News Articles and Comments, Post XII

(All pictures have been removed from the articles because they take up so much memory in each post. To see the pictures use the web address and visit the sites of the newspapers.)

April 15, 2018
(TEACHERS OFTEN ARE THE SCAPEGOAT. An experienced teacher told me about several experiences he had and it really serves as a warning to people who are thinking about becoming teachers. He told me about the lack of support in dealing with difficult students. He had heard about the days when some students were taken to the principals office frequently and were given the strap because they were rude and disrespectful to the teacher, using swear words and just saying shut up over and over, or bullying other kids a lot and making them cry. At one time students were suspended and even expelled. But parents complained so aggressively that these practices came almost to an end. Teachers used to send problem students to the vice-principal or principal but today teachers are expected to take several steps to ensure that every student can work in the classroom before that happens and if it happens frequently the teacher is criticized and is blamed. As he reflects on several years of teaching he says he believes that the school boards have successfully shifted responsibility from the board and the leaders in the school onto the teachers. He believes that as long as the board and the principals can convince the parents that the problems in the classroom are the fault of an INEFFECTIVE TEACHER then the board cannot be held accountable or responsible and that's really all that the board cares about. He says he believes that unions often cooperate with the board so that they don't have several grievances and huge legal bills connected with grievances. He heard that unions take weak collective bargaining agreements, (cba's) in exchange for jobs for sons and daughters and he believes that teachers and school boards cooperate to protect sons and daughters so they don't get blamed and have their careers ruined. He believes that there is a system where some non-family teachers get hired but they get pushed into positions they call NO-WIN classes so their sons and daughters don't end up in them such as classes with students with mental illness but the parents refuse to take their kids for treatment or to put them on medication that can have long-term side-effects or to go through the IPRC process that develops an Individual Education Program, (IEP), to have them diagnosed because a parent may have abused the child and they don't want to be found-out. When a teacher is hired into a school board as a substitute teacher one of the first things they discover is which schools are the worst for behaviour. Those are the schools the new substitute teacher gets called to the most the first few weeks they are hired because none of the experienced substitute teachers will take an assignment there. That's why boards bring in a limit on how many hang-up's substitute teachers are allowed a year or they will never get a substitute teacher to take an assignment there. There are many risks in becoming a teacher and the blame-game often leaves the teacher at fault. It might look easy from the outside but it isn't. Especially if you don't have family protecting you, like organized crime. And the media don't want to focus on this horrible situation because they are unionized, too, and they are afraid of making unions look duplicitous in the game of blame on teachers and they don't want everyone to learn more about the family system in a union shop. They have it too. So think very carefully before going in to teaching. You could spend a lot of money only to end up with a criminal record or getting blamed and getting no support. TH)

http://www.cea-ace.ca/education-canada/article/moment-moment-positive-approach-managing-classroom-behaviour-joey-mandel

Moment to Moment: A positive approach to managing classroom 

behaviour 

By Joey Mandel

A review of Moment to Moment: A positive approach to managing classroom behaviour by Joey Mandel, Pembroke Publishers, 2013 ISBN: 978-1551382876.

As budget cutbacks result in fewer supports for children who struggle with self-regulation, many classroom teachers are searching desperately for resources to help them manage classroom behaviour. Disruptive behaviour stemming from such issues as Autism Spectrum Disorder, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and Attention Deficit Disorder are presenting elementary teachers with challenges that were not present in regular classrooms of 20 years ago.

According to Joey Mandel, teachers need to uncover the social skills deficits that are causing disruptive behaviours. She maintains that some children need more help than others to develop the social skills that allow them to participate more effectively in class. Her book does an excellent job of explaining the behaviours caused by social skill deficits and provides many examples of how these deficits affect a child’s ability to function. There is a very extensive checklist of “Signs of Skill Deficits” but, at over 100 items per student, it just makes me want to lie down. For certain children it would be worth the time investment to complete the survey, but to do it for all 20+ students in an elementary classroom, as Mandel suggests, would be an unrealistic time commitment.

For each of the deficits she identifies on the survey, Mandel provides activities and games that can be used with the whole class or small groups. I found that many of the activities, which were offered as appropriate for K-3, were actually beyond many of my JK/SK students, resulting in frustration. However, if you take the grade recommendations with a grain of salt, the activities are useful for the teacher and fun for the students. They do take up precious time that, with the pressure to cover ever more curriculum expectations, may deter some teachers. However, these activities can often be integrated into physical education or arts programs, making them more feasible to include in a busy schedule.

This book is a worthwhile addition to a teacher’s classroom management and provides valuable insight into the issues that lie behind difficult student behaviour.

Photo: Dave Donald

First published in Education Canada, March 2015

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/05/schools-behavior-discipline-collaborative-proactive-solutions-ross-greene

What If Everything You Knew About Disciplining Kids Was Wrong?

Negative consequences, timeouts, and punishment just make bad behavior worse. But a new approach really works.

By Katherine Reynolds Lewis | Tue Jul. 7, 2015 6:00 AM EDT

Social Title: Everything you think you know about disciplining kids is wrong

June Arbelo, a second-grade teacher at Central School, comforts a student who wants to go home during the first day of school.

Tristan Spinski/GRAIN

Leigh Robinson was out for a lunchtime walk one brisk day during the spring of 2013 when a call came from the principal at her school. Will, a third-grader with a history of acting up in class, was flipping out on the playground. He'd taken off his belt and was flailing it around and grunting. The recess staff was worried he might hurt someone. Robinson, who was Will's educational aide, raced back to the schoolyard.

Will was "that kid." Every school has a few of them: that kid who's always getting into trouble, if not causing it. That kid who can't stay in his seat and has angry outbursts and can make a teacher's life hell. That kid the other kids blame for a recess tussle. Will knew he was that kid too. Ever since first grade, he'd been coming to school anxious, defensive, and braced for the next confrontation with a classmate or teacher.

[1] Also: Inside the Mammoth Backlash to Common Core [1]

The expression "school-to-prison pipeline [2]" was coined to describe how America's public schools fail kids like Will. A first-grader whose unruly behavior goes uncorrected can become the fifth-grader with multiple suspensions, the eighth-grader who self-medicates, the high school dropout, and the 17-year-old convict. Yet even though today's teachers are trained to be sensitive to "social-emotional development [3]" and schools are committed to mainstreaming children with cognitive or developmental issues into regular classrooms, those advances in psychology often go out the window once a difficult kid starts acting out. Teachers and administrators still rely overwhelmingly on outdated systems of reward and punishment, using everything from red-yellow-green cards, behavior charts, and prizes to suspensions and expulsions.

How we deal with the most challenging kids remains rooted in B.F. Skinner's mid-20th-century philosophy that human behavior is determined by consequences and bad behavior must be punished. (Pavlov figured it out first, with dogs.) During the 2011-12 school year, the US Department of Education counted [4] 130,000 expulsions and roughly 7 million suspensions among 49 million K-12 students—one for every seven kids. The most recent estimates suggest there are also a quarter-million instances of corporal punishment in US schools every year.

But consequences have consequences. Contemporary psychological studies suggest that, far from resolving children's behavior problems, these standard disciplinary methods often exacerbate them. They sacrifice long-term goals (student behavior improving for good) for short-term gain—momentary peace in the classroom.

Teachers who aim to control students' behavior—rather than helping them control it themselves—undermine the very elements that are essential for motivation: autonomy, a sense of competence, and a capacity to relate to others.

University of Rochester psychologist Ed Deci [5], for example, found that teachers who aim to control students' behavior—rather than helping them control it themselves—undermine the very elements that are essential for motivation: autonomy, a sense of competence, and a capacity to relate to others. This, in turn, means they have a harder time learning self-control, an essential skill for long-term success. Stanford University's Carol Dweck [6], a developmental and social psychologist, has demonstrated that even rewards—gold stars and the like—can erode children's motivation and performance by shifting the focus to what the teacher thinks, rather than the intrinsic rewards of learning.

In a 2011 study that tracked nearly 1 million schoolchildren over six years [7], researchers at Texas A&M University found that kids suspended or expelled for minor offenses—from small-time scuffles to using phones or making out—were three times as likely as their peers to have contact with the juvenile justice system within a year of the punishment. (Black kids were 31 percent more likely than white or Latino kids to be punished for similar rule violations.) Kids with diagnosed behavior problems such as oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and reactive attachment disorder—in which very young children, often as a result of trauma, are unable to relate appropriately to others—were the most likely to be disciplined.

Which begs the question: Does it make sense to impose the harshest treatments on the most challenging kids? And are we treating chronically misbehaving children as though they don't want to behave, when in many cases they simply can't?

