Teachers and COVID | GTAMotorcycle.com

Teachers and COVID

Mad Mike

Mad Mike

Well-known member
The early numbers are in, and according to Public health officials today there are 16 school related cases identified in the GTA - 11 of the 16 were Teachers, 4 were students. WTF?

All this whining - with a ratio of 20:1, I can't find the right words to describe how angry this makes me. I know the sample size is small, but I have to ask - are these teachers smarter than a 5 year old?
 
Well, here is another one that should be off the public payroll. So stupid. Symptomatic and goes to work and fails to wear a mask resulting in a school shutdown..

www.680news.com

Lecce rips Toronto teacher that tested positive for COVID-19 after not wearing mask

A travelling Toronto teacher has been charged with failing to wear a mask, and taught at three classes in a school with 250 students.
www.680news.com www.680news.com

The itinerant music teacher tested positive for COVID-19 at the start of the month, leading to the weeklong shutdown of St. Charles Catholic School.

Health inspectors stopped by St. Charles Catholic School on Friday and charged the teacher who is now on leave while the investigation is carried out. The maximum fine is $1,000, plus victim fine surcharges.

A spokesperson for the labour minister said the teacher has now been charged with failing to wear a mask and is set to appear before a justice of the peace in February.

Itinerant teachers travel from class to class or among schools — and this teacher had contact with three classes in the school of 250.

A source told the Toronto Star that the teacher is also accused of failing to self-screen before coming to work, coming to school while symptomatic, and not self-isolating while ill.
 
Many teachers are reporting burnout as after a six month paid vacation, covid is making teaching unsustainable. Many other jobs have been dealing with this mess full time during their whole vacation (and many in critical roles have been on a vacation blackout through this whole period).


 
GreyGhost said:
Many teachers are reporting burnout as after a six month paid vacation, covid is making teaching unsustainable. Many other jobs have been dealing with this mess full time during their whole vacation (and many in critical roles have been on a vacation blackout through this whole period).


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Canadian teachers have got to be the laziest and most self entitled on the planet.
 
I read the articles, I think the headline is loaded in somewhat normal CBC journalistic style.

Two of 3 teachers say their view of teaching hasn't changed or got better -- seems to me that ought to be the headine! I'm pretty sure whenever you survey teachers, close to 20% are at or near a retirement option, and there will always be some wankers who are never happy.

What's interesting is teachers are not leaving the profession -- something is holding them.
 
I feel for ifiddles and other teachers I know.
 
Mad Mike said:
What's interesting is teachers are not leaving the profession -- something is holding them.
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Golden handcuffs. It's like GM employees years ago. They like to ***** and complain but know that if they leave, they will be looking at a huge reduction in income and more time required for work.
 
GreyGhost said:
Golden handcuffs. It's like GM employees years ago. They like to ***** and complain but know that if they leave, they will be looking at a huge reduction in income and more time required for work.
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It seems to me that their pay system doesn't benefit them until retirement.
Once they get their years + age in, they make comparatively more than some other professions.
 
@Baggsy thanks for your continued support...I have to say two months in, it is very exhausting...all the protocols that we need to follow in order to keep the kids and ourselves safe are a lot...I have 20 kids in a 2/3 split and a lot of them are very far behind in their reading, writing and math...the time they had online in the spring was not good...2 of my 20 started a week ago (they flipped from online to in class) and it's like having to restart with them from the beginning...I'm grateful that my kiddos are well behaved (for the most part as I do have a few monkeys that require a lot of attention and redirection) and parents are very supportive...I've talked to every parent probably 2-3 times already just to keep in touch, see how their child is feeling with the protocols and about any academic concerns I may have...after my day is done at school, I head home and upload any material we did that day (in case a student is away for whatever reason) onto D2L, then mark any work that they've submitted online...will now be starting report cards, even though I've had a couple away more than they've been in class, and two that just started last week...definitely not complaining as I love my vocation and I love my students (like I said, they are a great class), but it is exhausting...

and yes, there will always be teachers who complain about everything (I work with a few, so trust me, I know) and will never be happy...but, to be honest, this happens in every profession (this is my third career, so I do have experience in the corporate world to draw upon)...

edited to add: and trying to do one on one is challenging...wearing a mask and face shield (which is constantly fogging up) makes it hard for them to hear me, and me to hear them...trying to read one on one daily with my really low kids (have 1 who is at a kindergarten level in grade 2 and 2 in grade 3 who are at grade 1 level) has been fun...one student came to me with 6 out of the 100 high frequency word lists and now she knows 13, in just one week! that's what keeps me going (and in talking to her mom finding out that whereas in the past it was a struggle to get her to do anything at home, now she just wants to practice reading and math all the time)...rant over, sorry.... :D
 
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GreyGhost said:
Golden handcuffs. It's like GM employees years ago. They like to ***** and complain but know that if they leave, they will be looking at a huge reduction in income and more time required for work.
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There is lots of opportunities in the private sector for teachers. $60K a year, 4 weeks holidays, 10-12 students/classroom. Not many willing to step away for market rates.
 
