I admit it, I am a greedy teacher. 

I’m greedy because I think my students deserve more than $10 each so that I can buy the educational textbooks and supplies that they need in a year. Softcover textbooks cost an average of  $20 while the hard cover books cost about $50 each before tax. The teacher's guides that I need to use the text book effectively cost well over $200. So for the past three years my colleagues and I at my grade level have been purchasing 15 literacy texts each year and we still have a few years to go before we can attain full class sets of the books needed to fully cover the curriculum. At my school, one class sends the social studies textbooks home with half the students so they can do the homework, and then the other half get the textbook the next day so they can do their homework. Last year one grade level in my school had enough money allocated to buy nine science text books and the teacher’s guide, to be shared between two full size classes. Imagine if I had the money that I needed to buy textbooks for all my students? I’m greedy that way.

I’m greedy because I don’t think it’s educationally sound to have my students who have learning difficulties and who need individualized education plans wait an average of 3 years to get an educational assessment from our school psychologist or our speech and language pathologist. Three years? That is precious time where students fall farther and farther behind. These assessments help me to better understand the specific learning strengths of my student so that I know how to program for them so that they can succeed in my classroom and so they understand that they can learn. I’d like this waiting time shortened. I believe it’s critical to get assessments done in time for programming to be put in place for it to make a difference. At my school we have twenty five students on the wait list for assessment. Not one has been completed this year. I’d like to have one psychologist at my school, instead of one being spread thin across many schools with unmanageable caseloads. I’m greedy.

I’m greedy because I want more support worker time for my students. Did you know that in order to qualify for a student support worker the student either has to have a medical designation or be a physical harm to themselves or others? If my student has a cognitive learning disability, a behaviour issue, Attention Deficit Disorder, or is, for some unknown reason, academically delayed so they are years below grade level, they don’t qualify for support from a student support worker. Research, along with common sense, tells us that these students have a better chance at success if they have additional support and more frequent monitoring. Students with Autism often have to share their support worker time with other students in the school, meaning they don’t receive full time support. But that doesn’t matter in my province. I’m greedy. 

I’m greedy because I believe all schools deserve a full time teacher librarian. I believe the library is the hub of learning at school. I believe the teacher librarian should have adequate money to stock the shelves with the current books, magazines and computer equipment to inspire learning. My librarian has a budget this year of $8.18 per student. This is meant to cover the cost of replacing lost books as well as keeping new books on the shelves. Can you imagine giving a child $8.18 once a year and letting them loose at your local book store to find something to keep them interested for the year? At our school we are not funded for a full time librarian. We are funded for 29 out of the 35 blocks of the week. That’s almost a whole day a week without a librarian. I’m greedy because I want more money for our library. 

I’m greedy because I wish I could give out full erasers without having to cut them in half. I guess I didn’t order enough erasers last June when I was asked to order my own classroom supplies for the upcoming year. I debated about what was more important to have in grade four- glue sticks, pencil crayons, notebooks or erasers? I ended up ordering above my budget allotment, and yet I have already run out of pencils and lined paper. Thankfully my colleague across the hall gave me some of their lined paper. When I make my shopping list at home, I often add things my classroom needs. I guess I’m greedy because I dream of having everything I need to be stocked on the shelves at school. 

I’m greedy because I want the ability to discuss at our bargaining table the educational impact of class size with my employer.  I have taught for over 20 years in this province and I have witnessed the deterioration of support for individual students in my classroom because of increased class size. I agree with the B.C. Supreme Court that this is my right as a teacher, to be able to discuss and negotiate what is educationally sound when it comes to class size. I guess I’m greedy when I hear my education minister George Abbott refer to me as being “discriminatory” when I want to be able to discuss a limit to the number of special needs students in my classroom. I guess it’s my greed that gives me the desire to talk about this to ensure that all of my student’s needs can be met. 

I’m so greedy when it comes to the effect of this strike on the students and families in my school community. This school community that I have worked in for over 15 years, that banded together in tangible, powerful ways last year when we had to demonstrate at public meetings, and voice our concerns about the possible closure of our school. I don’t think it was right that 400 students would be moved to several other already crowded schools so that our school property could be leased out and the money used by our board to ease the inadequate funding from our provincial government. 

I’m greedy because I believe the dissolving of our collective agreement by our employer has had detrimental effects on the education in this province. Enough tearing up of our legal contracts.  We have endured enough of the erosion of our children’s public education system. My strike is legal.  I’m just thinking about doing all I can to speak up for my students. I’m greedy that way.

I’m greedy because I care deeply about my students. I love being a public school teacher. I can’t imagine any other vocation I would rather be in.  

Joan Shannon Jung

Sir Guy Carleton Elementary School

Vancouver School Board

The River

So this week in class we drew/painted a river to represent our learning inquiry that began last September. We were to think symbolically of the obstacles, the banks of the river, whether there was anything in the river, and any bends along the way. I used watercolour pencils, watercolour crayons, and watercolour from tubes. I figured it's water, so why not use WATERcolour? 

I enjoyed the process. The next step was to bring 12 or more collected quotes that we have read during our inquiry that were meaningful. We wrote them on post-it notes and then placed them on top of our river painting in appropriate places along the river. Then we reflected on our river pieces and wrote about them.

My river/waterfall painting:

Narrow at the top, widening with time

More beautiful than the original intention

As we progress down the waterfall, the boulders become less visible. They are still there- in that they guide the water down the specific path. Some boulders may be just under the surface, but not clearly visible. But they are not constricting, they don’t need to be present any more. I become less and less, as the students become more and more independent and familiar with the writing process and things to try.

The water is made up of various blues and greens, with different painting techniques. Like the individuals in my class- they are individual writers with their own style and flair. All together, they make up a beautiful group of authors.

All together, their writing creates a variety of expression, the most unique shelf in a library.  The students enjoy writing together, they enjoy sharing their writing aloud. They appreciate each other. The water and swirls represent this sharing, this overlapping.

 In the DR of my childhood, the river is the source of life for the small rural farming village. Pipes can guide the water to feed the thirsty land, to make it arable for planting at any time of year. The river is the place where girls collect heavy cans of water, confidently balanced on their heads, bringing the valuable water for cooking and drinking and cleaning to the proud but humble homes with thatched roofs. The river, with surrounding rocks, is also the Laundromat, where girls and women beat the clothes on the rocks to clean them and rinse them in the flowing water. Gossip is shared around these rocks. In the heat of the day, the cooling river and falls bring welcome relief and are a Playground for the kids, who scream and play in the water. The river is a source of life. Without it, life in the village is different and more difficult. 

In the church with the precariously tippy benches and hard swept dirt floor, they sing of the joy in their soul that is like a river of living water in their being. This song is full of life, with a syncopated beat that is hard not to tap a toe to. It lifts them from the struggle of daily life. It reminds them that they believe in something more than what they see day to day. The river is a beautiful symbol yet also a dependent reality in their lives. 

I think of this too, as I think of my inquiry and what I am learning and what my students are creating with their authoring: It is living, it is changing, it is somewhat predictable, but still breathtaking with beauty. It is a source of life- students crave the sharing time, the double block of writing time, the huddled trio discussing Pumpkin’s next adventure, the pleading with me to take their Writer's Notebooks home. These are the swirls, the sprays that form the whole body of water.

 I can’t just arrive at the swirls. The water needs to wind its way around the rocks and boulders. It needs to meander until it hits the more rapid flow. I could zoom in with a camera lens on just the froth and flow. That has its beauty on its own. But I would miss so much if all I looked at was that part. It’s beauty in the whole. The beauty is in being on the whole journey.