to cap class sizes. They can do more, as can the next government. It will take hiring more teachers and it isn't something one government mandate can fix. Steps are being taken, albeit slowly, but apparently that is not enough for the current roster of unionized teachers.
The government is thinking about employing Bill 148 which would effectively force teachers back to work. This keeps in line with the child's right to an education and not to be subject to the whims of a union. I, for one, support my child's right to an education and therefore Bill 148. As a parent of a child with some learning challenges I only see a walk out as a serious interruption in her education, one that I hope the government will take steps to prevent.
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Valuing Our Own Decisions
I was reading a facebook post by a relative earlier today and her words really struck a cord. She said when she was feeling doubtful about her goals and if she could accomplish them it was the encouragement of others that helped her get through those times. It got me thinking. She's a middle aged woman who is only now starting to find her footing in life. She's not alone. I know many other people in my life that seem to be only getting their crap together 15 years after the social norm. Why is that? Then I looked at all of these people's life patterns. None of them appear to accomplish anything without some serious ego-stroking from others, and because of that they have stumbled and fallen in their life goals over and over.
Don't get me wrong. I know that all humans want other people's acceptance in one form or another at different points in our lives. It's the people though that constantly wonder "why me", that seem to need to approval/encouragement of others for almost every single thing that struggle the most. When you need to approval of others for your own choices you end up changing your original intent of those choices along the way to ensure you continue to get that acceptance from your supporters. It's human nature.
Here's my advice. Grow the hell up.
1. Put on your big girl/boy pants and realize you don't need a cheerleader for everything you set out to do in life. And YES that includes posting everything on FB.
2. Make decisions...NO not wishes. Decisions about your life. DECIDE you are going to go after a certain goal, see it through and finish it no matter how hard it gets. And no, you don't get to take a poll of your friends and family to see if it is the "right" decision. If you want it, do it. Don't' wait for someone to tell you its ok or that it is a "good" idea.
3. Even if you fail at your goal understand that everything is a learning experience and try to use that experience to make something even better out of it.
4. When you decide to quit something make sure it is because your goals have changed and not because of "other" people, whether that be them telling you are bad at something or that the original idea was dumb. Life changes and goals do too. That is OK.
5. Don't keep doing something because you are "supposed to" or because it makes other people happy. Do it for yourself, because in the end it is YOU that has to live with your choices, not other people.
When you can get to a point where you set a goal and achieve it without the constant advice and cheerleading of others you will understand what it truly means to feel self-accomplished.
If I had decided my life they way these other people do I would never have married my husband of 14 years, never gotten my B.Ed., never bought a house, never made the switch from teaching to instructional design and never started running. All of these things are now passions in my life and have brought me to places and people I would never have met otherwise. I tell my husband and my family all the time that despite my personal struggles day to day I am HAPPY. My life is good. How did I do it? I decided these things for myself. Sure, I listened to the advice of others, but it did not rule my choices or goals. It has always been the most important thing to me to be satisfied with my own choices. Understanding and valuing that self-acceptance of your own choices seems to be a crucial part of the life puzzle that these other people never received or learned.
This isn't meant to be a post about how other people should/shouldn't live. It's actually a wake up call to myself to make sure that I impress on my own daughter that she value her own choices above the approval of others. When I look at the miserable path some of these people's lives have taken because they don't value their own choices above the opinions of others it makes me terrified that my own child will end up in this miserable cycle of trying and failing and aimlessly wandering through life with no real passion and self determination. From now on when she asks my advice I'll turn it on her and ask if SHE thinks her idea/goal is a good one and to confidently go after it and that I'll help any way I can. I'll always be there as a shoulder but I'm not going to be a crutch.
Don't get me wrong. I know that all humans want other people's acceptance in one form or another at different points in our lives. It's the people though that constantly wonder "why me", that seem to need to approval/encouragement of others for almost every single thing that struggle the most. When you need to approval of others for your own choices you end up changing your original intent of those choices along the way to ensure you continue to get that acceptance from your supporters. It's human nature.
Here's my advice. Grow the hell up.
1. Put on your big girl/boy pants and realize you don't need a cheerleader for everything you set out to do in life. And YES that includes posting everything on FB.
2. Make decisions...NO not wishes. Decisions about your life. DECIDE you are going to go after a certain goal, see it through and finish it no matter how hard it gets. And no, you don't get to take a poll of your friends and family to see if it is the "right" decision. If you want it, do it. Don't' wait for someone to tell you its ok or that it is a "good" idea.
