Gurn Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 I am not a teacher but I did take walk the info line with them this morning. One lady was marking student papers between her turns walking. damm cold out there this am,if you go out to show support,take extra coffee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canucks.brad Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 my grade 12 year was affected by the last teacher strike and I can say...it really didn't affect me (content/knowledge wise) if you read the textbook on your own/study with friends there really is no excuse for being behind. i support the teachers 100% here. grades K-7, class size and comp matter. even in highschool...but to a lesser extent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUPERTKBD Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 And you're flat out wrong about what the BCTF is fighting for. Wage increases (which essentially amount to a cost of living bump) are at the BOTTOM of our list. You are making statements on something you apparently know very little about. We don't expect the government to get blood from a stone, either. Classroom size, composition, teacher autonomy, etc, etc. I'm not here to explain all the ins and outs for you (especially since you have such strong ideas already anyway), but if you really want to understand what's going on, then read up about it. Again, this is NOT a cash-grab by teachers ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canucks_dynasty Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 A friend of mine is a teacher. He said he's fine with the wage freeze as long as the government leave everything else the same. Not sure what was on the table or what the government wants to take away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inane Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Just curious Remy, regarding wage increases being at the bottom of the list, (and please don't assume that I'm taking sides here, I genuinely am curious) if the government were to give in on the other issues usch as class size, would the BCTF give up the 15% over three years? Would you be okay with it if they did? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remy Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Fair enough. However, to some, your stance came across that way. Since I am married to a teacher, I could hear where you were coming from. The teaching profession is a funny thing. As recent as 10 - 12 years ago, if you wanted to be a teacher there were temporary contracts out there to be had. Sure it took a bit to get on full-time, but there were jobs available. At the very least, a graduate could sign up to be a TOC in almost any district they chose to. Fast-forward to today and (unless you are French) you have to compete just to get on any TOC list. Enrollment is down and teachers are working longer, but there are more universities than ever pumping out graduates. We should have seen this coming. I know everyone has the right to pursue whatever career they want, but I think universities should have a bit of a reality check and take a look at how many new grads they are putting into the job market. At the same time, I don't think any of that can be cured in a new collective agreement. Sure if there were some significant changes in class sizes there would be more teachers employed, but I still think there are too many grads entering the job market. We're lucky because I am able to take my job wherever she needs to go for teaching work, but not everybody is like that. I think another part of the general entitlement issue comes from the overall contract demands. I'm all in favour of class size and composition restrictions and I think most people can get on board with that. Some of the things (class size, I.E.P.s) my wife has already had to deal with as a TOC are ridiculous. Where I think the BCTF loses marks with the public are in the other demands. Things like the 15% wage increase and extraordinary bereavement leave that we've all heard about just don't fly with the general public. Many people out there haven't had raises themselves in a number of years, so they wonder why the teachers should be any different. If the BCTF came out with contract demands that were significantly closer to what people can get on board with, I think they would have way more of the public behind them. But that's just my take... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stawns Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Just curious Remy, regarding wage increases being at the bottom of the list, (and please don't assume that I'm taking sides here, I genuinely am curious) if the government were to give in on the other issues usch as class size, would the BCTF give up the 15% over three years? Would you be okay with it if they did? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stawns Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 The consensus at our information meeting this morning was that we would all gladly put the salary issue on the back burner, for the time being (though all we're asking is a cost of living increase), for the chance to negotiate, in good faith, all of the other items. Sadly,, the gov't will not give in on anything.......they are imposing this bill/contract on teachers, and ultimately students, and it matters not what we fight for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragon Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 ok i've read three pages and i have yet to find the following information how much do teachers get paid anyway? do they have 30 kids in one class? how many special needs children are there really in a school? isn't it all fun and games until high school? i remembered i didn't do *** or learn anything important until grade 10 or so.... i didn't live in bc until grade 8, but in grade 8 all we did was draw, draw, draw a whole bunch of stuff i felt that was a waste of time and i see kids now in elementary and middle school all they do is play, homework for those grades should be easy to mark...unless they're pages long essays Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