That might sound like the kind of question your mom dismissed as making excuses. But it's actually at the core of some remarkable research that is starting to revolutionize discipline from juvenile jails to elementary schools. Psychologist Ross Greene, who has taught at Harvard and Virginia Tech, has developed a near cult following among parents and educators who deal with challenging children. What Richard Ferber's sleep-training method meant to parents desperate for an easy bedtime, Greene's disciplinary method has been for parents of kids with behavior problems, who often pass around copies of his books, The Explosive Child [8] and Lost at School [8], as though they were holy writ.

His model was honed in children's psychiatric clinics and battle-tested in state juvenile facilities, and in 2006 it formally made its way into a smattering of public and private schools. The results thus far have been dramatic, with schools reporting drops as great as 80 percent in disciplinary referrals, suspensions, and incidents of peer aggression. "We know if we keep doing what isn't working for those kids, we lose them," Greene told me. "Eventually there's this whole population of kids we refer to as overcorrected, overdirected, and overpunished. Anyone who works with kids who are behaviorally challenging knows these kids: They've habituated to punishment."

"We know if we keep doing what isn't working for those kids, we lose them… Anyone who works with kids who are behaviorally challenging knows these kids: They've habituated to punishment."

Under Greene's philosophy, you'd no more punish a child for yelling out in class or jumping out of his seat repeatedly than you would if he bombed a spelling test. You'd talk with the kid to figure out the reasons for the outburst (was he worried he would forget what he wanted to say?), then brainstorm alternative strategies for the next time he felt that way. The goal is to get to the root of the problem, not to discipline a kid for the way his brain is wired.

"This approach really captures a couple of the main themes that are appearing in the literature with increasing frequency," says Russell Skiba [9], a psychology professor and director of the Equity Project at Indiana University. He explains that focusing on problem solving instead of punishment is now seen as key to successful discipline.

If Greene's approach is correct, then the educators who continue to argue over the appropriate balance of incentives and consequences may be debating the wrong thing entirely. After all, what good does it do to punish a child who literally hasn't yet acquired the brain functions required to control his behavior?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kamloops/school-district-73-brings-mindfulness-to-schools-1.3262554

School District 73 brings mindfulness to schools

Students in Kamloops are learning something new this year called "Mindfulness."

CBC News Posted: Oct 08, 2015 8:37 AM PT Last Updated: Oct 08, 2015 8:37 AM PT

Last week on Daybreak, we spoke to a Kamloops mom and early childhood educator about anxiety. Lorisa Zazulak told us about the challenges in getting support for her daughter. School District 73 has a program to bring mindfulness into schools in Kamloops. Shelley Joyce was joined in studio by two counsellors from School District 73. Angela Lawrence is a drug and alcohol counsellor and Tyler Van Beers is an elementary school counsellor.

To hear the audio, click the link: School District 73 brings mindfulness to schools

  

http://www.cea-ace.ca/blog/grant-frost/2015/01/3/teachers-crisis-crisis-teaching

Teachers in Crisis: A Crisis in Teaching?

14 January 201572

Author: frostededucation

Tags: accountability effective teaching school culture teacher education teacher engagement

Blog categories: Viewpoint

Whenever I meet folks for the first time and they ask me what I do for a living, I always respond "I'm a school teacher". Then I either get one of two responses. Response a) sounds something like "Nice! Summers off. Steady pay. Good pension." while response b) is often more along the lines of "Wow! I do not know how you put up with those little (insert expletive of your choice here) all day. I couldn't do it."

Regardless of which comment I am facing, my response is usually pretty much the same for either. For a), I nod and smile and reply with "Yup! Best job in the world". For b), I nod and smile and reply with "Bah! Best job in the world."

Now, the mimicry here is not only because I truly believe teaching is the best job in the world, but rather because it is the best way to attend to the penchant people have for oversimplifying what I do. Yes, I do have summers off, steady pay and a fair pension, but even taken together, those three things are not what keeps me in teaching. They may, at one point, have drawn me into the profession, but they are miles away from representing the best of what I get out of it.  Similarly, the kids can sometimes be a challenge, pushing buttons that I didn't even know I had, but unless you have gotten into the wrong career, the kids should never drive you out. They can anger you, yes, frustrate you, certainly, and sometimes make choices or suffer fates that can devastate you in a way few outside the profession can comprehend.  The kids, however, are not what makes teaching so difficult. What often makes teaching so difficult, in the name of oversimplification, is all the other "stuff" that is associated with the job.

And, according to a variety of sources, this "stuff" is starting to take its toll.

In November of 2014, a British educational organization called The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) released results of a survey which indicated that country is having a hard time finding teachers to fill positions. According to one BBC report, despite offering top B. Ed graduates bursaries of £25,000 (about $45,000 Canadian), teacher trainee programs have fallen some 6,000 teachers short of targets over the past three years. In some subjects, such as physics, recruitment targets were 67% below expectations.

Another report, carried by TES magazine, looked further into the survey results and found that a full two-thirds of head masters had been unable to recruit enough math teachers, and half reported not being able to fill science and even English positions, an area in which a lack of graduates has not traditionally been an issue. One expert predicted that, if this trend continues, many students will start courses in September of 2015 with an untrained teacher at the front of the room, or perhaps no teacher at all.

When asked to explain this sudden lack of interest in teaching, headmasters were quick to point out that increased workload, high pressure accountability, and "teacher bashing", (read "stuff") were exacerbating the problem. Add to that an increase in population in students and an improving economy where more careers are vying for university graduates, and you have a recipe for what some consider a potential educational "catastrophe". The issue caused British Prime Minister David Cameron to launch a £67 million campaign partially dedicated to encouraging university graduates to enter into the teaching profession.

Alarm bells have not just been isolated to the UK. In July of 2014, a group called the Alliance for Excellent Education released a report on teacher attrition in the US which determined that  in that country, "Roughly half a million U.S. teachers either move or leave the profession each year", citing lack of support and poor working conditions as contributing factors. In December of 2014, an article appeared on Forbes.com, fittingly entitled "It's The Constant Criticism That's Putting Teachers off Teaching", which referred to the ASCL survey, and offered similar reasons for the high attrition rates. This trend is starting to have a huge impact on the already beleaguered American education system. In Arizona, for instance, there were over 500 vacant teaching positions still unfilled in September of 2014.

It is not only drawing teachers into the profession that is proving challenging, but keeping them as well. In 2013, a magazine called The Epoch Times carried a story in which McGill associate professor Jon G. Bradley came out in public with some fairly staggering statistics around Canadian teacher attrition rates. Speaking to The Montreal Gazette on the issue, Bradley estimated that nearly half of all new teachers are leaving the profession in this country within the first five years. According the Bradley, similar results are coming out of the US and Australia. University of Ottawa professor Joel Westheimer, also speaking to the Gazette, summed up the issue rather nicely when he said "Any other profession that had that kind of turnover would look at working conditions...and other things surrounding the teaching environment." Westheimer also asked what a corporation like Microsoft would do if they were facing a recruitment shortage and high turnover rates in programmers, and speculated that they would look to improve working conditions, not test the programmers.

Westheimer is not far off the mark in his analysis. Large companies like Microsoft and Facebook are indeed facing an impending shortage of programmers and have responded very aggressively by developing something called The Hour of Code. An international initiative by major players in the communications world, The Hour of Code tries to interest students in programming as a viable career option by engaging them in fun, free coding exercises. The initiative also comes complete with promotional videos that show how good the working conditions are for programmers in some companies. Shots of open-space offices where folks zip around on skateboards and Segways abound, as do testimonials from fulfilled-by-their-career programmers.

Ironically, the Hour of Code is aimed at schools and designed to be delivered by teachers.

Teaching has never been an easy profession. Over the past ten years or so of my career, it has certainly gotten progressively harder for me. Like so many in my profession, I blame myself for that. I never feel like I am doing enough for the kids in my classroom.  And, as I have commented many times, there seems to be no shortage of folks happy to tell me that I am right in that view. But even as some jurisdictions across the country and, indeed, around the world struggle with the issue of recruiting and retaining teachers, others seem content to ignore it. Content to continue to criticize and berate the system based on test scores, to dismiss concerns around working conditions as idle, unionist whining, and to remain somehow convinced that attacking teachers will improve education for students.

However, a word of caution.

Teaching is one of the few professions to which almost everyone has extensive exposure throughout their lives. As such, it is one of the few professions that kids get to see in action everyday. I think that it is this exposure and the impressions that are formed in the classroom that get young people thinking about teaching as a viable career option.

One wonders, however, what sort of impression about the joys of teaching the overburdened and undervalued educators of today are making on the graduates of tomorrow.

