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Dear MLA,
Teachers have sent more than 1,800 letters to their MLAs since September, when the #MyClassSizeIs campaign began. Here are some samples of what they’re saying.
Blank letters are available by contacting ATA distribution at 1-800-232-7208 or can be downloaded from www.teachers.ab.ca
(Click News and Info > Campaigns > MLA Letter Writing).
My classroom concerns are …
In the last 30 years I have seen a massive decline in support for our students.
My class is a very complex mix of special people. I have a student who is gifted, requiring an enriched program, a student with ADHD who requires special strategies to help them succeed, a student with autism who also requires a daily individualized program. I [also have] two students who are low cognitive and eight English language learners who also need extra care and attention.
All 20 of my students are English language learners, two of whom have only just started speaking some English.
When you can’t even eat your lunch because of supervision, meetings or assisting students, and the private sector says, “Boo hoo!”, enough is enough!
Don’t punish our students by continuing to take away their supports. Please, put students first.
This year my school has cut 40 hours per week of educational assistant time and 10 hours of ELL assistant time. This has been a substantial amount of time taken away from students who need extra support.
We cannot meet the needs of all of our students — we have had to triage students being offered the extra academic support they desperately need, leaving many students on their own.
In a class of 37 students, it is very difficult to give the personalized teaching that we advocate for … The classroom begins to feel more like an assembly line rather than a caring environment where the primary concern is learning and understanding.
The increasing demands due to classroom sizes and complex learning needs mean I spend 65 to 70 hours working [each week]. The strain on my health from the long hours is not sustainable.
