To the Editor,
Re: Teachers contract demands for time off beyond sanity, Letters, July 21.
I wish that Debbie Gunderson would open her eyes and read some of the teacher’s job descriptions listed in some of the postings around in B.C.
Maybe then she would understand what teachers do for a living and how hard teachers work all across the globe.
I believe teaching starts at home with the parents. If a teacher experiences a difficult child (and there are many), then this teacher will be confronted with a more challenging job.
If the child is not emotionally or physically 100 per cent at school because of a family situation at home then again, the teacher has a more challenging job. Perhaps this is why teachers are requesting more pay and/or compassionate leave.
The home environment is not the same as it was 30 years ago. Children are completely different nowadays.
All teachers need the time off they get and they deserve it for all the hard work they put into children.
Some of their job duties are:
To prepare lessons; to prepare homework, assignments and assessment; research information to ensure the knowledge they impart is current; mark homework and pieces of assessment; identify the needs of individual students in their classes, and work to help each child develop his or her own potential; prepare resources for the classroom; confer with students over their work; assist children to learn, not judge their inability to learn; attend professional development sessions to improve his/her own teaching methods and curriculum; present a professional but caring persona at all times; treat students with respect, and teach them to treat others with respect.
Kathy Kegalj
Langford