I love what I do. I love it despite the fact that it is something at which I will never be good enough. I also have little doubt that I, at least, will remain in the profession for the remainder of my career. However, if we continue to demand more and more from our teachers in the name of accountability and offer them less and less in the name of restraint, we run the risk of making the profession less and less attractive to the next generation.

A generation who may decide that summers off, a steady pay and a fair pension are not nearly enough to warrant putting up with all the other "stuff".

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/mental-illness-behavioural-issues-worry-teachers-school-counsellors-1.2956530

Mental illness, behavioural issues worry teachers, school counsellors

School counsellors say there's not enough of them to meet needs

By Jane Adey, CBC News Posted: Feb 15, 2015 7:29 AM NT Last Updated: Feb 15, 2015 10:12 AM NT

Counsellors and teachers are worried there isn't enough support in schools for students dealing with mental health and behavioural issues. (Marcelo del Pozo/Reuters)

Students, stress and mental health 4:56

Behavioural issues and mental health of students 8:17

Jane Adey

CBC News

Adey is a journalist known throughout Newfoundland and Labrador for her work on Land & Sea, and for her current assignment to Radio One's On the Go

Principal on child stress: 'There's no sense of balance in their lives'

You might think some of the biggest concerns among teachers in this province would have to do with academic performance of students or maybe class size. Think again. 

In a recent survey conducted by the Canadian Teachers Federation, teachers indicate their top three concerns have more to do with students' mental health and social well being. Jim Dinn is president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers Association.

Principal on child stress: 'There's no sense of balance in their lives'

"The top issue by far had to do with child and youth mental health, followed closely by child and youth poverty and then safe and caring schools." Dinn said he repeatedly hears from schools in this province that behavioural issues are causing constant interruptions in classrooms.

"I would hear a lot of stories about violent students, students not being able to control themselves, to self regulate and surprisingly a lot of those issues I found at the primary and elementary level. In some cases, we've had stories of teachers being bitten, being punched. I've seen the bruises so it's a concern, definitely a concern that's being expressed by teachers," Dinn told CBC Radio's On the Go.

This is no surprise to Angie Wilmott, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador School Counsellors and Psychologists Association. She says there just aren't enough counsellors in schools to help students.

Angie Wilmott student psychologists

Angie Wilmott, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador School Counsellors and Psychologists Association, says there aren't enough counsellors in schools to help students. (Submitted photo)

"We've got very competent, caring professionals who are all saying the same thing, they can see the needs, they feel they have a lot to give. Unfortunately, there is a limit of time and when you spread yourself so thin from child to child, and youth to youth, family to family, when you spread yourself so thin, you become very ineffective and that's very frustrating for these people. I'm seeing very frustrated counsellors and psychologists," said Wilmott.

According to Wilmott there's an increase in cases of autism, ADD and substance abuse among students and their families. Wilmott is particularly concerned about another behaviour that she says has spread "like wildfire" among youth.

"One of the things we are seeing across the province is a significant increase in self harm. We're seeing many more students cutting as an outlet to deal with stress which is something obviously we certainly do not want them to do, it's a highly addictive practice and certainly not a positive way of dealing with the stress in your life," she said.

Wilmott said the current ratio of counsellors to students is 1:500. After almost 20 years in the school system, Wilmott, who is also an educational psychologist, says change in student behaviour and mental health has been dramatic. Her group would like to see a ratio of 1:250 to reflect the increasing complex workloads. 

"In a day to day job, it is exhausting our caregivers and that makes it difficult to be effective, if you're tired and dragged out because you've been focusing on so many crises day after day, it makes it very hard for you to be a good role model of what a healthy person is," said Wilmott.

With tightening budgets in government, Wilmott said she's not optimistic there will be more school counsellor positions created. She's calling on parents to do their best to try and prevent anxiety and stress among school-aged children and youth.

"I'm constantly preaching to families about having control over the technology, not allowing kids to go to bed with their cell phones, to be on the video games late at night, to be watching Netflix late at night — because you know, these things are stimulating the brain, reducing the natural ability to go to sleep — and kids are coming to school already physically stressed," said Wilmott.

"If people were getting good sleep, and eating well and getting exercise, I think it would reduce the number of cases that are currently coming to school counsellors, family doctors and psychiatrists. You know we're not living a healthy lifestyle."

In a recent survey of school counsellors in the province, Wilmott said  91 per cent of her membership indicated there were mental health issues that they felt they could prevent.

Wilmott said counsellors just need more time to strengthen troubled kids.

"We're there at key phases of development and we have an understanding of how we can support and empower kids. It's very disheartening when you know you have the skills, and if you just had the time maybe you could have prevented many of these crises from happening," she said.

http://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/archbishops-policy-on-transgender-children-sparks-debate

Edmonton's Catholic school board in disarray over transgender policy

ALEXANDRA ZABJEK, EDMONTON JOURNAL

Published on: October 1, 2015 | Last Updated: October 2, 2015 9:04 PM MDT

Edmonton Catholic school board trustee Patricia Grell, who has been at the forefront of the transgender debate in schools, says she "had to search my conscience and decide which master I’m going to follow, and it’s the kids." SHAUGHN BUTTS / EDMONTON JOURNAL

A policy for the inclusion of transgender students in the Edmonton Catholic School District could become a visible power struggle between Catholic officials and locally elected trustees, says a trustee at the centre of a dispute that threatens to implode the board.

To the ire of Edmonton Catholic school board chairwoman Debbie Engel, trustee Patricia Grell on Thursday publicized a document written by a group of Catholic superintendents designed to guide school boards in their treatment of transgender students.

While Engel insisted there is “absolutely no pressure” to adopt the superintendents’ guidelines, Grell said she is caught in a “Catch-22” between accepting the document, endorsed by Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith, and her conscience. Engel said the document was not meant for publication, but as a resource document for Catholic school boards in Alberta.

The latest dispute did nothing to smooth tensions on a board that at a September meeting saw trustees scream, shout and cry over the issue. Following that much-publicized meeting, Education Minister David Eggen said he was reviewing legislation that would give him the power to dissolve the board.

He met with six board members almost two weeks later. Engel said everyone agreed the school board would table an inclusion policy for transgender students modelled after the policy at Edmonton Public Schools.

“When we were in the meeting with the minister, we agreed we would speak with one voice on the position that we would take the (Edmonton public) policy, with some Catholic wording, to our next meeting and have it pass first reading. Then consult with our community. One trustee leaked this,” said Engel, clearly angered.

The document drafted by the Council of Catholic School Superintendents of Alberta states that, “humans are ‘obliged to regard (their bodies) as good and to hold (them) in honour since God has created (them)….Therefore, to attempt ‘gender transitioning’ is contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church.”

The document suggests students need support and guidance with respect to gender identity and adds: “Any educator approached with a request for accommodation must respond with sensitivity, respect, mercy, and compassion.”

It also calls for gender neutral bathrooms in all schools, while leaving individual principals to make decision on issues such as a student’s participation in intramural sports, some gender-exclusive courses, and overnight field trips.

Engel insisted the document was “in no way binding.” She said it wasn’t the archbishop’s policy and said she has “never worked with an archbishop who wasn’t willing to sit down and appreciate that we’re publicly funded and the circumstances we’re in.”

Grell was part of a board committee that drafted a policy on transgender students that stated they should be able to use the physical facilities with which the identify, such as washrooms, change rooms, and locker rooms. The policy was on the table for discussion at the September meeting, but never voted on.

Grell insisted she is in the awkward position of trying to serve “two masters,” the archbishop and taxpayers, through the minister of education.

“I’ve had to search my conscience and decide which master I’m going to follow, and it’s the kids. I’ve chosen the kids and it puts me out of communion with the local ecclesial authority. But the ecclesial authority doesn’t have a high suicide rate, these kids do,” Grell said.

“There’s nothing against church teaching to say we shouldn’t welcome these kids. Church teachings does say we’re supposed to care for our most vulnerable … We have to respect (people’s) conscience. They’re making the decision that’s best for them ….No one can interfere spiritually with another person … be it teachers who are using contraception and going to communion, we have to respect that’s their decision.”

The debate over inclusion policies for transgender students in the Edmonton Catholic School District — and other districts in the province — has led some to call for a provincewide approach to the issue.

“It ensures that no matter where a kid goes to school in the province, they’ll get the same level of support. It’s not going to be questioned if I cross the street from the public school to the Catholic school,” Kristopher Wells, a professor in the faculty of education and director with the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services at the University of Alberta, said last week.

