Saturday morning. This is actually the first Saturday in a long time where I am waking up later than usual. I've been far too swamped with grad school and teaching to give myself free time. But let's shove my self-pity comments aside. That's not what I'm going to be talking about.
I stumbled onto the web, searching for some refreshing things to look at. I read through several blogs on my google reader, checking out several bloggers that I usually follow, but lately haven't really had time to read: Dan, Fawn, Lisa, Sam... etc.
It was definitely enjoyable. Between flipping through the pages (not literally), it struck me that I want to see if there were bloggers like me that's actually from Ontario -- using our curriculum. A lot of the bloggers I follow are from the states, and their mathematical content and curriculum discussions are different. Of course, there are lots of parallels, and I extract whatever I find useful all the time (ah the power of the human mind), but I thought it wouldn't hurt to just google some new searchers.
I then came across this blog post by shop girl.
She's not an education blogger. She appears to be a blogger that just happen to be an educator. No matter, I read on. Besides being a captivating writer, she also stirred up several of topics that I can relate to and find fascinating. Some stuff she mentioned, and others just products of my random mind.
In the midst of all the chaos surrounding the current strike action/teacher union/government issues, it was refreshing to read about a passionate teacher*. Or as she puts it, an "Ontario occasional teacher." It is tough to get a job in Ontario. I can't speak for other cities, but in Ottawa, where I am, the competition is fierce. Just becoming an occasional teacher and getting on the supply list is a huge battle. Then once you are a supply/occasional teacher, receiving a long term occasional teacher where you teach a class for an extended period of time is even more of a battle. Then from there to a permanent hire is another difficult road.
Within the past few months, I've been casually following the news articles about union vs government (probably not the most appropriate phrase for this). "Casual" is actually a subjective word that I feel fits my stance more. While the war wages, and sanctions are established for what us teachers can and cannot do in order to support the fight, I have basically maintained a relatively nonchalant attitude. It's not that I don't care about standing for the freedom and rights of people. I get that. I have no problem supporting that. It's just that my motivation to stand behind the fight is strictly about the principle and the rights.
I'm kind of an oddity when it comes to finances. I have objectively analyzed myself several times, so I'm going to try to put words here that will hopefully resemble my conclusions. My motivation has never been finances or financial security. Not to sound like a unicorn (crazy animal that don't exist), but I don't care much for money. I understand that society value of money. I understand how to work with money. I understand the concept of money. But I just can't bring myself to caring for it. In fact, I sometimes find myself actively disgusted by (a) money becoming a primary driver for society, and (b) the corruption of money in terms of education, motivation, and entertainment. Okay, my second point is a mess of a phrase, but I couldn't think of a quick way of summarizing that one. By "the corruption...education, motivation, and entertainment," I mean seeing students and parents seeking "future careers" based on monetary security instead of passion. I mean seeing people abandon ideas and concepts because they don't bear immediate fruit for financial gain. I mean the way that monetary incentives have corrupted people's desire to do things for the sake of doing things.
So okay, I might be a unicorn. In my unicorn-ness, most of the time I leave the financial side of things to my wife. That's how much I'm actively avoiding it. Why am I mentioning this? The situation with the union vs government has basically forced me to examine things like salary, sick days, leaves, benefits... and it basically disgusts me. Well, actually, so far I haven't really "examined" those things at all. I briefly glanced at the existing salary grid. I briefly engaged in conversations where people were telling me what kind of sick days we currently have and what would be taken away. I don't really know what's wrong with me, but for some reason I actually get sick just involving myself in conversations about the things that we are trying to bargain for.
And I feel bad.
In order to fight for the thing that I care for - rights of people, concepts of a union of protecting the little guy...etc - I need to care about what it is that is being fought for. And so this whole dilemma of what I value and what I don't value just nauseates me.
Anyway, that was the first tangent I got into.
The second one relates to something called "Cube for Teachers"
In my random search to find Ontario math education bloggers, I came across this website. The idea is simple. it seems like a platform for sharing resources for Ontario teachers. I have mentioned before that in Ontario there are curriculum documents that establishes curriculum expectations which are basically the big ideas that students need to learn. I will likely elaborate on this later on, but I can say that I believe the curriculum documents are currently an excellent resource and guide for teachers to deliver key conceptual content for students. It's a shame that not all teachers are as familiar with it as they should be. Too many of them are bound by the confines of whatever textbook they use.
This cube for teachers platform seems very interesting. It seems to allow for a search engine that searches by curriculum expectations, in addition to be a common sharing place. When I have some more time over the winter break, I will likely explore more of it. The one thing that I noticed, was the fact that Khan academy was one of the popular links on the side. I am not sure if Khan Academy videos have changed from when I last saw it, but I imagine that even if they have changed -- it wouldn't be that much of a change yet. While I am not opposed to the idea of flipped classrooms, I am uncomfortable with the current structure of the videos. I had mentioned in that previous post that I would make a video this year that would address my concerns. However, that never became the case. I was just too busy this semester to do much else. So I guess I'm officially throwing that on the backburner now.
Ok, so this ends my random post about my Saturday musings!
Update: Check out this article written back in September. An interesting read that definitely still applies -- and applies beyond just the American Education System.
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