Nationally Speaking: Building relationships (CTF Report)

Teaching is a social activity. Early in our careers teachers learn that the basis for our success is often found in our relationships with others.

• Classroom management and student achievement are directly affected by our relationships with students.
• Positive teacher and parent relationships provide opportunities for meeting student, classroom, and school needs.
• Teachers know that keeping the caretaker and the school secretary on your side makes life within the school much easier.

Much of what we do at the Canadian Teachers’ Federation establishes strong, positive relationships that benefit teachers and advance their interests. Provincial and territorial teacher organizations across this country bring value to education and help make Canada a respected educational leader in the world. CTF creates national solidarity for teachers and strong working relationships in what could easily be a fractured system.  That  solidarity  includes  purposeful coordination of concepts and projects that matter to teachers.

CTF works with numerous other organizations and individuals who have an effect on teachers’ lives.  CTF  is  seen  as  a  worthwhile contact for others. The resources, connections, and contacts, and the knowledge of the people who make up CTF, are well respected throughout Canada and throughout the world. Every CTF member organization benefits and shines because of the work CTF does.

Positive relations pay off directly for teachers. For example, when the issue of  reciprocal certification came  up  recently, CTF  contacts provided direct, up-to-date information. When such  information  is  supplemented  by  what is  readily  available  to  member  organizations, teachers across Canada develop a deep understanding of an issue.

Teachers throughout Canada see themselves, colleagues, and students suffering as targets of cyber bullying. The  strong relationships that CTF has with researchers  and other organizations have allowed us to take the good work done by provincial and territorial teacher organizations  to  lead  a  coordinated  challenge to cyber bullying that has the potential to create a national (and international) discourse that uses common language to reach common goals for the good of teachers and students. Many external groups were unaware of teachers’ concerns and some believed that teachers have no need to fear cyber bullying, which they saw as purely a student issue.

The Canadian Teachers’ Federation is a tireless advocate for teachers’ interests. Our respect for classroom teachers and for their organizations demands no less.