Azabjek@edmontonjournal.com

Twitter.com/a_zabjek

  

http://edmontonjournal.com/news/crime/there-is-so-much-hardship-in-life-and-to-be-able-to-help-someone-through-a-terrible-time-is-very-rewarding

Edmonton police department's victim services unit helps lives shattered 

by crime

OTIENA ELLWAND, EDMONTON JOURNAL

Published on: September 30, 2015 | Last Updated: September 30, 2015 5:13 PM MDT

Sandra Arbeau is the divisional co-ordinator for the Edmonton police department's southeast division victim services unit. JOHN LUCAS / EDMONTON JOURNAL

The Edmonton police department’s victim services unit helps thousands of people each year whose lives have been shattered by crime or traumatic event.

That could range from homicide, to a sudden death, a sexual assault, even the theft of a sentimental object.

The unit is mainly staffed by volunteer advocates. Some have been in the position for decades.

Sandra Arbeau started as an advocate in 2003, now she’s the co-ordinator of the city’s southeast division victim services unit. She oversees 25 advocates out of 128 working across the city 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Some of the advocates have been victims, others are seniors, teachers, students, and stay-at-home mothers. What they all have in common is compassion, commitment and a strong desire to help others, she said.

“There is so much hardship in life and to be able to help someone through a terrible time is very rewarding. If I can do one little thing that makes a little bit of difference, then it is all worth it,” Arbeau said.

Advocates provide emotional support to victims and help them get connected to agencies in the community. But often, their task is simply reminding victims to look after their health.

On one occasion, Arbeau was called to the home of an elderly man whose partner had died in her sleep. “We were there for probably a couple hours because he had to show us his garden. He was talking about her, and it was just him spending time reminiscing about her. That was part of his grieving process,” Arbeau said. “He was just so lonely… He just didn’t have anybody.”

In 2014, the advocates helped more than 8,500 people, responded to 152 crisis calls, and volunteered more than 21,000 hours.

One of the people they helped this year was Edna Howard, the mother of 29-year-old Claudia Mary Iron-Howard, who was murdered in central Edmonton in June. Howard speaks highly of the support and quick response she received from police and her advocate.

“If it wasn’t for them, I don’t know how people in my situation would be able to navigate their way through this,” Howard said. “They gave me all the information; they gave me resources.”

This week, the victim services unit is hosting its first-ever conference for police agencies and the public to learn how to better support families of people who have gone missing or have been murdered, with a particular focus on aboriginal families.

The three-day conference covers an array of topics, including building positive relationships with indigenous communities and self-care for frontline workers.

The parents of Brian Ilesic, an armoured car guard shot dead by Travis Baumgartner at the University of Alberta’s HUB Mall in 2012, will be at the conference to talk about the impact on their lives.

Arbeau assisted the Ilesic family and the other families affected by the shooting through the court process, acting as the liaison between the eight advocates assigned to the case and the Crown prosecutor’s office. She won an award for her work with them.

“I always put myself in their shoes. ‘What if I was in their position? What would I want, how would I want to be talked to or handled, what would I need?'” Arbeau said. “I was just doing what needed to be done.”

oellwand@edmontonjournal.com

twitter.com/otiena

  

http://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/editorials/no-spectators-in-edmontons-fight-to-end-poverty-editorial

No spectators in Edmonton's fight to end poverty: Editorial

EDMONTON JOURNAL EDITORIAL BOARD

Published on: September 30, 2015 | Last Updated: September 30, 2015 6:00 AM MDT

The number of people helped by the Edmonton Food Bank has risen sharply since 2013. BRUCE EDWARDS / EDMONTON JOURNAL

Damning statistics on poverty give Canada a shameful black eye: 19 per cent of children, nearly one in five, live in poverty. An estimated 40 per cent of indigenous children live in poverty. It should be the biggest issue of this federal election campaign. It is not.

Edmonton’s Food Bank released figures last week showing the number of people served monthly rose to 15,580 this year, up from 13,687 per month in 2013. The 14-per-cent increase is much higher than the city’s population growth. While the city’s aboriginal population is about five per cent of the total, it makes up 34 per cent of food bank users. Equally disturbing, 40 per cent of food bank users are children; 66 per cent are women. Many rely on less than $25,000 annually to house and feed their children.

Survey results released in July, when no one was paying much attention, revealed many Edmonton teachers and school staff are handing out emergency food regularly to hungry students, food from their own lunches. Said Mark Ramsankar, president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association: “I think we need to address the root issue, which is child poverty in Alberta.”

Mayor Don Iveson and city council last week embraced a report with 28 recommendations from End Poverty Edmonton, a task force of 18 community leaders Iveson called together to end poverty in a generation. It’s a huge challenge, with local stats showing 100,000 Edmontonians living below the poverty line, of whom about 30 per cent are children.

Heading the task force, Anglican Bishop Jane Alexander observes, “Poverty puts bonds around people and it’s our collective ability to release them.”

The Edmonton Community Foundation is to be congratulated for leading the way by offering $1 million in matching grants for anti-poverty initiatives and at least $10 million toward programs in such areas as social housing.

September was a tough month for Edmonton Catholic trustees, chastised for mishandling the issue of transgender students — a hot-button topic that stirred widespread outrage. Child poverty warrants that same kind of intense concern from all of us. This isn’t a problem we can off-load, either to provincial social services or a federal department that deals with aboriginal matters. All Canadians bear the burden of ending poverty in our country, especially when it affects so many children.

In poverty, there are no colours; only indignity and pain. A local Anglican priest, who ministers to destitute inner-city residents, says poverty has become a new ethnicity because there’s little difference between a poor aboriginal, a poor white person and a poor African immigrant. Rev. Travis Enright issued a call for faith communities to work together and resume the important role they played five or six decades ago, before government agencies took over, to restore hope and humanity to Edmonton’s poorest people.

Too often the city’s suburbanites try to keep poverty at a distance, as though it’s contagious. But there is no poverty-free bubble. By virtue of our shared humanity, we are touched by the lives of fellow Edmonton residents who fail to thrive in the local economy. The mayor’s task force has produced concrete and practical proposals that should prod all Edmonton’s caring citizens to do their part.

Governments can do much to lift families out of the cycle of poverty. The current federal election campaign is an opportunity to ask candidates about their plans to create a better future for people living below the poverty line.

Our poverty rate is shameful. Among 34 developed countries, Canada sits in 24th place. If that isn’t an issue with the people who want our vote, let’s make it one with just under three weeks left in a long campaign.

Editorials are the consensus opinion of the Journal’s editorial board, comprising Margo Goodhand, Kathy Kerr, Karen Booth, Dan Barnes, Brent Wittmeier, Julia LeConte, Janet Vlieg and David Evans.

News Articles, Post XI and Comments

(All pictures have been removed from the articles because they take up so much memory in each post. To see the pictures use the web address and visit the sites of the newspapers.)

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/jun/27/secret-teacher-we-help-pupils-to-but-how-long-before-its-exposed

Secret Teacher: we help students to cheat, but how long before it's exposed?

Teachers who break the rules will have nowhere to hide when exam-only syllabi come in, leaving us easy prey for our critics

Saturday 27 June 2015 07.00 BST Last modified on Monday 29 June 2015 16.35 BST

On the first day of the school year the staffroom buzzes with nervous whispers. Everyone is eager to hear the big news about results. Is an Ofsted inspection imminent or are we safe in our jobs for another year? Thoughts whir as the senior management team present their annual analysis of assessment data.

But there is an enormous elephant in the room; most of the members of the audience know the data is false. This is because we know how much we help children cheat in the modular tests brought in to replace coursework.

Controlled assessments are not properly scrutinised by line managers and exam boards, a problem that gets worse every year. More and more teachers allow students to use extensive written notes when only limited prompts are allowed. In April I found students in the library “redrafting” controlled assessments for the sixth or seventh time when they should not be attempted more than once.

A number of my year 11 tutor group – mostly of C/D borderline ability – proudly told me they had achieved A*s. They were unaware that the amount of help their teachers gave them – by providing detailed writing frames, editing their initial drafts line by line and giving intensive one-to-one guidance – meant it was practically done for them.

When we internally moderate school-based assessments, obvious discrepancies, such as students who have only just started learning English writing like prize-winning authors, are ignored in the near certainty we will not be caught. The exam boards select work from random students to scrutinise, but they have a vested interest in schools choosing their syllabi so they are unlikely to be too rigorous.

It is hard to be sure how aware students are about this constituting malpractice. Some, of course, smell a rat but stay quiet. Most expect their teachers to allow repeated redrafting because it has become so much the norm that they would be disadvantaged without it. When parents get involved, they expect the same.

