2014, activism, bctf, Democracy, demonstration, gleneagle, Pedagogy, pickets, protest, public school, public schools, teaching, unions

Why Picket

June 24, 2014 bryanjack

On the picket with my mom and sister.

Hey all,

As we get toward the end of our first week on the picket line, I wanted to take the opportunity to invite the discussion of how we might share ideas to maximize our efforts in what could be a crucial week of negotiations between teachers and the government.

I realize that some of you may not be enthused about the prospect of being pilloried in a sandwich sign while you’re asked to pace in front of your job site for a few hours every day, and know that not everyone is the sort of extravert that is able to jump into these sorts of things easily, even when they agree with the cause. But I would point out that the purpose we are serving on the picket line is twofold:

We are refusing / preventing work normally done on our work site to apply pressure on management / government at the negotiating table;
We are building public awareness of key issues which greatly undercut the government’s steadfast narrative of greedy teachers demanding more free massages and “more than twice the raise any other union got.”

*cough* despite not coming off two years’ of zeros as teachers are.

To these two purposes, I would argue that our attention while on strike is much better utilized if we focus on the second of these two goals. In most industries, a union withholding its labour penalized the owners financially as capital is prevented from moving and thus accumulating value. To most employers, this financial pressure can create an immediate effect; we saw this in action when the truckers’ union at the Port of Vancouver went on strike earlier this year, effectively shutting down a major port of trade, and were granted a deal in less than a week. But as the withholding of our labour actually saves the government millions of dollars a week, we can see that merely closing our work site created minimal (in fact opposite) leverage for our union in its negotiations. If we stick to this course of action, the government would have little incentive to not let the strike drag on until October until we’re broke enough to accept a deal that would negate all of the work, sacrifice and difficult choices we have made to get us to this point.

What matters, it seems to me, and could help us greatly in our cause as our walkout goes into a second week before summer vacation takes the public eye away from our negotiations, is the raising of public support for our struggle for a fair deal in this round of bargaining. Part of the way we do this is by positively representing ourselves and our intentions while on the line. How we interact with traffic, pedestrians and other working people in our communities goes a long way in establishing a public perception of our union and its efforts that many of us have long-wished was more a part of the face of the BCTF. For better or worse, while we are ‘on the line’ in front of our schools, we are who our neighbours are seeing as the union they keep hearing about on the news these days. They could drive by and see a bunch of folks socializing in lawn chairs with their signs propped up against the tent-les; or they could see an enthusiastic team of teachers actively courting their support and solidarity.

By all means, take some time to get warmed up. Bring a lawn chair to rest your feet or back, and catch up with your colleagues. Play a guitar. But each shift should be making a concerted effort to connect with the people driving and walking through our neighbourhood. You’d be surprised the effect of an engaging smile and a wave from a passing stranger, let alone fifteen.

Eye contact creates empathy and respect between people, even when they disagree. Pour on the kindness to those with stern glances, birds or words. Reasonable people can disagree, and these interactions allow people to take a stance on the issue of our negotiations. For my part I can say that in our weeks on the picket so far, these have been many, many more honks, waves, thumbs-ups, solidarity-fists, and smiles than there have been their negative counterparts. And as the government continues to stonewall progress on a labour-disruption that – for the moment – impacts every corner of the province, the imbalance has only grown. This groundswell of support is our only means of influencing government’s posture at the bargaining table, and we should actively continue to court it across our lines this week.

To this end I compel you to demonstrate resolve to stand together as a school against an imposed contract that would not only perpetuate the injustices of the past, but would further degrade the conditions of our province’s schools.

Not everyone feels as passionately as I do, perhaps, and I think that’s fine. A union is intended to be an expression of democracy, and the differences in our opinions make us stronger, not weaker. But at the moment we are on strike, the result of just such a democratic expression of the membership, even if you voted (or would have preferred to vote) no. If you are disconcerted by the hope of having ‘gone out,’ I would further add that the duration, not to mention the end results, of our current job action could depend on us maximizing our efforts to engage the public while out picketing.

If you are unconvinced, try driving by a school with a handful of teachers picketing from lawn chairs. Then drive by Charles Best as their entire staff is marching the length of Como Lake Avenue with their signs asking the province for A Fair Deal. Drive by Gleneagle during any shift many of our recall teachers are out there, and I would bet that it becomes a little harder to dismiss our union as an unreasonable party to an eternal gridlock in BC education.

Our energy line has pioneered a few new picket moves this week, and will be exploring more original material next week. Mike and others have supplied new and creative signs for our zone on Landsdowne. And there is talk of a ‘costume’ day on the line next week.

As the kids in my neighbourhood keep asking me in their scrawled hop-scotch courts marking the days of their newfound summer vacation, to boot: why don’t we have any sidewalk chalk out there?

We aren’t on strike because we’ve lost or are losing. We’re on strike because we still might win. But what there’s left for us to win might have to be won this week.

So let’s make it count.

See you out there,

Bryan

2014, activism, christy clark, Classroom Communities, Democracy, editorials, gleneagle, job action, letters, Pedagogy, protest, strike, tyranny

Guest Post: Letter from a Colleague

June 24, 2014 bryanjack

Melanie Stokes is a colleague of mine who forwarded me this letter that she submitted to the Vancouver Sun to share here.

As teachers are now in their second week of full job action, it may be important to consider the reasons why this situation is happening now. Over the last thirty years, society has undergone great changes and the role of education has expanded accordingly. The time has come for us to decide if we are able or want to support education with all the expectations of what it must deliver.

