This post is sponsored by the Ontario College of Teachers. Thank you, teachers!
On the first day of school, each September, crowds of parents and children gather in the schoolyard. At our school, they shuffle along, peering at class lists taped to the brick wall until they find their child’s name.
They breathe a collective sigh of relief. They are in the right spot. The child has found her class.
But it only lasts a moment.
“What have you heard about her?” they whisper to one another. Well, Isabella’s sister had her two years ago and there was a lot of homework. But Max’s mom says she heard that the kids really learn their stuff in her class.
The truth is that my children have had all kinds of great teachers. They’ve had teachers who emphasize routine and organization, yes. They’ve also had teachers who incorporate the current AGO special exhibition into their curriculum or who play the cello while students work independently. There are teachers always looking out for interesting and exciting new ways to approach the curriculum and teachers who themselves have an infectious love for learning.
If you want to learn more about your child’s teacher, the school yard is actually a pretty great place to start. But did you know you can also visit the Ontario College of Teachers’ website to find out more about any teacher in working in Ontario’s publicly funded schools?
Visit oct.ca/findateacher to look up your children’s teachers in the public directory and find their qualifications, the date of their initial certification, their status within the Ontario College of Teachers and any disciplinary history.
You can also learn how teachers are certified to become members of the Ontario College of Teachers and find other useful resources.
Somebody in my Twitter feed was asking just the other day why more parents don’t take an active interest in the policies and protocols of public education. The truth is most parents are quite busy enough with the everyday demands of their own jobs and children. But this doesn’t mean we’re not interested.
So I am for real excited about the newsletter put out by the Ontario College of Teachers. It will keep me up to date on news from the college itself as well as the latest trends in education and legislative changes that affect education.
It is so much easier to be involved when information like that is delivered straight to my inbox, you know?
Let’s hear it for the teachers, and not just because the Ontario College of Teachers sponsored this post either.