The Student-Teacher Diary

BC Teachers Vote to Strike Next Fall

2006-06-13T16:07:00.000-07:00

The B.C. Teachers Federation has been seeking a 24 per cent wage increase over four years, while the Public School Employers Association has been offering eight per cent over four years. [...] The two sides have been working toward a June 30 deadline for getting a deal in order for the 38,000 teachers to qualify for a share of bonus money offered by the provincial government. The teachers also want improved benefits and increased professional autonomy.

- The Canadian Press. June 9, 2006.

As a future teacher, I am divided on the issue of teachers striking. I remember being a student in the twelfth grade and worrying about whether I would pass my Math 12 Provincial Exam. However, as a logical human being I believe that teachers salaries should keep up with inflation, no questions asked. I think that instead of comparing absolute dollar value of teachers' salaries in different provinces, a purchasing-power comparison would mean a lot more. Who cares if a teacher in BC makes less than one in Ottawa if they can buy twice as much stuff with their salary?

The BC Teachers' Federation had made some poor judgment calls in the past, and it's hard for average people (even myself) to relate to them. For example, in the past they proposed that parents be prohibited from discussing teachers' behaviour with the school principal. How about accepting some responsibility for their actions instead? Currently, they want to reduce the number of standardized tests, such as Grade 12 Provincial Exams. I think that is ridiculous! As a Grade 12 student I learned so much by preparing for Provincial Exams. I pushed myself to do the hardest math calculations and get really involved in the poems we read in class. The skills I learned preparing for Provincial Exams helped me every day at university. Often, university professors base 50% (or more) of the final grade on the final exam. Students need to be given the study and test-taking skills necessary to succeed in these situations. Provincial exams are a good introduction to "high (personal) stakes" testing in that they are cumulative and challenging, but not worth the majority of the student's grade.

It feels like the people running the BC Teachers' Federation may have forgotten what it's like to be a student. That's one thing that I hope to never forget when I enter the world of public school teaching.

Gems from Yahoo Questions - Education and Reference

2006-06-10T17:50:00.000-07:00

Yahoo Questions is a new service offered by Yahoo that allows people ask and answer questions, gaining points for answers and even more points for those that are voted "Best Answer". There is a whole category on the site called "Education and Reference" in which people can ask their best (worst) questions about school. Here are some gems:

What do people in midevil times to celebrate halloween?

I believe they cut the heads of baby goats and fed them to virgins. Oh wait, that was the earlyevil times. In the midevil times they drank the blood of newts and carved pumpkins to look like phalluses.

I am looking for a good university in canada that offers scholarship.?

If you're (supposedly) smart enough to get a scholarship, you should be smart enough to read the Financial Aid section of any university's website!

Can a woman be an astronomer? If yes what's her benefit and would she really have time for her home?

Where do I start? First off, women can't be astronomers because stars are not visible to the female eye, only the male eye. Even with the help of telescopes women are only capable of seeing bundt cakes, Windex and daffodils in the garden. There are no benefits to having female astrologers because science is a field for men and we have already done enough to accomodate women by allowing them to work as teachers in one-room schoolhouses and nurses (but only in cute little white uniforms). Any woman wanting to enter the workforce will have to sacrifice the well-being of her family. Her children will grow up to be delinquents and her husband will have multiple affairs with subservient women who better fulfill his need to be worshipped.

BC Adds Homosexual Issues to Curriculum

2006-06-04T17:22:00.000-07:00

Seeing as there isn't much to talk about in terms of student-teaching during the months of June-August, I thought I'd post some news about the world of education here in Canada. Here's a recent news highlight from British Columbia:

The B.C. Ministry of Education has agreed to add an elective social justice course to the high school curriculum that includes gay and lesbian issues. [...] The new course will be an elective on social justice issues offered to Grade 12 students. It will cover a range of topics, including race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation.
- CBC.ca - Thursday, June 1st, 2006

What's my opinion? I think it's fantastic! When I was a secondary student, our English teacher would teach us about "To Kill a Mockingbird" one day, and then tell us that all gay men wore silver jumpsuits the next! We were taught to be tolerant of disabled students, ethnic minorities and women, but homophobia was never addressed, and teachers heard students use "that's gay" as an insult without ever speaking up! How hypocritical is it to teach selective tolerance? As a Language Arts teacher, how can I talk about the relationship between Sebastian and Antonio (Shakespeare's Twelfth Night) without eliciting giggles and "eeeeew"s? It would be fantastic if these types of social justice issues weren't put into separate classes, or even separate units, but rather if children were exposed to people of different races, genders, abilities and sexual orientations right from Day One within the context of their general education. If they start to see those who are different as "normal" people too, then maybe we won't need a Social Justice elective in 2016!

