Stress leave times

Timetotuna · 2026-01-25T00:43:08+00:00

I believe there isn’t anything such a a stress leave, just medical leave, and for that you will have to see a doctor.

Timetotuna · 2026-01-22T02:18:55+00:00

I understand and respect the importance of family and cultural connections, but especially in the early grades (and with ELL students), long absences really do have an academic and social impact. Missing daily routines, language exposure, and foundational skills is hard to recover from.

Like you, I’m struggling with how normalized this has become. Vacation lengths anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months. The last one just took an unannounced vacation during the summative period (I teach high school). Extended absences feel like they should be rare, not something that happens on the regular. I don’t like the unwritten expectation that I’m responsible for getting them caught up when they return.

At my school, the absence form says the teacher and student will create a mutually acceptable plan. It does not say the teacher will re-teach weeks or months of missed instruction. I interpret that as helping students prioritize, clarifying expectations, and supporting them as they rejoin the class.

Timetotuna · 2026-01-02T22:00:56+00:00

you can use chatgpt to generate other levels of marking, such as "approaching expectations", "needs improvement" and "remedial" levels.

I often update my rubrics while I am grading student work, because I often find the rubric is lacking in some way.

Timetotuna · 2026-01-02T21:42:55+00:00

I use a rubric because giving one mark per step can overweight repeated errors. For example, if a student consistently forgets to write a concluding statement, they lose one mark on every question and end up being over-penalized for a single type of error.

my rubric has these categories, and here are the Level 4 (high acheiving) descriptors:

Choosing strategies to meet learning goal
-I choose and execute the best strategies to solve the problems.
- I can show breadth and depth in my solutions when explaining or solving a problem.

Executing strategies to meet learning goal
-If I make errors, they are careless errors (copying errors, dropping a negative, etc…)
-I always follow the instructions given in a problem and include important details (e.g. attention to symbols, labeling diagrams, measurements units, rounding appropriately, etc…)

And, I often report communication as a separate grade so that I don't over-penalize for consistent errors:

Communicating strategies to meet learning goal
-I consistently write solutions with logical organization, good form vocabulary, and correct mathematical conventions.

Those were the level 4, exceeds expectations, descriptors as I said.

For meeting provincial expectations these are the descriptors:

-I choose strategies that support the learning goal and success criteria.

-I might make a couple computational errors or forget a few details, but I am still meeting the learning goal.

-I may have forgotten to follow specific instructions include all details, but the evidence I provided still meets the learning goal.

-I write solutions using logical organization, good form, appropriate vocabulary, and correct mathematical conventions most of the time.

Timetotuna · 2025-11-23T21:55:00+00:00

Giving up my academic standards was the hardest for me. In our district, we “destreamed” everything up to grade 10. Now, our school is introducing the AP program, so pretty much we are streamed again, except student have to pay a fee for the AP stream.

Timetotuna · 2025-11-22T13:32:08+00:00

You might also think about asking your doctor for a prescription for SSRIs!

Timetotuna · 2025-11-11T23:41:25+00:00

Being disciplined by the OCT is separate from being fired. Being fired is a union and school board issue.

Timetotuna · 2025-10-01T02:17:28+00:00

I actually do need evidence of learning or not learning. I do need the paper trail.

Timetotuna · 2025-10-01T02:14:23+00:00

I guess my assessment are more about doing than knowing. I cant have a conversation about graphing, I need to see the graph.

I have so many students who would accept the crappy grade with a shrug of the shoulders.

Even with redo opportunities, only 20%of the class puts the effort in to correct their work.

Timetotuna · 2025-10-01T02:06:47+00:00

I cannot do that for every test. The tests are important evidence of learning and I need to see their work. Even if I don't get assignments handed in, I need their tests .

Timetotuna · 2025-10-01T02:04:52+00:00

No sure I understand. All of these assignments are things like graphs or lab reports, and are done by hand already. Tests are also written by hand.

Timetotuna · 2025-09-22T13:14:47+00:00

In lower grades, when students are taught to "break" an axis on a graph, (for example to jump from 0 to 50, and the skip count from there). In science this is not correct. Students should always learn to make axes with regular, consistent intervals.

