Recently, there have been some interesting things going on in the Ontario education field. First, a couple of weeks back, all the members of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO-- our union), received a letter in the mail informing us of a new campaign that they were launching. The campaign is named Closing the Gap. I am in full support of this campaign. Here's why (the following is the letter that we received from the union):
Dear Member:
The positive steps that yo as an education worker are taking to improve elementary education in Ontario will be in the spotlight on February 19th when we launch our new public relations campaign-- "Closing the Gap".
Using a variety of media including the billboards, transit shelter ads, magazine ads and a newlycreated website-- we will explain how you work very hard each and every day to narrow the gap between a student's potential and a student's achievement. Our intent is to build a dialogue with the public. We will demonstrate that unless your working conditions improve-- smaller classes, more learning resource teachers, more librarians and specialist teachers, and more ESL support, Closing the Gap will be difficult to realize.
Our campaign is coming at a time when a less than positive image of elementary education is being featured in media reports across Ontario. Why? Because the Fraser Institute is once again ranking schools using EQAO test [note: EQAO is an Ontario-wide standardized test that all Grade 3 and 6 students partake every year in May. More on that later.] results-- highlighting a gap between the top ten schools and the rest.
This is a 'win/lose' mentality that our members cannot accept. They know that the real gap is the one between student potential and student achievement. Working to close this gap is what they do every day in elementary public school classrooms across Ontario.
We think the public is ready for a positive message about elementary education, rather than the 'win/lose' mentality favoured by organizations such as the Fraser Institute. They are ready to hear that our members are working hard to provide their students with the skills and knowledge that will lay the foundation for a lifetime of educational success and personal fulfillment.
Beginning on February 19, our billboards and transit shelter ads will appear in 250 locations across Ontario featuring this message-- Closing the Gap. In mid-March, magazine ads-- Closing the Gap-- will appear in Chatelaine, Maclean's, Canadian Living, and Today's Parent. The website www.closethegap.ca will provide information about our members, their work, ETFO positions, and ETFO submissions to the government.
We have a strong and positive story to tell: that our members are working with students, parents, and the community to close the gap between student potential and student achievement. Celebrate your work and share your stories with parents and the public.
Sincerely,
Emily Noble, President
Need I say more? I think that is HIGH time that the public realizes what teachers are working their butts off doing everyday. As I have ranted many times before in this blog, the public needs to know more and respect us for what we do, and not just about our job perks, such as vacation times, benefits, pension, etc. I am very much looking forward to seeing this campaign going into full-force. I really hope that Ontarians get inundated with this message because that would be only fair to us, the teachers. I think that if there are still naysayers (and there will be, sadly enough), then there should be a program where these people get to job-shadow us for at least one entire day, so that they can see exactly what we go through each and everyday.
If someone was to shadow me, he/she would have to start the day 7:30 am and from then until the school day actually begins at 8:30, that person would have seen me photocopy, mark, take stuff down from the walls, and put new stuff on, have professional conversations with co-workers (could be about students of concern or could be curriculum-planning), order books from Scholastic, count money for field trips, type up newsletters for parents, call parents, and plan lessons for next week. Sometimes, I do ALL of that within the one hour BEFORE the students arrive. I hit the ground running!
By10:00 am, I will have led my class in: solving the daily challenge on the blackboard, whole class reading (daily poems), physical exercise, math (calendar, place value, graphing the daily weather), writing (spelling, printing, journal writing), and guided reading (intense reading instruction in small groups). In between that time, I will also have checked the students' agendas, written notes to parents, and collected money for field trips, book orders, etc.
After the morning recess (half-hour long but we only get one recess, plus lunch recess, and of which I am standing outside in the cold for half of it to do my supervision duty), I usually get my prep period. I once heard a non-teacher call that our "coffee break". You can imagine my reaction to that! During that 40-minute period, I do more of what I was doing in the hour prior to the start of the school day! Sometimes, I even use that time to pull kids out and do one-on-one support.
After that and before lunch, it's Math time. Within that time, I am to teach a lesson to the whole class, guide them through a sample problem or two, send the students back to their desks for them to practice independently, and I go to the needy students and try to provide as much one-on-one support as I can. This is all while I have other higher students who have completed their independent work in no time and are requiring my attention as well because they need more work. Again, I feel like I need to split myself into about twenty parts so that I could attend to each child.
After lunch, we only have about an hour and a half left to the end of the day, yet I still have to cram in Music, Science/Social Studies, Computers, Art, and library book exchange. Plus, these kids need to also write in their agendas, get their homework, and clean up their classroom before home time.
After dismissal, I still have to answer to parents' questions or I may need to talk to parents about concerns I have about their child. Then, if I'm not off to a meeting that last for hours, I clean up the room, and do MORE prepping for the next day or the next few days. I usually leave school before 6 pm. That makes it a 10 to 11 hour day!!
When I finally get home (sometimes I detour to an educational supplies store to pick some resources I need for some of my lessons-- out of my OWN wallet), I am so exhausted that I can barely speak. At around 8:30, I am nodding off in front of the TV or trying not to fall asleep as I listen to my friends' phone calls. At 10:30, I try to be in bed, so that I can sleep and be prepared for the next day, when it all starts over again.
