Strike 2!

The parents are fighting again.

The provincial government and the teachers are at it again and it’s getting ugly. Last year, teachers worked under a work-to-rule strike until the provincial government passed a law, Bill 75, that forced teachers into a contract (essentially, it was the “because I said so” argument). In this bill it became illegal for teachers to strike while under an imposed 2 year contract. Then the province brings in an expert consultant to review Nova Scotia’s education system. Paid $75,000 to fashion a report in just 6 weeks, this report magically aligns with reforms the province was hoping to implement anyway. Some of these reform measures have already proven to be less than ideal in other provinces, yet ours is going ahead with them anyway.

Like one analogy I heard, it’s like 10,000 iron workers told you that bridge they are about to build is unsound. An expert, who has built bridges elsewhere that have design flaws that were found post production, submits a report that was completed in just six weeks. This report mentions nothing about helping the iron workers build a more structurally sound bridge. This report wants to restructure the departments of the company in charge of said bridge. Would you cross that bridge?

Nova Scotia teachers voted to strike today. In Nova Scotia education history, all 122 years of it, there was never a teacher strike. There was one last year and teachers just voted for another. However, this time the stakes are higher. Should the teachers strike, they will lose pay for sure, but they could possibly be fined $1,000 per day. How dire is the situation that teachers would vote 82.5% in favor of striking?

You would think that Nova Scotia’s education department would think, “hmm, our teachers think this reform won’t work. Perhaps we should listen.” In fact, the department has already said they will carry on implementing these drastic measures, regardless. Then again, this is same government struggling with health care but refuses to listen to nurses and doctors.

How can a government become so disconnected from it’s people?

There have already been numerous posts written by others ranting and raving on this subject. I just wanted to throw my two cents in there, too. I’ll keep you updated on what happens next.

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The Ugly Divorce in the Nova Scotia Education System

When something is broken, you fix it. When it’s a marriage, you do what you can make amends.

However, when pillars can no longer support and bridges collapse things can get ugly, especially when money and kids are involved. The ruthless ones will use the kids as pawns. The children unknowingly becomes players in a game in which they have no voice. Both sides trying their damnedest to make the other look like an unfit parent. When both sides are throwing mud and words the only ones who get dirty and hurt are the kids.

We are now into the second week of a province wide work to rule teacher strike. I’m pretty sure the only ones who have noticed anything change are the teachers, parents, and the few kids who participated in extracurricular activities. Otherwise, it’s been business as usual for the kids.

Except it hasn’t been.

You see, when the announcement was first made that the teachers would strike as a “work to rule” my first thought was that teachers’ job are about to get significantly easier. No more supervision. No more after school activities. Teachers arrive 20 minutes before school starts and leave 20 minutes after it ends. No more data entry – mandated testing, attendance, etc…

My second thought followed close behind. This isn’t going to make teacher’s jobs easier. In fact, it will be the exact opposite. Planning a day for 20-25 five and six year olds (or any year olds, for that matter) takes longer than the allowed 20 minutes. Teachers are discouraged from planning at home as they normally would. Being a teacher, I know first hand what can happen if you don’t have a lesson plan ready. It’s not pretty. Suddenly, it’s no longer teaching. It’s just keeping students busy so they don’t find other ways to entertain themselves that could potentially be destructive – self or otherwise. Reining them back in once they’ve lost focus is difficult indeed. Without the proper planning, students may not be receiving a proper education because they can’t do all the extras a teacher would normally plan.

The students who need a bit of extra help before a test, whether science, math, social studies, won’t receive it from the teacher who knows best. The senior working so hard on the sports team in an attempt to receive a sports scholarship to help pay for university is no longer being coached. They’re sidelined hoping their day comes before it’s too late.

Teachers are fed up. Hence the reason they have taken a stand. It’s the first time this has happened here in 125 years. Classes are too big, there is insufficient support, and teachers are doing far more than they are required to do. Has the government listened? When they found out that teachers wouldn’t be supervising students any longer, they deemed schools “unsafe” and locked students out. During the first and only day of the lockout, the government then said, “Our bad. We didn’t know schools had already taken measures to ensure supervision and student safety”. Again, the only ones who are being hurt here are the kids. I don’t think the government understands the irony of their lie. It’s the extras, the stuff teachers aren’t getting paid to do, that keep our students, our children, safe.

The only news I’ve heard from the government was about a bill they were going to try to force through legislation to impose a contract on teachers. That’s not negotiating. That’s not fair bargaining. That’s being a bully simply because you’re bigger. That’s being the parent who says, “Because I said so.”

