Shelley Laskin - March 3, 2013
The Latest Elementary Teachers Announcement from ETFO
I have heard from a number of frustrated parents and I get it... as I wrote in my last weekly update, these have been very challenging times for education and last week's announcement from the secondary teachers' union to suspend their political action related to extra-curricular and voluntary activities left us hopeful that ETFO would do the same.
In advance of the ETFO reconsideration, the Board has passed a motion that would waive permit fees for parent groups that were organizing events and activities traditionally run by school staff that are not being run because of the union/government labour dispute. Now the Board will reassess how else it can support parents to support their kids in light of the ETFO position to continue with their withdrawal, but I can also tell you there is not a uniform position. We have a board meeting Wednesday and I will get back to you with any decisions we can make. Helping principals as best we can to mitigate teacher inaction is key to anything the board does.
And we are working with other Boards to try and find a provincial solution. We have little power or control over unions and need the province to move quickly on fixing the collective bargaining process. Last weekend a number of us met as part of the Ontario Public School Boards Association with the lawyer leading the action at the Ontario Labour Board (OLB). The Upper Grand District School Board and the Trillium Lakelands District School Board went to the OLB to “argue that it constituted an illegal strike activity when the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario advised its members in a January 14th memo they should not be involved in the likes of coaching sports teams and leading clubs”. The crux of the argument is not even on the activities, or the teachers, but about the provincial union office’s communications – specific focus to ETFO communications to teachers and whether communications are permissible. We are following that case and expect a decision to come this week.
Awards for Teachers and Principals
We have many outstanding educators in our ward. Please consider nominating one for recognition. Here is a list.
Canadian Family Great Teacher Award
http://www.canadianfamily.ca/contestpage/?slug=great-teacher-awards
Premier's Awards for Teaching Excellence- Ontario
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/teachingawards/
OTF and OTIP offer awards to one elementary and one secondary teacher and one to a beginning teacher.
http://www.teachingawards.ca/
OPSBA Fred L. Bartlett Memorial Award
http://www.opsba.org/index.php?q=articles/call_for_nominations_for_opsba_awards_program_0
Governor General’s History Awards for Excellence in Teaching
http://www.canadashistory.ca/Awards/Teaching/GG-Rules.aspx
Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence
http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/pmate-ppmee.nsf/eng/home
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development – Award for educator under 40 years of age
http://www.ascd.org
Amgen Award for Science Teaching Excellence
http://www.amgen.com/citizenship/official_rules.html
Teacher of the Year – Music
http://www.musicounts.ca/musicounts-teacher-of-the-year-award/
The Ray Blackwell Award for Excellence in Art Education
http://oaea.ca/events_pages/ray_blackwell_award.html
Elementary Teachers Federation Awards and Scholarships
http://www.etfo.ca/AboutETFO/AwardsandScholarships/Pages/default.aspx
East York Reading Association
http://readingfortheloveofit.com/index.html
Ontario Secondary Teachers' Federation
http://www.osstf.on.ca/Awards
Ontario Secondary Teachers' Federation by Subject
http://www.osstf.on.ca/subjectassociations
