Burl. Jr. Redcoats @JuniorRedcoats

1) A secondary school IB World teacher wakes up on his Saturday, exhausted from the hardest, busiest and most demoralizing work year since his first teaching year in 2010, to a tired, ignorant, and disrespectful Twitter discourse about his lavish $100K, "Sunshine List" salary.

2) That same teacher decides to drop some knowledge on a public that seems to think their perception of a teacher's work is reality - that because most people were once students in the system, they are authorities/SME's on what the job entails. This needs to stop bc it's wrong.

All work, no play...

...at the start of the school year to re-timetable because the Ford Gov't allowed families to opt in and out of Secondary Virtual School, which sends a ripple effect through teacher and student timetables, resulting in collapsed sections and making it impossible to plan ahead for

Fun fact: Since Sept. 10, I have probably taken a only handful of days where I haven't sat down to either mark, plan, or design. That includes Saturdays, Sundays, most of my Winter Break. This has been compounded by the fact that the school boards used three PD Days...

*NOTE: none of the above accounts for the additional work it has taken to adapt material that is effective in a bricks-and-mortar classroom to a virtual environment, which it is far more difficult to facilitate and harder to support disengaged students within.*

16) And our board mandates that we perform 46 40-minute coverages for our colleagues during our prep period, inaddition to hosting staff meeting once monthly for 90 minutes OUTSIDE of the work day. Tick, tock clock.

15) Lastly, in a non-pandemic context, I support a student-led charity groups that meets weekly and coach Senior Girls Basketball, in addition to supporting IB Extended Essays (outside of my courses), and their initiatives around the school.

14) Above is only the TECHNICAL facets of the job. Over the past 4 weeks, I've had two student disclosures of self-harm, two of sexual harassment/assault, and one of a bipolar disorder. That's the SOCIAL aspect and if you don't make extra time for that, you're in the wrong role.

13) ...wearing a mask and shield in a social role that depends on human connection. Few in our economy would be able to cope long-term with the structural pressures outlined above, and the critics of teachers would likely wilt under the weight of a school year like 2020-21

12) And policymakers right above you at the board level offered very little support for your new modality of work, while maintaining a tone that everything should feel/seem as close to normal as possible for students and staff, while the expectation is teachers deliver material..

11)... and used it as an excuse to take away your break, while they themselves take their March Break after just returning to their seat on Feb. 18. Meanwhile, the Wave 3 they say they've been trying to prevent with half-baked, half-pregnant lockdown measures, is happening anyway

10) And when a teacher expresses frustration, despondency about needing a break, the public should be receptive and listen. Imagine how you'd feel if the decision-makers over your work gaslit you for months, insisting schools were safe while clearly helping drive transmission...

9) So, the next time someone sees it appropriate to weigh in on someone work-life-value balance, they should use the tools they were offered in school and DO THEIR HOMEWORK. I would never comment on anyone else's job or salary without knowing the degree of duty/responsibility.

8) ...is also done mostly in personal time, outside of the work day, in addition to the planning which supports the delivery of the material I mostly desigm myself that my students see in class every day. That's the job. And I would put that up against any job with salary of 100K

7) ...one of the 11 assessments in the course is a 8-10 page literary essay. Each one of those takes me 40 minutes to mark. I have 29 students in my class. 40 mins x 29 students = 1160 mins, or 19.3 hours. That's ONE assignment out of 11 in ONE of my three courses. That work...

5) So, we've now covered 2/3 of the job: the delivery which takes up most of the work day, the design which takes place OUTSIDE of the work day, i.e. during my personal time - now we need to account for the marking, which is by far the most difficult and time-consuming aspect.

4)...course, that material literally needs to be sourced from multiple sources, rendered, and designed for the classroom. This takes considerable time/mental energy and deadline is ALWAYS TOMORROW, which means I'm creating new lessons every damn day, in this case since Sept 10.

3) Only 1/3 of a teacher's job is done during the work day. We call that delivery. What is delivered needs to be designed. In some cases, that material already exists and merely needs to be adapted/differentiated for the students; in other cases, like my Gr 11 Theory of Knowledge

I don't like to do threads, but this is too important to ignore. Ontario is looking to not only put standardized testing online, but outsource it to a private company. This is ALL KINDS OF WRONG. If your alarm bells aren't ringing right now, they should. news.ontario.ca/en/release/584…