I don’t know how long this work to rule strike will last. I doubt anyone does, really. It could be weeks, it could be months, it could be all year. At this point, I don’t think the government minds. To my knowledge it’s no skin off their backs. Other than looking bad by not working with the teachers to improve our education system, what’s it to them? They’re still getting paid. They’re not inconvenienced in any way. The government seems to be in no rush to resolve this.

This won’t affect our children today. Today they’re okay. It will most definitely affect them in the days to come. If we’re not careful many of them may become buried in the fallout and will be left behind. They will slip through the cracks of a broken education system. No, this isn’t hurting today. But it will hurt the future.

Our children are not pawns to be used to to make the other side appear to be the ugly parent. This isn’t a battle over custody. It’s a battle for what’s best for students. In my opinion, the ones in the classroom, the ones who know our students’ needs best, are the ones we should be heeding, not the absent parent.

The Order of the Phoenix

Any Harry Potter fan knows this story. The ministry denied that He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named had come back into power. Harry himself had seen otherwise and Dumbledore, the headmaster of the famous Hogwarts, believed him. What ensues is a major conflict between the school and the ministry with many forced decrees and rules imposed by said ministry.

It seems, though Voldemort hasn’t returned to Nova Scotia, there is still a battle raging between the ministry and schools. More specifically, between teachers and Karen Casey the education minister and Steven McNeil the premier.

Teachers and their Order (aka Union) have been trying to settle on a contract for 18 months now. Teachers need things in the classroom to change, yet the government is not willing to negotiate “working conditions” into the contract. The government doesn’t want to negotiate things like class size, data recording, individualized program plans (IPPs), smartphones in the classroom, standardized assessment, lack of preparation time, lack of specialists or supports for the classroom teacher.

The Order has proposed it’s set of beliefs that will change the education system to what it should be. They estimated their proposal to be $508 million. The Ministry said no. How about $41 million instead? The Ministry isn’t even willing to discuss working conditions.

The Ministry is so against this, they locked students out of school yesterday. Teachers reported to work as usual, but not one student stepped foot inside. Teachers voted to work to rule because they didn’t want to disrupt students learning. They still wanted to teach. The Ministry said too bad. If all teachers are doing is teaching, then students will not be supervised during lunch and recess and therefore won’t be safe.

That was a bold-faced lie.

The Order told the Ministry that schools were working to implement supervision to keep students safe. Teachers made it their number one priority to ensure student safety before the strike took effect. Yet the Ministry claims they didn’t know so they closed every school across the province. This forced parents to scramble to find child care and make arrangements for their kids while they were at work.

Voldemort fights dirty and does what is needed to rise to power and stay in power. He doesn’t work for the good of the future, he works for the good of himself. Denying his existence doesn’t make him go away.

Ministry, this is not a game we’re playing here. This is our future, our students, our children, who are affected most. Let the teachers teach and let them do in the best way they know how.

Where Would We Be?

Imagine a world without teachers. What would our world look like without classrooms, without schools, without the teachers our children adore?

This is the path Nova Scotia has found itself wandering along. Our teacher’s union has been in negotiations for over a year trying to bargain for better classroom conditions, better pay, and to save their long-service award – a bonus upon retirement for serving 25+ years. The union’s proposal would an cost an estimated $508 million. The bulk of that, $340 million, would be put towards a better working conditions. The province has countered with a $41 million proposal. That’s a difference of $467 million. I may have been born in the morning, but it wasn’t yesterday morning. I compare solving the the education problem with $41 million to buying a new car with the change you can find in your couch cushions.

After a year with no progress, after a year of the government saying things will change without changing anything, after a year of empty promises and no action teachers have taken a stand. They’re standing up for our kids, our children and their own, for a better place for themselves and for our most precious commodity. Our future. 9,300 teachers voted. An outstanding number of them, 96% to be precise, have voted in favor of a province wide strike. Teachers want to be heard. Teachers need to be heard. The government says they’re listening, but they’re not doing. The government says they’re already putting money into classrooms. However, it’s either so little it’s unnoticeable or it’s putting it in the wrong places.

When was the trust between the government and the classroom lost? When did those who are now removed from the classroom working in administration higher up lose their faith in teachers’ abilities and opinions? Does the government not realize how thin teachers are spread and understand their desire to simply teach again? As it stands, elementary teachers are required to test and track their student’s abilities in reading, writing and math. Report cards can take weeks to complete. Reading assessments for each student takes time away from teaching, not to mention time to evaluate them, score them, and assess their development level compared to how they tested previously. All this while teaching 25 other students.