Friends and colleagues, who are decent people, insist that what we do is fine because “everybody” else is doing it. When I discussed my concerns with our headteacher, who is much better than most, they echoed that sentiment exactly. They even said that in grammar schools repeated redrafting was par for the course and that this was always done “with the best of intentions”.

The problem is that teachers have no choice. If students do not achieve their target grades/levels, we get the blame. In the current climate this argument has force: without the malpractice we indulge in, the head says we would slip from “good” to “requires improvement” or even “inadequate”. The aftermath of such a judgement is our biggest fear – academisation.

The impact on results is most pronounced in the English department. The head of English is a shameless careerist and assists in most of the redrafting personally, boasting about how the A-C English language pass rate has been raised from the “below floor target” prediction to over 70% in the final exams last year. Of course the rest of the department know that these results would be significantly worse without malpractice, but it allows the “team leader” to look good, despite driving good teachers out with dire interpersonal skills and appalling judgment.

Soon, English and some other subjects will see controlled assessments replaced by exam-only syllabi. When that happens, I worry that results will fall dramatically and the level of cheating in schools will be exposed to the public. They will not have sympathy for the “you don’t bring a knife to a gunfight” line of defence, and the fact that the fight should never have been called for in the first instance won’t matter a jot.

Secret Teacher: how I became trapped in the cheating game

Our students, who think we are doing nothing wrong now, will look back on their education with deep cynicism. Our reputation will take an almighty hammering and once we lose that standing with parents and communities, we will be easy prey for the vultures who want to privatise our great profession.

• This article was updated on 27 June 2015 to correct the picture, which initially showed an osprey, not a vulture.

  

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/jul/11/secret-teacher-too-overworked-give-trainees-support-need

Secret Teacher: I am too overworked to give trainees the support they need

New recruits deserve mentors who can spend time with them and be role models. All I can offer is a team of burnt-out teachers struggling to meet targets

Helping hands: ‘I am sorry that even when we manage to attract new graduates into the profession, I can’t offer them the training they need and deserve.’ Photograph: Alamy

The Secret Teacher

Saturday 11 July 2015 07.00 BST Last modified on Saturday 11 July 2015 07.03 BST

It’s that time of year again when my inbox fills up with requests from universities to host a PGCE student. Taking on a trainee is always a bit of a gamble: the majority are excellent but the odd bad apple falls through the net. Take Heidi, for example. She thought teaching was a 9am to 3pm job. Linda was no better – she took to carrying spare tissues with her as she couldn’t face a class without crying.

Most heads of department want PGCE students: we get a weekly free period to coach them and even bag a little extra money for a few textbooks. Trainee teachers mostly bring enthusiasm and ideas to tired, old departments and can plan lessons and share their resources. But before you can enjoy the advantages of an extra pair of time-saving hands, these new recruits need training – and therein lies the problem.

Mentoring a PGCE student takes time – far more than the additional period we are given. We have to coach them, guide them and comfort them when yet another student has left their lesson through the window or locked them in a cupboard. (One of Linda’s development targets had to be that she wouldn’t remove her keys from her lanyard – her habit of leaving them in the lock when she walked into a cupboard was just too tempting for some students.)

The bigger problem is that PGCE students start by watching us teach. I’m a head of department so the amount of time I now spend planning lessons is negligible. Usually it happens when the first student walks in and I ask, “Where did we get to?” That’s it: the rest of the time I am filling out paperwork and crunching numbers.

Don’t misunderstand me, I want to spend more time planning and teaching amazing lessons. But in reality, my day is spent filling in spreadsheets to show how much progress a child has made, updating the classroom risk assessments or rewriting schemes of work (again) so that French definitely includes teaching “fundamental British values” (seriously).

But if a PGCE student is watching you, you have to pull out all the stops. Objectives, tick. Starter activity, tick. Differentiation, tick. Peer assessment, tick. Plenary, tick. Silencing the child who asks why all your lessons aren’t like this, tick.

Even if you get the extra time you need for these perfect lessons, it doesn’t stop there. After a few weeks PGCE students have to teach. We can’t just pass them the board pen with a cheery “Off you go then”. We give them 10-minute chunks to teach, which need to be closely planned with us.

Another problem is fear. Yes, I am afraid. As I have said, I don’t plan lessons for non-exam classes anymore and I barely have time to mark. I work 8am to 7pm most days, but I don’t have time to do the basic duties that people would reasonably think a teacher should. What if my trainee notices? What if they see that I set my team targets to provide weekly and fortnightly assessments of children’s work , but I don’t do them for my classes?

Of course I could delegate. I could palm the bright-eyed PGCE student off on one of my stressed-out team members. The problem is that I know most of my team don’t plan or mark properly any more either. I turn a blind eye to it, aware that they are focusing their efforts where I need them to – on the exam classes and targets. But none of this helps aspiring teachers. They deserve someone who is going to spend time with them, guide them through the challenges and be a role model. I don’t have any role models left in my department, just a team of burnt-out teachers struggling to meet ever-changing targets.

In an ideal world we would welcome the trainee teacher with open arms. Their mentor would be given a free period every day to work with them, plan lessons and generally check they are on track. The mentors would be less stressed out, have less paperwork to do and be able to set a good example to those coming into the profession, instead of saying: “Do as I say not as I do – well at least until you’ve qualified.”

I am sorry that I won’t be offering a place to a PGCE student this year. I am sorry that even when we manage to attract new graduates into the profession, I can’t offer them the training they need and deserve. PGCE students across the country are being trained by overworked, disillusioned teachers who don’t have time to do the job properly themselves, never mind showing someone else what to do. What kind of teachers will this produce? I wish this year’s cohort every success in their training. But until the government stops the endless targets, the constant threat of Ofsted, the ever-changing goalposts (don’t even get me started on the new curriculum, GCSEs and A-levels), I simply can’t help them.

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/5957934-provinces-spend-4-2b-on-child-care-report/

Provinces spend $4.2B on child care: report

OTTAWA — Government spending on daycare has reached an all-time high with new data showing the provinces — with help from the federal government — are spending more than $4.2 billion to provide regulated daycare spaces across the country.

Although the increase is driven largely by the almost $2.5 billion Quebec spent on its child care program in 2014, the data compiled by the Toronto-based Childcare Resource and Research Unit also show year-over-year increases in spending in Ontario, Alberta, B.C. and Manitoba that has helped add more than $602 million in daycare spending since 2012.

That spending has helped add some 200,000 regulated daycare spaces across the country, bringing the total inventory to more than 1.2 million spaces.

Those spaces would cover about 25 per cent of all children age 12 and under — an increase of four per cent from just two years ago.

Part of that spending is helped by transfer payments from the federal government that pay for myriad social programs across the country. Just how much of the Canada social transfer goes to child care is unknown as it competes with other needs — affordable housing, post-secondary education, social services — that provinces have to fund.

Combined, though, it adds up to an unconventional national child care program, said Martha Friendly, the organization's executive director.

The data suggest there is "fertile ground" for the next federal government to work with provinces on their daycare dilemmas, given the federal parties have talked to varying extents about how to pay for daycare, expanding parental leave, and income supplements in the form of child benefit payments.

"When I look at all this stuff, the provincial territorial stuff and the national stuff and you sort of mix it all together, I think, 'You know what, we might be talking about a real national child care program,'" she said.

The data from the biennial report on child care in Canada is being released Wednesday in the midst of an election campaign where the three major parties have put forward differing child care plans as they vie for family voters.

The platform promises remain broad brushstrokes and the devil is still in the details when it comes to turning a promise into an effective policy, said Friendly, a longtime advocate for a national daycare program.

The NDP has provided the most detailed promise, vowing to bring in a national daycare program that would cost parents no more than $15 a day and cost the federal government $5 billion — and the provinces $3.3 billion more — once the program is fully ramped up after eight years.

Details like how the party will set quality and accessibility standards, for examples, are all issues that Friendly said would have to be addressed in a child care policy.

The Liberals have also promised to work with provinces to develop a "child care framework" with provinces that, the party's platform says, would meet "the needs of Canadian families, wherever they live" and provide "affordable, high-quality, flexible and fully inclusive child care." The platform doesn't put a specific dollar figure to the promise.

Other promises each party has made, like extending parental leave to 18 months and the value of monthly child benefits, can also be seen as part of a national daycare strategy, Friendly said.

The prospect of a national child care program has stirred debate about whether it would help Canadian children excel academically and socially, and whether it would be financially sustainable for the federal government.

