The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

saturday oct 26 2002 23 economist sun stouffville tribune at the schools y si ik mfe staff photomike barrett grade 8 teacher emma galea loves to volunteer in sports and other activities it pays off with students she says teacher has multifaceted job by simone joseph staff writer at newmarkets denne public school emma galea is more than just a teacher she is a coach a referee a bereave ment counsellor and a trusted mentor to students like adam mill mr mill is a grade 8 student who nominated her for a teacher of the month award he noted shes really devotes her life to her students mr mill knew ms galea in previous years through his participation in sports this year he is a student in her class shes really supportive he says ms galea a 21 year veteran of the teaching profession helped him in french a subject he had been strug gling with supplying tips on how to study and helping him after class in his nomination letter he wrote emma galea always volunteers to run the extra curricular activitieswhenever you need extra help with your school work she is always available ms galea 45 organizes sports like flag football volleyball and ultimate frisbee she operates a mentor program pairing grade 8 students with kinder garten students and runs a book exchange for the kindergarten children this year she teaches grade 8 math english french and physical education and serves as the schools guidance counsellor she believes the lessons students gain outside the school can be as impor tant as the ones they pick up inside i want my kids to know learning is beyond what happens in the class room its building community its increasing selfesteem its teaching kids to work as a team ms galea has been teaching at denne public school for 10 years com muting 45 minutes each way from etobicoke but she would not dream of trying for a job closer to home its an amazing community and i love the kids she said as one might expect of a caring conscientious teacher her daily sched ule is hectic this past tuesday was a typical day she arrived at about 730 am an hour later she had photocopied two tests spo ken with the creator of a new french cur riculum phoned a colleague tutored a grade 8 student and spoken with york regions mental health centre about new workshops being offered to students ms galea taught seven classes that day as well as doing yard duty and run ning a bereavement group at lunch after school she had students come in for detention and extra help and spoke with a tour company employee about a planned field trip then she finished marking and called parents by the time she had phoned a col league and spoken with a former stu dent who stopped by to say hello it was 540 pm often ms galeas time before school at lunch and after school is filled with extracurricular and academic duties on a recent friday the school had a par entstudent volleyball evening and she didnt leave for home until 8 pm but she wouldnt have it any other way teaching is not just a job its a lifestyle she says literacy test a big deal for some schools recently ontario stu dents were preparing for a crucial and difficult test and it seems each school had its own way of going about that preparation the grade 10 literacy test was written earlier this week many schools knew they had good results before the test was even written for example my high school pierre elliott trudeau secondary a brand new facility trying to make a name for itself went all out in preparation we did exercises from a yellow duotang provided by the school for three weeks each day in a different class i think this process was more than sufficient i knew the material inside and out and i was confident id do well my previous school markville secondary went about it a different way there teachers told the students to come in on their own time often dur ing lunch to prepare for rick schie the exam this was mandatory and yet some students neglect ed to show up perhaps sug gesting this process was not as effective as that of pets on the other hand should students really be forced to study for an exam that alters their future schools and people in general will always do things in the way that they think best but is it best for the future of the students or the future of the school rick schie is a student at pierre elliott trudeau high school in uniotiville double cohort affects all in high school by andrew lambert correspondent many kids cant wait to graduate from high school and experience the world thanks to the elimination of the oac year students are a year closer to that goal the socalled double cohort situation is the result of a reworked educa tion format ontario now uses a fouryear high school program instead of the pre vious fiveyear system the effects are being felt all the way through second ary school and into the uni versities and colleges students must now cram their education into four years meaning heavier workloads and fewer option al courses a new curriculum has been developed and many are complaining it is too difficult i can confirm this and really took notice of it when course selection time arrived with so little time theres less flexibility to choose fun courses or experiment with new things my year now consists mostly of essential academic courses all of them pretty difficult and im not the only one the elimination of oac doesnt allow students enough time to adjust to the new curriculum said kurt cheng a student at st augustine catholic high school in unionville it seems as though diere is less time for us to develop quali ty skills as with everything quality comes with time see one page 24 262 main street markham north ontario breast screening program a program of cancer care ontario elsa bonnie wish to assure our patients that although the building is for sale we will continue to offer the same high quality caring service at the present location for many years to come as an affiliate of the ontario breast screening program we invite all women over 50 to call us to arrange an appointment for a screening mammogram through obsp accredited ly tjhe canadian association of radiologists tteirramna js ik