Thirty years ago, classes were often larger but were mostly a homogenous group of kids. Schools had clear expectations about discipline and students were streamed according to academic ability. Curriculum was focussed on basic literacy and numeracy skills and going into the work place rather than university was the norm after graduation. Students with special needs were segregated. Schools were not expected to deliver individual education plans; neither were teachers required to meet all the learning needs of all the children in their classes. Teachers taught the whole class as a group and did their best to provide accelerated materials to the bright kids, and get the slower learners caught up. That was pretty much it. No one felt it necessary to feed children breakfast because they were too hungry to learn or had to learn how to deal with autistic, Downs Syndrome, ADD, ADHD, Oppositional Disorder students or large groups of children who spoke no English at all.

Over the last thirty years, education has been given the job of trying to fix all the problems of an increasingly complex society. Teachers took it in their stride, believing that they could, and would be able to make positive changes for the children in their care. They embraced the idea of integration for special needs students and never considered that at some point, the funding to for teacher support would be reduced to the point where classroom management would become almost impossible. They have accepted children in their classes who have no idea how to function in a group setting, how to speak or comprehend English, children from poor, dysfunctional families with no social or financial resouces, refugee children from war torn countries with resulting psychological problems, learners with a myriad of challenges that teachers are expected to address.

Teachers did and still do go about their jobs every day believing they can make a positive impact on the social, emotional, and acedemic growth of the children in their care. Despite the rhetoric of government and union, this fight is about the value of education and what we, as a society deem important. Do we want a return to the “one size fits all” education practice of the past, or do we wish to continue with the education system we have grown to expect? If so, then we should be prepared to pay for it.

Schools of today are successful because of the efforts of those who work within them. If there is no will or not enough money to support educators to do the job we demand of them, then we should go back to the old school system and stop expecting teachers, principals, and support staff to do more and more for our children with unrealistic funding and less and less support.

If a good education for all children is considered important, and it should be, then let’s stop the erosion of services and demand that our government provide the necessary financial support to keep the education we expect for our children.

bc liberals, bcedplan, British Columbia, learning, Soapbox, strike.#bced, teaching

15 Myths Used To Demonize Teachers

June 13, 2014 krispin

Whenever there is a labour conflict between Teachers and Government all the mythology that surrounds the teaching profession begins to swirl about

Every myth ever conjured about teachers by child or adult is suddenly used to twist together a bizarre caricature. The image of teacher is transformed into that of an immoral, greedy, freakish demon which needs to be put in its place for the good of the children. To that end, the Government is inevitably called upon to exorcise the beast and the demon teacher is legislated back to work.

I have managed to survive two rounds of demonization and legislated exorcism in my career and I figure I am destined to survive another but In the meantime, lets take a look at some of the myths society uses to shape their concept of ‘teacher’ in both good times and bad.

Myth #1: Teachers never leave the school.

I think everyone at some point in their young grade school lives, figured their teachers never left the school. I still remember standing dumbfounded when I saw my grade 1 teacher out and about in the community one Saturday. I still remember asking “Mom! Why is Mrs. MacDonald out of the school?

Myth #2: Those who can’t do, teach

I would say this is the most famous and perhaps most resilient myth out there about teachers but ultimately it is a falsehood.

In my 18 years a teacher I have worked with a former olympic athlete, a CFL lineman, a world-class marathoner, lawyers, a fire fighter, a former military officer, a professional dancer, a touring musician, authors and a myriad of other talented and wonderful people who have come to teaching for any number of reasons.

What is perhaps more inspirational are those who went straight into teaching because THAT is what they wanted to do more than anything else in this world. It is these teachers that are the foundation of our school system and to speak ill of them is tantamount to speaking ill of Gandhi, God or Gershwin.

Myth #3: Teachers are not as well-educated as people in other professions.

Let me just start with this. What a load of stinky horse manure.

90% of the teachers I work with have Masters degrees. Of that 90% most have 3 degrees. A number of teachers I have worked with over the years have had PhD’s and one of my colleagues is finishing up a PhD from Oxford. So if you think this myth to be true… You might want to reassess your definition of education.

Myth #4: Teachers don’t have children of their own.

Even as a Sr. High School teacher I get looks of amazement or an audible “Ew gross!”, when students learn I have children of my own. It is as if there is this belief that teachers take and oath of celibacy or are surgically sterilized as part of some ritualistic initiation into the teaching profession.

Honest, many of us have children and we know what it is like on both sides of the playground fence.

See #Thisismystrikepay for further evidence that we procreate.

Myth #5: Teachers don’t care about kids!

Lets just stop and think about that for a second… Yah you are right. That one is just an outright stupid myth.

Myth #6: Teachers don’t understand how difficult job action is on families

Refer to myth #4

Myth #7: A good teacher can be effective regardless of circumstance.

This myth is a favourite amongst those who are looking to ‘reform’ the education and justify cutting teacher wages, taking away teacher benefits or changing conditions of employment. They say things like “If we had better teachers, our school system wouldn’t be in decline” or “The reason Finland has such a GREAT education system is that they have better teachers”

On the surface it is easy to get on board with this myth and say “YAH! If only we had better teachers!” and as flattering as it is to have people thinking that teachers are capable of overcoming massive class sizes, lack of resources, poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, mental health issues, family discord, eating disorders, physical abuse, hunger, medical conditions, bad parenting, learning disabilities… All without any help. It isn’t going to happen.

As fantastic of a teacher as I think I am, there are just some kids I cannot help within the confines of a classroom without the proper supports in place outside of the classroom.

