“We must always give more”, says a teacher from Gatineau | Education | News | The right

EA French secondary school teacher for 18 years at Grande-Rivière high school, she maintains that working conditions have particularly deteriorated over the past decade.

“Yes, there is the salary question, because if we look at all the other provinces, we are the most impoverished. It sure titillates me a bit, but that’s the pay is as it is for me, because my pay is really when I succeed in enlightening a teenager. It’s the conditions we’re in that annoy me. We always have to do more, there are emails in the evening, videoconferences with parents who have requests, etc. At one point, yes it is our profession, we chose it and we say that teachers should be a vocation. Except that I chose this profession because I wanted to contribute something. For about ten years, it has grown heavier, there are more and more sides, outside the classroom and the classroom, ”she says.

With experience, Ms. Bertrand says she has understood things. She says she is playing cards on the table and being very transparent with the parents of her students.

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“I am no longer shy about telling them: I too have a family life, I too have two children who have homework to do. I also have a house to maintain etc. […] If I look at our young teachers, they don’t yet have that side and I understand them. They are not able to refuse a meeting. But I motivate them this year, I try to show them the way so that they don’t become exhausted, ”says the teacher.

Since negotiations that took place in 2007 during which union members were asked to take this action as a means of pressure, she says “leave her school bag at school” when she returns to the fold.

“This is what I do now. It’ll be 13 years. I leave it at school, excluding it at the end of stages, if I have no choice. If all the teachers in Quebec left their bags at school every night, regardless of the day of the week, and if we delayed our grades, our feedback, maybe things would move a little more and the population would understand. better in what world we live, ”says Sophie Bertrand.

The effects of the pandemic

COVID-19 has of course turned life in schools upside down and teacher morale is affected, she also admits.

“It is really not obvious, as for anyone, for example the police officers, the nurses, among others with the mask. There are classes where I have to wear it a lot because the students are very close. It affects me greatly because I no longer see the smile of my students. It demoralizes me a bit because that’s what gives me my drive for 18 years. I also see colleagues at the end of their rope and that also affects our own morale, ”says the teacher.

With the proximity of the border, the latter says that the idea of ​​crossing on Ontario soil has already crossed her mind, but she has “made her way” over the years. She has forged close ties with her work colleagues.

While negotiations are underway for a new employment contract, would Ms. Bertrand have a message to send to the Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, whose relations with the union world are no longer as rosy as they were during his appointment in 2018?

“It looks like he forgot that he was with us before (Mr. Roberge taught for 17 years). I don’t understand how his view of teaching could have changed so suddenly. I think he would need to come for a walk in the classes, to refresh his memory and his vision. […] It looks like he’s mounted on a pedestal and his memory has faded, ”she concludes.

The Outaouais Teaching Union represents 5,500 members at the Draveurs, Portages-de-l’Outaouais and Coeur-des-Vallées school service centers.

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