For any #OntEd Science teachers with a #ChatGPT Plus account, I would love your feedback on this "Ontario #SNC1W Grade 9 Science Specialist" custom GPT I have created. You can ask questions about the curriculum, create lesson plans and activities, etc.
Here is Stephen Lecce politicizing #Ontario education ...
"We progressive Conservatives REDUCED the fuel tax by 10 cents/litre.
The Liberals will INCREASE the carbon tax by 23%. As if it isn't expensive enough to live."
👉 It appears that the Ontario Minister of Education doesn’t know how to convert percentages to cents-a-litre.
Narrator: It’s 3 cents a litre.
It also appears that clean air, both inside & outside the classroom, is not #DougFord's agenda.
"There are 30,000 qualified educators in Ontario who are choosing NOT to work in schools.
There isn’t a teacher shortage.
There’s a shortage of educators willing to put up with the abysmal conditions created by Premier Ford & MoE Stephen Lecce."
Mr. Lecce's solution is to increase the number of days that retired teachers can work in #Ontario classrooms. Apparently, funding education properly & making it attractive to the new graduates is not an option.
Stephen Lecce, Ontario's Education Minister says he is looking at "every option available" to ease the teacher shortage across the province.
Wonder if Mr. Lecce has considered "treating teachers like professionals instead of vilifying them to the public". 🤔
Finally, a good news story. The law included healthcare and education workers, including teachers.
'Ontario Premier Doug Ford's law that imposed wage restraint on public sector workers violated their collective bargaining rights and is unconstitutional, the province's Appeal Court ruled Monday.
The law, known as Bill 124, capped salary increases for public sector workers to one per cent a year for three years.'
@edutooters As I argued, again and again, the government has not been spending the allocated funds for education, and despite this has instituted significant cuts to education using the discourse of 'scarce resources'.
In Ontario, and Canada generally, it is very hard to argue scarce resources for education. It is most always a policy choice and lack of political will to adequately fund education.
Today's ruling shows that. Very good but very sad.
In an attempt to cover up the severe school bus driver shortage ? and "save taxpayers $", the #Ontario Conservatives are cutting school bus eligibility.
Gr 9-12: Must live over 3.2km (doubled)
Gr 4-8: >1.6km
Gr 1-3: >1.6km (doubled)
Kindergarten: >800m (doubled)
🤯 In addition, funding will NOT be provided for students who no longer meet their grade distance qualification.. even if their younger siblings do.
Teachers are jumping through hoops to identify #AI / #ChatGPT generated content in students' work.
My husband is a high-school English teacher.
His students must write essays in Google Docs & he uses a playback browser extension to watch the students' edits in fast-forward to identify chunks of pasted-in content. He also has half a dozen tools he analyses the work with that gives a score of how likely it is to be AI generated. And he compares the style & quality to their other work.
#onted school nutrition programs desperately need funding – Doug Ford & Stephen Lecce need to immediately invest so that no child goes hungry! #CatholicTeachers#onpoli
An independent panel finds the Ford government cut investment in universities and colleges. Ontario spends only 57% per student of what other provinces spend. The province would have to spend $4B/year just to reach the country's average.
'The government muzzled the panelists from speaking about the rationale behind their recommendations.'
All that stuff Lecce said about accountability in education was just talk. I've called the ministry and they are unwilling to do anything about school and school board misconduct. #onted#onpoli
After he wasted 16 months, the "delays" Minister Lecce talks of are 100% on him & Premier Ford.
#CatholicTeachers have repeatedly asked for more dates, so we can reach a fair, negotiated deal that supports all #onted students & teachers – & we're still waiting on Nov dates😡. #onpoli
BREAKING: OSSTF members have voted yes on the framework to go to binding arbitration if they can't negotiate a contract in the next 30 days. It means no strikes or job action at public high schools until the next round of talks.
Education minister #Lecce wants other teachers' unions to sign the same deal.
They've said no.
👊Meanwhile...
Teachers in #Québec vote in favour of unlimited strike action.
The membership is determined to improve their work conditions. There is no intention this time to engage in half-measures. If they walk out, they walk out for good.
#CatholicTeachers are deeply concerned by the protests' "hateful & divisive language," which targets 2SLGBTQIA+ students & communities & draw on Premier Ford's "factually incorrect & intentionally inflammatory comments," says #OECTA President René Jansen in de Wal. #onted#onpoli
Pierre #Poilievre has warned his Conservative MPs not to post online or talk to media about the competing protests on Parliament Hill that saw protesters clashing over how schools should handle LGBTQ2S+ issues.
It’s perfectly natural to feel uncomfortable about things that you don’t understand. What matters is how you choose to address and overcome that discomfort.
Insisting that you have a right never to be exposed to the things that make you uncomfortable is the wrong way - and not just because it’s also the coward’s way. #onpoli#onted
“Well, I have a right to raise my kids my way, without anyone else trying to put a bunch of thoughts and ideas I don’t like into their heads.”
You absolutely do not have that right, and neither do I. None of us do, because we live together in a free society.
What you and I have is an obligation to raise young members of a free society. And we don’t do that by restricting their freedoms in the name of protecting a made-up right that we don’t have. #onpoli#onted
I don’t think much of “slippery slope” arguments when it comes to teaching kids about respect and inclusion in schools.
The “protect the children” crowd will tell you that teaching kids to be themselves and respect each other is a slippery slope towards rash medical decisions and perversions galore.
I would argue that every restrictive policy enacted against evidence to pander to the “protect the children” crowd is a slippery slope towards legislated discrimination and hate. #onpoli#onted
For all of its hand-wringing about slippery slopes, the “protect the children” crowd goes to great lengths to dress its footholds up as harmless and innocuous measures that surely won’t lay the groundwork for anything more insidious.
But there’s no such thing as a harmless and innocuous violation of a child’s health and human rights. Not even when it’s dressed up as being in service of “parental rights” (which, and I can’t stress this enough as a parent, are not a real thing). #onpoli#onted