Q&A: An education student

Tori Beil is a 23-year-old education student who was entirely schooled in Kamloops. She attended Dallas Elementary and Valleyview Secondary prior to attending Thompson Rivers University.

 

D: What year of school are you in?
T: This is my first year in the education program, and my sixth year at UCC/TRU. In the first five years I got my BA with a major in classical english and a minor in psychology. I’ll graduate in 2011.

D: Why did you choose education as a career?
T: I chose teaching specifically because I have a passion for learning and I recognize a need for passionate teachers in order for students to fully succeed.

D: When you first heard of the school closures happening in SD73, what went through your mind?
T: After being in so many schools for tours and practicums and workshops, it is sad to hear about communities losing schools. Some of the programs within schools will be highly missed by parents and children.

D: Are you worried with staff lay-offs that you won’t be able to find a job?
T: No. Regardless of how many schools get shut down, as a new teacher, if you want a steady job instead of hoping to get on the [on-call] list, you have to be willing to move. Usually there are jobs available in the rural areas, and people would rather not go there to build up experience and seniority, but it’s one of the best options unless you have the exact specialties of someone who retires right when you apply.

D: What is the TRU program doing (if anything) to help you secure jobs after graduation?
T: Because we are put in so many different practicum placements, they make sure to put us in at least one “rural” school. Making connections at rural schools increases the chances of us being hired their. Our instructors tell us what is needed, how to make a good impression, and some alternate options like private schools. They tell us to be flexible. Interesting fact: By taking the TRU teaching program (I’m not too sure about other education programs in B.C., but I think this includes them as well), we are qualified to teach anywhere in Canada. All we have to do is fill out a form to teach in another province. People who take education programs anywhere else have to take additional courses to  be able to teach in B.C.

Thank you for your time Tori! Best of luck

P.S – Check out Tori’s blog!

Will teachers ever get a break?

This year will be the first in six that Kamloops teachers are expecting lay-offs. David Komlijenovic, president of the Kamloops -Thompson Teachers’ Association, said teachers are managing as best they can.

“It’s unnerving,” he said, “[teachers] don’t feel like there’s a lot of certainty and it is having an effect on morale.”

Komlijenovic said that the association has been trying to meet with the Ministry of Education to discuss some of the concerns of teachers but the meeting was denied. He said they received a letter that basically said the minister (Margaret MacDiarmid) was too busy.

After hearing from Annette Glover that budget cuts would now be affecting teachers and therefore effectively the students, I approached Komlijenovic to get an idea of how exactly funding or lack thereof was reaching classrooms on a day-to-day basis.

“The effect for teachers is less programs, less choice, larger class sizes, more difficulties in teaching the unique needs of students, addressing issues of special needs students and lack of specialist teachers,” he said.

All of those things combined he said, “has created stress on classroom teachers that have to pick up the work load of teachers that were assigned those roles.”

Here’s the part where I would comment on my experience as a student in the system but my apologies as I cannot because I wasn’t schooled in Kamloops.

Moving on…

Komlijenovic went on to say that historically, B.C. teachers spend the most money on the classroom supplies, “something like $2000 a year” that is not covered and comes out of their own pockets.

“Teachers are trying to manage the classroom the best they can and if the resources are not there than teachers are providing those resources through their own funds,” he said.

Do you think Komlijenovic has given too much undeserved credit to teachers?

Top 10 Reasons to Become a Teacher

 That is according to About.com

1. Student Potential

2. Student Successes

3. Teaching a Subject Helps you Learn a Subject

4. Daily Humor

5. Affecting the Future

6. Staying Younger

7. Conducive to Family Life

8. Autonomy of the Classroom

9. Job Security

10. Summers Off

DO THESE MAKE YOU WANT TO CONSIDER A CHANGE OF CAREER?

Glover on school amalgamations

Since June of last year SD73 has been holding public meetings that came from a report that suggested the board close buildings to save money. The reconfiguration reported listed 11 elementary schools and two high schools that could close as early as the 2011 school year.

Glover said three years ago the board decided it was time to create a strategic plan in hopes to stop the piecemealing effect of problems. Essentially, they had been operating too long under a quick-fix mentality.

 “We had 35 meetings and out of that we ended up closing three schools,” explained Annette Glover, chair of the finance and planning committee.

At the public meetings board trustees heard from school communities who had rallied together to state their case for staying open. Not everyone would be satisfied with the result, but the announced changes affect far fewer people than originally expected.