3. Even if you fail at your goal understand that everything is a learning experience and try to use that experience to make something even better out of it.
4. When you decide to quit something make sure it is because your goals have changed and not because of "other" people, whether that be them telling you are bad at something or that the original idea was dumb. Life changes and goals do too. That is OK.
5. Don't keep doing something because you are "supposed to" or because it makes other people happy. Do it for yourself, because in the end it is YOU that has to live with your choices, not other people.
When you can get to a point where you set a goal and achieve it without the constant advice and cheerleading of others you will understand what it truly means to feel self-accomplished.
If I had decided my life they way these other people do I would never have married my husband of 14 years, never gotten my B.Ed., never bought a house, never made the switch from teaching to instructional design and never started running. All of these things are now passions in my life and have brought me to places and people I would never have met otherwise. I tell my husband and my family all the time that despite my personal struggles day to day I am HAPPY. My life is good. How did I do it? I decided these things for myself. Sure, I listened to the advice of others, but it did not rule my choices or goals. It has always been the most important thing to me to be satisfied with my own choices. Understanding and valuing that self-acceptance of your own choices seems to be a crucial part of the life puzzle that these other people never received or learned.
This isn't meant to be a post about how other people should/shouldn't live. It's actually a wake up call to myself to make sure that I impress on my own daughter that she value her own choices above the approval of others. When I look at the miserable path some of these people's lives have taken because they don't value their own choices above the opinions of others it makes me terrified that my own child will end up in this miserable cycle of trying and failing and aimlessly wandering through life with no real passion and self determination. From now on when she asks my advice I'll turn it on her and ask if SHE thinks her idea/goal is a good one and to confidently go after it and that I'll help any way I can. I'll always be there as a shoulder but I'm not going to be a crutch.
Thursday, September 24, 2015
EPHS 2018
My area is getting a high school. It took years of petitioning the school board but a few years ago the provincial government announced it would go ahead. Even after that, the parents and community members who wanted the high school built faced backlash on social media and even a last-ditch attempt to shut the whole process down in the school board last spring. Finally an area has been chosen and approved. Now the boundary is being set. I attended the first of three public consultations on the boundary and was surprised to find members of the neighboring community there, questioning the decision to build the high school in the first place. Now there is even a petition circulating from those parents who are panicked, thinking that their children will be bused into our community for high school. Nothing could be further from the truth. The high school is going to consist of the same population the local junior high school current holds. That means, in case you missed it, that no children will be bused in from the neighboring community. Period. My daughter will not have to wake up to go to high school for 6:30am and miss any chance at after school activities because she must get a bus back home. Instead she will get to enjoy the type of high school experience that I had; a local high school for about 500 students. Will it have all of the same activities as a high school of 1500 students? No, but it will have activities, a short walking commute and the opportunity for my child to get extra help after school if she needs it. My high school had next to no extra curricular budget, yet we still had a debate team, school choir, a provincially-ranked band, drama club, newspaper, student council, cheer squad, cross country team, rugby, hockey and soccer teams. If that little rural school can do that (and most of the funds to support these teams were raised by fundraising efforts), I am confident this high school will be able to offer most of those activities.
The parents opposed to this idea are also looking out for their children. No one wants their child travelling to school by bus if they can help it. We all are aware of the drawbacks. At the same time these parents are also faced with their own local issue. Two high schools within a kilometer of each other and not enough students to fill both. Currently that gap is filled with the children from my area. That would come to a stop with the new high school, meaning one of these two high schools will need to be "reorganized" into something else, a vocational school, or something else. Those that went to the school that is likely to face the major change are upset their children won't go to the same high school they did. Things change, and if they looked at the situation without personal investment they would see how ludicrous it is to bus 60% of a school's population from a neighboring area when there is sufficient numbers to have a high school of its own.
Thankfully, this petition will go no where. The organizers state no public consultation was given. That is incorrect. If they missed the years of school board meetings about this issue, and the community meetings that followed, well that's a shame their voices were not heard. It's a bit late to the party when they stick their hand up and claim now, after a site has been approved, and building contracts handed out, that they should be consulted. If you didn't have the interest or the time to bother with this issue in years past, and now are only involved because someone implied it might involve you, then that's too little too late. Decisions like this can only be debated for so long, and trust me, this decision has taken long enough. These children and this community deserves its own local high school. It's happening and I for one will be there to applaud its opening in 2018.
