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PT6A posted:I've thought about this issue a bit and I think the reason they're so wedded to oil industry jobs above renewable energy jobs is the latter typically, I believe, requires that you not be a coked-out high school dropout. Ask Rime about installing windmills
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Mar 14, 2019 04:42
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should just institute a minster of jobs then
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Mar 14, 2019 05:17
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A good way to get JWR back into cabinet! 
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Mar 14, 2019 07:38
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All in favour of adjourning this meeting into other people finding out what we did wrong? Cool. Bye then. We'll talk about it next time in secret sometime around the fuckteenth of never.quote:https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/justice-committee-wilson-raybould-trudeau-1.5052976
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Mar 14, 2019 13:13
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Okay so I haven't seen very much here about the new education announcements from DoFo and the gang but I'm an Ontario teacher so I did an effortpost about it. I got opinions. This is what I wrote on my Bookface about it and I'll leave it here too. We've seen announcements about sex-ed rollbacks back in the fall, and now announcements about class sizes in the K-3 division, cellphones in class, students on the autism spectrum, and I'm reading whispers about something involving EQAO, but I'm gonna leave that off the table for now because there's nothing hard. Let's run it down the line - Links in the down-there part. --------------------------------------- CLASS CAPS AND PERSONNEL IN K-3 Currently, class caps in Ontario are set at 23 students for the primary division and 29 for Kindergarten, and classrooms are staffed with a Teacher and an Early Childhood Educator. The government has made references to increasing or removing class caps in this division [1]. This is a critical stage of development that ECEs and primary-trained teachers can speak much more authoritatively about (I'm trained for secondary), and a strong pre-school and primary education experience has knock-on effects in both social and intellectual development all the way through a student's school careers [2]. The results also correlate strongly with the quality of the institution and that in turn correlates with the level of qualification of the educators and had a still greater positive effects on students from more disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds [2, p. 4]. Further, reducing class caps in the primary division to 20 or less has had positive effects both educationally and possibly economically in Germany [3 - apologies for the Google translation, originally in German] - the reasoning being that the improvement at lower grades reduces the strain on special education supports and the need for repeating classes, as well as leading to greater professional incomes and therefore, a greater tax base for the province. The Ontario government’s consultation on the matter has been loaded - in a survey respondents were given the option that primary classes should be staffed with either one teacher or two ECEs - in the first case, this reduces the amount of support and increases the strain on the teacher without an early childhood education specialist; in the latter case it removes the teacher from the equation entirely, reducing the quality of education and then opening the door for other grades and courses to be staffed by uncertified instructors rather than teachers, diminishing the quality of education, increasing the strain on staff, and damaging education quality in the long run. --------------------------------------- SEXUAL EDUCATION So this one was a big enough deal that students organized a province-wide walkout over it. Sexual and health education was rolled back to the 1998 curriculum that I learned. While it covered the basics of sexual reproduction, contraception, and diseases, it did nothing to discuss healthy relationships and how to protect oneself in relationships, and it is woefully inadequate for today’s reality of LGBTQ acceptance, smartphone communication, and this shouldn’t need to be said, but the importance and necessity of sexual consent. The updated 2015 curriculum [4] was more thorough, better designed, and covered many of the realities that students face in age-appropriate ways and gives them the information they need before critical situations come up. During consultations by the government, it also received widespread support for those reasons. [5] Although these aren’t necessarily discriminatory, it can create a chilling effect for both teachers and LGBTQ students, making the students feel less safe at school (news reports and school surveys corroborate each other here) and making the teachers feel like they aren’t able to give students necessary 21st century information on physical and sexual health matters [6]. Never mind that the government has out and said that teachers could face consequences for teaching the 2015 curriculum and has openly suggested that parents call the Ontario College of Teachers for teaching the new curriculum as ‘curriculum-based misconduct’. [7] The old curriculum doesn’t allow for 21st century reality, and doesn’t emphasize ideas like consent, which is a cornerstone of healthy relationships, or digital safety. That being said, as long as the curriculum expectations are being covered in physical and health education, teachers do have the professional latitude to teach whatever else they feel is necessary and the court agrees on that. Digital citizenship and cyber-safety is a more important topic than we think it is, and there’s a lot of laws and moral issues that students will run afoul of without this knowledge on safe smartphone use. --------------------------------------- HEY, SPEAKING OF SMARTPHONES Recently, the Ontario Government has also introduced a directive that will ban smartphones during instructional time starting in September of 2019 [8]. Stopping that fire is like trying to blow out the sun. Most school boards already have a plan in place