Follow @jpress on Twitter

By Jordan Press, The Canadian Press

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/5957935-facts-and-figures-of-childcare-in-canada/

Facts and figures of childcare in Canada

OTTAWA — A new report on the dollars and cents of childcare in Canada is being released Wednesday. The biennial report from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit looks at how much the provinces and territories spend on childcare, and what the money buys. Here are some figures from the report:

1,201,377: regulated child care spaces in Canada

70%: employment rate of mothers with children aged 0-2

$4,273,366,946: Provincial and territorial spending on child care, which includes funding from the federal government

$602,696,961: Increase in provincial and territorial spending on child care since 2012

$1,676: Median monthly fee for an infant child care space in Toronto, the most expensive in the country

$1,324: Median monthly fee for a toddler daycare space in Toronto, the most expensive in the country

$998: Median monthly fee for a preschooler daycare space in Toronto, the most expensive in the country

30%: Centre-based child care spaces in Canada that were in for-profit daycares in 2014

By The Canadian Press

  

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/5956804-ontario-offers-kids-a-nasal-spray-flu-vaccine/

Ontario offers kids a nasal spray flu vaccine

TORONTO - Ontario is introducing a new nasal spray flu vaccine this year as an alternative to an injection in the arm.

The nasal spray, which will be available starting Oct. 26 for children aged 2 to 17, will offer protection against four flu viruses instead of three.

The added protection is against a B-strain of the flu that affects children and youth more frequently than adults.

Parents will still have the option of having their children's flu vaccine delivered via a needle.

Adults will still be given the shot in the arm that the government says will help protect against three flu viruses this year.

The Ministry of Health says up to 20 per cent of Canadians get sick every year with the flu, which sends about 12,000 to hospital and kills about 3,500 people annually.

--

Follow @CPnewsboy on Twitter

By The Canadian Press

http://blogs.leaderpost.com/2013/10/01/the-ipads-have-it/

The i(pads) have it

By Emma Graney

Grade 2, late-1980s, Australia… Sitting inside my primary school’s computer lab, we played Sheepdog Round-Up on huge Macintosh computers that were, for the time, pretty swanky. Remember DOS? Yep. That. Sheepdog Round-Up was the highlight of my week. I hated mathematics (still do), but it helped with my addition and subtraction skills and made learning — dare I say the f-word? — fun.

My generation was on the cusp of the computer era. We were taught once a week in a special computer room, but we were also taught how to type by clickity-clacking away on good old paper-and-ink typewriters.

Computers weren’t in any classrooms and the Internet wasn’t a thing. At all.

I say this not to explain how old I am (GET OFFA MA LAWN, SONNY! Aaaarrrrg there goes me hip), but to illustrate how much classrooms have changed since I was in school.

And you know what? That’s not a bad thing.

I use a computer every single day… one at work, one at home (and thanks to Netflix and YouTube, the laptop at home replaces having a TV at all). I tweet prolifically, I use Facebook constantly for story ideas and contacts, my email accounts are a hive of activity and I can’t imagine living without Google.

Why deny our kids the opportunity to learn the awesomeness — and pitfalls — of technology from an early age?

I spent time inside Mrs. Maley’s Grade 1/2 classroom recently (see the story here), where the kids regularly use Twitter and blogging as a learning tool. They also use their iPads to help with math projects; the day I was there, they were wandering the hallways, excitedly looking for patterns of which they’d take photos and show off to the class.

That’s right, people — these kids were enjoying math (*GASP*).

The reaction from some folk is to take all of the technology off the kids and make ’em learn on paper, just like you used to because you turned out just fine and so what’s wrong with it kids nowadays can’t pay attention to anything because of the damn television sets and the internet why I remember back when ….

Look. Technology isn’t a bad thing. It can be scary and it can suck you in, but life is about learning how to focus on what’s important.

The kids in Mrs. Maley’s class sit quietly with their iPads on their laps while the other students give math presentations, because they KNOW that now is a time for listening — not for playing Angry Birds. They are engaged with their stories when they blog and they know way more than I do about functions of an iPad (seriously, it was embarrassing).

Life’s also about balance, which is unarguably important. That’s why kids in Mrs. Maley’s class still write with pencils on paper, still read books, still talk to each other in group projects, and still have to watch the whiteboard during the day. They still have to learn basics, and they do. But they also get to use tools that are now an integral part of everyday life.

In my mind, that can only further arm them for the future.

————-

Follow me for more education-related fun from Saskatchewan on Twitter @LP_EmmaGraney

- See more at: http://blogs.leaderpost.com/2013/10/01/the-ipads-have-it/#sthash.tGhFpBVU.dpuf

http://blogs.thestarphoenix.com/2015/05/04/at-recess-it-was-easy-to-lose-your-marbles/

At Recess it was Easy to Lose Your Marbles

By Cam Fuller,

Star Phoenix

About this time of year, kids would start playing marbles. Maybe kids still play marbles. But I doubt it, because you have to go outside to play marbles and I haven’t seen a kid outside playing anything since 1987. Not true. Now that I think of it, some kids played road hockey on my street one day this winter. I should have snapped a photo to prove it really happened, like a Loch Ness Monster sighting. I hated to have to drive by them to get to my house. I was worried they would get discouraged and stop playing road hockey forever. Kids aren’t as resilient as they used to be, you know. And I was right. I never saw them again, the whole winter. So let’s assume kids don’t play marbles anymore. Man, are they missing out. Marbles were the best. THE BEST. This was partly because playing marbles was one of the first things kids did after the snow was gone. The sun was finally warm and you could start smelling mud and green grass again. The world felt like a gift. You didn’t know what you’d done to be so lucky. Kids didn’t even play marbles the right way, and it was still huge. A game of real marbles was horribly complicated. You had to draw a circle in the dirt and … That’s just it. Only two kids in 20 knew what to do next. Sometimes you did see kids playing real marbles but you usually felt sorry for them because it looked like something kids would have done in the 1950s — and when you thought of things from the 1950s, you pictured the See Spot Run books where the boys had brush cuts and crisply ironed button-up short sleeve shirts and nerd bikes AND REALLY BORING LIVES. But you were cooler because when you played marbles, you played “hit ‘em, you get ‘em.” This was great. Half the kids were like carnies in their game booths. The other half were suckers. The rules were both simple and indefinite, if that’s even possible. A kid would sit and line up a few marbles in the playing triangle formed by his outstretched legs. He’d place a few marbles in a row. He decided how many marbles, and of what type, and how much space was between each. Then another kid with marbles would come along and try to hit the lined-up marbles with his marbles — from a distance determined by the kid running the operation. The contestant got to keep the ones he hit. The operator kept the ones that missed, often amassing bulging pockets of marbles by the end of the day. This is how casinos got started. Marbles taught you about life. Some kids were rich, some were poor. Some were reckless, some were cautious. Some were greedy, some generous. Like kids, not all marbles were equal. Everybody had the cheap cat eye ones. But what you really wanted were “crystals.” They didn’t have anything in the middle of them, just more glass. They were miraculous. There were rumours you could actually buy crystals at a store called the Rock Shop but no parent was ever going to drive you there. And then some kid would come along who not only had crystals but the beyond-rare super-large crystals. How the heck? And then you’d find out the kid’s mom bought them for him. Instantly, envy changed to pity. Any kid who got crystals from his parents instead of winning them honestly on the pavement was spoiled. Spoiled kids were reviled. Sorry, but that’s just the way it was. And then there were steelies. Technically, they were ball bearings and not marbles at all, but a steelie the size of a Ping-Pong ball was spectacular because it weighed about a million pounds. One day, some kid gave me a steelie. Just gave it to me. It was the best thing I’d ever owned. I couldn’t wait to get it home. Then I promptly lost it during recess. It fell through a hole in my pocket. That’s another thing kids don’t have anymore — holes in their pockets. I scoured the playground through misty eyes looking in vain for the lost steelie. I was so upset I didn’t hear the bell and the teacher had to come out and find me. The defeat! The humiliation! Sadly, that wasn’t the last time I lost my marbles. - See more at: http://blogs.thestarphoenix.com/2015/05/04/at-recess-it-was-easy-to-lose-your-marbles/#sthash.No934vXe.dpuf

http://www.chroniclejournal.com/news/local/ib-program-quite-a-journey/article_38b4966e-6fc6-11e5-9ac9-0ff96abd9ff6.html

IB program ‘quite a journey’

By Jodi Lundmark, CJ staff

Graduation time

The graduation ceremony for Sir Winston Churchill Collegiate and Vocational Institute’s IB program is held on the Thanksgiving weekend because the school doesn’t receive the full results of the program until July and the actual diplomas don’t arrive until September.

Posted: Sunday, October 11, 2015 6:00 am | Updated: 6:00 am, Sun Oct 11, 2015.

By Jodi Lundmark, CJ staff

Just shy of his 18th birthday and only six weeks into his first year of studying engineering at the University of Waterloo, Callum Mitchell feels confident he will succeed.

