Designated Paid PD Days; Mandate Creep of the College of Teachers;

Designated Paid PD Opportunities
As you are aware, Thames Valley is the only Board in Canada where elementary OTs are eligible for 2 full days of paid professional develpoment, which amounts to an additional 2 days of employment since these count for all purposes as time worked (Pension, EI hours, seniority etc.). One half of these days is to be reserved for members to complete mandatory online training with these details to be published in April. Under the terms of our newly ratified Local Agreement, OTs are no longer restricted to using these opportunities on PA Days and now may use days they are not working to complete online modules, self-directed, job shadowing etc. Further information about the new parameters are available in the Employee Portal > Conference / Session Registration > Elementary Occasional Teacher PD 2015 - 2016. We encourage all members to take advantage of these opportunities to enhance their professional development.

Mandate Creep of the Ontario College of Teachers / OCT
OCT is the regulatory / disciplinary body of our profession. The College is not legislated beyond this and it certainly does not represent the interests of Teachers or OTs - this is the job of the federations which include ETFO and the Ontario Teachers' Federation. Because OCT is once again feigning the ability to speak for the profession, all Teacher affiliates are advising members not to participate in the two new OCT surveys: 1) Professionally Speaking Readers' Survey, an intrusive marketing campaign on behalf of its advertisers and 2) Members' Survey Regarding Coroner's Jury Recommendation on Attestation, as OCT attempts to have members annually check off that they have read posted OCT materials.  Further information about these matters can be found on the home page of www.etfo.ca.

We look forward to seeing all registrants at the BMO Centre tomorrow afternoon for our Professional Development Event.  This event has filled up quickly and promises to be another beneficial event for our members.