A letter from...

... my daughter's teacher. She is only in grade 2, and if you have kids, you know how influential and important that role model can be! We have had the most wonderful teachers these 3 years, this last one really going above and beyond. He is creative and involved, and I feel like he does his job with passion because he loves it!

I visited him today on the picket line, brought them coffee, Timbits, buns. They all looked so sad and defeated - they are NOT enjoying this at all! Then just now I opened my email to find this letter to the parents from this teacher:

"Dear parents:

I just got home from my shift at the picket line and I thought I should update you on what is happening. (If you're in a hurry skip the legal rant stuff, and jump to the last paragraph!)

As you are probably aware, teachers will be voting on Monday and Tuesday on whether to escalate the current 1-day-a-week rotating strike to a full-scale strike across the entire Province. This is not a decision any of us will take lightly. The impact this whole mess is having on the kids and parents is sadly very present in our minds. It also greatly impacts non-teaching staff who are not crossing our picket lines in solidarity. Of course it also affects teachers, emotionally and financially.

There is frustration, anger and sadness at a time when we should all be celebrating the past year. In our school alone, teachers have had to cancel trips,concerts and sports events that they had spent countless hours planning, rehearsing and training for. 

You may remember the BC Supreme Court's scathing ruling earlier this year that ruled that the  

Government had illegally removed class size and composition from the teacher's contract in 2002 and 

repeatedly bargained in bad faith to try and push teachers into a full-strike, which never materialized. The Court effectively ordered that the pre-2002 situation be restored; it also ordered the Government to pay $2 Million to the Teachers' Union in legal fees for the 10 year battle. 

Of course, hiring thousands of teachers and reopening the hundreds of schools closed illegally over 10 years has a huge cost, and the Government decided to appeal the ruling for the second time, this time to the Supreme Court of Canada. The hearing is scheduled to start in October and will very likely take months.

You can read about the Supreme Court decision here or read the actual ruling.

Since February we have been expected to bargain with a Government that has been exposed by the Supreme Court as manipulative and deceitful. They are fully aware that at the heart of teachers' preoccupations is the restoration of class size and composition into teachers' contract. Yet, since 

appealing the ruling in February, they have not made a single offer to restore class size and 

composition. The Government is desperate for teachers to sign a deal before June, before the appeal 

goes before the Supreme Court in the Fall. This time their tactic is to lock out teachers during lunch and recess, and forbid us to be at school more than 45 minutes before/after school. This is an unprecedented move to put financial pressure on teachers and push them to agree to a deal before the summer. But I can assure you that as long the offers will not include class size and composition and specialist teachers, we will not sign it.

If you are not sure how class and composition affect your child, I encourage you to visit http://afairdeal.ca/. The teachers' demands are quite clear, although the Government always seems to focus the attention on teachers' wages. 

You will likely hear about the vote results next Tuesday. Our school will be on strike on Wednesday. A very realistic scenario would have teachers going on strike again from the Monday June 16 to the end of the year. This means I may only have 4 days with the class... I was going through all our  

photos together last night, and I cannot say how much this "rushed goodbye" saddens me. I deeply regret that your child and family had to experience this. Believe me it is not what any of us would 

choose to do.

I want to thank all of you for your incredible support in the last few weeks. I sincerely hope to have time to see all of you together before the end of the year, and I would really hate to have to email you my heartfelt gratitude for your incredible support and kindness this year.

On a more positive note: I have been collecting our class photos and videos. If you would like a copy please give G a flashdrive (there's about 4-5GB of stuff) this week.

Live every week like it's our last."

I just want to say that I support the teachers and will help them in any way I can. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. This teacher is amazing and it would be an awful shame if my daughter didn't get to say goodbye to him (she gets home after the full strike would start).

:(

Summer Doldrums

Is it just me or are things slow around here??

It's been so frantic all winter - JRFM and Peak had me listening at 7, 11, 2, 5, and 7 for what seemed like an eternity, and Jack had me tuning in at 10:10, 11:10, and 2:10 for months! The Beat also roped me in for 7:10, 11:10, and 3:10 (which was a superior pain in the ass when I had to pick my daughter up at 3!) And Zed Effect had me at 8, 12, and 5! GAH!

I was so strapped to my radios that I couldn't seem to get anything else done. Now that things have slowed down to a mere drizzle, I'm exhausted. Burnt out. So thankful for this breather... and chomping at the bit for a new wave of contests!!!

My kids are happy, I actually have time to sit and snuggle with them in the morning, and don't have to rush home every few hours so I can have 3 radios going at once. But I'm at a loss. I don't know what to do with myself! I've changed my furniture, hung the screen door, mowed the lawn. I've baked muffins, washed my cupboards, cleaned out the basement. The sheets are changed, the desk is cleared off, and old clothes have been donated. All that's left is to groom the dogs... and play with my kids, of course!

Hubby and daughter are on their pilgrimage to Germany, they left yesterday for 2 weeks of visiting the Old Country (hubby hasn't been there since he was 11, and then only once!) My little guy and I are just hanging out and he is so much less demanding than the others, I'm really enjoying this quiet. But it's only been one day, 17 hours in fact. I have a feeling we will be missing them soon...

In the meantime, let's hope that one of these wonderful stations steps up with something fun to carry us through the summer! Give me a reason to listen. Please!! I change stations according to my mood, but a contest will often sway my mood. LOL!

If you hear of anything, let me know. I probably only need to put out one schedule per week (Monday) since nothing needs updating daily. Also I will now have time to do up an Online Entry Contests post probably today, possibly tonight. This might be a good time to drum up some of our OWN contests... I'll see what I can put together...

:D