to deal with smartphones in class and ultimately, they mostly come down on the side of ‘we trust the professional judgement of the teacher’ which is great! Smartphones can be a powerful learning tool and ultimately this is more of a classroom management point anyway. Teachers are doing a great job of embracing this, especially teachers at my school who are completely reinventing how they do things in the classroom. Another colleague of mine, Jamie Mitchell, has done phenomenal work embracing smartphones and technology as a whole at Hayden SS in Burlington because he thought confiscating phones was a pain in the neck and didn’t enjoy it. [9] My beef here is that a provincial directive on what we can or can’t use as an instructional tool takes away our professional judgement and the latitude we need to teach effectively. It also ignores the fact that students have grown up with this technology and are experts with it, which allows for so many important lessons - digital citizenship, responsible use of technology, collaboration, research skills, and two-way learning between student and teacher. We can’t beat ‘em, so we use ‘em. Better for everyone that way. --------------------------------------- STUDENTS ON THE SPECTRUM Back in February the Ontario government announced that the funding model for therapy for children with autism would be changed in an effort to reduce waitlists, but this comes with the result of those parents being unable to afford sufficient therapy - It can cost as much as $80k per year for high-needs ASD children using ABA or IBI therapies. [10] According to some groups, this also came with words from the government that if they don’t back this, they will be in for ‘a long four years’ [11]. This takes effect on April 1 2019, and will then have the effect of students on the spectrum with high-needs entering mainstream school classrooms, and I can’t stress enough that it will be an unqualified disaster. Routine is critical to children with ASDs and high-needs students will not have the supports they need in classrooms. The education minister recently announced additional funding to school boards to the tune of $12300 per student entering the system [12] but this is a bit of a foxy one: this is the same per-student funding given to the education system anyway. It isn’t new money, and effectively treats incoming students with ASDs as an average, neurotypical student. Workplace violence is already a serious issue for teachers and EAs [13] and for high-needs ASD students this is only going to get worse because mainstream schools are not equipped for the needs of these students. Some of the funding is going into one-day PDs for ASD training or additional qualification courses, but these won’t be enough. It’s the wrong environment for high-needs ASD students and teachers aren’t equipped or trained for the work. We can’t perform ABA or IBI for the students in the middle of a class of 30, and this increases the risk for the teachers, students, and their peers in the classroom. --------------------------------------- CLOSING OUT This is a lot to chew on but these are going to put a massive dent in the ability of teachers to do their jobs effectively and many of these announcements seem to be there in order to distract from one another. I’ve chafed under Mike Harris’ ‘common sense revolution’ government as a student and a lot of teachers did too, and the material coming out of Ford’s government is cut from the same cloth. This has me thinking that all of this will mean deep cuts when the budget comes down for education. It’s in keeping with recent Conservative governments’ contempt for any public sector employees that aren’t police officers (no disrespect), and it’s only going to make everyone’s time in schools - teachers, administrators, support staff, and especially students - a whole lot worse. --------------------------------------- Links: 1: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-considers-removing-kindergarten-and-primary-class-size-caps-1.4990387 2: https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/18189/2/SSU-SF-2004-01.pdf 3: https://www.diw.de/de/diw_01.c.5849...ik_fuehren.html 4: https://www.ontario.ca/page/sex-education-ontario 5: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-sex-ed-consultations-1.4949832 6: https://globalnews.ca/news/4938339/ontario-teachers-sex-education/ 7: https://globalnews.ca/news/4402354/doug-ford-teachers-sex-ed/ 8: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-school-cellphone-ban-reaction-1.5053704 9: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1105454514587394049.html 10: https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/parents-angered-by-changes-to-ontario-autism-program-aimed-at-cutting-wait-list-1.4284855 11. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/macleod-pressed-group-for-positive-quote-on-autism-program-1.5018185 12: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/education/article-ontario-government-announces-new-supports-for-schools-ahead-of-change/ 13: https://www.whsc.on.ca/What-s-new/News-Archive/Workplace-violence-growing-in-education-sector-st
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Mar 14, 2019 15:00
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One of the first thing the PCs did in Manitoba was uncap classes sizes(it was set at 25 kids in all classrooms) and it's been loving disastrous
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Mar 14, 2019 15:48
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...lmaoquote:Brian Jean coming back, says Calgary councillor https://calgarysun.com/opinion/columnists/bell-calgary-councillor-says-brian-jean-is-back-big-time
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Mar 14, 2019 17:08
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The Freedom Conservatives
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Mar 14, 2019 17:20
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I pray that conservatism in Alberta will reach such an advanced level of stupidity, scarcely even believed possible in previous times, that they will manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and deliver Rachel Notley another term. I mean, that's still pretty optimistic, but I certainly don't see any evidence that the conservative movement couldn't end up being that stupid.
