Is Teaching Sustainable?

Author: Francesca Fuoco

During the course of my practicum as a novice teacher, I have met professionals in the field who have been teaching for over 40 years. I find it incredible how some individuals can sustain the same career for decades. What is it about a career that makes it sustainable for so many years? There are many possible definitions for sustainability but for the purpose of this post, I believe that sustainability in the teaching profession requires first a passion for teaching, and second, a balanced work/home lifestyle. If the career path negatively impacts the individual’s well-being, then I would argue that the career path is not sustainable in the long-term.

During my undergraduate studies to become a Science teacher, I took a course on the policies and laws governing the teaching profession in Quebec. On the first day of class, we were told by the professor that 50% of all new teachers drop out of the profession in their first 5 years of teaching. When I first heard this, I did not agree and thought that percentage was way too high and that it did not apply to me in any case because I knew teaching was my calling. Today I now know that my teacher was trying to warn us about the adventure we were about to embark on.

It is a common conception that teachers have the perfect work schedule, with early evenings, Christmas break and peddays at home, and summers off. I used to tell all my friends that the field of teaching is fantastic if you want a family oriented lifestyle, where you have the same schedule as your children and can be around with your family while working a full-time job. Today, I state with confidence that teaching is by far one of the most demanding jobs and the conception of the perfect work schedule is a false dream.

First, to obtain a teaching licence in Quebec, a Bachelors degree is required (or a Masters), which is at least 4 years of University studies. Once you obtain your teaching certificate, you then need to try and find a teaching contract, which are currently very difficult to find. As such, you result to being a substitute teacher for a few years until you find a contract, or if you are lucky, you can find earlier on a 50-70% contract (part-time work load). At this stage in your early career, you are basically hoping a teacher is going to retire, go on sick leave, or go on maternity leave.

Once you do sign a teaching contract, which may or may not be in your field of study, your workload goes above and beyond teaching content to a classroom of students. Apart from teaching your courses, teachers participate in extra-curricular activities which are commonly scheduled after school. Teachers also need to plan their lessons and generate teaching materials which is often done during the evenings at home. They provide remedial help to students during the lunch hour on some days and on the other days they need to supervise the hallways. Teachers need to attend professional development workshops to ensure they stay up-to-date with the most current resources and teaching techniques. Teachers also need to consider each student’s learning style by adapting their teaching methods to accommodate each learner. This part of the job is taken to the next level when Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) need to be considered in which certain students have a legal right to certain accommodations and modifications in the classroom. The biggest component of this job which I think is what affects most teachers’ well-being is the classroom management. I have worked in classrooms which had 7 students and others which had 34 students. Regardless of the numbers, each classroom size comes with its challenges when dealing with children. The teacher is the role model of the classroom and students look up to you and I think this is why the teacher’s emotions can be tugged in all directions. At the end of the day, a teacher does not simply teach. Teachers are also listeners, motivators, leaders, and carers. They play the role of psychologist, doctor, lawyer, and police officer, which is why robots will never put a teacher out of work.

A high school teacher can see on average 100 students in their classroom every day. It can be easy to take home the events that happened in class and it is at this point that the career can impact the teacher’s well-being. During each of my internships, the most honest advice that I received from each of my supervising teachers was to take care of myself first and to not bring the work home. It is OK to have a bad day and to bring your B game to class, teachers cannot always bring their A game. To make it in this career, teachers need to balance what happens in school and what happens outside of school. Exercise, eating-well, and letting go of the day’s events is key to being a sustainable teacher.

You have to love teaching to choose this career. I would like to reiterate that teaching is by far one of the most demanding jobs, but it is also one of the most rewarding careers. Despite the emotional tug-of-war and classroom management horror stories, teachers teach skills that last a life time. Teachers inspire children to learn, to question, and to achieve. There is no better feeling than when you see your students’ eyes light up when they “click” and understand something and say “Oh! I get it!”. That is when I remember why teaching is an amazing career.

Picture taken by Francesca Fuoco at Ste-Agathe Academy, Ste-Agathe Quebec.

Francesca Fuoco is a 4^th year undergraduate student in the Faculty of Education at McGill University. She is currently studying with the goal of teaching Science at the High School level. Francesca is interested in promoting the development of scientific literacy skills among her students by engaging them in learning activities which aim to study how Science affects our society and vice-versa.

