In their words: The most powerful quotes from CBC's Inside the Classroom forum
They've been cursed at. They've been spit on. They've been kicked, punched, and choked.
They've seen their classrooms swell, while the staff room suffers.
To speak out is to position yourself against the school board and government in a time of rampant budget cuts and constant reshaping of the Newfoundland and Labrador education system.
And so most teachers stay silent.
But not these teachers.
During CBC's Inside the Classroom series, 30 teachers, principals, and school counsellors from across the province aired their concerns about their experiences.
Here is a portion of what they said, in their own words:
Another use for garbage bags
Kevin Flynn, an instructional resource teacher (IRT), described a situation where a colleague had to wear a garbage bag in the classroom to deal with a student who was prone to spitting.
Under the province's inclusive education model, all students are placed in the same classroom — even those with demanding special needs and behavioural problems.
Teachers like Flynn, who focus on students of various exceptionalities, are at a premium in the province.
The teachers said since there are not enough IRTs to assist a growing number of special needs students in the classroom, behavioural problems are spiralling out of control.
#Defeated
Angela Dawe coined the hashtag, #Defeated, to describe how she feels about her job.
The junior high music teacher ponders if she would become a teacher again if given the chance to go back in time. Despite having three university degrees related to her job, she says she cannot give the students what they need.
Dawe blames a lack of resources and large class sizes for not being able to form bonds with her students, which in turn makes it harder to teach them.
Problems with the province
Gabriel Ryan did not pull punches when describing the worst part of his job.
A teacher and a union representative, Ryan said he has become fed up with decisions made at the school board level, that have stripped resources away from his rural school, and caused class sizes to increase.
It's the political decisions, he said, based on four-year terms, that have made things more difficult for teachers to do their jobs.
Math methods not adding up
Sheldon Slaney has grown frustrated with teaching math to Grade 4 students using a variety of outside-the-box methods.
Where there used to be singular methods for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, there is now a multitude of ways.
Slaney must teach them all, even though the majority of his class will never use the other methods.
"I have to try and show all these different strategies that are actually frustrating kids more than helping them," he said.
The next generation
When asked if she would still become a teacher, Donna Reddick did not hesitate to say 'yes.'
Now 32 years into her career, Reddick has gone beyond the usual 30-year service of a teacher. Despite having no regrets about teaching, she often feels discouraged and she worries about the teachers of the future.
She loves watching her younger students come to new realizations — the moment you see a child understand something for the first time.
Without proper resources in place, however, those moments are getting harder to find.
"When my students go home at the end of the day, I sit down and I have a big sigh," she said. "I feel discouraged."