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Mar 14, 2019 17:29
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DariusLikewise posted:One of the first thing the PCs did in Manitoba was uncap classes sizes(it was set at 25 kids in all classrooms) and it's been loving disastrous Class size is so important when it comes to educational experience. I taught classes of 32 high school students with two designations, and it was very difficult to support the students adequately. I now teach classes of 15 with 10-12 designations and it is very doable. If I ever took power, I would sentence anyone raising class caps to teach a kindergarten class of 32, as mentioned above, for a week. It would be as effective a punishment as a death sentence.
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Mar 14, 2019 17:33
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I think one of the problems with class size debates is that large classes don't affect everyone equally. I never had a problem with being in a large class, either in high school or university, because I was pretty good at just doing my own thing and figuring poo poo out for myself. I neither wanted nor needed a bunch of attention from the teacher. The thing is, though: that doesn't work for everyone, and it's not due to some intrinsic failing on their part. Some students need more attention, some students need less attention, some students need different instructional approaches, and the only way to facilitate any of that consistently is by ensuring class sizes are small.
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Mar 14, 2019 17:39
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"do class sizes matter" is a fairly settled question, I don't think I'd call it a debate. How much to prioritise smaller classes vs other funding priorities, or how to train/hire new teachers to fill those classes sure.
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Mar 14, 2019 17:46
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https://twitter.com/AlexCKaufman/status/1105853650432225280 Somebody tell Doug Ford, maybe we can build a ferris wheel at the north pole to attract tourists to our new beachfront resorts.
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Mar 14, 2019 17:48
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Now can we take climate-change denialists and impale them along the side of a road as a warning to others? It would probably be a more humane fate than future generations are going to have anyway.
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Mar 14, 2019 17:53
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No the actual response is we need to build more pipelines because boomer jobs are on the line
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Mar 14, 2019 17:55
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Silver Spooner posted:teacher effort post Thanks for the info. I've also heard grumblings about getting rid of all day JK which would also be a disaster.
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Mar 14, 2019 18:02
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PT6A posted:I think one of the problems with class size debates is that large classes don't affect everyone equally. I never had a problem with being in a large class, either in high school or university, because I was pretty good at just doing my own thing and figuring poo poo out for myself. I neither wanted nor needed a bunch of attention from the teacher. The thing is, though: that doesn't work for everyone, and it's not due to some intrinsic failing on their part. Some students need more attention, some students need less attention, some students need different instructional approaches, and the only way to facilitate any of that consistently is by ensuring class sizes are small. It's not just about giving each kid attention, it becomes impossible for an adult to keep control of a room of 30+ kids by themselves.
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Mar 14, 2019 18:03
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BattleMaster posted:Now can we take climate-change denialists and impale them along the side of a road as a warning to others? It would probably be a more humane fate than future generations are going to have anyway. No you see that's just a projection and scientists are just anti-capitalist artist elites and don't understand the WORKING CLASS so therefarrrrrrrrrrrt
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Mar 14, 2019 18:05
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vyelkin posted:https://twitter.com/AlexCKaufman/status/1105853650432225280 Permian Extinction 2: Hominid Boogaloo.
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Mar 14, 2019 18:15
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https://twitter.com/RobSilver/status/1105914870363361280 Is Singh like a manchurian candidate from the Libs to sabotage the NDP?
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Mar 14, 2019 18:26
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DariusLikewise posted:One of the first thing the PCs did in Manitoba was uncap classes sizes(it was set at 25 kids in all classrooms) and it's been loving disastrous Didn't they actually just scrap the K-3/20 initiative? That was legislation that limited class sizes to 20 for students from kindergarten through to grade 3 (and it only had to be 90% of the K-3 classes). I don't think there was an official class size cap at higher grade levels set by the province.
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Mar 14, 2019 18:43
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DariusLikewise posted:It's not just about giving each kid attention, it becomes impossible for an adult to keep control of a room of 30+ kids by themselves. That's part of it, but some does come down to the individual attention for students as well. Some kids can coast on by with minimal assistance, but some need a ton, and there's a spectrum between them. The bigger the class gets, the thinner the teacher gets stretched between them all, and overall quality of education suffers for the kids who do need more attention. On top of this, for the teachers, more kids = more marking at home, more calls to parents, more stress overall, etc. Anyone who thinks a teacher's day ends at 3:00PM has no loving clue what the job actually entails.
