EMAIL FROM CHAD (our stream Rep)

Hey Everyone! Finally caught up on the blog, good to read that there are mostly good and funny stories. How did you apology day go rob? Language is a huge problem in my school too...

Any ways here are the emails that were too large to put up on the face book group... I should have just put them up here in the first place as now they are kinda dated...
#1
Hello Cohort Reps!


I hope you've been having a great time in practicum so far... I know I can't believe it's almost half over already!

We just had a student council meeting a little while ago so there is some stuff to bring to your attention.The update pertains mostly to year two cohort reps, but there is something for everyone!


For year twos

Ed expo registration will begin December 4th and run until December 10th. Please tell your cohorts to check their u of m email on Thursday, Dec. 2nd. There will be a link/password emailed out to them so that they can register for the expo. Our Ed expo planners have done an excellent job getting an abundance of school divisions to come out, so let's make the most of it!

For everyone

There have been some break downs in communication from the student council to the cohorts themselves. As a way to make myself more accountable, I ask that you please email me back when you get emails form me, and once again when you forward information. This will help me know which cohorts are getting information, and which ones are sometimes missing it. After meeting all of you, I trust that you are all doing an excellent job; however it is important to establish a bit of a paper trail.


The next student council meeting will be on Thrusday Dec. 16th at 6:30pm. Of course, you're all invited to come! Last time I even scored some popcorn and tea!

Thank-you so much for continuing to do a great job even while being busy with practicum. I'm really looking forward to seeing you all again in the new year!

Of course, if you ever have any concerns from either your cohort or yourself, please feel free to get a hold of me any time.... if anything it'll make me feel wanted :P


Have a great week!

-duff
#2
To all Faculty of Education Students of the University of Manitoba:

The Faculty Council will be hearing and discussing two motions from the Committee on Initial Teacher Education Programs (CITEP) at their meeting on December 13, 2010. These motions concern amendments to the criteria for graduating with distinction and membership on the Dean's Honour Roll (DHL). This is not the first time the issue has arisen; in June, the Faculty Council passed a motion to abolish the DHL entirely, but fortunately, the Senate Committee on Instruction and Evaluation (SCIE) informed the faculty that such an act would violate University of Manitoba policy. Now CITEP has come up with two motions to address the "grade inflation" problem believed to be plaguing our faculty.

I ask that you read this email very carefully and thoroughly. I cannot stress, through this message, the importance of this issue, and thus it is up to you, the student, to read this message in its entirety.

The first motion that could be presented is one to increase the required grade point average (GPA) for the DHL, for any students admitted in September 2011 and beyond, from 3.5 to 4.0. The Education Student Council (ESC, officially) is against this. The students in this faculty have proven themselves to be highly intelligent, and we have a high caliber of students comprising our membership. This is evidenced by the fact that GPAs are weighted at 69% for admission to the faculty (with the written skills exercise, meant to reflect our ability to think critically, making the other 31%). Further, we are being taught by those who have received experience and instruction in teaching. Unlike many other faculties, where instructors may not necessarily want to teach (as they find their research to be more important), and are expected to teach classes of hundreds, the Faculty of Education hires those who have made teaching their life's work. According to CITEP, there is a problem with grade inflation because our grades are skewed to the high side, but this cannot be entirely due to some sort of false assignment of grades. With a high teacher quality coupled with an intellectually strong student body, I would see a normal curve in our grades as a cause for concern, not jubilation. In addition to this, 4.0 is a high GPA for the DHL. This would mean that any student with a B+ would have to offset it with an A+. Even great students have weaknesses, and excluding them from a much-deserved honour is not a solution to the problem that CITEP has perceived. As the present GPA required for this is 3.5, the ESC recommended a modest, more compromising increase, to 3.7, but this was ignored.

The second motion that may be presented to Faculty Council is one to adopt a stricter requirement for graduation with distinction. Currently, those whose GPA is greater than or equal to 3.8 may graduate with distinction. However, at this level, 43% of students tend to graduate with distinction - thus it is not really a distinction at all. Unfortunately, CITEP seems to want to overcompensate for this, and they would like to only take the top 10% of students for graduation with distinction. Again, the ESC disagrees with this proposal. In addition to all that was previously stated about the student excellence to be expected in our faculty, a 10% cutoff is a fluctuating bar. The lowest GPA to get the distinction would easily vary from year to year, and since students could not possibly be expected to know where they stand relative to all others, students would thus not know, until graduation, whether or not their efforts had allowed them to attain the honour of graduating with distinction. The ESC believes a firm bar should be set, perhaps one that gives 25% of students the honour, on average. The faculty should determine the GPA that would allow this, and adopt that as the new cutoff. However, it should not be any higher than 4.1. A GPA of 4.1 ensures that those who graduate with distinction have mainly As and A+s, at least one of the latter, and any lower marks are offset by even more excellent marks; this still marks excellence and a reason for distinction.

As Senior Stick of the Education Student Council, I sit on the Faculty Council. Normally, student members of Faculty Council are expected to excuse themselves from meetings that occur during practicum. However, with this issue arising, I will be present at the meeting, where I plan to garner support from faculty members to ensure that these motions do not pass. I am doing this because when the last motion was passed last school year (to abolish the DHL), a faculty member requested that the vote be postponed until student membership had been established on the council, but that was ignored.

My request to you, a student in the Faculty of Education, is to word your support for the ESC, against the motions from CITEP, in an email to a temporary account set up for this issue: keepthehonourlist@gmail.com. The email can be brief, perhaps just a few sentences; it could, alternately, be as long as this message, or perhaps even longer (if you need a means to occupy your time and wish to write an essay).

I plan to show every single letter of support to Faculty Council. As the next meeting of the council is on December 13, I ask that letters please be sent by December 10 at 10:00 pm. I understand that we are busy with practicum at present, but even a brief email to keepthehonourlist@gmail.com would bolster support. Please take the couple minutes to do this.

Thank you for reading this whole email, which I assume you have done if you are reading this particular sentence. I look forward to your responses.

Sincerely,


Jason Athayde
--
Jason M. J. Athayde
Senior Stick, Education Student Council
Faculty of Education
University of Manitoba

thats it, I'll keep every one up to date on further info on here.