At the EGSS conference: Food for Thought Interactive PD Workshop

On Thursday, March 31st, Teachers Training for Sustainability held its second Professional Development workshop during the annual Education Graduate Students' Society (EGSS) conference at McGill University. This workshop was an interactive discussion with graduate and undergraduate students at the Education Faculty. Education students were invited to respond to a choice of questions and to post their responses in a true public record (in the lobby of the Education Building). Over 50 education students recorded their answers on sticky notes and placed them on a chart paper featuring the question. We recorded many student responses to be featured in a video!

Education students were invited to write their ideas on Postits notes!    

A photo of the project tem members (from left to right): Francesca Fuoco (U4 student, Dept. of Integrated Studies in Education, DISE), Ying-Syuan (Elaine) Huang (PhD student, DISE), Morganne Blais-McPherson (BSc in Neuroscience), and Harley Nadler, (U3 student, DISE).

An Interview with Jessica Magonet!

Hi, I’m Morganne, from the Sustainability Project here at McGill University. Last week, I spoke with Jessica Magonet, environmental activist extraordinaire, about school, sustainability, and youth involvement in environmental issues.

Jessica recently graduated from McGill, where she studied Law. During her time here, she was involved in many research projects related to aboriginal and environmental law. Jessica also worked for the McGill International Journal of Sustainable Law and Policy for three years. On top of her involvement at McGill, Jessica has been volunteering in more organizations and projects than I can count. From chairing the Sierra Youth Coalition Executive Committee to hosting community dialogues about climate change while biking from Whitehorse to Dawson City, Jessica has been quite busy.

A photo of Jessica taken on McGill campus

Jessica, how old were you when you first became aware of environmental issues?

I was in Kindergarten, and we had this thing called the “Litter Critters”. We were encouraged to pick up trash. If you picked up trash, you were called a “Litter Critter”. And if you picked up a lot of trash, you got to go on stage in assembly.

In First Grade, I had the most kick-ass science teacher, who taught us about the hole in the ozone layer. I lived in New Orleans at the time and she taught us about climate change and hurricanes. We built New Orleans out of Play-Doh and then inflicted a hurricane of different categories on it. For example, we did Category I and saw that – okay, our school would flood. And then Category II, we poured more water and then we saw that the Super Dome wasn’t looking so good. She also organized an Earth Day celebration at my school that I remember very well. That’s kind of when I became aware of these issues and care about them.

How did you first start getting involved in environmental issues?

Other than being a “Litter Critter” in Kindergarten, I was part of a casual environmental club at the beginning of high school. One of my teachers, Ms. L., said you should start an environmental club, and that’s where things really changed for me. I felt very passionate about it. I started going to environmental conferences in the city for other students.

In 10^th grade, she asked me and another student to organize an environmental conference. I was one of the two co-chairs. I thought “Oh my goodness, I better not fail”, because we did everything, from finding the speakers to getting students involved, to finding students to come, even from out of town, figuring out where they would sleep, sponsorship... In retrospect, I see that Ms. L. was in the background, carefully monitoring what we were up to and providing support for when we didn’t know what to do. That conference was a total springboard for the rest of my activism as a young person. But that conference, about environment and poverty, was a really big undertaking and really shaped how connected I felt to these issues.

What about the other students in high school? Were they involved?

Well, everyone was involved somewhat against their will, because this teacher was a force of nature and recruited people to be involved in any capacity that you could imagine. It was interesting to me after the conference to hear how it affected people. I remember somebody telling me that “I was going to throw this can of pop on the street, but then I thought about this conference and you, and then I didn’t”. It created a certain culture at the school, like, “Okay, we’re caring about this issue right now”.

But I do think there is something special about being singled out and I wonder if more students were entrusted with a cause at the school, that that would make a difference. Because I felt like I had this duty with my friend to do it for the whole community. I feel like that could influence people a lot.

Were there any other teachers or the headmistress, apart from this Ms. L., who pushed you towards environmentalism?

The school was very supportive of the club and the conference and that is pretty special. They were very excited and proud that students were doing this in the school. They gave us money to bring speakers. They helped us get it out into the media. I think at times they were concerned that I wasn’t really going to class because I was doing this all the time. But yes, it was pretty special. And I think that even if the school doesn’t have very much money, if you’re in an environment in which student initiative is encouraged, that’s so helpful.

Did you feel that in the classes you took, that environmental issues were sufficiently talked about?

Except for geography where we talked about the issue of water in developing countries, I don’t think we ever really talked about them. I don’t think I ever was awakened by the educational course content in high school.

