Update: Protest action has been called off for today. Sorry, kids. School is officially back on!
Ontario’s elementary teachers are at it again. On Friday, they will hold another one-day protest, which will result in schools all over the province closing their doors.
According to an article in the Globe and Mail, 76,000 teachers will boycott the classroom on Friday in connection with Bill 115, the very legislation that restricts teachers' right to strike. In the run up to the holidays, elementary teachers staged a day-long walkout.
“The [education] minister made a deliberate and provocative choice to wipe out the democratic rights of tens of thousands of educators rather than work towards a respectful solution,” said president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, Sam Hammond. “She could have taken our olive branch and waited for a new leader to try and find solutions, but she chose not to.”
Under the terms of the new two-year contract imposed last week, striking teachers will see their wages frozen and their sick days axed. Teachers were advised by union officials not to participate in extracurriculars, such as sports teams and clubs, for the duration of the government-sanctioned contract. That's 2014.
While The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation decides what next steps to take, children across Ontario will undoubtedly suffer.
January should be the declared month of the dieter. Gym memberships are at an all-time high, and everyone is beleaguered with good intentions to shed some extra flab. But according to an article in Science Daily, many of us go about it all wrong then wonder why we can't seem to lose weight.
Even though weight loss is at the top of most of our resolution lists, only around 20 per cent of us actually manage to take it off and keep it off.
"Dieting is a skill, much like riding a bicycle, and requires practice and good instruction," says says Dr. Jessica Bartfield,a nutrition and weight management specialist at the Loyola Center for Metabolic Surgery & Bariatric Care. "You're going to fall over and feel frustrated, but eventually you will succeed and it will get easier."
According to Dr. Bartfield, these are the top four reasons diets fail:
1. Underestimating Calories Consumed
It's easy to underestimate the number of calories we consume in a day. Logging everything you eat, including those scraps off your child's plate, can give a more accurate picture of where you're going astray. Dr. Bartfield also recommends paying attention to portion size, which tends to be super-sized in restaurants.
2. Overestimating Activity and Calories Burned
By the same rationale, we overestimate just how many calories we burn at the gym. It may feel like you've run a full marathon, when in reality you need to nix a whopping 500 calories every day just to lose 1 lb in a week. Dr. Bartfield suggests buying a pedometer and staggering exercise to at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise every day.
3. Poor Timing of Meals
"You need a steady stream of glucose throughout the day to maintain optimal energy and to prevent metabolism from slowing down. Eat breakfast every day within one hour of waking up, then eat a healthy snack or meal every three to four hours. Try not to go longer than five hours without eating a healthy snack or meal to keep your metabolism steady."
4. Inadequate Sleep
You may remember our post a while back about that little gremlin hormone known as ghrelin? Well, if you get fewer than six hours of sleep, your ghrelin levels are likely to be higher. Higher levels of ghrelin and cortisol lead to increased appetite, which means you're more likely to crave high-carbohydrate/high-calorie foods.
Any surprises here? Any tips that worked wonders for you?
Regulating screen time is hard enough these days. Some apps, though, make it even harder. One app you need to be vigilant about is Snapchat. According to an article in Huffington Post, the app is worth worrying about.
In a nutshell, Snapchat allows users to take a photo and send it to a friend before it "self-destructs in under 10 seconds," says Ann Brenoff. In other words, just the kind of app you don't want your tween or teen using.
Farhad Manjoo, from Slate, also condemned the app which, by "...combining cameras; young people; and secret, self-destructing messages" can only mean one thing: bad news.
Brenoff deems Snap the "ideal tool for sexting: You get to show off your privates and there's no evidence left for extortion later." Indeed, makes you assume the photos sent must be some shade of inappropriate if they have to be instantly deleted.
Harmless? I doubt it. Unlike the images of Snapchat, this message won't self-destruct. Parents, you've been warned.
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