{"id":211946,"date":"2025-10-14T08:59:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T08:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/211946\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T08:59:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T08:59:14","slug":"alberta-students-keeping-busy-hope-for-end-to-teachers-strike-as-talks-to-resume-tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/211946\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta students keeping busy, hope for end to teachers strike as talks to resume Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many Alberta students are sleeping in these days, struggling with the feeling they should be doing something else instead.<\/p>\n

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A provincewide teachers strike, about to enter its second week, has meant some 740,000 children haven\u2019t had to set their morning alarms, catch buses or pack lunches.<\/p>\n

Declan Reid, 15, has been taking it day by day, seeing friends and attending an impromptu football camp organized by local coaches not affiliated with his Edmonton high school.<\/p>\n

The freshman linebacker said having his team\u2019s games put on hold because of the strike isn\u2019t ideal, but he feels more sorry for older players who are over halfway through their final season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese last few weeks could be really beneficial to them,\u201d he said. \u201cGetting their tape out for colleges to look at, seeing if they get looked at.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor me, I just always wanted to play football. It\u2019s kind of sad now.\u201d<\/p>\n

A second week out of school might look different, he said, as he plans to get back to his Grade 10 studies for at least a little while every day if the strike continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously you want to have some time off of school, but it\u2019s also kind of just like there\u2019s a void in your day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI support what (teachers) are doing, but I just hope it doesn\u2019t go on for too long.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:37
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlberta parents eager for bargaining negotiations to resume Tuesday\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not the only one.<\/p>\n

Adilee Verburg, a Grade 8 student in Red Deer, about 150 kilometres south of Edmonton, has mostly been hanging with friends and reading, but it might get old if the strike days keep piling up.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s not really much to do right now,\u201d said Adilee, whose mom is a teacher. \u201cI kind of hope it\u2019s over.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI kind of feel like if the government listened to the teachers, this whole thing wouldn\u2019t be happening right now and we would be back in school as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n

The job action by 51,000 teachers is considered the largest walkout in provincial history.<\/p>\n

The first formal bargaining meeting since the strike began Oct. 6 is set to take place Tuesday between the Alberta Teachers\u2019 Association and the government\u2019s bargaining team.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:37
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStriking Alberta teachers, province to resume bargaining talks after Thanksgiving\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Finance Minister Nate Horner said last week the province had received a \u201ccomplex\u201d counter-offer from the union and it would be the subject of Tuesday\u2019s talks.<\/p>\n

A previous government offer on the table, overwhelmingly voted down last month by teachers, featured a 12 per cent pay raise over four years and a promise to hire an additional 3,000 teachers to address overcrowded classrooms.<\/p>\n

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Premier Danielle Smith\u2019s government has repeatedly said the offer was fair and would address issues teachers have raised.<\/p>\n

Union president Jason Schilling has said 3,000 more teachers are a drop in the bucket compared to what\u2019s needed, and that the number should be closer to 5,000.<\/p>\n

Union spokesperson Heather Grant declined to provide details of the union\u2019s latest proposal. She said last week exchanging offers is an aspect of bargaining and the two sides are meeting to move forward.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlberta special needs families say they feel\u00a0forgotten during teachers\u2019 strike\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\u2018We\u2019ll be moving\u2019: Alberta transgender children, families brace for legal changes\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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For 10-year-old Sloane Laurence, a Grade 5 French immersion student in Red Deer, the strike happened just as she was starting to enjoy school for the first time, so she hasn\u2019t stopped studying.<\/p>\n

She completed a map of Canada that she started in class just before the strike began and is gearing up to learn multiplication next week.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s one of the things that my teacher told us to do,\u201d Sloane said, adding with a chuckle that multiplication might be daunting, as she\u2019s only \u201ckind of\u201d good at math.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s missing her friends and her teacher, whom she credits with making school something she doesn\u2019t dread.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy teacher, he\u2019s actually really nice and really funny,\u201d she said. \u201cEvery year before Grade 5, I\u2019ve never wanted to go to school. But Grade 5 has actually been fun to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Red Deer student Lillie Fulton, 13, admitted she isn\u2019t the biggest fan of school and is enjoying the time off, but she doesn\u2019t want to be gone much longer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of want to go back to school because it gets me up in the morning,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her five-year-old sister, Vylett, just started kindergarten and is worried about her teacher. She asks her mother every night what\u2019s going to happen.<\/p>\n

Melissa Qerimi, a Grade 10 student at the Alberta School for the Deaf in Edmonton, wrote in an email that the first week of the strike was \u201creally stressful\u201d as she tried to catch up on assignments.<\/p>\n

A possible second week out of school looks like more of the same, she said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ll probably even start learning the next units or chapters in each of my subjects,\u201d Melissa said, adding she\u2019s feeling the stress of school work without teacher support.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, I completely support the teachers \u2014 they have the right to strike,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are some of the most hard-working people I\u2019ve ever seen, and they deserve what they\u2019re asking for from the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBusinesses that rely on students are already feeling the pinch\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many Alberta students are sleeping in these days, struggling with the feeling they should be doing something else…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7611,74535,60893,64916,49,48,549,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-211946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-alberta-legislature","9":"tag-alberta-teachers","10":"tag-alberta-teachers-association","11":"tag-alberta-teachers-strike","12":"tag-ca","13":"tag-canada","14":"tag-education","15":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}