@Mad Mike curious where these private sector jobs are with 10-12 students/classroom other than a private school and they make pretty much what a public education teacher makes (at least most of the prestigious private schools pay on par) and actually get more vacation time (their Christmas and March breaks are usually longer - at least they were when I was a student teacher at a private school in Mississauga back in 2004 while I was getting my MSc. Ed.)
 
I'll agree it's not easy to be a teacher. That said, how many out there have easy jobs that come with 6 figure incomes and 13 weeks of paid time off?
 
@Mad Mike I agree and I'll be the first to say that we are very well paid...as for 13 weeks of paid time off, we don't get paid for the summer...we get paid during the summer, but it's actually a 10 month contract that is spread out over 12...used to be before I started in 2005, that they received a lump sum payment the end of June and most teachers ran out during the summer months, so contracts were changed to have our 10 month salary spread out over 26 equal payments..

now having said that, I've worked in corporate before (7 years in transportation/logistics and 7 years in banking/finance) and I can tell you I knew A LOT of people in higher up positions that made a heck of a lot more than teachers do and worked WAY less than teachers do...

I agree with @SVeezy and @GreyGhost that there are probably more caring teachers out there than there are that don't care (I can probably count on half of one hand the number of lazy ones in my school and we have about 60 teachers on staff)...unfortunately, it's the ones that don't care that make the headlines and or stay in the forefront of people's minds when they think of teachers that do ruin it for the rest of us...
 
ifiddles said:
@Mad Mike curious where these private sector jobs are with 10-12 students/classroom other than a private school and they make pretty much what a public education teacher makes (at least most of the prestigious private schools pay on par) and actually get more vacation time (their Christmas and March breaks are usually longer - at least they were when I was a student teacher at a private school in Mississauga back in 2004 while I was getting my MSc. Ed.)
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I have a few friends that taught at smaller private schools, that was their gig and yes they taught small classes - some as small as 6 students. Some were part time, some full, they taught year round , not usually 8-3. They earned about $30/hr and had 4 weeks paid vacation. I agree teachers at elite private schools do much better and are on par or better than public school teachers with pay and benefits.

There are also tons of teachers that work in adult education, business and industrial settings as trainers, facilitators, instructors. Depending on specialization, they earn $30-$80/hr. At the low end is tutoring high schoolers, machine operator training, at the high end medical, leadership and management training.
 
@Mad Mike I'm very surprised to hear they taught year round and had 4 weeks off...when I was doing my teaching degree, we had to research an alternative form of schooling so I chose the Waldorf system (there's I think like 3 in Ontario if I remember correctly) and they were by far the worst paid at that time (the teacher I interviewed from the Burlington location told me she was making $40-45,000/year) but had like 8-10 kids in her class, 1:1 technology, a slightly longer day but had more time off like I said...

A few years ago I looked at doing something like adult education (trainer/instructor) but then I remembered what being a manager in the bank I worked for was like, and said forget that, I'll stick to kids! :D (I remember being a manager and thinking, man if I have to deal with children all day, I might as well become a teacher LOL)

$30-80/hour is nothing to sneeze at either...if you go $3 0x 40 (average corporate work week) x 50 (say 2 weeks vacation) that's 60,000 (a first year teacher makes about $45,000 to start)...if you go $80 x 40 x 50 that's $160,000 (and teachers top out at just under $100,000 - I know, I'm at top pay)....not bad if you ask me...
 
The numbers seem off, my daughter's grade school alone has had two isolated cases so far (both kids). We get a report from the school when a case is found. I do not see our school in any of the other reports, media or otherwise.

Both cases, as I understand it, the kid was home sick with minor symptoms and/or was home as family had symptoms and the kid got tested. But was at school days prior to being off...

From what I have seen, and I am sure there are exceptions they keep the protocols pretty tight and there is a lot of cooperation so far. If we are still here in February (and likely will be) we will see how it goes.
 
@backmarkerducati agreed...hasn't been the &*%$ show a lot of us were expecting...in my board, for example, we have over 37,000 students, of which I believe around 23% decided to go online (some areas more than others) and according to my boards Covid-19 school cases identifier website, we have 13 active cases...

in my school, we went from just under 1,100 students to about 750 (we lost quite a few) and we haven't had one confirmed case...I've had a few off with symptoms, but they've tested negative and/or felt better and returned with no further issues...

I do believe most teachers, students and parents are trying their best to keep their kids safe...it's a shame that the one teacher mentioned in the article posted several posts earlier did what they did, as they've ruining the reputation of teachers in general...

funny, but I was talking to our office admin after school today, saying how weird it is that when we shut down last April, our numbers were way lower that what they are today, but there's no way they'll shut schools down again...at least in my opinion I don't see it happening...and to be honest, in a way, I hope they don't...I ABSOLUTELY HATED online learning/teaching/emergency learning whatever you want to call it...
 
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