This year’s guest speaker is Kate Gibson, Executive Director, WISH Drop-in Centre Society. The society addresses frontline health needs of women living street-entrenched lives.

Tickets $35 – $10 of each ticket will go to support WISH. If you plan to attend, contact vilmam@vesta.ca

Teachers see the reality of poverty in their classrooms every day. Let’s create a vibrant anti-poverty community among educators. The time for action is now!

Attend a free workshop, Poverty in BC – Teachers Taking Action and Making a Difference, organized by VESTA and the Surrey Teachers’ Association anti-poverty committees. Click here for details

Saturday, 2012 February 11, 9:30am—3:00pm
BCTF Building, 550 West Sixth Avenue, Vancouver

You are invited to a workshop to learn about BCTF international solidarity work from colleagues who have participated in these projects.

Presentations include—
• Second language pedagogy workshops for teachers in Peru—teacher PD that helps build support for the union.
• Training English enhancement mentors for improved English skills for teachers in Namibia.
• The Cuba project—looking back and forward to new projects.
• Support for teachers in Colombia whose lives are threatened—and the families of the many assassinated.
• An international conference at the BCTF about the negative impact of neo-liberal education policies, and teacher leadership on progressive pedagogical alternatives.
• BC teachers who have participated in Education Beyond Borders projects in Africa.
• An opportunity to talk about issues related to international work.

Click here to see the day’s agenda.

The workshop is free and lunch will be provided. Please register by sending an e-mail message with your name and email address to Anne afield@bctf.ca or to Sharon staylor@bctf.ca. Information regarding the meeting, parking, and access to the building will then be emailed to you.

Date:  Sunday, 2012 February 5

Where: Rhizome Cafe, 317 E. Broadway

Time:  Doors open at 5:30pm

Cost:  Free

COPEMH, a Honduran teachers’ union, has been at the forefront of the struggle to restore democracy in Honduras. Hear from frontline activists as they address the de facto government’s “shock therapy” tactics to privatize public education, the role of international financial institutions in dismantling Honduran teachers’ organizations and the new teaching practices COPEMH is developing to promote gender equity and democracy in Honduran classrooms.

This new package represents an investment of 300 million dollars in public education. It includes increases in salary that will allow Vancouver teachers to keep up with the cost of living in one of the most expensive places to live in Canada. It also includes significant modifications and reductions to our previous proposal.

Teachers in Vancouver support the BCTF’s even-handed position and we implore BCPSEA to come to the table and reach a negotiated settlement. Comments by the Minister of Education, George Abbott, that our proposal is “absurd” does nothing to move the parties closer to a negotiated settlement.

“Teachers in Vancouver have been on strike since September, ” says Debbie Pawluk, President of the Vancouver Secondary Teachers’ Association. “Teachers want to get back to business as usual but need a collective agreement that respects the work we do and guarantees support for our most vulnerable students.

Chris Harris, President of the Vancouver Elementary School Teachers’ Association, says, “Our employer, the Vancouver Board of Education, is urging the government to revisit the government bargaining mandate for teachers in order to reach a negotiated settlement. It is time that the provincial government made bargaining with teachers a priority.”