Financial Aid

2006-06-01T12:43:00.000-07:00

Financial aid applications went online today and I filled it out ASAP! I am not eligible for many scholarships because I'm just your average white girl from a middle-class family, but I'm hoping that my academic standing will be good for something. University is going to be expensive, and although I'm not a party-girl anymore I would like to have enough money to live nicely! Filet mignon, Jimmy Choo sandals, etc... Actually, I aspire to be the Martha Stewart of the university's residence complex and plan to hang decorative wreaths on my front door and bake fresh cookies for my neighbours!

University Life

2006-05-20T23:27:00.000-07:00

I received notice that I have been accepted into residence at university, so I'll be living on campus and won't have to hunt for an apartment. This is good news for me. My apartment will be studio-style, with a semi-detached kitchen and a completely-detached (obviously) bathroom. There is one closet and a dresser, but I imagine I'll have to go to IKEA and get a mini-wardrobe, because I've got a lot of clothes! The only downside (besides the cost) is that it only has a mini-fridge, so I'll need to get a freezer as well. I love to cook and I simply can't survive with only a minifridge. How could I make ice cubes, much less store filo pastry?

Lots of Mail This Morning

2006-05-15T14:38:00.000-07:00

I am happy to report that I received some official correspondance from my academic department today, including information about registering (still no date though) and a form regarding my "practicum" placement. At some universities you complete a four-month practicum in the last semester of your two-year degree program. At my university you're literally in the classroom from Day One. So I had to fill out a form about my geographical preference, whether I had access to a vehicle, and whether or not I was eligible to teach in a private religious school. There is also a community-service element to the program, where you teach or work in a non-public-school setting. The purpose of this is to expose Student Teachers to opportunities outside of the public school system. I filled everything out this morning and it's already in the mail! I will also have to get a criminal record check before I am placed in a classroom, so I'll get to that later this week. The early bird gets the worm!

On the subject of religious schools, someone told me that the Ontario Catholic School Board is so desperate for Catholic teachers that they are now hiring Catholics with no teacher training over qualified non-Catholic teachers. If you ask me, the only people being hurt by this policy are the students themselves.

Now I Get It... and Other Education News

2006-05-11T14:12:00.000-07:00

One month after my first phone call to the Education department, and two months after my initial email, I finally received a response. According to the Education website, I should have received an email with a registration access date in late April. I did receive that email. According to the person who phoned me from the Education department, only second-year students receive their registration access dates in April. In that case, one must wonder why that information is posted on the first-year registration information site, and why it remains there today after I alerted them to the posted misinformation. Hmmmm...

In other news, there is a lot of discussion in my community about young people entering university and college, and the workplace, without the ability to read and write properly. This discussion mainly takes place in the Letters to the Editor section of the local newspaper. For the most part, it involves old people whining that "things aren't like they used to be" and that young whippersnappers nowadays can't read words with more than three letters thanks to SMS-culture.

In today's paper, one such intellectual wrote in to share his story about education back in the good old days. He wrote:

"They can not write a good sentence consistently."

I would like to point out that "consistently" is an adverb of frequency, like "almost", "sometimes" and "never". Therefore, it should be placed before the verb it is referring to, in this case "write". So, the correct sentence should read:

"They can not consistently write a good
sentence."

In my personal opinion, someone shouldn't write a Letter to the Editor arguing that young people today can't read and write unless the author himself is able to write a proper sentence with properly-placed adverbs of frequency. Clearly education in 1950 wasn't that much better than it is today!

3...2...1... Contact!

2006-05-09T16:14:00.000-07:00

After two unsuccessful phone calls and two unsuccessful emails to the Education department at my future university, the Registrar's office has finally re-opened. One phone call later and I've found out that the information posted on the Education website is inaccurate, and that I won't receive a registration access date until nearly two weeks after it was promised to me. Then, towards the end of May, I will be given a window of time in which I can register for my courses. I still haven't heard anything from the Education department.

The moral of this story is that high school students should believe me when I say that your teacher really does want to be there teaching you. Anyone who didn't really want to teach would never have had the patience to actually register for (much less complete) an Education degree! University bureaucracy is almost unparalled and university students seem to be the bottom priority for the university administration.

Progress to Date

2006-05-05T12:33:00.000-07:00

It is now May 5th, 2006. I'm not feeling the love from the University or the Faculty of Education. I have not received notice of my course registration date (despite the school's promise that it would be available in late April). I have phoned the Teacher Training Department two times, left one message, and sent two emails (this over the course of three weeks) and I have not received a reply. Nobody in the Department ever answers the phone.

If this whole Education thing fails, I think I would like a job working in the administrative department of the university. They don't appear to work very hard, they are never nice to students and they get paid very well (in my hometown, a university secretary is unionized and earns $2,700 per month plus benefits).

Financial Aid applications are available in about a month (supposedly) and I should find out about accomodation around the same time. Right now it's just sitting and waiting...

Welcome to the Student-Teacher Diary

2006-05-05T12:25:00.000-07:00

In September, 2006 I will begin a Bachelor of Education degree in Secondary Language Arts Education. This two-year program will prepare me to work in a high school, teaching Language Arts. I plan to document my experiences on this site.