Technolandy

Day 111 (of 2024/25) teachers vs uncertified adults – ministry of education and (not as) child care

The term ‘trusted adult’ got mentioned to me today – and it reminded me of this article I recently read – including a note that a ‘study by Jacob Kirksey showed students losing three to four months of learning a year when taught by uncertified teachers with no instructional background.’

https://apple.news/AymU1lMcbRr6qPis9J7IEsw

In a time when teacher retention and recruitment is becoming more challenging – and an area identified for more and more teacher leadership applications (I think people are hoping they may bring some friends with them if they move schools/districts). And we know there is an ebb and flow that doesn’t usually match the supply & demand of teachers – sometimes there are too many (my grad class was targeted for the upcoming wave of retirements that took another 7 years to actually crash) and then there are too few and some districts have bonus challenges to be attractive (one of my former districts even came up with, and was approved to use, a plan to offer incentive $). Even other places that used to ‘not bother to recruit because everyone wants to come here’ have had to admit that they need those ‘trusted adults’ from time to time. Heck, that was me before I got my BEd – as a university student, I was hired by my district to be a TOC 0- which helped me check to confirm whether or not teaching was as good for me as it had been for my dad…

But sometimes regions hope that ‘almost anybody’ can be a teacher – even looking for ‘qualifications’ such as armed forces background to make someone ‘classroom ready’. https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/education/2022/07/28/florida-allowing-military-veterans-teach-without-certificate-teacher-shortage/10173158002/. But while this gets an adult into the classroom… it doesn’t mean that they understand the job… there is a lot of work and philosophy and pre-work that goes into education degrees – and I cast my doubting eye towards programs that offer “in just a few weeks you can be a teacher” – looking at you TeachForAmerica — even though the shift has been to provide more teaching support to get certified… the fact that they target the least qualified teachers to go to target “underserved schools” is problematic as those are often the schools that need the most experienced educators (oops- my bias is showing). 

And the article reasons for the shortage aren’t hard to find: in Quebec, the salaries are the lowest in Canada. Even when I started decades ago, the expectation that up to 50% of my grad class would not be teaching in 3 years (and likely 30% after one) was a real data point – that has not changed. Too many have an idealized false memory of what the game of school was like and tend to omit the vast numbers for whom school is not a fond memory. Summers off? I have laughed at that since before I graduated – knowing my dad (and now me) would always be doing stuff in the summers… and evenings… and weekends… an ebb and flow… and stuff like that is not just ‘work based stuff’ – it is continuing to evolve our grasp of pedagogy… relearning child psychology – and neurology – and following a friends mantra of ‘gotta read to lead’. Adding to the toolkit to manage individuals and groups. To roll with the expected and unexpected changes that occur each year… month… week… day… hour – oops is that another earthquake??

We can’t take salaries lightly. As the article relates – there was a reason why Walter White, in Breaking Bad, used his chemistry background to do work well beyond the classroom… but even so it is always a struggle when salaries and raises are mentioned (in BC the teacher collective agreement comes to an end in June) and the salaries of education assistances (and early child hood educators) remains very low… in part because people see them as vocations and callings… especially for women… and nobody likes to pay for those. 

In BC we are the Ministry of Education AND Child Care but that does not mean we do not ‘just need an adult in the room’ – quality matters!

Because ‘those’ supports are essential – even though I agree with Shelley Moore that ‘people aren’t supports’ those assistants currently make up a lot of the teaching of specific supports for students with disabilities – in part because there is always good discussions around class size (though I’ll argue composition is much more of an issue for me… sometimes the same cohort of kids are together way too long – and a bit of separation can be good – but I like rural schools and communities and can work with this).  I laught at education TikTok that shows scenarios like team-teachers cuz while those scenarios are amazing (and for middle school I’ll argue for 3 teachers for every 2 cohorts of learners) they are expensive, and as I point out – nobody wants to pay for that… it’s much easier to focus on one teacher/class. Which is why the Canadian Teachers Federation (unions are provincial as Education is a Provincial, not federal matter) suggestions faced mixed support – liked by those in educator, not so much by those who pay for it

* Reduced class size. Never a bad idea… it is always tricky with ‘hard caps/max sizes’ but the business of school leads us to always build up to that max rather than look at structuring schools with some ‘breathing space’. This could be helpful – especially as we continue to want to support more inclusive mindsets and strategies to ensure more students stay with formal schooling longer (through graduation!)

* More support staff. This can include EAs but I’d also support the election campaign that looked to ensure a counsellor is with every school… seeing that shared counsellors are always stretched thin, it would be nice to rethink how this is rolled out – whether it is 1.0 Full Time counsellor for every school (which will make those schools with under 100 students envied by the schools of 2500+) or a rethink of how staff is deployed (more librarians!!)

* More dedicated prep time. Varies widely – in BC it is currently 2 hours/week for primary (a slightly different formula for secondary where semester schools make it an interesting challenge) but whenever we increase prep time, it also means another teacher is needed in order to provide the coverage… and if we are already struggling to get teachers… finding someone who wants to move classes every 45/60 minutes can be a bit.. challenging.

* Provisions for class complexity. I see this as part of class size, but the media likes to water this down to ‘more high needs students’ in any one group, whereas many of us know that not every categorized student is the same – not every student on the spectrum needs/wants the same support as each other… and that may change from year to year (or even worse mid-year since staffing has already been allocated and budgeted for!) 

And i like that the article points out programs like UnBound Academy – as it shows the same point I keep raising – that the personal screens so many schools are simply banning remain the single most powerful tool and most likely element to disrupt formal education that has hit this experiment we call ‘schooling’. As many may be able to change over a focused form of distance learning (cough cough – my own school Partners In Education) and find the ways for learning as a social experience (which I greatly value) being done different(iated)ly as well… the author says UA may be a depressing piece of evidence of society investing in tech over people, but if value/understanding/relevance is changing… maybe it’s why so many ‘starting jobs’ are becoming automated as well… nobody wants it and it ain’t relevant.

Going to be a fun couple of years to see where the ‘investment’ goes and to see how the learning evolves! I’m still a big fan of relational learning – but I’m also open to trying things differently than the previous seven generations…