“I’m performing more strongly than I expected and I think I can thank (the International Baccalaureate program) for that,” he said.

Mitchell was one of 25 people graduating from Sir Winston Churchill Collegiate and Vocational Institute’s 14th IB program on Saturday in Thunder Bay.

The advanced academic program encourages community involvement and also prepares students for university.

“It’s been quite a journey,” said Mitchell. “There were definitely some challenging points but it was definitely worth it because now I’m going into university into a fairly challenging program and I feel prepared to handle everything.”

In the IB program, high school students are given larger-scale projects to work on over a couple of months.

“That is something you see quite a bit in university so the fact that you’re introduced to that in high school is really helpful,” said Mitchell.

Churchill’s IB co-ordinator, Clarke Loney, said of the 25 students, seven completed full program diplomas and the rest received diploma course certificates.

The graduation ceremony is held on the Thanksgiving weekend because the school doesn’t receive the full results of the program until July 4 and the actual diplomas don’t arrive until September when the students have already left for university.

Loney said the greatest benefit of the program is it makes the students more globally aware and community-minded, as the IB program encourages community involvement.

It’s also second to none in terms of university preparation, he added.

“We’re super proud of these kids as we always are of our graduates,” Loney said. “These kids will, without question, change the world.”

http://www.cea-ace.ca/education-canada/article/false-accusations-growing-fear-classroom

False Accusations: A Growing Fear in the Classroom

Male role models are becoming increasingly scarce in Canadian classrooms, and the demographics indicate that the current low numbers will continue to decline. New teachers are quite prepared to take up the pedagogical issues raised by changing standards and a changing demographic; however, the spectre of violence and false accusations adds a level of danger that is truly frightening – the former to female student teachers, the latter primarily to males. It is reported that one in seven male teachers has been falsely suspected of inappropriate contact with students, and Canadian school systems do not have procedures in place to respond quickly and to protect the reputation of those who are wrongly accused. While the safety of students must be paramount, the rights of teachers need to be protected as well.

“Where are the male teachers?” Male role models are becoming increasingly scarce in Canadian classrooms, and the demographics indicate that the current low numbers will continue to decline. While general statistics are open to flux and are often several years behind reality, it is clear that male teachers in elementary and middle schools will soon be a thing of the past. Secondary schools fair a tad better, but males are an increasing minority within the teaching ranks at all levels. Generally speaking, the male-to-female ratio in elementary schools is 20-to-80; in secondary schools, 35-to-65. Whatever data one teases out, there is no question: our classrooms are increasingly dominated by female teachers.

Recent Narrative

Henri Fournier, a teacher with the Commission scolaire Grandes-Seigneurs in Quebec who has an impeccable 30-year employment history, has had his life turned upside down by a set of circumstances straight out of a B-grade movie. Several students (all girls between 8 and 12) accused Mr. Fournier of inappropriate touching. Acting with dispatch so as to protect the children, Mr. Fournier’s school board placed him on unpaid leave. He was investigated by the local police, charged by the Crown Prosecutor, and sent to trial.

As part of this shrinking minority myself, I watch with concern the declining numbers of males who select elementary education as a career path.

Almost two years would elapse between the laying of the charges (ready for this – 34 separate charges!) and the commencement of the court trial. During this time, one can imagine the chatter on the Internet and the emails that winged back and forth. The climate in the school was tense and – notwithstanding overt attempts at privacy – everyone knew the identity of the girls and what Mr. Fournier was alleged to have done. Throughout this ordeal, while proclaiming his innocence, Mr. Fournier was supported by his union; but at the same time he was the object of all manner of scurrilous innuendo and talk within his community.

There are those who may look at this situation and be pleased with the swiftness of the action. A predator had been caught, and the lives of so many girls saved from eternal harm. Even though a couple of the girls recanted their stories prior to formal court proceedings, and the justice system was grinding slowly, Mr. Fournier was going to get his just rewards.

One small difficulty: Madame Justice Odette Perron threw out every charge! Further, in a somewhat scathing rebuttal, she noted that all of the accusations were without foundation, many of the so-called statements were contradictory, and she could find no fault at all with Mr. Fournier.

Then, in what can only be described as educational decision-making run amuck, Mr. Fournier was reinstated by his school board (no back pay, by the way) and assigned as a teacher to the same school where many of the accusing girls were still students.

Whatever the formal ruling, Mr. Fournier is branded. No charges were ever laid against the minors who made false police reports, no disciplinary action was meted out to overzealous officers or educational administrators, and the insult of reassigning Mr. Fournier to an environment where his former accusers have free and unfettered reign to continue the gossip borders on harassment. In a final irony, a labour arbitrator recently ruled that Mr. Fournier is entitled to no back salary or benefits, and there will be no compensation for his additional legal expenses.

Status of Male Teachers

Such stories concern my students. As a teacher of teachers, I have a special interest in the status of male elementary teachers. As part of this shrinking minority myself, I watch with concern the declining numbers of males who select elementary education as a career path, and I view with sadness the kind of impact cases such as Mr. Fournier’s have on my education students.

At McGill’s Faculty of Education, the percentage of males opting for elementary teacher training rests, now, around five percent. This number has been slowly declining ­– from about 20 percent over my tenure with the Faculty. Within the broad Anglophone school network, many elementary schools are now places of a single gender. Many factors contribute to falling numbers of male teachers (lack of merit pay, stifling administrative regulations, double standards, and the like), but the sad reality is that the committed male classroom practitioner is slowly becoming a thing of the past. From the principal to the custodian, it is often the case that all in-school staff are female. To highlight this issue, it is not at all unusual for school administrators to call our Student Teaching Office and plead for a male student teacher.

There is no question that classroom teaching today is extremely challenging. Internal educational pressures are mounting as more and more special needs students are integrated into regular classrooms, and instructional materials are found wanting as increasing numbers of immigrant students bring diverse cultural histories into play within the close confines of the classroom environment. It is also fraught with danger. On a regular basis, as aptly documented in a CTV/W5 report “Unsafe to Teach” released in 2005, teachers are being verbally and physically assaulted, and increasingly subjected to false accusations of inappropriate behaviour. More and more teachers are leaving the classroom for other careers.

My students – both male and female – are quite prepared to take up the pedagogical issues raised by changing standards and a changing demographic; however, the spectre of violence and false accusations adds a level of danger that is truly frightening – the former to female student teachers, the latter primarily to males.

False Accusations

As there is no central database documenting false accusations, and as many cases are reported only at a local level without receiving any kind of national attention, attempts to accurately appraise the number, degree, and kind of false (and real) accusations of inappropriate behaviour against male teachers has been a daunting task. Internet organisations, such as “menteach.org”, have tried to report such cases, and random searches of various news databases do tease out interesting human interest cases. However, formal attempts to quantify the issue have been frustrated by a lack of information.

However, thanks to a ground-breaking study by researchers from the Northern Canadian Centre for Education & the Arts (NORCCREA) at Nipissing University  entitled “A Report on the Professional Journey of Male Primary-Junior teachers in Ontario (Gosse, Parr, & Kristolaitis, 2010), we have an initial benchmark figure. Approximately 13 percent of the male teachers in their study – one in seven – reported that they had been falsely suspected of inappropriate contact with pupils. This is a significant number and, for the first time, quantifies the reality faced by male teachers.*

Despite the lack of national data, it is clear that classroom teachers across Canada are being falsely accused in growing numbers. Local teacher unions and other educational authorities are struggling to identify such incidents and, at the same time, appear ill-equipped to develop realistic procedures and plans that safeguard due process and the reputations of those falsely accused. Since we are not tracking the increasing level of violence (both verbal and physical) against teachers, it is likely that these incidents are under-reported, and we tend to ignore the extremely high dropout rate of teachers who leave the career path after less than a decade of experience. We don’t know how many leave because they have been falsely accused, or because they see others losing their reputations and careers because of lies, rumours, and innuendo.

There is no question that the children must be protected; any adult who does indeed act in an inappropriate way must be drummed out of the school system. But here comes the conundrum: how are the rights of innocent teachers protected?

Although schools, school boards, unions, and other educational stakeholders are scrambling to develop and implement policies, this is a complex issue on many levels. There is a general assumption that any student accusation simply must be true (kids don’t lie), and this is especially true if the accusation is made by a female student against a male teacher. The rights of children (often couched in the phrase “we must protect the students”) appear to take precedence over the rights of teachers. There is no question that the children must be protected; any adult who does indeed act in an inappropriate way must be drummed out of the school system. But here comes the conundrum: how are the rights of innocent teachers protected? And what action is taken against students and their parents who are shown to lie? In far too many cases, there is no “right to privacy” or “right to innocence before judgment”; rather, there appears to be a rush to judgment with little regard for the impact on the falsely accused individual or the collateral impact upon the school and other professionals within that environment.

