Still Waiting but....Ready and Willing!!!! (And a freebie!)

Hey everyone!

How's it going for you on this loverly Sunday afternoon? The sun is shining bright here (not that I've been out in it yet!) and life is good. 

So, good news/bad news. Which do you want first? Bad news? I thought so! It's best to get it over with quick, doncha think? Just rip it off like a band aid!

Okay, bad news is that the strike is still on. There was a glimmer of hope on Friday when our union asked for binding arbitration (which would put an end to this strike) but then the government said "No!" I am beyond pissed about it. Here we are trying to figure out how to end this thing and we put something on the table that could go in our favour or against it. I mean, binding arbitration leaves it up to the middle man. We are willing to gamble and take what we get (good, bad or ugly) in terms of wages, benefits and prep time. This is a pretty big step seeing as how those three things are pretty important items to most teachers. So, we put ourselves out there and showed that we want this over. And what does our government do? They refuse!!!! They keep saying that they want this strike to end but, when asked to walk the walk, they just aren't doing it. I think my first word of the day when we get back in to school should be hypocrite with a big old picture of our premier and education minister beside it. AARGH!!!!!

Now for some good news...because anyone who knows me knows that I always try to see the glass half full (or totally full at times!)... I decided to just get on with getting on in terms of school stuff and spent the morning reworking my assessment pages for basic skills in grade 1 and 2. Now all I have to do is print them out, photocopy them and pop them into the portfolio duotangs waiting at school and I'll be ready to roll! So, I have something off my school To Do list! Yay me! 

Getting my basic skills assessments done may seem like a small thing in the grand scheme of things (and, really, it is) but I am going positively stir crazy not teaching. I can't believe I am saying this but I am actually tired of reading! Since the strike started in mid-June I have read 48 books. Yep, 48!!! Maybe I'll have to switch over to education texts. Hmmm....there's a thought!

So, anywho, not sure if my skills assessment would be useful to anyone else but thought I'd send it out there just in case someone could find a use for it. Help yourself! Remember that it is an assessment to be used all year. Some of the skills on it are what a student is expected to know at the END of the year in my district.

Oh, and, please leave me a comment if you download it. And if you think of anything I can do to tweak it. I'm sure I missed some things! Just click on the link below to go to it.

Grade 1 Basic Skills Assessment

Grade 2 Basic Skills Assessment

Cheers!

Olwyn

Long Time No Write!!!!

Hello all!

(I am going to warn you now that this is pretty much a soapbox post. So, if you aren't in the mood for a rant, just move on to the next blog you like. I won't be mad. I promise! But if you are so inclined, just scroll down past the picture and start reading! Oh, and word of warning, this post is looooong!)

I have been away from this blog for much longer than I intended. I would love to be able to say it is because I have been so busy living my incredible life that I just haven't had the time. Not that I haven't been living my incredible life... I have! I've had a wonderfully relaxed summer filled with reading, yoga and family time. Interspersed with a few stressful moments dealing with my mother who has Alzheimer's. But, overall, things have been good...really, really good.

No, the reason I haven't been posting is because my heart just hasn't been in it. My heart has been heavy. It still is.

I need to say upfront that I love teaching. And when I say love, I mean L-O-V-E teaching.  

I love working with children every day.

I love that I can be creative in how I teach concepts.

I love writing here about the students I teach and the wonderful things that happen on a daily basis. 

Teaching is in my blood. 

Teaching is deep rooted in me. 

But these past few months with our contract negotiations and job action have been tough. As in T--O--U--G--H...

Without teaching it is like a part of me has been cut off or taken away. This leaves a hole. And it leaves me feeling sad and not a little angry at the reasons I am not allowed to teach right now.

It was so depressing and heart wrenching to not be in the classroom at the end of June. To have to finish off what was a wonderful year with a wonderful group of students by going on strike and walking the line. Having to spend hours walking around my school with a picket sign on instead of being in the school teaching the children I love. Thank goodness for the students who came to visit and give hugs. They made it all more bearable.

It was depressing not being able to spend my own time in the summer setting up my room for September. Most years I would have gone in for a bit every week to clean, organize, plan, and decorate the class. (Don't even get me started on the primary book room which has not been cleaned or inventoried yet. Something else I do in my free, unpaid time every summer.)

It is depressing and infuriating having to listen over and over to government rhetoric about education and all that they are already doing for it. Feeling frustrated and angry that we have won a court case against the government's illegal stripping of our contract not once but TWICE and yet they still will not step up and admit that they were wrong and take steps to right that wrong. 

It is frustrating and saddening to know that tomorrow morning I will be back on the picket line and not back in my classroom. More so because I don't see an end in sight. Not with a government that doesn't see the worth in funding our future. That doesn't see the value in funding, not just the people educating, but the children receiving that education. 