Myth #8: Teachers are not as good as they use to be.

Let’s be honest. Teaching back in the day was a piece of cake. There was nowhere near the complexities in the classrooms of the past that we see in our classrooms today.

If you grew up in Canada and are over 40, your school experience was more than likely very WASP’Y. There was no diversity of any kind when I was a kid. There was no such thing as ESL and if there was, it wasn’t in my school. Learning disabled kids went to a “special school” or they dropped out. Bad kids were eventually kicked out. The curriculum was simple and straight forward. There was no special adaptations or deadline extensions. All anyone needed to do in order to pass was to be present, polite and have a pulse. Life and teaching was simple back in the day, today not so much.

Myth #9: Teachers don’t care about taxpayers!

Lets see… Last I recall, I get a whack of money taken off my pay cheque just like everyone else in this world and it is called income tax. I guess that makes me a tax payer just like everyone else.

Of course we care about the tax payer because you and I are getting hammered to death with rising fees and rates to compensate for the corporate tax cuts the Government handed out when they came to power. This whole mess we have before us today is because of taxes and the lack or misappropriation of said taxes.

Myth #10: Teachers get paid through the summer.

One of the very first conversations I ever had about the teaching profession after I graduated was based on this myth. No I do not get paid during summer. I get paid over 10 months, September through June. Some teachers choose to have their pay distributed over a 12 month period so they have some income over summer but we get paid for a 10 month period.

Myth #11: Teachers can collect unemployment benefits over the summer.

There was a time way back before I was a teacher that this nice little perk was true (in some jurisdictions). Today however, if you have a job to return to in September (Continuing Contract), you cannot collect UI.

If you have a Temporary Contact and do not have a job to return to in September you can collect Unemployment benefits and the tax payer is funding your summer. The irony here is that the Province would like to be able to run the education system as if all teachers were temporary teachers. This would end up costing Tax Payers far more than what the current system does because the Province would be on the hook for paying 40,000 teachers during the school year and paying unemployment benefits for 40,000 teachers over the summer months as well.

Myth #12: Teachers qualify for a full pension after five years.

This fallacy comes from the way a teacher’s pension is calculated. Even my family seems to think this is a truth. “Boy must be nice to qualify for a full pension already!” Is the usual summer time backyard barbecue refrain.

Teachers qualify for a full pension after reaching a factor of 90. (Years of Teaching + Age = 90). This qualifies you for a full pension and your income is based on the income of your best five years.

Myth #13: The teachers pension pays you 100% of working income and all their health benefits for as long as they live.

Don’t I wish! If a teacher reaches factor 90 they can collect 70% of their working income during their retirement years. Health benefits are not paid once the teacher reaches 65.

Myth #14: As a tax payer, I am paying for every last cent of a teacher’s retirement.

I could see how people would be annoyed by a teacher’s retirement package if this were true but the teachers’ pension is 80% fully funded. This means that 12 billion dollars worth of investments, managed through a joint trusteeship between the BCTF and the Provincial Government generate enough revenue to cover 80% of the payouts to retired teachers.

The remaining 20% is funded jointly between tax payers and teachers but the ultimate goal is to make the teachers pension entirely self funding so absolutely nothing comes out of the tax payers pocket. In fact it would be in the taxpayers best interest to ensure this pension fund does become self funding rather than seeing it dismantled.

Myth #15: Teachers can’t be fired.

Well I hate to break it to you but since I have been teaching, I have seen a number of teachers dismissed and it didn’t really seem all that difficult to send them packing. If the union was standing in the way, it acted as more of a door mat than an obstacle

What people don’t seem to understand is that there is a process for dismissing teachers and this process is there to protect everyone involved. Contrary to popular belief, to have a system that allows teachers to be fired on a whim is neither ethical or practical and can result in more harm being done than good.

There you go. 15 common myths about teachers that are just a bunch of bunk. So next time you are talking to the demon in your child’s classroom, remember their horns and devilish red skin are probably made up of myths.

bc liberals, Soapbox

Working Class Families Can’t Afford Another 13 Years of BC Liberals

June 3, 2014 krispin

The slow grading economic attrition of the working class in BC is closing in on a breaking point. When the BC Liberals came into power in 2001 they promised sunshine and roses for everyone through tax cuts and bountiful work. Their campaign slogan may as well have been “Vote for us and you will be oozing money in no time!” but alas that promise never came to fruition and now the arrival date of our sunshine and roses has been pushed to some unspecified date beyond 2017.

Since the BC Liberal landslide over the BC NDP – 13 years 17 days ago (and counting), I can honestly say I do not know a single working class family that is better off today than they were on that momentous day. In fact most are worse off and falling deeper down a rabbit hole of debt and despair. The promises made in the 2001 haven’t come close to their billing and the working class families I run with, are having to cope with a stark decline in their standard of living.

How people are dealing with the economic abyss the BC Liberals have created varies. Some people I know have left or are leaving the province, others have downsized living spaces but most of the changes people face fall into the grin, bear and cut costs category. The one car family is coming back into vogue (not necessarily a bad thing); Families are dialling back on extra curricular activities for their children; Vacations are spent close to home; dining out is not as frequent… Essentially the middle class lifestyle in British Columbia is drying up.

So why is this a big deal you may ask? People cutting back on the consumerism of the past 30 years is a good thing and I agree! The problem here is that all this fiscal restraint isn’t part of any kind of back to basics, common sense economic movement. It is the direct result of BC Liberal’s piss poor economic policy which is actively eroding the spending power of BC’s working class.

