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BC post-secondary presidents warn about implications of spending cuts
Post-secondary institutions have sent a stern letter to the B.C. government in response to the recent provincial budget, which ordered them to trim administrative spending by $70 million in 2013-14 and 2014-15.
“It is critical for government to understand that the $70 million reduction to institutional grants over the last two years of the fiscal plan, combined with five years of unfunded inflationary pressures, creates a strain on the operations of post-secondary institutions,” the presidents of 25 schools write in a letter to Advanced Education Minister Naomi Yamamoto.
“It is particularly concerning that in Budget 2012, the post-secondary sector is the only social sector to receive an absolute budget reduction, with the inference that other sectors, such as health, have taken action where we have not.
“We must be clear that it is unrealistic to assume that the reductions contemplated by Budget 2012 can be achieved without implications for service levels.”
The letter was described as unprecedented in an NDP release in mid-March (which would have been reported here earlier had it not been landed on the eve of the BCTF AGM). Find the letter here.
“We have a shared commitment to a strong post-secondary education systen and we do not want to see a decline in a system that is seen as one of the best in the world,” says the letter, whose signatories include Stephen Toope of UBC, Andrew Petter of SFU and David Turpin of the University of Victoria.
Read The Vancouver Sun full article here.
By JANET STEFFENHAGEN March 26, 2012. 11:58 am • Section: Report Card
© The Vancouver Sun
How to Fix Teacher Bargaining? Ideas from Past BCTF Heads
Years of failed negotiations offer government solutions, say former union leaders.
If you need proof that history repeats itself, look no further than the contract negotiations between the provincial government and the B.C. Teachers’ Federation.
Since the New Democratic Party government pushed bargaining from the local to provincial level in 1995, there’s only been one successfully negotiated teacher collective agreement.
During that period legislation has been passed, teachers have walked out, fines have been issued, and classes have been cancelled, and when negotiation time rolls around again both sides profess a desire for change, but change doesn’t happen.
The current case is Bill 22: the Education Improvement Act, which introduces a mediator to the equation, but rules any decision must meet the government’s net-zero mandate, which teachers refuse to accept.
Read The Tyee full article here.
By Katie Hyslop, 26March2012, TheTyee.ca
Teachers warn of new job action including full shutdown: ‘Our members are angry,’ BCTF president says
The B.C. Teachers’ Federation has warned the Liberal government to radically change its approach to public education or face more protests by teachers, including the possibility of a provincewide shutdown of public schools.
“Our members are angry,” union president Susan Lambert told a news conference a day after she was re-elected to head the organization for another year.
She said delegates who attended the BCTF’s annual general meeting this week drafted a “bold plan of action” that will be presented to 41,000 teachers for a vote April 17-18.
While not divulging full details of the plan, Lambert said it includes asking members if they want to withdraw from all extracurricular activities – as teachers have already done in some school districts – and whether they want to walk a picket line in an illegal strike. She suggested a second vote would be called before such action would be authorized.
Read THE VANCOUVER SUN full article here.
jsteffenhagen@vancouversun.com
Blog: vancouversun.com/reportcard
How My Teaching Has Changed
It is easy to talk about what could be, what should be and what other people could do. Instead, I would like to share what I have done, and what we are trying to do, as we engage in and embrace this learning evolution.
I began my career trying to emulate the teachers I remembered most, and through the stories I remembered from my school experiences. The teacher was mixing content, stories and weaving a narrative. While hardly an actor, there was something about the performance of teaching I really did enjoy. I would organize the desks in a circle, and while this was great for students to engage with each other, it also gave me centre stage. I was very focussed on the lesson plan and activities in the classroom. I saw myself as the expert, and it was up to me and the textbook to help students understand the content. Now, here is a true confession — I loved being the ‘sage on the stage’. In my Social Studies and English classes I would often retell the stories my memorable teachers had told me.
As I became more comfortable, I tried to allow students more of an opportunity to tell their stories. I worked to create situations where students could simulate the real world. In History class this might have been a United Nations role-play lesson, or reviewing a series of case studies in Law class. Students loved the examples drawn from the “real world”. In Law, we would study cases making headlines in the news, and other Social Studies’ classes leant themselves ideally to current events. I loved the relevance that came from these lessons, as well as the engagement. Combining my lectures with hands-on activities, like putting Louis Riel on trial, led to an even richer teaching and learning experience.
Read Chris Kennedy’s article here.
By Chris Kennedy, February 22, 2012 The cultureofyes Blog
Hunger Games fans switch arenas from page to screen
What is it about The Hunger Games that has made it the hottest teen fiction series since Harry Potter and Twilight? We went to the source and found three avid and articulate fans — ages 17 to 74 — to tell us. They love Suzanne Collins’ best-selling dystopian trilogy about a future dictatorship in which teens, primped by stylists and costume designers, are forced to fight to the death on TV. And they’re just as excited about the highly anticipated movie version of the first book, starring Jennifer Lawrence as heroine Katniss Everdeen. It opens Friday.
Read more in THE VANCOUVER SUN here.
BY BOB MINZESHEIMER, MCT MARCH 19, 2012