Teachers work in the public sector and that seems to be the Premiere’s argument because he doesn’t want to treat employees within the public services differently. Aren’t teachers so much more? Teachers come in early and leave late. They take their work home with them. They spend time after school in clubs, sports, bands and countless other activities. Now teachers are taking a stand and demanding to be heard. A “work to rule” strike begins next Monday. This means all the extras are gone. Teachers are to enter school and leave school at the times depicted in the contract, 20 minutes before students arrive and 20 minutes after they leave. No clubs. No sports. No bands. No extra curricular activities. This saddens me because it means my youngest son misses his first performance in his first Christmas concert- there will be no Christmas concert. While I will miss it greatly, I completely understand it and fully support it.

I perceive this to be the next step of negotiations. Teachers have had to take a drastic measure to be heard by the government. However, this isn’t worst case scenario. There is one more step. A full shut down. A full strike that would close schools entirely. A world without teachers.

None of us would be where we are today without someone teaching us, without guiding us to enlightenment, without broadening our horizons and deepening our understanding. If teachers aren’t heard by their government soon, if action isn’t taken soon, a world without teachers will become a reality in Nova Scotia.

To read further please visit Teachers of Nova Scotia.

From left: Kate Ervine NS Parents for Teachers, Liette Doucet NS Teacher’s Union President, Stephen McNeil NS Premiere

Open Farm Day- The Alpaca Farm

The view from the house. The alpacas are to the left of the lane.

Once upon a time, 3 year ago, we took a trip. On this trip we encountered a petting zoo which had a donkey and an alpaca in a small stable. We approached the stable to see the animals. There was a four foot wall (not a fence) enclosing the animals so when we entered the stable we couldn’t see any animals. DW was holding 2 year old Bang and they went to peek into what appeared to be an empty pen.

Suddenly, the alpaca who was laying against the inside of the wall they were going to peek into, stood up. You can imagine a two year old’s shock at suddenly being face to face with an animal who wasn’t there just a second ago.

He was traumatized and probably will need counselling as an adult and all his fears will lead to this single incident. If we wanted to keep him out of something (the basement at Nanny’s house) all we just told him there were alpacas down there. He wouldn’t even touch the door after being told this little white lie…

But then he turned three. A three year old’s curiosity is formidable. He wanted to see the alpacas in Nanny’s basement. We were busted in another lie. (see The Death of the Claw for our other big lie)

We heard a friend of ours was raising alpacas and welcomed visitors to her farm. So we went not knowing how Bang would react after his traumatizing incident with the “pop-goes-the-alpaca” of the previous summer. Turns out he loved them. The boys got to feed them, too. One of them was being greedy so Crash had hidden a carrot behind his back so he could feed it to a different alpaca. Miss Greedy Alpaca wasn’t impressed so she spit on him and knocked him down. He was okay, and we all had a good laugh.

So we went back yesterday. There were some extra alpacas! Some babies were born in January/February. The boys got to pet them. One of the babies hadn’t been sheered yet so it still was still fluffy. If you haven’t seen a baby, fluffy alpaca, I highly recommend you find one and go pet it. Alpaca wool is warmer than sheep’s wool and it’s not itchy!

We also discovered our friend got some chickens. She had three hens for laying eggs. Unfortunately, a fox or coyote got two of them. She also has 20 “meat birds”. They were a month old so they weren’t yellow, fluffy chicks any more.

We started naming them: Nugget, Shake, Bake…

Fluffy Baby Alpaca

Nugget, Shake, and Bake

Alpaca herd

You can visit her facebook page for more info and tons more pictures.

• Alpaca wool is light but warmer than sheep wool and not itchy
• It lacks lanolin which makes it hypoallergenic
• Their fiber is flame resistant
• It is water resistent, too
• They come in 16 different colors
• I love my alpaca socks! That`s a fact!

This Taboo Word Challenge is getting tougher! Today’s word was “that”.
To read more posts without the Taboo Word (that) or to join the challenge just click the blue frog…

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Monday Humor

I just got back from a 4 mile run (it was a short one). I say “got back” what really happened was that I got off the treadmill. So my brain is tired now. This is what tired brain thinks is funny.

I took a selfie today. Well, I didn’t take it, per say. So I guess it’s just a photo of me. Oh, there’s a couple hundred thousand others in the picture, too. An ussie. It’s what we look like from space. If you look close, you can almost see our igloo from there!