Teacher bargaining

[KGT]

You are doing your profession quite a disservice by posting this.

That's the main challenge? How can you not have enough time to get your classrooms ready for start up? Can you not go in on the days prior to the Pro-D? Grown-ups in the real world can figure this sort of thing out. Are teachers incapable of doing so?

How can organizing a conference over the summer be so problematic that teachers would have to "work all summer" to prepare them? If it's that great a feat, how do teachers manage to accomplish this during the school year, when their energies are required elsewhere? Do you not realize that in the real world, many of us volunteer our time outside of work to organize conferences for our professions, and that we often do so without "working all summer" to make it happen?

You, KGT, are personally perpetuating the belief held by much of the public that today's teacher lives in a bubble of hand-wringing and hand-holding entitlement.

How on earth does this kind of "poor-little-us" claptrap help us respect your profession?

Yes, I said that's the main challenge for having 5 days in a row, instead of 3 days in a row. I already gave several detailed responses about the need for Pro-D DURING the school year. Perhaps you should read them.

[KGT]

I guess the entire discussion is moot now that Bill 11 has passed. Congrats to the haters.

Good news is that maybe teachers won't have to plan any more Pro-D workshops. Instead, the govt will spend a whack more money hiring companies to provide Pro-D for us. And I'm assuming we won't have to pay for it ourselves any more.

[alfred2]

all you think about is money.

[KGT]

all you think about is money.

LOL. You missed my point. I was being sarcastic. Right now, Pro-D is paid for by teachers, altho in our district, part is paid for by the SD. If the govt starts providing ProD you can be sure that it's going to cost them FAR more than it would if teachers did all the work and paid for their own. Hiring companies like Pearson to provide workshops will cost $200+ a day instead of the measly $35 per day we pay for a local conference.

[Static]

If there are re occurring issues or special areas that demand a Pro-D day, would these not be better taught as part of your degree? Perhaps the education degree is not relevant to the skills teachers demand in today's classroom.

[FreeRights]

LOL. You missed my point. I was being sarcastic. Right now, Pro-D is paid for by teachers, altho in our district, part is paid for by the SD. If the govt starts providing ProD you can be sure that it's going to cost them FAR more than it would if teachers did all the work and paid for their own. Hiring companies like Pearson to provide workshops will cost $200+ a day instead of the measly $35 per day we pay for a local conference.

To be fair, wouldn't it be more prudent to bring in a third party specialist for professional development than not?

[FreeRights]

If there are re occurring issues or special areas that demand a Pro-D day, would these not be better taught as part of your degree? Perhaps the education degree is not relevant to the skills teachers demand in today's classroom.

Professional development days probably do - or should - deal with current issues and best practices. Those likely would change from when a teacher receives their degree.

[KGT]

a third party specialist for professional development than not?

We do have third party specialists. All the time. Authors. Educators. Specialists of all sorts.

[KGT]

If there are re occurring issues or special areas that demand a Pro-D day, would these not be better taught as part of your degree? Perhaps the education degree is not relevant to the skills teachers demand in today's classroom.

All of those things ARE covered in University but let's face it, do you really want me to continue with the skills I learned in Uni 23 years ago. New methods, programs, and concepts come out all the time. Educational research is ongoing.

[FreeRights]

We do have third party specialists. All the time. Authors. Educators. Specialists of all sorts.

Union members?

[LordEd]

What skills? There's only one possible career option on an education degree.

[FreeRights]

What skills? There's only one possible career option on an education degree.

I have no idea what you're talking about.

You need an educational degree for any instructing. Not just teaching in a public school.

If you didn't know instructors existed outside of school and outside of unions, I don't know what to tell you.

[LordEd]

viewtopic.php?f=31&t=56935&hilit=bctf

The good times don't stop there. You will then have to apply for a job with one of the many school districts in BC only there have been so many budget cuts and class size increases by the BC government that there is a surplus of graduates and not enough teaching jobs. So all that work and money I just spent getting my degree, earns me the privilege of going to work in a coffee shop for minimum wage. But that is okay hopefully in the next five years you will find a job and then, it is nothing but smooth sailing! Oh well at least I might one day become a highly paid and well respected teacher!

They made it very clear in that thread that the education degree has few transferable skills.

It's teaching or Starbucks.

[rustled]

Yes, I said that's the main challenge for having 5 days in a row, instead of 3 days in a row. I already gave several detailed responses about the need for Pro-D DURING the school year. Perhaps you should read them.

Perhaps, instead of assuming I didn't read your previous posts, you should read what I wrote and respond to that.

I'll try to simplify it for you. I understand your explanation of learning overload. I understand your need to hone your skills in certain areas, and to advance as research around education evolves. You were making great sense up to that point.

But you went on to blow it by telling your readers the main challenge is how difficult it will be for teachers set up your classrooms. This does absolutely nothing to reassure us that teachers are capable of even the most basic problem solving.

Your statement that teachers would have to work all summer to organize a conference does absolutely nothing for our confidence in what goes on when teachers are organizing a conference during the school year.

When I point out how badly your statements reflect on your profession, as usual you don't bother to look at what you have done. No, no. Instead, you blithely assume you've nothing whatsoever to answer for and instead make it about me not having read your "several detailed responses about the need for Pro-D DURING the school year". How about actually responding to what you've been called on, instead?

Frankly, our best hope for the public education system is that you represent only a very small minority of teachers, because if what you've posted here is accurate (and not some self-serving exaggeration), you've called into question whether or not teachers can function on the most basic rudimentary level:

• Do they have basic reading comprehension skills, and are they capable of applying them?
  
• Do they have the basic planning skills required to set up for their classroom's needs before the students'' arrival?
  
• Are they capable of planning a collective colleague networking and development event during the school year without neglecting their duties to their students?
  
• Are they at all capable of taking any responsibility for the consequences of their own actions?

Unfortunately for your colleagues, too many of your posts don't speak well for your profession. Ignoring what you've done while petulantly calling people "haters" isn't going to help.

[KGT]

Rustled - What part of my previous post don't you understand? I gave you several reasons why moving ALL 5 of our Pro-D into summer would be detrimental and yet you ignore them all and jump on one aspect? You don't make any sense.

The last 2 weeks of our August are the time when we get our classrooms ready for the fall. Since we started doing 3 days of Pro-D the week before school starts, I began coming 2-3 weeks early, instead 1-2 weeks early. The week before school starts is a busy, hectic time. While it is challenging to do 3 days of Pro-D during that time, I willing do it.

I need those other two days of the last week to work in my classroom. I often don't have my grade assignment until the last week of August and there are always last minute, time consuming things to do that can't be done earlier in the summer. I have a yearly family commitment on Labour Day weekend so I cannot spend my entire long weekend in the classroom either.

We can't do our prep during the summer months because the custodial staff is in there cleaning and our desks and materials are all in a pile in a corner. We can't laminate our materials because the support staff is on vacation. Many of the supplies we need, don't get distributed until the secretarial staff return to work.

Unless you have been in a classroom for the week before school, you don't understand what you are talking about.