Opening Statement



Friday 28 June 2013

Schools Out For Summer!

Scroll down for my regular blog features below!

 
School is out for summer! It's been quite a year. Make sure you have a great holiday, whatever else you do. We earned it.


Mrs Chiarelli is no longer a political widow. Janet was always a great help + my numbero uno supporter. We will go celebrate my retirement in London + Paris. More on our plans later.

I am retiring from active teaching, but once a teacher always a teacher, I figure. My blogs will continue. I will be on reduced hours during the summer, but I will still be here. There will be teacher union news links, most of your regular features, and some other fun summer things too. Come fall I will be back on line with you. However I look especially forward to sleeping in on the first day back to school for the first time in over 26 years. Ha.


I invited our OECTA TSU union executive circle to come to my retirement bash. In my own way, I love them all! Course they might not have often known it! ;-)

My retirement activities over the past few weeks as I wrapped things up at the union office and school were quite interesting. As I`ve said before, I have been away on a leave.  OECTA TSU has a big party to honour our retirees at Fantasy Farm each year. All the retirees wear a Hawaiian lay. So in effect you get laid at Fantasy Farm ... hmmm. Anyway, no prizes or awards for me. Ha. I did win the first and probably only Grand Poohbah award at a small executive party we had later on at Mikamodo`s restaurant up at Highway 7 and Weston. The venue was my choice .... all you can eat Chinese and Japanese food. Very tasty. Reasonable. Table service. No hurry. Nice space.

I dropped into school this week and cleaned out my office. Finally, everything, out into the garbage! Well there were some things I passed on, like my 3 hole punch. It was such a relief. I`ve always wanted to do that. Quite frankly the situation at my school has been unacceptable for far too long now. It was very empowering to reach my 85 factor and say Arrivederci!


Sparky + I: Retirement rocks! At OECTA TSU members get a lay when you retire. Sort of a Catholic way of getting "laid" ... ;-)

It was genuinely touching to say goodbye to all my friends and the staff at McGuigan from over my 21 years at the school. It is the good memories that sustain me. In time the bad stuff quickly becomes moot. I don`t carry that with me. It`s like a cancer that just eats away at you from within, if you do. Same with my union friends and foes past and present. I live. I learn. Life goes on. Anyway I ramble. My final words, speech: a quote from the immortal Dr. Martin Luther King; 

                  Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty I am free at last!

And those of you who remain, go on fighting just the same! Hey! It`s summer! You can relax! Let the little lovelies parents have them for a while. People scoff at our grief in handling a full class of them, now the shoes on the other foot. `However, they only have to deal with one or two usually, their own. It`s time for some parent student bonding. Indeed!


Other Related Posts:

Summer Holidays @ Home Considering Time!

Teacher Summer Holidays? More @ Take no BS! Feel no guilt!

Finishing School @ My Life Pt. 3


Stay tuned!

Pax/ Solidarity!

David Chiarelli

12 comments:

ETFO Steve said...

Thanks for everything Dave. Your blog has been an invaluable "real news" service to thousands of us over the last year. Enjoy the summer and your forthcoming retirement. I plan to be joining you in four more years, HOPEFULLY a little less bitter and cynical than I am right now. Today I wore something other than black to work the first time since September 17. Salut!

Anonymous said...

Ken Coran running as Liberal in London. Announcement made on a Friday before a Long Weekend.

The last 18 months makes more sense now. OSSTF just lost the support of many more of it's members.

Anonymous said...

Richard "Bad Boy" Brock is being charged with a procedure 13 complaint. This is a political set up by the London and Eastern Ontario Presidents who don't like Brock's politics. Email the following presidents to express your disappointment:

Bob Giasson b.giasson@oecta.on.ca
Dan Gryzwacz d.gryzwacz@oecta.on.ca
Chris Montgomery durhamsecondary@hotmail.com
Sheila Brescia oecta.london@on.aibn.com
Dean Spence oectapvnc@cogeco.net
Mike Silmser oectarenfrew@cogeco.net
Bill Stratton stratton367@rogers.com

Anonymous said...

After seeing Ken Coran hug the incoming education minister during the short time OSSTF membership were on a work to rule I predicted that he would have some plum position waiting for him upon his retirement. I imagined a high paying executive job hidden somewhere in the government, not a high exposure MPP seat in the legislature. He cannot win in London. If he does, OSSTF members and the public have totally stuck their heads up the a$$es of the OLP. I hope that we won't have to look at the face of the man who totally sold us down the river. Surely, we cannot reward him and the OLP with another mandate to screw up further. Judas traitor comes to mind.

Kulture Kult Ink said...

It will be interesting what position the different teacher affiliates take on the upcoming London by election!!!