You would think that someone who has been gainfully employed since 2001, shouldn’t have to cut back on their child’s extra curricular activities or worse, leave the province because they simply can’t afford to fork out any more after tax income but this is what is happening.

Clark has always been a bit of a miser, especially when it comes to the Public Service but recently she has spoken repeatedly about the need to keep wages low for other British Columbians as well. Clark doesn’t seem to understand that in order to have a healthy economy and a healthy community, people need to have money to spend on things other than their mortgage, utility bills and groceries.

“Clark said she’s concerned raising the minimum wage from its current $10.25 an hour could hurt job creation, even though Sinclair has said it isn’t enough for people to make ends meet.” - Vancouver Province, March 2014

“The premier is predicting B.C.’s liquefied natural gas industry will soon be competing for labour with Alberta’s oil patch and Saskatchewan’s potash industry, and says she’s concerned about rising wages.” - Canada.com, March 2014

“We can’t build an industry in our province or in this country if we see wages, if we see huge wage inflation.” - Vancouver Province, March 2014

To prop up her rhetoric, Christy Clark ensured she would be able to utilize Temporary Foreign Workers in an effort to keep wages low as she moves ahead with her LNG plans in Northern British Columbia.

OTTAWA — B.C.’s natural resources sector, including the budding liquefied natural gas industry, was declared to be in Canada’s strategic interests Monday as part of a non-binding federal-provincial deal that includes a commitment to encourage the active use of the Temporary Foreign Worker program. - Vancouver Sun, March 2014

Now I am not saying run away wages are a necessarily a good thing but the reality is, British Columbians need to be able to make a wage that reflects the cost of living in this Province. If wages are going to continue be actively suppressed by government, the only people that will remain in this province will be the wealthy and legions of temporary foreign workers

Downloading of costs

The other element of the income attrition workers in BC are experiencing is the downloading of costs onto the public. When the BC Liberals were voted in back in 2001 they promised the lowest personal tax rates in Canada and to the delight of many British Columbians they delivered. What the BC Liberals replaced taxation with however, is the never-ending increase of fees that tap the remaining after tax income from workers wallets.

Education

From the outset, Christy Clark has been systematically dismantling BC’s public education system and downloading cost of educating our children to the parents.

As much as people love to side with the government and malign teachers, what seems to be forgotten is that the public education system is the education system of the working class. For most, it is the only means by which to affordably educate our children. Because of chronic underfunding over the past 13 years, School Districts have been forced to cut back on funding for programs and services for children of working class families.

What school districts then have to do is download the cost of what is no longer funded, directly to parents. Course fees, supply fees, band fees, lab fees, sports fees… Even the cost of critically important services such as psycho educational testing has been downloaded to parents. If you want your child tested in a timely manner, you have to fork out the money for a private assessment because these services have been cut to the point where kids are on waiting lists for a year or more before they are seen by an educational psychologist.

The BC Liberals will tell parents that there is plenty of money to go around. “it is just a matter of schools being more efficient, accountable and innovative to make their funding go further” but the reality is that the BC Liberals have intentionally downloaded the cost of educating working class children, directly onto their working class parents.

Fee & Rate Increases

Since 2001 there have been a slew of other costs that working British Columbians have had to bare and all of them together more than make up for any tax break the BC Liberals have handed out since their election

BC Hydro - 36% rate increase since 2001 – 2013 and an additional 26% increase through 2016

MSP Premiums - 85% increase since 2001 costing the average family an additional $736 a year for the average working class family

BC Ferries - 70% increase on major routes and 80% increase on minor routes since 2001

ICBC - 27.6% increase in basic vehicle insurance since 2001 ranking BC as the 2nd highest in Canada for Automobile Insurance

University Tuition - 100% increase in tuition to British Columbia’s post secondary institutions since 2001.

Cost of Running the BC Legislature - 94% increase to keep our MLA’s plump and satisfied while screwing over the BC public

How long the BC Liberals figure they can keep up this pattern of holding down wages while downloading costs to the good people of BC is anyone’s guess. Perhaps my biggest concern is that there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight. Christy doesn’t seem to have any plan to improve the standard of living for the workers of BC beyond her new pet project, Liquid Natural Gas. Even if all of Christy’s LNG plans do go through I am not sure we can afford another 13 years and 17 days (and counting) of BC Liberal Rule.

bargaining, British Columbia, canada, charter of rights and freedoms, christyclarkslockout, chritsty clark, Classroom Communities, Democracy, editorial, education, freedom, government, history, labour, labour rights, law, learning, lockout, Pedagogy, peter fassbender, rule of law, social studies, supreme court

An Open Letter to BC Education Minister Peter Fassbender

May 31, 2014 bryanjack

Minister Fassbender visits the TALONS Classroom, October 2013

May 31^st, 2014

Greetings, Minister Fassbender,

As a social studies teacher in the Coquitlam School District’s T.A.L.O.N.S. Program, my teaching partners and I work to support the learning outcomes of our course curricula by cultivating an experiential, interdisciplinary learning environment. In designing a program which meets the social and emotional needs of gifted learners, T.A.L.O.N.S. teachers strive to align the explicit purposes of schooling – to educate the younger generation in the concepts, skills and competencies required to construct their individual and collective futures – with the implicit messages about our shared democratic values as Canadians – that each voice in our society is valued within the system of laws and government we are handing down to young people.

