News

In March 2019, I was chosen to receive the Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship along with 44 other teachers from the United States and Canada.

This Fellowship is part of National Geographic’s educational professional development program and is also made possible by Lindbald Expeditions.

This then took me on the ship–the Endeavour II–to the Galapagos Islands for eight days.

Education Minister Gord Wyant has released a framework that will be used to create an action plan for how Saskatchewan students are educated from 2020 to 2030. The framework was developed with input from all education sector partners.

Albeit currently adorned with numerous tarps and other such construction-related material and encircled by chain-link fencing, even a neophyte such as myself can readily envision the scope and aesthetic appeal of what is in store for the citizens of this community. The brand new Rosthern Community School is slated to open its doors in the fall of 2020.

It is a phrase you often hear: at the very heart of what makes for a successful teacher is the relationship they are able to establish with their students.

Saskatoon elementary teacher Jennifer Herrod embodies that to the fullest and then some.

A Grade 3 teacher at Silverwood Heights School, Herrod is impassioned about the values of democracy and citizenship whether that involves visiting the legislature in Regina or Parliament Hill in Ottawa in the company of like-minded educators.

After seven months and a host of face-to-face meetings in recent months to try to arrive at a provincial collective bargaining agreement for the province’s teachers, the rather inauspicious result has been that the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation declared an impasse as a precursor to applying for conciliation.

Citing general lack of movement from the Government-Trustee Bargaining Committee, it would be a reasonable assumption there isn’t much the two sides can agree on. One of the main sticking points has been Education Minister Gord Wyant’s insistence that the key issues of class size and composition can’t be part of any potential agreement. Yet ironically, the two are in general agreement that if push came to shove, composition might be more of an issue than actual class size.