Kulture Kult Ink said...

Wow! I will contact Richard!

Kulture Kult Ink said...

Thanks ETFO Steve! I will still have a lot to blog about. You bet!

Kulture Kult Ink said...

Once again as soon as schools out we get a big surprise. It's happened two years in a row now. Is this becoming a habit?

Anonymous said...

So where will the OLP London West candidate stand on the following issues:

-a 15 year salary grid for teachers
-the future of sick days and adjudication
-the salary freeze
-an attack on health benefit plans
-recognizing minority educational rights (funding for Catholic and Francophone education).

Anonymous said...

It's time that we the teachers (ETFO, OSSTF)took our profession seriously. We allowed our union leaders to tell us how to vote (86 % OSSTF, 91 % ETFO) while the outgoing OSSTF president was playing footsie with the OLP. It now doesn't matter where Ken Coran stands with certain issues. The membership said it was okay to strip the contract once. The same thing will happen again. Heck, Ken doll might even become Minister of Education because he saw how easily we capitulated. I'm embarrassed to work with the 86ers or 91ers. We should have turned education on its nose and stuck with the work-to-rule, gotten rid of the corrupt OLP. Instead we enabled Ken's rise to the top. Have a great summer everyone. Londoners please do not vote for Coran.

Anonymous said...

David - Happy Canada Day and many congratulations on your retirement! Only wish I was at 85 factor so I could join you (it's been a hell of a year). Glad to hear that you will be continuing with your blog. The next round of bargaining is just around the corner, and your voice will be incredibly valuable then.

Anonymous said...

First things first: Congratulations, David on your retirement! I've enjoyed reading your blogs over the last year as you have been a consistent source of reliable information in the Bill 115 disaster. As we start our holidays, it was with dismay that I read that Ken Coran had accepted the nomination to be the Liberal candidate for London West. Reminded me of the mercenary mindset of Earl Manners (he became the HR guy for Trillium Lakelands) and I have no use for Benedict Arnold types in our unions. It is also disappointing to read that Richard Brock (love him or hate him) is being subjected to Procedure 4:13 by a handful of his fellow presidents. What have we come to? Part of the beauty of democracy is that you get to disagree. Richard certainly has been provocative over the years, but he's bang on from time to time. Certainly keeps COPs and AGMs interesting. But the latest mind blowing news came just today: Ben Levin, McGuinty's former Deputy Minister of Education and OISE self proclaimed Education guru, arrested on child pornography charges. This is what hell has come to look like in Ontario folks: Sell outs within and without our union as well as another Ontario Liberal biting the dust (doesn't matter if he's innocent at this point. . given his status, the allegations are enough to destroy him) and the fact that so many people are willing to forgive and forget what this Liberal government did to the labour movement, makes it that much more an imperative that we get ourselves organized, on point, and that all the affiliates work together. It's about solidarity, even when you don't always agree. Democracy is just that messy. In any case, David, have a drink of your choice for me and enjoy the summer!

Post a Comment

Communist Girls ARE More Fun!

Communist Girls ARE More Fun!
See below ...

Communist Girls Are More Fun #1

Communist Girls Are More Fun #1

Communist Grrrls are More Fun #2

Communist Grrrls are More Fun #2

Communist Grrrls Are More Fun #3

Communist Grrrls Are More Fun #3

Communist Girls Are More Fun #4

Communist Girls Are More Fun #4

Art at the Paris Louvre: What does it mean?!?

Art at the Paris Louvre: What does it mean?!?
A careful analytical study!

Help! I Have No Arms!

Help! I Have No Arms!
Please scratch my back.

I can't find my underwear!.

I can't find my underwear!.
Have you seen them!

Weee! I can fly!

Weee! I can fly!
Look! I can crawl thru walls!

I have a headache!

I have a headache!
And a broken nose.

I have a square hole in my bum!

I have a square hole in my bum!

Here try this, it's very good!

Here try this, it's very good!
No. You have a bird face.

I have an ugly baby!

I have an ugly baby!
No I'm not!

Let's save all our money + buy pants!

Let's save all our money + buy pants!
OK but I need a new hand too!

Oh no! I got something in my eye!

Oh no! I got something in my eye!

You don't look well.

You don't look well.
No. My head hurts +I have a sore chest.

Would you like a bun?

Would you like a bun?

Chichen-Itza: Lost Maya City of Ruins!

Chichen-Itza: Lost Maya City of Ruins!
The Temple of Kukulkan!

Gotta love it!

Gotta love it!
Truly amazing!

Under Reconstruction!

Under Reconstruction!

Temples + Snakes!

Temples + Snakes!

The Snake!

The Snake!
It runs the length of the ball field!