Celebrating your Work (From The President)

This issue of Voice, devoted to professional learning, is special in a number of ways.

First, it’s a celebration of the work that you, our members, do. It also celebrates your your commitment to improving learning outcomes for Ontario students. Every day you are demonstrating that you care deeply about the quality of instruction you provide. Many of you are taking on leadership roles in your schools and boards and at the provincial level. Thousands of you participate in ETFO’s professional learning programs every year and take that learning back to your schools and classrooms. All of you are truly working to make a difference.

By your actions you have demonstrated what ETFO has always held to be true: classroom teachers are the best judges of their own professional development needs. Teachers don’t need to be forced to enhance their professional qualifications. They do need to be given the opportunity and the time to take part.

This issue of the magazine is also unique because it has been made possible in part by funding provided by the provincial government. Last spring the government gave our federation close to $8 million so that we could provide professional learning programs for our members.

In the short term that funding made it possible for ETFO to offer more than the usual array of Summer Academy workshops and Kindergarten Learning Institutes last summer, at a minimal cost to members. More members than ever before took part, enhancing their knowledge and skills in many areas of elementary education. During this school year, the funding allows us to do more of what we already do as an organization: provide  learning opportunities for members and foster teacher leadership across the province. We have been able to expand ETFO programming and opportunities already underway and to create new projects that respond directly to the needs of members and their students. In the year to come we will be developing a number of special projects. You will find a full list on page 20.

In making possible this special additional issue of the magazine, ministry funding also allows us to tell the world about the exemplary professional development work our members do both as participants and as leaders.

We value the support we have received from the ministry. It shows that the government recognizes the excellent  work that we do. Just as importantly it shows that the government recognizes that teachers themselves are best suited to determine what their professional learning needs are and that teacher federations play a crucial role in delivering this learning to members.

When ETFO was formed in 1998 we faced a government that had little respect for teachers and worked to  undermine public education in this province. The education system has not yet fully recovered from the damage that government did. And while there is a long way to go, we have seen

improvements, particularly in the respect shown to teachers and their federations.