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Mar 14, 2019 19:39
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The Butcher posted:Some kids can coast on by with minimal assistance, but some need a ton, and there's a spectrum between them. But don't you understand that what really matters is the standardized math test scores?
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Mar 14, 2019 19:48
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One of my daughters is just fine doing her own poo poo in school, but another daughter needed some help fitting in and adjusting to her new school after we moved this year. So we talked to her teacher and her teacher basically said that 80% of her attention was going to 6 students who were always causing and having trouble, making it hard to give enough attention to the rest of the class. I assume this is typical - and is a reason why increasing class sizes is an issue. If she had 8 difficult students to manage instead of 6, that already low amount of time available for the rest of the kids would drop even further.
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Mar 14, 2019 19:56
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Every additional student also creates additional workloads in terms of grading and evaluations. So adding ten kids is basically adding another ten hours a week of work on to the teacher with no additional time or pay.
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Mar 14, 2019 20:15
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Pinterest Mom posted:...lmao  Spring session of the legislature here we come!
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Mar 14, 2019 20:29
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Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
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Bingo.
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Mar 14, 2019 20:43
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A follow up re: Toronto homeless encampments https://twitter.com/jpags/status/1105944539272003587
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Mar 14, 2019 20:48
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*in extremely trump voice* you'd better believe it folks, some people, and I'm not going to say who, but some people are saying we should just arrest all the homeless
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Mar 14, 2019 20:54
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infernal machines posted:A follow up re: Toronto homeless encampments 
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Mar 14, 2019 21:19
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I think we should get rid of the homeless, by giving them homes, instead of spending horrendous amounts of money on services for the homeless that are still minimally effective because it's no-poo poo incredibly difficult to function in society with no fixed address and no place to live.
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Mar 14, 2019 21:27
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we can't take care of our homeless because of refugees! *votes conservative*
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Mar 14, 2019 21:28
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PT6A posted:I think we should get rid of the homeless, by giving them homes, instead of spending horrendous amounts of money on services for the homeless that are still minimally effective because it's no-poo poo incredibly difficult to function in society with no fixed address and no place to live. But why would anyone work if they could get government housing for free!?!?!? I don’t want $10,000,000 spent housing homeless people, I want $10,000,000 spent on extra ER costs, police officers, etc to manage the homeless! Improving the lives of the underclass is a net subtraction of my privilege cowofwar fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Mar 14, 2019 |
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Mar 14, 2019 21:46
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THC posted:we can't take care of our homeless because of refugees! *votes conservative* Maybe if they worked a little harder to join the Middle Class.
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Mar 14, 2019 21:51
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vyelkin posted:https://twitter.com/AlexCKaufman/status/1105853650432225280 yeah, looks like we're gonna try to geo-engineer our way out of this.
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Mar 14, 2019 22:02
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PT6A posted:I think we should get rid of the homeless, by giving them homes, instead of spending horrendous amounts of money on services for the homeless that are still minimally effective because it's no-poo poo incredibly difficult to function in society with no fixed address and no place to live. it would be incredibly cool if a local government actually followed the results of that study that said its in fact much cheaper to give the homeless free housing instead of spending the money that gets used when they are homeless on policing,social services,medical support, etc. but its a "bad look" for voters.
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Mar 14, 2019 22:11
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zapplez posted:it would be incredibly cool if a local government actually followed the results of that study that said its in fact much cheaper to give the homeless free housing instead of spending the money that gets used when they are homeless on policing,social services,medical support, etc. Salt Lake City, Utah of all places did, and they dropped homelessness by something like 75% while also saving money.
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Mar 14, 2019 22:28
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Dreylad posted:yeah, looks like we're gonna try to geo-engineer our way out of this. Which is kinda cool in a way. It would have been cooler not to gently caress up a perfectly functional biosphere that suited us perfectly, but you know. If that ship really has sailed, obviously we need to keep up the carbon reduction efforts to not speed up the timetable, but large scale geo fuckery is probably the last option left. Should be interesting to see what kind of proposals and science comes down the pipe as it's taken more seriously.
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Mar 14, 2019 22:31
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The Butcher posted:Which is kinda cool in a way. Bezos and Musk will save
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Mar 14, 2019 22:35
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Dreylad posted:yeah, looks like we're gonna try to geo-engineer our way out of this. It worked so well in Highlander 2
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Mar 14, 2019 22:59
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