St. Albert teachers will head online next week for Alberta’s first teachers’ convention of the pandemic era.
St. Albert Public, Sturgeon Public and Greater St. Albert Catholic teachers will gather online this Feb. 4 and 5 for the 2021 North Central Teachers’ Convention Association conference. The annual event will see some 6,300 teachers from school boards around Edmonton gather to share tips and tricks about education. Their students, meanwhile, will get two days off of school.
The Alberta Teachers’ Association decided last September that this year’s teachers’ conventions would for the first time take place exclusively online due to the pandemic, said NCTCA president and Sister Alphonse Academy teacher Carryl Bennett.
“We’re the very first virtual teacher’s convention of the province … so I’m equally nervous and equally excited,” Bennett said.
Bennett said this year’s event includes a mix of livestreamed and pre-recorded events, as well as 27 keynote speakers – far more than usual dozen. Bennett said convention organizers were able to afford more speakers this year because they didn’t have to rent a conference hall or pay for flights. The online format will also let teachers view sessions they miss for up to 30 days after the conference.
Sessions will cover a huge variety of topics, including mental health, gamification, climate warming and the effects of the pandemic on education.
Bellerose teacher Chris Tom-Kee will talk about how food and cooking can be used to explore topics such as globalization and the environment.
“Food is very much a commodity for us,” said the former professional chef, but we gain new appreciation for it if we think about its origins.
“There are huge industrial infrastructure pieces (in place) to make that $2 burger.”
Paul Kane Chemistry teacher Michael Ng will demonstrate how to use fireballs, transmogrification, and other semi-sorcerous techniques to teach science.
Ng said he spent many hours after school this month filming his pre-recorded session, which sported a soundtrack and special effects.
“I actually have eight videos I had to make since the Christmas holidays,” he said, as he was booked to speak at eight conferences.
“I just finished last week.”
Ng said this year’s online format let him demonstrate tricks that he couldn’t safely perform in a typical conference hall. Still, he said he would miss being able to share ideas with other teachers face-to-face.
Stressed-out staff
Philip McRae, adjunct professor at the University of Alberta and associate co-ordinator of research for the ATA, is scheduled to speak on his research on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on teachers.
McRae said he has been conducting statistically significant surveys of about 2,000 teachers each month since last August to track the effects of the pandemic on Alberta teachers.
The surveys have consistently found about 90 per cent of Alberta teachers reported feeling stressed or exhausted since August. The most recent survey (done in late November) found 52 per cent of teachers were nervous or on-edge for more than half of each week and 35 per cent were depressed for more than half of each week.
These levels of anxiety and depression were significantly higher than those found amongst the general public during the pandemic, McRae said, citing data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“There are real issues here we need to deal with.”
McRae said the pandemic has proved exceedingly disruptive to schools, with one in three teachers having been quarantined or isolated due to potential COVID-19 exposure. Teachers also faced additional sources of stress unique to their profession.
“They’re spending 20 to 60 minutes a day cleaning their classrooms, and that takes away from instructional time,” he said.
Teachers also have to spend hours in close contact with 30-plus people at a time, all while enforcing cohorts and mask use, McRae continued. Many are also short support staffers due to government cuts.
“Half of our school leaders (principals) were taking on contact tracing responsibilities,” he said, and about 77 per cent of them said they weren’t comfortable with that task.
“They shouldn’t have to do contact tracing.”
McRae said these results showed that the province had to get teachers more resources to manage these pandemic pressures.
Visit nctca2021.sched.com for the list of conference events.