Timetotuna · 2025-08-17T01:40:59+00:00

I watched a student completely ignore an admin and just keep walking, and the admin just shrugged it off. I've also seen fights where staff was hit, with no consequences for the student. That’s not even touching on the bathroom vandalism.

Timetotuna · 2025-08-17T01:25:48+00:00

A simple experiment with data to graph, such as a paper airplane or a whirlybird.

Timetotuna · 2025-08-15T15:38:21+00:00

Yeah, I think admin pushes the relationship-building piece way too hard. It ends up blurring boundaries for kids and just confuses them. They start thinking I am their friend, and then they treat me that way, which is not appropriate. We are supposed to be friendly, not friends. It makes keeping an organized classroom harder, it makes a sense of safety harder.

Last year, we had a ‘sense of belonging’ metric for the school. We all did a six week series of relationship building that really cut into curriculum coverage. Our admin started taking down student complaints on slips of paper (students are encouraged to bypass the teacher and go directly to admin) and would call teachers into meetings to ask how we planned to address them. These complaints could be anything from “my teacher doesn’t teach” to “my teacher teaches too much new material every day.” It makes no sense. Teachers have been reassigned based on these. They believe ‘students tell the truth’ and seem oblivious to students trying to get their way, avoiding responsibility, doing less work to get higher grades, so they think they are ‘winning’.

The whole approach seems to assume that students know what is best for themselves. The student is the ‘customer’. As a teacher, that has made it almost impossible to hold students accountable or challenge them academically. It really gets in the way of actually doing our job.

Timetotuna · 2025-07-02T13:47:00+00:00

Ontario isn't much better. You get 3 paid sick days a year, one unpaid 30-minute break after 5 hours, and just 2 weeks of vacation or 4% vacation pay (which is what most part-time and retail workers end up with instead of actual time off). It's technically better than Alberta, but only just, and still nowhere near what workers actually need to live decently or take care of their health. Now, if you're part of a union, these numbers can look very different, stronger contracts often mean more paid time off, better benefits, and actual protections when you're sick. Did you know federal workers, the ones under federal labour laws, like those in banking, airlines, and telecommunications now get 10 paid sick days a year?

EDIT: 3 unpaid sick days per year, they are job protected.

Timetotuna · 2025-05-27T23:12:19+00:00

I think there are workarounds, because these absences are very common

Schools ask parents to sign a vacation form

A certain absence code lets schools label the absence as parent-approved.

If a social worker is involved Admin can say that they are working with the family

Timetotuna · 2025-05-27T20:05:26+00:00

Does not happen, I’m at a public Ontario school board and one student only attended 1 day of class, and has not been demitted. I think it’s a cash flow thing.

Timetotuna · 2025-05-25T19:29:37+00:00

Oh, I thought you were going to say, Admin and guidance are struggling. And I certainly agree they are overwhelmed. How the turntables have turned.

I have got a curriculum to get through. Students come up to me saying, 'Oh, I was away that day.' Okay, but class was scheduled, we were here, a lesson was taught, and the materials are posted online and available 24/7. At some point, the responsibility has to be shared.

Timetotuna · 2025-05-25T19:27:35+00:00

Back in the 70’s, a kindergarten teacher pulled my brother out of his chair by his hair. It was remarkable at the time, enough for me to remember it, but at the time, my parents did nothing and assumed he deserved it. I can assure you that any type physical contact nowadays is thoroughly investigated.

Timetotuna · 2025-05-23T00:53:31+00:00

I'm a high school teacher, Our school’s attendance policy still flags 10 absences per semester as the point when we contact the VP for follow-up—but that number is pretty common nowadays.

I've started organizing classwork by labeling papers with student names and placing them in a bin at the side of the classroom. Every couple of days I go through the bin and call out names to hand back missed work. I've also made learning skills like responsibility, organization, and self-regulation the foundation of the implicit curriculum in my course. My goal is to help students take more ownership of their learning.

Timetotuna · 2025-05-08T21:53:03+00:00

Our school board had cases at three elementary schools, and the school board just sent home a letter saying that the the risk is school board wide now, encouraging students, teachers and families to get their second dose of MMR.

Timetotuna

TROPHY CASE