Top 10 Blogs of 2012!

These are the Top Ten Most Read Blogs** here on my School Edition site:

1] Surprise OECTA PDT Agreement Reached [05 07 12]: This was the day everything changed. Details of the OECTA MOU kept leaking out along with what sparse details the provincial office provided our members on July 5th. I was reporting it while it happened. I think this blog reflects the confusion. I'm surprised, then shocked, then in disbelief, then in denial, then trying to justify it, then just trying to make any sense of it all. By the end of the day it was only too obvious we'd been screwed. I'm not sure why readers keep revisiting this dated post except maybe for all the first hand documents and news links posted there. Plus I'd suppose it was ground zero for everything that has followed since. See:  Surprise OECTA PDT

2] The OECTA MOU verses OSSTF's Contract [23 11 72]: When OSSTF's MOU was presented in November the members were quick to find it wanting. Comparison charts were drawn up with the OECTA MOU to check out the pretzel logic. The original document can still be accessed here. I was glad to post it here for your consideration online. One might still look at the watered down OSSTF sick day agreement details. They would've let the boards sneak in through the backdoor with how your sick day info would've been treated and shared. Even Kevin OD wasn't impressed. What was the leadership thinking? Compare MOU's

3] What Was said: A Secret OECTA Agreement? [18 06 12]: ETFO President Sam Hammond leaked second hand details of the OECTA PDT talks which in retrospect were quite correct except for a few numbers here and there. OECTA was royally P.O'ed. It also seemed to conflict with the info our members were receiving, that we were nowhere close to a deal, as we soon headed off for the summer holidays. It might also have strained trust and solidarity between the two unions which might not have helped either side in the long run. Then again, little over two weeks after the news leak, once summer vacation arrived, guess what we found out? Ouch! ETFO June PDT Leak

4] OSSTF Contract: What Teachers Lost [25 11 12]:  Grassroot OSSTF members were quick to rally the troops and put an end to the leadership's tentatively approved MOU contract plans. The social media certainly helped. This letter quickly went out into cyberspace to present a counter viewpoint for the members to consider. With the right to vote, the members torpedoed it then and there. I guess it should come as no surprise that OECTA dislikes and distrusts my site, and might try to censor it. Top down group think only. Dissidence is a no no for the new status quo. See: OSSTF Contracts

5] Steve Hnatiuk JCM Teacher + Coach [12 01 12]: Steve was a young beginning teacher with our board who was suddenly struck down in his prime by cancer. The board sent out the standard deceased memo. The union was too busy to get on it right away. Meanwhile everybody at my school and others across the city where Steve had taught were crying and really upset. It was very traumatic especially coming right after the Christmas holidays. So I wrote and posted this eulogy of sorts which seemed to go over very well. It was shared widely by our members, often on their own. Then I was told my actions were inappropriate and I shouldn't have done it, because I had used my school email account to send out the blog link on my own without approval from the board or union. Some days I really have to wonder what planet I'm on. Also what this whole Catholic education thing is really about. See the offending blog at: Steve Hnatiuk

6] OECTA TSU Contract Ratified by 62.2% [17 10 12]: Here is an anatomy of the contract ratification process as I experienced it myself firsthand. Note the great haste and hurry to get it done right away, and the low 10% member turnout. Afterwards CUPE got 2 weeks to ratify theirs. I'm still in the doghouse with our local executive for not going along with the plan. What was that all about?!? See TSU Ratification

7] Brock Breaks OECTA Code of Silence [08 08 12]: OECTA Halton Elementary's President Richard "Bad Boy Brock" comes out shooting straight from the hip with his criticism + opposition to the OECTA MOU.  How dare he? He broke the code of silence early and set an example of what our true blue OECTA leaders and membership were like back in the days before our protest spirit blew out and the silence became deafening. See: Code of Silence

8] OECTA MOU? President O'Dwyer's Reply [22 11 12]: Kevin was good enough to provide a public response to member Mr. John Cafferky's open letter, as originally posted in the TSU Highlites Newsletter: With John's permission it afterwards became the much read "None Dare Call It Betrayal"guest blog, and so began our ongoing letters debate. A challenging open debate is refreshing and has long been sadly missing.  I think readers like to be able to informally read and consider the issues like this for a change. Through the social media we were able to throw a much larger net, and gathered quite a variety of Comments in the discussion that followed on this site. It's too bad our union doesn't embrace the new open social media more rather than often dislike or be suspicious of it.The attendant bunker mentatility definately sucks. Of course it's a whole paradigm shift that alters the flow and control of information freely among members. One can oppose it, but it is the new reality and it is here to stay in one form or another, whether one likes it or not. Truly, the medium has become the message. See:  KOD Replies

9] OECTA Metro 7 Speak Out [11 12 12]: A dissident group of Toronto secondary teachers present us with their manifesto. Very D.I.Y [do it yourself]! Along with Bad Boy Brock here's another good example for our members to consider when they feel things aren't right and they aren't being heard. Let me give you a tip for the new year: you haven't heard the last of them or Bad Boy Brock! Maybe there is hope for us yet? See:  Metro 7 Manifesto

10] OECTA: None Dare Call It Betrayal 2 [26 12 12]: John replies to Kevin's reply and so it goes and on and on and on. Both writers have made my top ten most read blogs list. Wonder if Kevin will reply to Johns reply reprisal? Any odds on it anybody? See: None Dare!

Bubbling under the top 10: The Education Minister: Some thoughts. As incredible as it might now seem, just a little over a year ago all was well in the world between our teachers and the OLP. I had worked for well over 10 years with MPP Laurel Broten, who was always a big supporter of teachers, and we had accomplished a lot of great work together for our schools. You can follow the links here to read a number of very positive accounts from a quite different political world than are in today. A year ago these posts would've been in my top ten most read blogs. Since then they have gotten pushed down off the list by other blogs from a quite different perspective.

Still, I do not hide my past. This is how I thought and felt,what I saw and heard. Indeed it was as different as day and night back then. Just remember, we will have some very difficult political choices to make this year. I'm attaching this link in an ongoing quest to try to find some thoughtful balance. We are going to have to think very, very carefully this spring in figuring out our teacher political strategy. There is the leadership convention and a quite possible spring election. Is it still possible to build bridges with the OLP? If we write the OLP off will it be out of the fire and into the pot should the Hudak PC's then form the next government? Whither too the NDP? Can they form the next government? Are we sure everything will be okay once again?

Remember, we have had problems with all three parties now, the OLP, the PC's and the NDP, but overall we have done quite well for our students, our schools and our profession. What next? We live in very interesting times indeed. For a trip back to another reality, start here: Where to now?

** There have been 426 blogs posted on my site since it began in May 2011. These are all available through my Blog Archives below this middle column. As of midnight this January 1st  my site had a total of 82,577 reader visits. The total for the month of December was 23,172. You can check the current total on the counter in the top right column of my blog screen.

My blog recorder counts the total number of reader visits to my blog. Also the number of reader visits who were directed here by a link to a particular blog. It determined the top ten accordingly on an ongoing basis.