False accusations are being made against both male and female teachers. These reports often take one of two broad avenues. In the first, and less severe, the teacher is accused by one or more students of being “unfair” or “picking on” a student. These accusations are usually wrapped around words such as “harassment” or “culture”. The second set of false accusations levelled against teachers is far more serious and might be broadly termed “sexual”. In these cases, students accuse a teacher of various forms of touching and/or other inappropriate communication.

Now, let’s be very clear on two fronts; some students lie, and some teachers act inappropriately. With millions of pupils in schools and tens of thousands of teachers in classrooms, inappropriate and questionable speech and actions are bound to occur. In many cases, such actions can be easily explained by the close quarters and natural connectedness between teacher and pupil. On the other hand, teachers do cross the line. Similarly, not every story out of the mouths of adolescents rings true. Incidents can be stretched and expanded and, in a growing number of cases, simply made up.

To help my male students prepare for an environment in which the usual student-teacher interactions can be misconstrued ­– intentionally or unintentionally – I have developed a list I call the “Six Nevers”. They illustrate how the threat of false accusations can interfere with the development of a warm, caring relationship between students and teachers, and why males considering teaching as a profession might have second thoughts.

Never touch a student!

Never be alone with a student, and never in a closed classroom!

Never use language/tone that can be interpreted as anything but professional.

Never use Facebook/Internet to chat or communicate with students!

Never maintain an outside school association with a student/family.

Never allow your guard to falter!

Another Narrative

A senior administrator characterized Ron Mayfield as an energetic and experienced teacher who related well to his students; his death was tragic. Mr. Mayfield was accused by one of his students of a physical assault. In line with school policy, he was immediately suspended (with pay) and police and youth services were notified.

While various investigations were carried out by many agencies, Mr. Mayfield was left on the sidelines. He was not kept abreast of actions and was left open to the rumour mill that swirled about in the school and the community. Unlike many such investigations, this one moved quickly and, within two weeks, it was clear that there was no substance to the charges. Further, the 13-year-old student had recanted his accusation.

Unfortunately, no one in any of the agencies thought to inform Mr. Mayfield. Sadly, he committed suicide. While it may never be proven, his family (and many colleagues) share the view that Mr. Mayfield sought this drastic release because he could not bear the stain of a false accusation and the thought that his whole career was on the line.

Accountability

What is the punishment for students who lie about teachers? In today’s Canada, little is done in a systematic manner to hold youth accountable for their false narratives. In case after case, parents leap to the defence of apparently “abused” children and, when the dust has settled, offer no compensation to the aggrieved teacher. This skewed arrangement puts more emphasis on unsupported adolescent narratives than on verifiable facts.

In some isolated cases, individual teachers are fighting back. Teachers, both male and female, are personally resorting to the courts to seek redress from parents and school officials. In a small number of U.S. cases, the teachers have prevailed and been awarded significant amounts. Closer to home, falsely accused Quebec teacher David Fletcher, in a precedent setting case, was awarded damages in the $70,000 range. Nonetheless, far too many falsely accused teachers are on their own as they attempt to deal with legal and educational systems that do not have procedures in place to deal swiftly and fairly with student accusations.

The history of school-based abuse is a clouded one. The mainstream press is filled with recollections of religious transgressions and sexual abuses committed by teachers in First Nation and elite private schools. There is no question that children were abused in the past, and many reports of abuse were ignored (as evidenced by the Residential School situations). Yes, the reports of these abused children were discounted, and those in authority sometimes acted criminally. However, the common contemporary assumption – that any and all accusations against teachers (specifically male teachers) are true – flies in the face of data.

Many of the accusations made against teachers are false. They are stories – lies made up by students who find support in parents and friends who are far too quick to point fingers. Careers are ruined and families lost, and those who make such false accusations often face no consequences. Along with those who support them, these students are being allowed to undermine a pillar of the Canadian justice system: guilt must be proven in a court of law, and innocence is something that cannot be given back when falsely wrenched away.

EN BREF - Les modèles masculins deviennent de plus en plus rares dans les classes canadiennes et les facteurs démographiques indiquent que leur faible nombre continuera de diminuer. Le nouveau personnel enseignant est bien préparé aux questions pédagogiques soulevées par les nouvelles normes et par une nouvelle composition démographique des classes, mais le spectre de la violence et des fausses accusations ajoute des dangers qui font vraiment peur – aux étudiantes-maîtres dans le premier cas et aux étudiants-maîtres dans le deuxième. Un enseignant masculin sur sept est faussement soupçonné de contact inapproprié avec des élèves et les systèmes scolaires canadiens ne disposent pas de procédures pour réagir rapidement et pour protéger la réputation des innocents faussement accusés. Bien que la sécurité des élèves soit primordiale, les droits du personnel enseignant doivent également être protégés.

* Please note that on April 29, 2011 a correction was made online to this paragraph, clarifying the results of the research cited. 

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/Grey-Cup-to-be-on-the-curriculum-in-Manitoba-schools-330658271.html

Grey Cup to be on the curriculum in Manitoba schools

Posted: 10/5/2015 9:13 AM | Last Modified: 10/5/2015 6:07 PM | Updates | Comments:

Teacher Nissa Chmilowsky of Darwin School uses the new 103rd Grey Cup innovative teacher tool to students. Left to right: Jordan Nelson, Tristan Turner, Tiana Normand, Erin Tormey and Madi Hope.

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Tossing a football in class is verboden, but tossing around Grey Cup facts and figures in the run-up to the 103rd Grey Cup will be on the curriculum in Manitoba schools.

A 45-page teacher's toolkit was has been released that includes more than 200 examples of how the Grey Cup, football and sport can be used to teach other subjects. Manitoba teachers can integrate football history, statistics, and team building into classroom mathematics, social studies and even dance lessons.

The program was launched today by the 103rd Grey Cup Festival team at St. Vital's Darwin School, chosen because it has already adopted the education supplement. The Grade 5/6 teacher Nissa Chmilowsky won for her innovative approach to integrating football to her class to explore community engagement and fair play.

The school was visited this morning by Winnipeg Blue Bomber players, Matt Bucknor and Maurice Leggett, and Bomber mascots Buzz and Boomer. Education Minister James Allum was also on hand.

The education supplement can be found here.

The 103rd Grey Cup game is in Winnipeg this year on November 29.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/some-34000-quebec-teachers-off-the-job-to-protest-lagging-contract-talks-330097041.html

Some 34,000 Quebec teachers off the job to protest lagging contract talks

By: Lia Levesque, The Canadian Press

Posted: 09/30/2015 9:53 AM       | Last Modified: 09/30/2015 4:16 PM

MONTREAL - Nearly one-third of Quebec's public school students had the day off Wednesday as their teachers went on strike to protest lagging contract talks with the provincial government.

The French-language teachers demonstrated outside schools before making their way to Montreal for a rally to decry what they call a decline in working conditions and the quality of education offered to students.

French-language public school teachers demonstrate in Montreal, Wednesday, September 30, 2015, where they protested against government austerity cutsl. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

The 34,000 unionized teachers, part of a federation encompassing several boards, represent about one-third of the province's educators.

Wednesday's strike affected about 300,000 students at some 800 institutions in the Montreal area, the lower Laurentians region north of Montreal and the Outaouais area near Ottawa.

Union officials say there has been no progress despite 70 meetings between negotiators and they blame the province and school administrators for wanting to increase class sizes, thus putting a huge burden on teachers while significantly reducing student services.

The province is offering the same deal to all government employees — a two-year freeze followed by a one per cent annual hike over three years. A common front of para-public and public sector unions is seeking 4.5 per cent per year over three years.

"We consider the wage increases reflect the work we're asked to perform with respect to the students," said union president Sylvain Mallette, adding salary is but one sticking point.

"There's also working conditions in which they want us to work with students, and these are unacceptable."

He noted that class sizes are set to get bigger, increasing the workload on teachers.

Wednesday was the first of three strike days the union announced last spring, with the next one scheduled for the latter part of October. Other unionized teachers have also voted in favour of strikes, with rotating actions coming later in the fall.

Education Minister Francois Blais says he deplores the teachers' decision to strike, adding the legal actions only penalize students and parents.

Blais denied the government wants to add to the workload of teachers and also denied the province is looking to end special-education classes.

Blais said in Quebec City a 13.5 per cent salary hike over three years is unrealistic as the government struggles to get its finances in order.

"It isn't possible to ask taxpayers to pay that," he said.