As you may realize it is important to teach courses on the foundations and traditions of our democratic history within a context that is true to these ideals. To this end T.A.L.O.N.S. students are provided with opportunities to exercise agency and voice in the creation of their own learning, as my colleagues and I believe that teaching students about the principles of the Enlightenment in a classroom that does not honour collective expression and democratic principles would negate the lesson at hand before the bell had even rung. As Gert Biesta and other educationists have noted, “Young people learn at least as much about democracy and citizenship – including their own citizenship – through their participation in a range of different practices that make up their lives, as they learn from that which is officially prescribed and formally taught.”

As such the context in which the learning occurs communicates a great deal about the meaning that is created in the democratic classroom. And I raise these foundations of the T.A.L.O.N.S. program to your attention in part to refresh your memory that you’ve actually visited us in action. Along with our local MLAs, Coquitlam Superintendent Tom Grant, and other educational dignitaries, you were brought to see a few of our district’s exemplary classrooms at Gleneagle Secondary last fall. You were only with us for a few minutes, enough time to tout your government’s dedication to providing more education in line with how our students introduced the program’s philosophy, but I feel it appropriate at this time to highlight how incongruous your handling of the British Columbia Education file has been with public education’s democratic ideals in the time since.

Your government has been found twice to have violated BC teachers’ Charter rights to collectively bargain. Additionally, the Supreme Court found the Liberal Government to have bargained in bad faith to provoke a strike that would allow you further infringements of the province’s public servants. In the ten years that this affront to justice has been allowed to continue – in duplicated legislation and dubious appeals – the children of the province have seen their futures stolen out from under them with unstaffed libraries, under-supplied learning centers, closed language labs and counseling offices ill-suited to address today’s (significant) student needs. The defense your government has raised when judged categorically by the Supreme Court to have broken the law (twice) is that adhering to the law as written would be “too expensive” at this stage in the game.

You can be forgiven for your lack of history education. But as someone charged by the government to teach young people about our democracy, I find it difficult to reconcile the lessons in my prescribed government curriculum with the context created by your Liberal government’s disrespect for the country’s highest law. After being told in 2011 that Premier Clark’s own Bills 27/28 were unconstitutional, the Liberals did not appeal the decision and proposed nearly identical legislation that was rejected by the Supreme Court yet again in 2014. Rather than take this judgment at face value, or even oppose it on the merits of the case, your government has instead hired a private trial lawyer at taxpayer expense to argue before the Court of Appeal not that the ruling was flawed, or that your government did not in fact violate teachers’ Charter rights, but that obeying the law would be too expensive.

As a private citizen you might be entitled to such unique interpretations of the country’s laws. In fact, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was conceived so that individuals would not be so vulnerable to the lumbering power of the State. But as a representative of an elected government, your continued disregard for the law of the land, taken together with the subversion of its very intent by using the Court of Appeal to further abuse educators and students is fundamentally opposed to the spirit of Canadian democracy as it is taught in the province’s schools. It is a shame that when you visited our classroom you weren’t given the opportunity to explain why it is you and your government feel it is that you are above the law.

Our public school classrooms are intended to reflect democracy as an ideal, a point beyond the horizon toward which humanity is forever striving. And this ideal holds that each individual’s voice is granted respect and protection by a mutual agreement that no one is above the law, or able to exert their will upon the group by sheer force or inherent power. In attempting to design a classroom where these lessons are taught on the pages of our textbooks and in the activities we undertake as a class, the T.A.L.O.N.S. teachers’ intentions are to provide learners with lived lessons in democratic functioning.

What have your actions, and those of your government, sought to teach young people in British Columbia about democracy? About the rule of law? About our collective responsibility to one another?

When you visited us, and in the press releases I have seen in the time since, your words have often seemed directly in line with the values at the heart of the public education system. But your actions have consistently negated whatever weight these words might have carried, and such incongruence demands either an explanation or a change of course.

I would be heartily pleased to see either of these, though your past actions haven’t made me hopeful.

Regards,

Bryan Jackson T.A.L.O.N.S. Program Teacher SD43

Soapbox

So I Got Called Greedy Today

May 24, 2014 krispin

So I got called greedy today.

I was driving to work, turned on the radio and lo and behold! The melodic sound of Christy Clark’s voice filled the passenger cabin. Apparently she is on another Sound Bytes Over Facts media tour and I was lucky enough to flip her off… I mean flip her on, just as she was calling teachers “GREEDY!”

After getting a hold of myself and resisting the urge to drive into oncoming traffic, I began to wonder. How much does a MLA cost as compared to a teacher?

We are constantly hearing how much teachers want and how much teachers cost but who costs more? Who gives the biggest bang for the tax payers buck?

Now my approach to this calculation is going to be crude, I am not going to itemize facility costs, support staff cost, supply costs. I am just going to take the total cost to run the Legislature and the total cost to run the School System and break it down on a per MLA and per Teacher basis, as if MLA’s and Teachers pocket the whole budget. So here goes nothing.

Since BC Liberals took power total MLA compensation and Legislature operational costs rose from $36 Million to $70 Million. That is a whopping 94% increase to do business in just 11 years. To add insult to injury, in 2013 MLA’s sat for only 36 days.

Tyee Spending Costs Explode
CBC No Fall Legislative Session
Globe & Mail BC Legislature Sits 36 of 572 Days
Globe & Mail Liberals, NDP Back Speaker

Compare this the operational costs of BC Schools, which went from 3.6 Billion to 4.7 billion in the same period of time. That is a 30% increase to run and organization that is 352 times bigger than the Legislature.