The parents opposed to this idea are also looking out for their children. No one wants their child travelling to school by bus if they can help it. We all are aware of the drawbacks. At the same time these parents are also faced with their own local issue. Two high schools within a kilometer of each other and not enough students to fill both. Currently that gap is filled with the children from my area. That would come to a stop with the new high school, meaning one of these two high schools will need to be "reorganized" into something else, a vocational school, or something else. Those that went to the school that is likely to face the major change are upset their children won't go to the same high school they did. Things change, and if they looked at the situation without personal investment they would see how ludicrous it is to bus 60% of a school's population from a neighboring area when there is sufficient numbers to have a high school of its own.
Thankfully, this petition will go no where. The organizers state no public consultation was given. That is incorrect. If they missed the years of school board meetings about this issue, and the community meetings that followed, well that's a shame their voices were not heard. It's a bit late to the party when they stick their hand up and claim now, after a site has been approved, and building contracts handed out, that they should be consulted. If you didn't have the interest or the time to bother with this issue in years past, and now are only involved because someone implied it might involve you, then that's too little too late. Decisions like this can only be debated for so long, and trust me, this decision has taken long enough. These children and this community deserves its own local high school. It's happening and I for one will be there to applaud its opening in 2018.
Friday, May 1, 2015
Hannah wouldn't recognize the world of the 80s
Living in today's society, especially as a person who grew up during the fastest technological evolution of human history, everything is now on-demand. On-demand food, entertainment, water, information, all of it. We've come to expect instant responses from every corner of our lives. How far we've come.
When I was born, it was the age of the h-track and record player. TV was offered in black and white and in color, depending on the tv you bought. Cars were gas-guzzling and boat-sized and fast-food was only at McDonald's. Telephones were attached to a wall and the receiver to a cord. We were also in the middle of the Cold War so the Russians (Soviets at the time) were bad and Germany was split in two by a huge wall. Nuclear war was an actual possibility.
By the time I was my daughter's age now (8) I was watching the Cold War come to an end on tv with the Berlin Wall being torn down and fast food was springing up everywhere. Telephones didn't use a rotary dial up any more, they had push buttons. The first cell phones hit the market, but were so big no one would use them today. H-track was long gone but records and now cassette tapes were how one listened to music. Color tvs were the norm and a new device, called a VCR was a bit hit, allowing people to watch movies on-demand, in the comfort of their homes for the first time. We even owned a huge microwave that replaced the old popcorn maker I had mastered growing up. We thought about the future and how people would eventually be able to make a phone call and actually see the person on the other end!
In the next ten years things would change even more. Devices became smaller, more energy efficient. Rechargeable batteries were a wonder. Cell phones got smaller and smaller, and computers hit the scene, but initially looked more like today's servers than the desktops we have now. They were slow, did hardly anything and the internet was in its infancy. But consumers demanded better and more of these products so tape cassettes gave way to CDs and CD players, TVs became flatter but bigger and with a better picture, Microwaves became a mainstay in people's kitchens and fast food became plentiful. After a couple of years, clunky computers eventually gave way to laptops, and internet speed went from painfully slow dial-up to wireless, thus connecting the human species in a way we had never before been connected. Some people thought it was a fad (ha!). Suddenly I could talk to strangers in Australia, the southern USA and even Europe in a second. Within a couple of more years I could talk to someone half a world away face to face. The world went from feeling very large to very small in a matter of 20 years.
So is it any wonder kids today have no patience? We, as a society, have shown them to demand the faster, more efficient new thing. Kids no longer need to look up in an encyclopedia the information for a school paper, they can find it with the touch of a button on Google. Kids will never know the richness of a record player's effect on music or remember each other's phone numbers. My daughter can watch whatever she wants, whenever she wants, even movies that are still in the theater. Traditional recipes for biscuits are being lost because we no longer bother to make them from scratch. Eventually, I predict, everything will be voice-automated so kids won't even need to learn how to write on paper. Is this a good thing? Yes and no. Its the aim of every parent to make their children's lives easier than their own. But have we gone too far? Are things too easy? I see value in struggle. I see value in having people learn from trial and error how things work and won't work. But in today's society of instant access, do kids really have opportunity to struggle? Are we quashing a generation or two of their creativity because they have had everything handed to them in pre-packaged freshness?
I've said it before and I'll say it again. I believe our society is the modern version of Rome. We have strived to and become the modern pinnacle of human achievement. In North America we live in (comparatively) the lap of luxury, with time to debate the philosophies of life and universe and the latest celebrity drama. But we all know what happened to Rome, if you don't, just Google it.