But I know my value. And I know the value in providing the children in this province with the educational setting and supports that they not only need but deserve. I know the value, not only for those individual children, but for our society as a whole. And I believe in that value. I believe that our children deserve to have someone see their worth and back it up with action.

It is hard to feel so strongly about my chosen career, so strongly about advocating for the students I see and love every day, the students who struggle to learn and those that need enrichment to push them further. The students who find at school the love, support and routine that they desperately need in their lives. It is hard to feel that and to know that the people running this province do not seem to care about these students. 

When the government keeps saying that they don't have the money to fund education they speak of education broadly, as pretty much a service that is provided in our province. It is a concept. Our premier, Christy Clark, and our Education Minister, Peter Fassbender, don't see the individual students who are impacted by their decisions and lack of willingness to do what is right. Or, if by some miracle they do (I wouldn't hold my breath), then they just don't care. Which, in my opinion, would be even worse.

Education may be a service but it is a service made up of individual real people, real children with real needs who have the right to have those needs met. 

I see the results of decisions made by government. I not only see but I KNOW the grade 3 student who is reading at mid-grade 1 level because life got in the way of his learning in grade 1 and he only got 50 minutes of resource teacher support a week in grade 2 because extra staffing has been cut so much over the years that there are too many students who need help and not enough staff to fully help them. Is this his fault? No. Is the "system" failing him by not meeting his needs? Yes.

I know the students with fine motor difficulties (a growing epidemic in the early grades by the way) who struggle to print but haven't got an OT (occupational therapist) to come in and work with them since they were cut too. Is this their fault? No. Is the "system" failing them by cutting services? Yes.

I know the student who I think may have a reading disability but who will sit on the wait list to be tested for close to THREE YEARS because budget cuts have made it so only a handful of students get tested from any one school in any given school year. Is it the student's fault that they learn in a different way? No. Is the "system" failing them by making them wait years for help? Yes.

I know the student who has a very hard home life, who comes to school each day angry at the world and feeling like no one cares but who can only see the school counsellor once a week for 20 minutes because that counsellor works at three schools each week and has over 50 kids on their caseload. Is it the student's fault that his family life is in turmoil? No. Is our "system" failing him by not helping him learn to deal with his emotions so that he can begin to learn? Yes.

I know all of these students and many others with a variety of needs. I know them because I live with them each and every day. I watch them struggle. I see how little support we are able to provide and how that support has diminished a little bit more every year. I know this system and I have been trying to do more with less for years and years. All teachers have. 

Enough is enough.

This system that fails these students (and many others with a variety of needs) is the system created by our now premier, Christy Clark. She started the downward spiral when she was Education Minister and stripped our rights to negotiate fully and she has continued to create a system that is failing students by refusing to fund education properly.

Enough is enough.

I know each and every one of these students up close and personal. I struggle each year, on a daily basis, to provide the children in my care with everything that they need emotionally, intellectually, physically to be better people. I bring these struggles home with me. I dream about certain children I am having trouble reaching (just ask my husband!) I worry about children in my care whether I am at work or not. 

Enough is enough. 

How many times is Christy Clark going to have to be told that she has behaved unconstitutionally and has acted illegally where our contracts are concerned? How many more cuts do our children have to take before the people of this province stand up and say "No more!!!"?  How many more children have to fall through the cracks that our government is busy cutting in our education system? 

Enough is enough. 

http://www.teachingwithsimplicity.com/2013/04/motivation-for-monday-3.html

I am not on strike for me. I am on strike for the children I see day in and day out who are being shafted by a system that cares more about money than it does about people. I am on strike against a government that has shown time and time again that it does not want to follow the letter of the law. 

Do I want to be on strike? NO! 

Did I ever want to be on strike? NO again! 

Do I wish we could have resolved this without ever having to strike? Double YES!

But, will I remain on strike even if it means losing salary and worrying about how to keep a roof over my head and food on my table? YES! 

Because...

Enough is enough. 

So, if you're in my 'hood tomorrow, and see me circling the school, give a honk and a wave. And if you live in BC and haven't written to your MLA's and premier's office, please do. Whatever your point of view (you don't have to agree with me!) your voice matters. Together we may just be able to end this strike and get on with the classroom learning. 

Cheers!

Olwyn

What Teachers Make Take Two....

Okay, I know that if you follow my blog with any sort of regularity, you'll know that I posted this TEDtalk before....

But... in lieu of the current situation between the teachers in this province and our government (who for some reason do not feel that they have to follow the law and adhere to the Supreme Court ruling that has found them to be guilty of illegal stripping our contract language) I thought, perhaps, it was worth a second listen.