2001/02 funding
2012/13 funding

Greedy Tax Suckers	Cost To Do Business	Increase Since 2001	Number of Greedy	Days In Session	Daily Greed Index
MLA's	$70,000,000	94%	85	36	$22,000 : 1
Teachers	$4,700,000,000	30%	30,000	186	$842 : 1

Although there is a segment of the population who will read this and immediately jump to the tired old refrain of “Quit your whining and get to work”. My hope that my readers who are remotely rational, will see the absurdity of a someone like Christy Clark saying “Teachers cost too much, teachers are greedy”, when she is sucking off the tax payer’s teat harder than anyone.

So this is my message to Ms. Clark.

Before you go pointing a finger at someone and calling them greedy, perhaps you should check your narcissism at the door and realize there are three other fingers on your hand pointing directly back at you.

It is people like Christy who give politicians a bad name

Note: These numbers are based on a simple Internet search. If someone has more accurate numbers, please share.

bced, British Columbia, Finland, Soapbox, teaching

Comparison of British Columbia & Finland

May 14, 2014 krispin

Wait!!! Before you click away, I know what you are asking. “Why in gods name are you comparing British Columbia and Finnish education system? That is a tired 1-string banjo you are playing and no one wants to hear it.“ and I completely agree with you BUT this is different… I promise.

This post was born from a Twitter conversation with one of British Columbia’s finest politicians @MaryForBC. The gist of which was, I complained about the @bcliberals and their education funding policies and @MaryForBC countered with pleasant 140 character “Golly gee Keith, things aren’t that bad!” (I paraphrase)

During the discussion someone threw Finland into the mix as a foil to highlight all #BCED shortcomings. Then, @MaryForBC countered with a predictable insult, suggesting the main reason the Finnish system is so good is that they choose their teachers from the top third of students whereas BC Teachers are chosen from the bottom third… and so it went.

@MaryForBC did however; open the door for a broader conversation about the differences between Finland and BC. Tweeting that: “I think it is all worth looking at” So just for fun I collected some data. Screen Shot 2014-05-13 at 11.56.17 AM

Please understand that I do not intend this to be the final word on the subject, just a conversation starter. I realize I am trying to compare a Nation to a Province but even so, I feel the comparison is still compelling. In compiling the information shared in the table, I had to look here there and everywhere so it is a bit of a hodgepodge but I am confident that all the data is accurate. I will update should I find better information.

In the comparison, I do not look at just school related items. I take a look at the bigger picture, specifically the economies of each. The similarities between Finland and British Columbia are really quite surprising. Population, exports, income levels are all relatively similar. When you are looking at the side-by-side comparison in the table that follows, try to consider how the similarities and the differences play out in the respective school systems.

What I found most surprising in all these numbers was the unemployment rates of these two jurisdictions. Finland has a higher rate of unemployment than British Columbia yet it’s rate of childhood poverty is just slightly over half of what BC’s is. When it comes to children in classrooms poverty is an extraordinarily important measure. There is no amount of teaching skill that can overcome the immediate effects of poverty and Finland seems to realize this.

Another difference I found interesting was actually in a similarity. The difference came in how teachers’ unions are viewed in each jurisdiction. In British Columbia the teachers’ union is viewed as the spawn of Satan, whereas in Finland the teachers’ union is seen as a partner in education with which government has a cooperative relationship.

Beyond the aforementioned, what this comparison illustrates to me is that Finland seems to see value in supporting all their citizens and their education system is only a small part of a social and economic system that works toward this end. To simply credit the success of Finland’s education system on the way they train their teachers, as @MaryForBC did, is astoundingly myopic.

I would hope that this comparison instead, illustrates that the current state of BC’s education system is not a simple matter of teachers not doing their job or being greedy but instead is the result of choices our government(s) has made. Choices that do not put all citizens on an equal footing. Choices that do not even come close to showing the kind of egalitarianism that Finland shows toward its citizens.

	British Columbia	Finland
Education Comparison
Teaching Credentials	Bachelors	Masters
University Tuition	5 - 6K per year	NO COST
Professional Development	Teacher directed & out of pocket	Teacher directed - State funded
Professional Autonomy	Under Attack	Very High
Teacher Organization	Unionized	Unionized
Teacher Evaluation	Contract driven	Contract driven
School Governance	60 School Districts	Managed by Municipalities
# of Public school Students	549,836	600,000
# Private Schools	347 (2012)	NO for profit private schools
Req Classroom Hours	850 – 950	592
Instructional Days	186	180
Class Size Averages	Grade dependent	No greater than 20
School Start	5 - 6 Years	6 - 7 Years
General Comparison
Population	4.4 Million	5.5 Million
Dependant Population	50% (Approximate)	53%
GDP	220 Billion	247 Billion
GDP per capita	$43,473 (CAD)	$38,658 (USD)
Income gap Top:Bottom	10.8 Times	5.6 Times
Population Below Poverty Line	15.5	11.9 (2012 - Updated)
Child poverty rates	18.6%	9.4% (Updated - 2012)
Unemployment rate	6%	8%
Youth Unemployment	13.2%	20.5%
Number of Billionaires	5	1
Personal tax rate 70K/yr	29.7%	40%
Corporate Tax Rate	11.5%	20.0%
Exports	$74 Billion (2012)	$78.23 billion (2012)

E-Learning, EDCI 335, EDCI 335 learning design, future of education, Learning Design, learning environments, MEd Posts, Pedagogy

Learning Environments of the Future

May 9, 2014 Christopher Lister

“Schools and universities can no longer claim a monopoly as seats of learning or of knowledge. Such learning and knowledge now resides in distributed networks. Learning can take place in the home, in work or in the community as easily as within schools.” – Graham Attwell

What will the future of learning environments look like?