When I was born, it was the age of the h-track and record player. TV was offered in black and white and in color, depending on the tv you bought. Cars were gas-guzzling and boat-sized and fast-food was only at McDonald's. Telephones were attached to a wall and the receiver to a cord. We were also in the middle of the Cold War so the Russians (Soviets at the time) were bad and Germany was split in two by a huge wall. Nuclear war was an actual possibility.
By the time I was my daughter's age now (8) I was watching the Cold War come to an end on tv with the Berlin Wall being torn down and fast food was springing up everywhere. Telephones didn't use a rotary dial up any more, they had push buttons. The first cell phones hit the market, but were so big no one would use them today. H-track was long gone but records and now cassette tapes were how one listened to music. Color tvs were the norm and a new device, called a VCR was a bit hit, allowing people to watch movies on-demand, in the comfort of their homes for the first time. We even owned a huge microwave that replaced the old popcorn maker I had mastered growing up. We thought about the future and how people would eventually be able to make a phone call and actually see the person on the other end!
In the next ten years things would change even more. Devices became smaller, more energy efficient. Rechargeable batteries were a wonder. Cell phones got smaller and smaller, and computers hit the scene, but initially looked more like today's servers than the desktops we have now. They were slow, did hardly anything and the internet was in its infancy. But consumers demanded better and more of these products so tape cassettes gave way to CDs and CD players, TVs became flatter but bigger and with a better picture, Microwaves became a mainstay in people's kitchens and fast food became plentiful. After a couple of years, clunky computers eventually gave way to laptops, and internet speed went from painfully slow dial-up to wireless, thus connecting the human species in a way we had never before been connected. Some people thought it was a fad (ha!). Suddenly I could talk to strangers in Australia, the southern USA and even Europe in a second. Within a couple of more years I could talk to someone half a world away face to face. The world went from feeling very large to very small in a matter of 20 years.
So is it any wonder kids today have no patience? We, as a society, have shown them to demand the faster, more efficient new thing. Kids no longer need to look up in an encyclopedia the information for a school paper, they can find it with the touch of a button on Google. Kids will never know the richness of a record player's effect on music or remember each other's phone numbers. My daughter can watch whatever she wants, whenever she wants, even movies that are still in the theater. Traditional recipes for biscuits are being lost because we no longer bother to make them from scratch. Eventually, I predict, everything will be voice-automated so kids won't even need to learn how to write on paper. Is this a good thing? Yes and no. Its the aim of every parent to make their children's lives easier than their own. But have we gone too far? Are things too easy? I see value in struggle. I see value in having people learn from trial and error how things work and won't work. But in today's society of instant access, do kids really have opportunity to struggle? Are we quashing a generation or two of their creativity because they have had everything handed to them in pre-packaged freshness?
I've said it before and I'll say it again. I believe our society is the modern version of Rome. We have strived to and become the modern pinnacle of human achievement. In North America we live in (comparatively) the lap of luxury, with time to debate the philosophies of life and universe and the latest celebrity drama. But we all know what happened to Rome, if you don't, just Google it.
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Personnel Review...aka Parent Teacher
Tonight is my most disliked event at public school, the spring Parent Teacher. As a former teacher I have sat on the other side of the table many, many times so I know what the teacher's goals generally are with each meeting. That doesn't make me like it any better as a parent.
The first Parent-teacher of the year is essentially a recap of the orientation/meet the teacher meeting a month earlier. They tell you about themselves a bit, then go into the goals for the whole class then how my child fits into those goals. Usually, its at this point where we all acknowledge my sweet little girl, while a happy, pleasant and hard working child, has some reading difficulties. It's not that she doesn't know what to do when she comes to a word she doesn't know, she just doesn't have the patience to use her skills to properly decode the word. Then we discuss any resources available to her, hear some promises to "see what they can do" since my child doesn't have severe reading issue and isn't a behavior concern, she doesn't demand the same level of resources as other children. Then that's it. Our 10 minutes are up. The spring meeting is typically a different story. It's at that time when teachers are looking at how the children are doing as a whole and start (yes, at this late stage) to get concerned about my child moving on to the next year (although every single child is pushed through up to the end of grade nine, unless parents scream and yell against it). There's talk of summer reading and extra resources for the last 2 months of school...before she goes off and has a break of two months, basically forgetting what she's been taught and any gains are lost. Useless.
