Berlee (she/her) 🇨🇦

Tech enthusiast, Mom, wife, passionate about structured literacy

[Scott Robertson @sarobertson_]

David Cochrane: You don't create 88k jobs if you're in a recession. So what does this do to the whole argument?

Peter Armstrong: It probably won't put it to bed, though it probably should.

[Jason Bradshaw 🇨🇦🇧🇧 @JBradshaw01]

Just another blow to public education.
#OntEd

[Toronto Blue Jays @BlueJays]

Pitching Clinic 😤 #BlueJays50

FINAL: Blue Jays 7, Braves 2

[Johnny Canuck🇨🇦 @KGBure]

Just received an email from my school board clarifying Doug Fords’s $750 classroom supply funding - it takes out 10% of schools spending budget ($15 per student). And is to be used to buy everything your class needs for the whole year. @TinaYazdani @ETFOeducators @MaritStiles

[Cheri DiNovo @CheriDiNovo]

BREAKING: 7 SESSIONS!! Doug Ford was present for in one year.

I know as well as anyone how much work MPs and MPPS do away from legislatures but this is still outrageous.

If you can't be questioned in a democracy it's not a democracy

[Elementary Educators @ETFOeducators]

At Queen's Park today, @ETFOpresident joined @PolicingFreeSch and community members to send the government a united message. Fund our schools, not policing in schools!

Ford has already spent millions on police-in-schools programs, which do nothing to address students' real needs! What students in #onted need are resources, special education supports and smaller class sizes. #onpoli

[Bev 🇨🇦 @Garnet_2203]

Ontario's education unions have officially served notice to bargain.
They're asking for smaller class sizes, more special education supports, and an end to mandatory e-learning.
And this explains exactly why Doug Ford is shutting down Queen's Park for the summer until October.
We've seen this before.
When it comes to education, Ford's government has a history of fighting teachers instead of fixing classrooms. Larger class sizes. Fewer supports. Labour disputes. Constant battles with the people educating our children.
Teachers aren't asking for luxuries. They're asking for the resources needed to help students succeed.
Doug Ford has failed teachers. He has failed parents. He has failed students.
If Ontario is heading toward another work-to-rule campaign or labour unrest this fall, nobody should be surprised. The warning signs are already there.
Instead of showing leadership and investing in public education, this government appears content to disappear until October and hope the problems go away.

The only union Doug Ford supports is the police unions.

Ontario's children deserve better.

[Cheri DiNovo @CheriDiNovo]

Your Ontario government sat for under 30 days and won't reconvene until October.

So much for accountability to anyone...

[Scott Robertson @sarobertson_]

Marit Stiles on the Ontario Legislature rising for 5-month break: "We've had an extremely short session. 29.5 days, less than a month that the House has been sitting since January 1st ... there's really important work that needs to be done, it's outrageous."

[Elementary Educators @ETFOeducators]

JOINT RELEASE: Together, our unions represent more than 255,000 teachers and education workers across Ontario. United in our commitment to publicly funded education, we are prepared to engage in meaningful negotiations focused on supporting students and strengthening learning and working conditions in #onted schools. 👀 https://t.co/jc9waDwxk8

[Phil Pothen 🇨🇦 he/him @pothen]

Every single one of these demands benefits our kids. It will be years before we have any leverage over this majority government, but the teachers have leverage now, and they're using it to stick up for their students. Thank goodness for collective bargaining.

[Marit Stiles @MaritStiles]

A 102-day summer vacation after sitting for only 29 days this year. If you were trying to avoid questions about your own corruption, this is what you'd do.

[Elementary Educators @ETFOeducators]

Teacher presidents from across Canada met to discuss the alarming actions of governments using the Notwithstanding Clause to override constitutionally protected rights to freedom of association, collective bargaining, and strike action. This heavy handed action is undemocratic and we will fight back! Listen to watch @ETFOpresident had to say to Ontario’s Premier and Minister of Education #onted #canlab

[Nithya Shri @Nithya_Shrii]

Unpopular opinion: Schools are dealing with the consequences of failed parenting.

[Elementary Educators @ETFOeducators]

Classroom conditions have deteriorated significantly over the past eight years, leading to high levels of teacher burnout, @etfopresident David Mastin told The @globeandmail.

"Whether you’re in downtown city centres, very densely populated city centres, we’re seeing the same thing: violence, unmet student needs, declining availability for specialized educators, barriers to accessing essential programs, insufficient resources, lack of early interventions. Our members are saying, ‘I can’t take this any more,'" Mastin said.

https://t.co/gyaoqkVByW #onted #onpoli

[Jen @jenteach13]

Nobody talks about the teacher who bought her own copy paper because the school ran out in February.

[Ontario NDP @OntarioNDP]

#NEW: NDP tables Bill to protect children from excessive heat in schools ahead of the summer season

[Marit Stiles @MaritStiles]

Doug Ford lost in court, again, trying to keep his personal cell phone records hidden from the public.

The Information and Privacy Commissioner has ordered the government to begin preparing the records for release within 30 days.

The question is simple: will the Premier comply?

[Jen @jenteach13]

A few weeks ago, I started posting one educational fix a day. Here is the list so far.

You want to fix education?

🔹 Count the administrators in your district. Then count the teachers. Then ask who is in the room with your child.
🔹 Stop treating teachers like they're the problem. They're the ones who showed up every day, documented everything, and told you the truth all year.
🔹 Pay teachers more.
🔹 Close the Chromebook. Confiscate the phone. Hand them a pencil.
🔹 Fix class sizes.
🔹 Start with accountability. When nothing happens, students learn something. It is not the thing we want them to learn.
🔹 Make attendance mean something again. A child cannot learn in a building he doesn't enter.
🔹 Figure out how to keep the good teachers where they are.
🔹 Staff the building.
🔹 Stop pretending teachers are only working when you can see them.
🔹 Let teachers remove kids who make it impossible for everyone else to learn.
🔹 Restore consequences.
🔹 Stop buying curriculum from companies that repackage the same junk every seven years. Ask the teachers in the room what actually works for the students in front of them.

We know what is broken. We know how to fix it. We just keep aiming at the wrong person.