And I think that it is worth noting that it is not only teachers who make a difference but the School/Staff Support Workers, Occupational Therapists, School Counsellors, Psychologists, Multi-cultural workers, nurses etc. that are no longer a part of our day to day system in the way that they once were (due to cut backs that force them to cover an absurd amount of students in the district or to not be in the district at all any longer) but that were an integral part of our school system when I first started teaching.

Just saying...that even though I am not thrilled at the strike action we are having to take (especially against a government that clearly is not interested in following the letter of the law - see comment about Supreme Court above) I am ALL for my students getting the support and time they need to be the best people they can be. 

I know that smaller class sizes would make a HUGE difference (been there, taught that!) but also the reinstating of services (that, unfortunately, most current families don't even realize were lost) would make a MAJOR impact on the learning and success of the children in the school system. 

The media (and government) keep the focus on teachers wanting a pay increase. They keep trying to make the public think it is all about money. And, I'm not going to lie, of course being paid a reasonable wage (especially once you see how much more other teachers in Canada make!) would be lovely. 

But, for me, this whole contract negotiation etc with the government is NOT about my making more money. It is about the government not following the ruling of the Supreme Court which has stated quite clearly that the government was in the wrong and needs to restore the contract language it stripped from us so many years ago. It is about the government giving back to the students and families of this province what they should have had for all these past years. A reinstating of contract language that protects the students and gives them the best possible learning conditions. Seems pretty simple, right? 

I don't teach for the money. Hello! If I wanted a career that was going to give me a heck of a lot of disposable income (as opposed to the zero amount I currently have!) I would have become a doctor or a lawyer or something else. The crazy thing is that those careers make more money but that they wouldn't have had the education to go into those careers unless they had teachers (who make significantly less. Hmmm...makes you kind of shake your head, doesn't it?) 

I just want to be able to come to work every day and put all of my passion and love into my job while feeling like I work in a province that actually cares about the well-being of its children. I want to live in a place that puts its money into early learning in order to prevent the issues that come later. A place that is proactive rather than reactive. I expect that I am dreaming but I am unwilling to give up hope that someday, someday my dream might be a reality and that our young people's education (after all, they will be responsible for us one day!) will be a priority and not an afterthought.  

Okay, enough already, right? I am going to get off my soap box and let you enjoy a moment of poetry that helps me to remember why I do this job in the first place. Because teaching fills me with love and because I know that if I make an impact, on even one student, I have done my job exceedingly well.

Okay, I lied...I am going to give you more than one moment of poetry. Here is another one of Taylor Mali talking about his experiences as a teacher. 

Enjoy!

Olwyn

Some Guidelines on Reading Levels

As you are aware, teachers are currently involved in job action. This means that we are not doing any administrative duties including the writing of report cards. I know that as the Winter holiday approaches many of you have questions about how your child is doing in school.

I thought that today I would give you some general guidelines of what meeting looks like in the area of reading for this time of year. It is important to remember that all students learn to read at their own rate. It is entirely possible to be reading below the average at this time of year and end the year reading at grade level. I have seen it happen many times!

That said, I have assigned students to their RAZ kids levels based on the DRA (Developmental Reading Assessments) I did in early November. The students are expected to work their way through each level. Those students who are very proficient readers were all started on Level P because I want them to really focus on comprehension. I find that some of those reading chapter books read very quickly and do not retain much of what they have read!

At school, students use RAZ Kids during Language Arts and Computers times. I will be using RAZ Kids as part of our Home Reading Program this year. Due to my being ill for so much of November and with the holiday only two weeks away, I have decided to start the official Home Reading Program in January but all students would benefit from making time to read RAZ Kids at home on a daily basis from now on. I do check their progess on a regular basis to see who is reading and how they are doing on the multiple choice quizzes that test comprehension.

Generally speaking, by this time in grade 1 to be reading at "grade level" students would be reading from the RAZ Kids level D or E. This is the equivalent of a Level 6-8 in the DRA. The end of grade 1 goal for reading at grade level is Level 16-18 in the DRA (RAZ Kids I-J).

In grade 2 the "grade level" for this time of year is around a RAZ Kids level K-L.  This is the equivalent of a DRA 18-20. The end of year goal for grade 2 is to be reading at DRA level 28 (RAZ Kids P).

I hope that this will help to let you know where your child is in his/her reading. I will do my best to send home some samples of work with rubrics or grades on them so that you can get the general idea of how your child is faring in school and I will be posting on the blog some general guidelines for meeting expectations at this time in the school year.

Please do keep in mind that, with job action, as far as reporting goes "no news is good news." I have been assessing and monitoring each student's progress all term and will be in touch with you if I feel that your child is struggling or requires extra support in any subject area. I am able to do brief "check in" meetings (15 minutes or less) after school but longer meetings will need to be during school hours and it is difficult to get coverage for my class so that I can meet with you. I appreciate your patience as we find times to chat about student progress in the coming weeks.