Glover said that because not as much money was saved with the closures and reconfigurations, that in order to balance the budget the next thing to cut is jobs because they’re still left with a deficit of $1.5-to $2-million.

“I repeatedly said publicly that whatever we do not do through reconfiguration we will absolutely be doing through the budget process and that means labour because there’s no other choice,” she said.

SD73 is not alone; every district in the province is being faced with the same problems. Glover said it’s too early to predict how many teachers will lose jobs, but teacher lay-off notices have to be given May 30.

Until then it’s just a waiting game.

After hearing from a board representative, do you think there are options that would help the board save money that may have been overlooked?

Education funding: the flow of dollars

Meet Annette Glover. Annette has been a school board trustee for over 14 years and now chairs the finance and planning committee for SD73.

I spoke to Annette, simply put, about funding. Only it wasn’t that simple.

Through our hour-long conversation she explained to me how the budget flows down through the system. She said initial budget talks get started in the fall in Victoria and is based on transfer money from Ottawa as well as the monies being contributed by the provincial government. She and the rest of the board, as well as the province do not learn how the province will allocate funds until the budget is officially released by the finance minister (usually early Spring).

Education funding is based on a formula that takes into account student enrollment numbers, but each school district is evaluated separate of one another. Glover explained that funds are not targeted, which essentially means they are not divided into sections but rather is just a lump sum.

“There is a limited amount of money in what we refer to as targeted, for example First Nations. That money is truly targeted it, it must be spent on First Nations public education and there is a process where we have to be accountable to that,” she said. “The bulk of the remaining monies is centrally up to us how we are going to spend it within our district.”

Glover stressed the issue of there never being enough money for public education, and while she admitted that the government is giving more money she said it is not enough to keep-up with rising costs. Not only is there not enough money, but Glover said the time factor makes the situation more stressful.

“It’s really hard for people to understand that the government in Victoria doesn’t give us much time. We have to have by the end of this school year a preliminary budget into Victoria.”

That’s roughly three months to allocate approximately $120-million. It’s interesting to note that the board is not actually working with that full amount, as about 88 percent of the board’s budget goes directly to pay for labour.

As far as I can tell that doesn’t leave very much money for the other stuff that includes; textbooks, programs and transportation etc.

P.S – Stay tuned for Glover on school closures and reconfiguration.

Post-secondary education: party platforms

After reading about Ignatieff’s unrealistic plans  for post-secondary education. I began thinking about what the other national parties were promising in the same area. In case you haven’t noticed by my tone, I’m quite cynical when it comes to party platforms.

Conservatives
-          Remove funding from the Canada Social Transfer into an independent Canada Education Transfer, increasing annually based on inflation and demographic growth. This deals with how they transfer money to the provinces

-          Maintain that scholarships and bursaries are not taxed

-          Adjust loan applications to eliminate parental income as a variable

-          Eliminate the Millennium Scholarship Program and channel that money into the student loan program

-          Implement Income Contingent Loans and a preferred interest rate post-graduation

Liberals
-          Implement an Education Grant payable to each student every three months, at the same time as the GST rebate is paid.

-          An additional a tax credit worth $250 for students who work

-          Create a 20-year education endowment fund worth $25 billion, allowing the government at full implementation to provide 200,000 needs-based bursaries of up to $3,500 per year and 100,000 access bursaries of up to $4,000 per year.

-          Make all students eligible for guaranteed student loans of $5,000, regardless of parental income.

-          Put an end to high interest rates for students by providing all students with a new lower lending rate of only a half a percent above the prime

-          Extend the payment grace period for students immediately after graduation from 6 months to 2 years and make this grace period interest-free.

-          Extend the time period that individuals have to repay their student loans.

NDP
-          Provide a $1,000 grant to all who qualify for student loans.

-          Keep tuition fees affordable and improve opportunities in post-secondary education

-          Reform the Canada Student Loans system

-          Increase funding for university and college-based research, and for graduate and post-graduate studies.

Hmm… Have the Conservatives actually accomplished anything they said they would? Are the Liberals being too idealistic? Where are the details New Democrats?

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THESE PLATFORMS OR PARTY PLATFORMS IN GENERAL?

I call bull$#*!

I awoke Monday morning and followed my “normal” daily routine, which includes checking my e-mail while still lying in bed, it helps ease me out of bed, (I swear I’m not an addict), but I digress… I later found this article in my reader.

Make higher education more accessible: Ignatieff

Sounds reasonable enough right? Except he made the “announcement” in Newfoundland, which has the lowest tuition rates in the country! And a provincial grant system that means students are receiving money they don’t have to pay back.