It's this year especially that I find this particular parent teacher useless. My child will be changing schools next year, with the rest of her classmates, and I know nothing that is said in this meeting will be carried forward into the new school in September. Her cum card will follow her, as will her two bullet point (!) IEP, but that's it. No one meets with the other school to discuss the children on IEPs and what resources they would need. They wait until the children are in the classrooms and either failing or behaving badly before they even look at their files. This is typical in public school. When I taught it wasn't until December that the resource teacher would even ask for input on a child's IEP. It usually wasn't until then that I would even know if a child had a learning issue, unless I took it upon myself to find out, a process that involves you getting permission to see these records then going into either a card cabinet or computer to find the file and review it. Then lets assume the teacher even has training in special needs/learning difficulties and can understand what the impact is of having a child with a non-verbal, comprehension issue with a university level math in the classroom or can interpret a psycho-educational assessment. I once found out that a girl who had been in my grade 11 history class for three months wasn't actually shy, as her other teachers had told me when I asked if she participated in their classes, but couldn't speak more than a few words in English! That would have been slightly helpful to know!
It's especially frustrating because I taught children with learning difficulties and disabilities for 7 years in a local private school. I wrote over 600 IEPs (typically between 3-5 pages in length), updated them twice yearly, attended resource handover meetings between schools and adjusted every grade in the NS curriculum to accommodate for varying levels of student understanding in the classroom. I know what my child can and can't do and I know she's getting all she's going to get in regards to resources in the public school. That's why this particular parent-teacher meeting is so ridiculous, because there's essentially nothing they can give my child that will make any significant difference in her learning over the next 2 months but the teacher will act panicked and very worried and will totally stress me out for no reason, but it will make them feel better in the end for "bringing this issue to our attention"....yeah, like we didn't already know.
The first Parent-teacher of the year is essentially a recap of the orientation/meet the teacher meeting a month earlier. They tell you about themselves a bit, then go into the goals for the whole class then how my child fits into those goals. Usually, its at this point where we all acknowledge my sweet little girl, while a happy, pleasant and hard working child, has some reading difficulties. It's not that she doesn't know what to do when she comes to a word she doesn't know, she just doesn't have the patience to use her skills to properly decode the word. Then we discuss any resources available to her, hear some promises to "see what they can do" since my child doesn't have severe reading issue and isn't a behavior concern, she doesn't demand the same level of resources as other children. Then that's it. Our 10 minutes are up. The spring meeting is typically a different story. It's at that time when teachers are looking at how the children are doing as a whole and start (yes, at this late stage) to get concerned about my child moving on to the next year (although every single child is pushed through up to the end of grade nine, unless parents scream and yell against it). There's talk of summer reading and extra resources for the last 2 months of school...before she goes off and has a break of two months, basically forgetting what she's been taught and any gains are lost. Useless.
It's this year especially that I find this particular parent teacher useless. My child will be changing schools next year, with the rest of her classmates, and I know nothing that is said in this meeting will be carried forward into the new school in September. Her cum card will follow her, as will her two bullet point (!) IEP, but that's it. No one meets with the other school to discuss the children on IEPs and what resources they would need. They wait until the children are in the classrooms and either failing or behaving badly before they even look at their files. This is typical in public school. When I taught it wasn't until December that the resource teacher would even ask for input on a child's IEP. It usually wasn't until then that I would even know if a child had a learning issue, unless I took it upon myself to find out, a process that involves you getting permission to see these records then going into either a card cabinet or computer to find the file and review it. Then lets assume the teacher even has training in special needs/learning difficulties and can understand what the impact is of having a child with a non-verbal, comprehension issue with a university level math in the classroom or can interpret a psycho-educational assessment. I once found out that a girl who had been in my grade 11 history class for three months wasn't actually shy, as her other teachers had told me when I asked if she participated in their classes, but couldn't speak more than a few words in English! That would have been slightly helpful to know!
It's especially frustrating because I taught children with learning difficulties and disabilities for 7 years in a local private school. I wrote over 600 IEPs (typically between 3-5 pages in length), updated them twice yearly, attended resource handover meetings between schools and adjusted every grade in the NS curriculum to accommodate for varying levels of student understanding in the classroom. I know what my child can and can't do and I know she's getting all she's going to get in regards to resources in the public school. That's why this particular parent-teacher meeting is so ridiculous, because there's essentially nothing they can give my child that will make any significant difference in her learning over the next 2 months but the teacher will act panicked and very worried and will totally stress me out for no reason, but it will make them feel better in the end for "bringing this issue to our attention"....yeah, like we didn't already know.
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