That's What She Said Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 It was stated earlier in this thread but I think the question needs to be asked. If the job is so bad and teachers are so under paid and over worked why don't they quit? Why is it that more and more people go to school to become a teacher? Are they dumb? This same debate comes up very few years. No current teacher can claim they had never heard this from the teachers union. Yet they still wanted to become a teacher. I know many love to teach and help kids. I support smaller class sizes and more helpers for special needs. But they money has to come from some where. There is only so much money. And many other unions feel their government workers need more too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeyJoeJoeJr. Shabadoo Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 In high school I had a few teachers who pretty much admitted that they either a) got a degree that was basically "useless" (like art degrees that don't get you a job) or planned on going onto med school/getting a masters or some other form of higher education but didn't have the grades and figured ehhhhh, might as well go into teaching so all that school wasn't for nothing. Don't get me wrong there's teachers who actually enjoy working with kids but I've found that it's pretty common with high school teachers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
That's What She Said Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 So they pretty much admitted it? Huh, sounds plausible. You find it pretty common with high school teachers, is that based on your exaggerated sample size of three teachers who pretty much admitted it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goalie13 Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 ok i've read three pages and i have yet to find the following information how much do teachers get paid anyway? do they have 30 kids in one class? how many special needs children are there really in a school? isn't it all fun and games until high school? i remembered i didn't do *** or learn anything important until grade 10 or so.... i didn't live in bc until grade 8, but in grade 8 all we did was draw, draw, draw a whole bunch of stuff i felt that was a waste of time and i see kids now in elementary and middle school all they do is play, homework for those grades should be easy to mark...unless they're pages long essays Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronthecivil Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Ran into some teachers today and we had some good ideas. Right now there are 54 school districts. That's way more than we need (especially when all we hear about is them fighting over books with gay parents in them.). Let's just do it by regions, just like the weather report (Lower mainland, Thompson okanagan, etc.) and that would drastically cut the payroll through consolidation of services. Are the needs of Burnaby so much different than Vancouver that they need their own school district? Use that money to give teachers a raise. There you go, a raise and still net zero. It goes in line with the governments plan to harmonise the contractss instead of having 54 different ones all with their own language. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronthecivil Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 You mean unimportant things like reading? Grammar? Spelling? How about basic math? You couldn't have done grade 10 math without grade 1 through 9 math first. All the groundwork for high school came from elementary school. I have a hard time believing that all you did in Grade 8 was draw. It may have been a long time ago, but I remember doing far more than just drawing (except in drafting class, all we did there was draw). As for your other questions, I asked Google and found an article in the Globe and Mail that says "Teachers’ salaries in B.C. for the 60 school districts range from an average starting salary of $47,461 to an average maximum of $75,083." My wife is an on-call teacher (aka substitute) and she worked enough to make a little under $18,000 last year. Most teachers have to put in several years on-call before getting an opportunity for even a short-term or part-time contract. Yes, in older grades you will find many classes have 30 kids. I have no stats on how many special needs kids are in the system, but from what my wife says, it is rare to find a class without at least one. Do not underestimate how much extra attention a single special needs kid can require. And all that extra attention just takes away from the rest of the class. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronthecivil Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Oh another good idea from the teachers. Alot of them do lesson plans at home on their home computer. But they can't claim it as a work expense tax deduction for some reason. Well, just wink wink nudge nudge allow them to do that up to say a 1500 deduction (which would be about 400 bucks in hand) on their home computor and while it's a cost it's not in the contract which can still be net zero! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inane Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Ran into some teachers today and we had some good ideas. Right now there are 54 school districts. That's way more than we need (especially when all we hear about is them fighting over books with gay parents in them.). Let's just do it by regions, just like the weather report (Lower mainland, Thompson okanagan, etc.) and that would drastically cut the payroll through consolidation of services. Are the needs of Burnaby so much different than Vancouver that they need their own school district? Use that money to give teachers a raise. There you go, a raise and still net zero. It goes in line with the governments plan to harmonise the contractss instead of having 54 different ones all with their own language. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronthecivil Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 All we hear about his fighting over books with gay parents? Wtf? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stawns Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Why is it so implausible? Lots of people are graduating from university only to find their degree doesn't help them get a job, and they figure, it's only another 2 years to get a teaching degree. While it's hard to get a permanent teaching job, once you do get in, and I'm not going to get into the debate on whether they deserve more money, but they get pretty good salary/benefits/retirement compared to most jobs, and you'd have to screw up majorly to lose your job. It's not just teachers, plenty of jobs probably have people who aren't truly passionate about it, and are in it for the money or money potential. I don't see why it's so implausible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inane Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 You know, the childrens books like my two dads (or whatever) and the upset religous people? Certainly a big deal in burnaby, and it was in surrey.... What else have you heard of a school district doing though? Are you saying there's a legit reason to have 54 of them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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