Will learners continue to turn up, in droves, at brick and mortar schools where they will be divided into learning groups by age, sat in desks with the teacher and whiteboard as the focal point, compartmentalized by constricting classroom walls, and taught individual subjects within the narrow confines of a curriculum dictated by an educational governing body? Probably not, so are we then on the cusp of radically altering our learning environments to better suit tomorrow’s learners? – Learner’s whose brain physiologies are changing and whose socially connective needs are rapidly evolving.

Learning environments transcend the traditional four-walled classrooms and may include books/text, e-learning, resources, relationships/communities, assessments, and physical learning spaces. Simply put, learning environments are physical and virtual spaces or objects that are directly connected to the learning process.

Nobody really knows what future learning environments will actually look like, but we know they need to evolve from the current model. In Sugata Mitra’s TED Ed video titled, “Build A School In The Cloud” he talks about the today’s learning environments with reproach. He accurately conveys that today’s model of education is rooted in Colonial British Empire history. A model that was important 300 years ago but not so much any more. This mirrors Sir Ken Robinson’s view of current learning environments in his video, “Changing Education Paradigms.“ Education is a slow institution to change. To better communicate my vision what learning environments might look like beyond today, I thought it prudent to look at the future in two steps – the near future and far future.

Near Future:

I believe learners will continue to attend brick and mortar schools to receive their education, but I expect they will have more choice over their learning. Learners will be permitted more freedom to direct their own learning and pursue their own methods of inquiry. Rather than educators steering learning based on a set of learning outcomes, learners will work in collaborative groups spanning global communities. Learners will find each other and organize themselves based on area of interest rather than age. The near future of learning environments will continue to follow the blended learning model and may include some of the following learning needs:

Collaboration – many teachers have developed their own personal learning networks to deepen their understanding of how people learn. In the same way, learners will be encouraged to develop their own networks.
There will be a shift from teaching content to teaching how to learn. Brain science will be explored further with respect to understanding the changing physiology of our learner’s brains.
Content will continue to move from analogue to digital and involve highly personalized learning.
Learning won’t be restricted to the confines of a traditional six-hour school day. Learners will follow their own paths of inquiry and take advantage of the expanding role of open education.
School will need to be resigned into dynamic physical learning spaces. Our current classrooms have changed little in 100 years.

Far Future:

Learners will no longer attend brick and mortar schools to receive their education in the way they currently do, and educators will not be employed by a governing body like they are today. Instead, educators will morph into coaches. Coaches may be ordinary folk who happen to have a certain skill(s) set in demand. This type of learning will likely be conducted in a virtual environment and be available to anyone wanting to develop that particular skill(s). Educational communities will naturally develop as like-minded learners find each other in virtual environments. Like Attwell says in his article, The Future of Learning Environments, “…major impact of the uses of new technologies and social networking for learning is to move learning out of the institutions and into wider society.”

Future learning environments will no doubt be exciting and fulfilling and are very likely to be rooted in science and technology.

Technology driven – no need for spelling, writing, pens, or pencils in these environments. The evolution of computer interfaces means the end of the keyboard and a shift to cognition form of communication.
Science driven – Science will continue to help us understand how learn best and we are sure to maximize this in the learning process.

What will future learning environments look like from your perspective?

References:

http://knowledgeworks.org/learning-in-2025

The future of the physical learning environment: school facilities that support the user – http://www.oecd.org/edu/innovation-education/centreforeffectivelearningenvironmentscele/49167890.pdf

http://knowledgeworks.org/future-of-learning

3D Printing, digital learning, hands on learning, learning, maker movement, skanect, teaching

3D Printing in my classroom

May 7, 2014 krispin

Our Printer – Cat NOT included

3D printing in my classroom has taken over my life. I need to go to 3DPA (3D Printing Anonymous) post-haste. Last night was the final straw as I was flopping and flipping about, trying to figure out how I am going to get 30 student 3D print jobs completed before the end of the year.

Since this very cool piece of machinery arrived in my classroom May 1st, I have been doing everything in my power to get the kids up and running. Creating their own 3D objects to print before year’s end. The main focus has been figuring out how kids can create bobble heads of themselves.

The machine we decided to purchase the Flash Forge 3D printer based on the reviews we found on-line and ultimately the price point. As conscientious educators, we had to seek out a product that would provide us the most bang for our buck and I think we hit the mark. So far the printer has been bomb-proof and worked right out of the box. One of the extruders is a bit finicky but I think it is just a simple matter of finding the right setting. The biggest challenge is capturing an image that you can actually print.

We have had a varying success over the past three weeks trying to capture and render a 3D image of ourselves. Our first go round we were following a guide from a website called Instructables. It used an app called 123D capture to collect our images and render a 3D model. Unfortunately, of the 30 kids in the class, only 4 of them managed to capture and render an 3D object worthy of printing.

This is not to say that this particular method wasn’t any good just that it wasn’t intuitive or efficient enough to get a classroom of 30 kids up and running without a lot of hand holding and troubleshooting. I would still recommend reading the guide as it has a lot of good information for preparing the capture for printing so it is still worth a perusal.

Enter Skanect

I stumbled upon this bit of 3D capture software while looking for another method of capturing 3D images that was quicker and less fussy. Essentially it is a brilliant piece of software that allows you to hack the scanning power of the XBox Kinect and employ it to do a 3D scan of pretty much anything you want.

