2014 Substitute Teachers' Conference Report

October 22, 2014

I attended the Substitute Teachers’ Conference at Barnett House over the weekend of October 17 and 18th. To be honest, I usually dread conferences of this sort simply because the approach to the topics are irrelevant to substitute teachers or I get the dreaded question of “are you looking for full time” when I get to the socialization part. This conference is a bit refreshing, I’m glad to report.

Friday night, we were welcomed by the ATA President, Mark Ramsankaar. He talked about the importance and history of the ATA, and how our union structure is a model for countries abroad. This is certainly reassuring in what the ATA can provide for teachers and what it represents. I certainly feel proud to be part of it.

He went on to give us and update on the current state of politics in Education. Mr. Ramsankaar touched on the C2 Committee, curriculum and assessment, and other issues that were tabled with the previous Education Minister. He promises and is optimistic that these topics will be revisited with our current Education Minister.

Our keynote speaker for the evening was (forgot his name), who talked about “Joy”, since it was the theme of our conference this year. We investigated into whether there was still joy in teaching anymore or we have all become assessment drones. He concluded that in order to have joy in teaching - in anything for that matter - we just need to do it for the sake of having fun. No apparent political goal, no educational goal, no ulterior motive besides it being fun - learning will eventually come.

He also gave a few suggestions in how to find and instill joy in whatever we do. One biggest thing is that we have to have awe and wonder. If we wonder and are at awe about things, we have something to learn and to talk about and thus become interesting.

This “joy” and the awe and wonder that goes with it, I find is essential in staying in the profession. Especially when we feel discouraged in finding full time work and still have to deal with the instability that is subbing. It reminds us why we become teachers in the first place. While the approach of this topic was to find ways for us to inspire joy in others, which I find a little difficult to do when we are only there for a day, I find value in learning to inspire ourselves.

Saturday, we break out into separate sessions of our choice. I chose “Dealing with Difficult People” for the morning. The session has some good information, but here is one of those where it doesn’t take into account the different situations that subs face compared to teachers. The presenter spent most of the time talking about dealing with parents. From my 8 years of experience subbing, I can count the number of parental encounters I’ve had on one hand, let alone difficult ones. Usually, I get the digest of it through the administration. There was also strategies for dealing with difficult colleagues (turf war, slander, bullying, etc.). The long and short of it is that there are laws, policies, acts that protect us and guide us to respond accordingly, but not everyone is bound by these (policies and acts do not apply to non-school employees per se); but the best advice of all is to not take anything personally, redirect the focus to address the issue which is not about you, ever.

During the lunch hour, I had a great meeting with the substitute chair representatives who were present along with some of the conference organizing committee. We shared email addresses, shared our activities with our local and subs. Some suggestion documents were passed out. There was a guideline document for schools as to how to prepare a information binder for subs, and a guideline for subs as to what to ask for. Further suggestion as stretch goals were to draw up a guideline for subs to how to leave good notes and comments for the teachers for continuity. Upon seeing these documents, I can’t help but think of all the positive things I’ve seen around Parkland that follows these suggestions and bragged about them in front of the group.

The afternoon session was on pension. The information presented was very useful. Though I wonder why this information wasn’t better distributed to subs. I would have benefited greatly if I knew about it in my first year, even if it is by word of mouth from other teachers. Substitute teachers can “buy back” their service in 186-day blocks (1-year). What this means is that you contribute to your pension account in 1-year blocks for the time that you have already clocked in from teaching. The Alberta government will subsidize the cost of the “buy back” up to 50%. The actual cost will vary depending on the individual, so ATRF provides estimates for the cost if teachers call in. The presenter was fair and suggested that we can always compare the cost vs payout between ATRF pension and just regular RRSP. Though the caveat with teacher pension is that, in order to cash in on this pension fund when you retire, you need to have a minimum of 5 years of service “bought back”.

Other sessions they offered this year include how to get a full time position from the HR perspective, creativity, technology, etc. There was a good balance between catering to new teachers and new substitutes, and also to veteran substitutes unlike past years. However, the approach to these topics are still with idea that we are not one bit different from contract teachers, which is not true. I think the organizers are slowly catching on, and I feel that we can make better use on a full update on current state of affairs in the education politics rather than curriculum update and assessment techniques.