But I remember in high school, a teacher asked us to take on a project that would show leadership. I wanted to take on the project of causing public outcry at the fact that the Harper government was preventing environmental scientists from talking directly to the media. I remember my teacher telling me that that was a crazy project, “Try something more manageable”. I was so upset about this. That was kind of a damper, so then I thought “Screw it, I guess they’re all right, whatever”. It was really sad, to have a teacher take the wind out of your sails.

Did you see your involvement change as you left high school, since you didn’t have that teacher anymore?

It sort of didn’t matter, since that conference opened one door, which led to another and another and it was almost like I didn’t need the school anymore. But out of that conference, there was a speaker there that said, “You should volunteer for this organization called the Sierra Youth Coalition”. And that is a really cool organization because it is run entirely by youth. So I did that for two years, and it was crazy. We hired people, we dealt with HR policy, we did corporate social responsibility screening of our donors… It was a crazy thing to do at the age of 16-17… And that led to many other opportunities to be involved. So I feel like my school opened the door, and it was endless.

We often think that you need to have some kind of qualification to be doing these things. Did you ever feel afraid that you couldn’t do anything?

I was very afraid. And in fact I frequently called friends’ parents that had sat on boards and asked like, “What is travel policy for employees?” And in some ways I don’t think that my “expertise” as a 17 year old was best deployed in some of those positions, but in other ways doing strategic planning for a youth NGO in CEGEP was so cool. Thinking about what are the big issues, how should we organize ourselves.

If you were a teacher, how would you try to get your students involved?

I have a friend from the Sierra Coalition who is now a math and science teacher, and she posts descriptions of some of her lessons on Facebook. She is so creative. She brings sustainability into math class, having people calculate problems around emissions.

I think it would depend on the class I was teaching, but I think for sure it should be part of the curriculum. But I also think that outside of the curriculum, teachers should be thinking about how they can support students who want to take this on as a project or how to inspire them to do that. Or even being the teacher who is responsible for the Environmental Club. Even when we had this tiny environmental club at my high school that didn’t really do anything, we went to an environmental conference at another school that was amazing. I thought, “Woah, a school can do this?” and that really supplemented everything we weren’t getting in the curriculum. Just looking for opportunities to bring students out to other places where they can learn too.

What would stop a student from getting involved in environmental issues?

Well, they might not know about the issues. They might be interested but feel like, “How can I be involved in this on top of my course work. I just want to be a kid”. I remember when we were organizing that conference, I didn’t see my friends for so long because every lunch break, I went to that teacher’s office and that’s what we did. And I emerged several months later. They may feel like, “I’m not smart enough”. Even adults think, “What can I do?” But I think young people are so important in social movements because often we’re less jaded, less resigned, or even in the case of environmentalism, we may be bearing the brunt of the consequences. Our parents might be dead as the worst effects are experienced.

What do you think could be done or put in place to get students involved?

One thing that I feel lucky about is that when I left on the expedition for the Arctic, I had 86 friends from across the country, some from other countries, who cared about this issue and were full of enthusiasm and we kind of became our own network. So many organizations and initiatives were born out of that. So I think that opportunities where you get to hang out with other people who share your interests can be a springboard to creating initiatives. For example, I had a friend on the trip who started an organization that would go on bike trips and along the way they would do something related to sustainability. So they would do bike trips across Canada and they gave sustainability workshops along the way. I participated in part of the bike trip, from Vancouver to Inuvik, I did the Whitehorse to Dawson City portion, which was already outside of my comfort zone. We did dialogues about climate change in the North, which was super cool. One of my friends from that trip started an organization to make Antarctica carbon neutral. That’s where this trip to the UN Sustainable Development Summit idea was born.

What was also interesting about that organization is that they gave us contacts, like Inuit elders, Law professors, climate scientists, and we drew on them in all of these initiatives, because we had their emails. We would tell them, “We’re thinking about doing this, what how you advise us?” You’re on a first name basis with for example, the leading scholar on Arctic law, and he can advise you on how to lobby other governments. That’s so cool. I think that the relationships built out of that experience were really interesting.

As well, I think that if you frame something as a type of expression, that you’re expressing your concern or even your love for the place where you live, rather than fixing something that’s broken, for me that way of thinking about the issue has been paradigm altering. So maybe there’s a way for teachers to bring that in. To bring the joy into it, the fun, the friendship of being an activist, and the connection to the community. And not have it be, “The world is really screwed up. You guys are going to live into a terrible future unless something is done now”. Organizing an environmental conference was super fun. We would have late nights with pizza and brainstorming, just dreaming about “Who are our heroes we could bring to this school?” I think focusing on that, and teachers putting attention on that is really powerful.