Now all I need to do is connect my Kinect to my laptop using a $2.99 adaptor from Amazon, fire up the software, sit a kid down in an office chair, line them up into the scan zone and tell them to slowly rotate around for 30 – 50 seconds. Voila! Bob’s your uncle and you have a 3D scan of yourself.

The following scan of pretty old me took 15 minutes from scanner to printer. Kids work coming soon.

Scanning	Rendered Image	Cleaned up Image

Printing	Finished Product	Painted

Resources

Here are some 3D scanning and editing resources worth checking out.

Skanect - 3D scanning with your XBox kinect scanner

Instructables - Great resource for learning how to creating 3D objects for printing (FREE & Paid)

123D - 3D capture software. On and offline versions (FREE)

Meshmixer - Great little 3D editing tool for prep your images for printing (FREE)

Sculptris - An AWESOME 3D sculpting too worth checking out (FREE)

#tiegrad, EDCI 335, EDCI 335 learning design, engagement, Learning Design, MEd Posts, motivation, Student Engagement, student engagment

The Science of Motiviation

April 27, 2014 Christopher Lister

How do you stay motivated to continue learning, doing assignments, and progressing as a lifelong learner?

“Humans, by their nature, seek purpose—to make a contribution and to be part of a cause greater and more enduring than themselves.” – Daniel Pink, Drive

Why is it then that many of us struggle to motivate ourselves? What is the secret behind motivation and learning? We cannot start to answer these questions without first defining motivation.

Wikipedia defines motivation as: “The driving force that causes the flux from desire to will in life.” Educational psychologists define motivation as, “…the processes that energize and give direction or purpose to behaviour (Wlodkowski, 1989).”

In simple terms, I think motivation is the internal desire to complete a task one has imagined possible. I clearly remember the night I decided to run my first ultramarathon. It was New Year 2006. I had been trail running for about a year, and could consistently run for a couple of hours on the trails without issue, but the Diez Vista was an altogether different challenge. I would be required to run non-stop for over seven hours. Where did the motivation come from to transition from running two hours on a Saturday morning with friends to running 50km? Looking back there were six key elements to my motivation:

Plan/schedule – at the time I was running with friends who had developed a detailed training plan
Practice – every time I practiced, I felt stronger and moved a little closer to the goal
Confidence – after each training session I had inevitably run longer than I had ever done before, and with that my confidence and belief in myself increased.
Overcoming adversity – on our last training run which was scheduled to last about 7 hours. I snapped the laces on my trail shoes and got lost. The smaller group I was with turned a 7 hour training run into an 8.5 hour run. At that point i knew I could finish the race.
Support – I received and gave emotional support to ten friends for the four months we trained for the race. I also received coaching, tactical, and nutritional support from my fellow runners.
Challenge – for the majority of the time I was training, I wasn’t entirely sure whether I could actually complete the race, and I believe this uncertainty was a driving force behind my motivation.

My mantra throughout my training was an inspiring quote I found in a running magazine in 2006:

“Your biggest challenge isn’t someone else; it’s the ache in your lungs, the burning in your legs, & the voice inside you that yells, “Can’t!” But you don’t listen, you push harder. You hear the voice whisper “Can.” and you discover that the person you thought you were is no match for the one you really are.” - unknown

Motivation and Life-Long In Education

When I think of my own motivation for lifelong learning it stems from a desire to master my craft. I can see the educator I want to be. I have a strong mental image of him. I know exactly what he looks like, his educational pedagogy, how he interacts with his learners and his peers, and how he designs his learning experiences.

A recent Scientific American article titled, Three Critical Elements Sustain Motivation helped me to better understand how I maintain a love of learning, and what keeps me motivated through the process.

Self-determination

Motivation can manifest speedily when we feel like we are the captains of our own ship. When we have a level of control over the direction of our learning, we are more likely to be motivated to move along the continuum to mastery. The energy and enthusiasm applied to a given task increases significantly when one is given the freedom to approach a new learning experience in ways that best suits one’s own learning style. Learner autonomy is important in this phase. As Dirksen says, “You may be able to influence your learners, but you can’t control them.”

Purpose

When I compare the most successful learning experiences I have had with my learners with my own learning experiences I noticed that both events have a clear purpose for learning. When I canvas my learners about learning that is most purposeful I often hear responses such as “Can I use it in real life?” and “Will this help me with…” In order to motive today’s learners the work they complete needs to have real life applications. It has to be authentic and engaging. More importantly, the work needs to be purposeful for the learner and not necessarily what the teacher thinks is purposeful. The only way an educator can achieve this is to spend the necessary time to understand each of his/her learner’s needs.

Progress

Proficiency is equally important in the science of motivation. To maintain motivation levels one needs to feel success on a regular basis. Going back to my trail running experience for a moment – If I hadn’t see small gains in performance each week, then I’m sure my motivation levels would have dropped to the point that I would have discontinued my goal. From a learner’s perspective I believe it is important for students to see and measure the progress they are making in order to maintain their motivation levels. Video gaming is an excellent example of facilitating an ongoing level of progress to maintain motivation. Gamers are constantly being provided with feedback on their performance. This feedback enables them to see progress, and they can visualize their goal and maintain their motivation.

References:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/three-critical-elements-sustain-motivation/

http://www.personal.psu.edu/bxb11/m&g.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation

Design For How People Learn, Julie Dirksen

Drive, Daniel Pink

TIE Teachers: Learners to Learn With