The 100-word story failed to mention that part and essentially just tells readers what he said. Where’s the SO WHAT? or the HOW?

You can’t even tell if the CBC story included an actual interview with the official opposition leader…I’m betting it didn’t.

While I’d be stoked to have my loan payments decrease by doing public service, I think this is so beyond ridiculous not to mention unfeasible. C’mon Ignatieff, come up with something that might actually work. And after complaining about the prorogation for three months, why are you not in the House?

Readers, here’s my question to you: Why do you think Ignatieff chose to outline the post-secondary platform in NL?                   

Party Comparisons

To reporters, budget announcements mean at least a week’s worth of stories covering not only what the budget said, but also stories from opposition that take a woulda, coulda, shoulda form.

One of the roles of the opposition is to be critical of the current government, and this, I’ll admit in theory is a good idea; where I have the problem is when their own policies are no better.

Wanting to know how they stand up against each other, I looked at the various party platforms to see for myself. Below you’ll find what I’ve found about the education platforms of the various B.C. political parties, and the links to the full documents for your reading “pleasure”.

B.C. Liberals

The current government outlines its platform in a document it calls the “Six Pillars for a Strong BC,” number four of which is “Improving and protecting vital public services,” which education falls under apparently.

Highlights include:
- Record-high funding for education
- Annual funding for education at all levels will go up by over $800 million by 2011/12. K-12 education funding will increase by 35 per cent by 2011/12 over 2000/01 levels, despite a continued drop in student enrolment, with 53,000 fewer students today than in 2001. Per pupil funding will rise to historic high levels.
- Introducing all day, voluntary five-year-old kindergarten
- Increasing access to post-secondary education with seven new universities.

B.C. NDP

Unlike all the other parties, the NDP had no party platform that I could see on the official website. I did find an article in which the platform was described.

Education highlights include:
- Additional resources and supports for K-12 students: $50 million in 2009/10, followed by $75 million and $100 million in the following two school years.
 - Accelerated seismic upgrades: $40 million in each of the next two years.
- Improved affordability of post-secondary education: $20 million next year followed by $70 million in each of the two following years.
- Increased accessibility to skills training: $3 million in 2009-10, rising to $6 million in each of the next two years.

Green Party of B.C.

Simply put:
 - Expand Adult Basic Education and English as a Second Language programs

B.C. Conservatives

The party describes itself as the alternative to the Liberals and NDP, and is relatively new to provincial politics. Number six, education, of its “10 POINT PLATFORM” describes its plans.
- Provide Education Funding Based on an Equal Per-Student Funding Formula Payable to the School of Choice
- Repeal the Corren Agreement and Restore the Principle of Parental Rights in the Education System for BC Children
- Provide Tuition Assistance for All Qualifying Post Secondary Students

 

ON EDUCATION PLATFORMS ALONE, WHICH PARTY WOULD YOU VOTE FOR?

Libraries and Bookstores

I walk in through the large doors and inhale…ahhh…immediate peace.

Libraries and bookstores have a certain smell, and a weird ability to help me relax. I can wander in and out of the shelves without touching a single book and still feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. With that being said, I don’t think there’s ever been a time that I’ve managed to escape empty-handed. (It’s not an addiction I swear!)

To avoid this “OMG I want all these books” thing, I’ve enrolled in a book club. And no, not like the Oprah type where a bunch of people read the same book, this is more along the lines of a CD club where you get an introductory offer and then have to meet a minimum obligation of purchases.

I joined with the intention of saving money…but that was naive of me. While I may have cut back on my impulse buying, I definitely haven’t stopped buying. I fulfilled my year obligation in the first couple of months!

As geeky as I feel saying “I’m in a book club,” I love that I’m growing my book collection, but miss the countless hours I spent roaming the aisles of books.

Where do YOU purchase your books? Any tips for an “addict” like me?

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

I may be a day late but I thought I’d take the time and honour author and illustrator Theodor Seuss Geisel, who if still living, would have been 106 yesterday.

When I think Seuss I think: rhyme, bright colors and ridiculous characters.

(Picture Courtesy of the Dyersville Library)

I think Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, The Grinch, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, and Horton Hears a Who (the books, not the film adaptations.)

I remember the hard-cover books in colors orange, green and blue. I can remember reciting them without barely looking at the words. I can remember reading them to my younger sister and I can remember the loud noise they made when they hit the floor every morning falling from my bed.

Seuss was my first book series and I’d like to thank you Mr. Geisel, for introducing me to a love of books!

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE SEUSS BOOK?