Voices

As a teacher federation, ETFO has a lot in common with other unions and teacher federations.

For ETFO the October provincial election was a success story: we worked hard to ensure the election of a majority of education-friendly candidates and that goal was accomplished with the election of 53 Liberals and 17 New Democrats.

In the June 2011 issue of Voice  I said goodbye, anticipating that it would be the last issue I would be editing. Things were not so straightforward: I found myself continuing on for a few months more than I had anticipated. But now it is truly time for my last goodbye.

Sound research is too often missing when changes are advocated for education policy and teaching practice. The global push for education reforms too often starts with preconceived solutions.

Business as usual at OTF means that research is constant and ongoing. While OTF conducts its own research as needed, we are often informed by carefully reviewing and analyzing the research of others.

The greatest professional challenge for most occasional teachers is classroom management. Occasional teachers have to adjust quickly to a variety of classroom situations.

We can empower students by simply seeing attributes they possess. 

Over the winter holidays I discovered The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha, who decided that there was so much bad news in the world and in his own life that he needed to find and blog about a single, simple joy every day – things like the yeasty smell of a bakery, finding money in your po

One of the major benefits ETFO provides for the designated early childhood educators (DECEs)* it represents is legal protection when work-related problems occur. These educators work closely with young children and, like teachers, are vulnerable to complaints lodged by the public.