Editorial Board

One of the ways the College supports teachers’ expertise in coaching and guiding their students is through our quarterly award-winning magazine Professionally Speaking.

Professionally Speaking is one of many sources our members rely on for information that will help them continue to grow as lifelong learners whether they work in the classroom, in administration or in some other sector of education.

It offers in-depth articles on educational approaches, research issues and resources. It delivers stimulating stories from teachers across the province, news about changes to education policy and answers to frequently asked questions about the profession. It also features profiles of remarkable teachers who have made a real impact on the lives of Canadian celebrities such as CBC television host George Stroumboulopoulos, stand-up comic and actor Russell Peters, singer and songwriter Michel Bénac and creator and star of CTV’s Corner Gas Brent Butt.

The Editorial Board is responsible for setting editorial and advertising policy for the magazine, which has one of the largest readerships of education magazines in North America. The French version, Pour parler profession, is the only French-language education magazine that all teachers working in Ontario French-language schools receive.

The board reviews and selects submissions for each issue, looking for a balance of articles that will interest the College’s very diverse membership. Each issue of the magazine includes reviews of new resources, guides to web sites helpful to teachers and students, and conference listings to provide quick information to help busy educators find professional learning resources quickly.

Each issue highlights the achievements of teachers whose exemplary practice has earned them provincial or national acclaim, and provides these award winners with an opportunity to share their teaching philosophies and tips with their colleagues.

The College’s commitment to transparency and accountability is reflected in the pages of the Governing Ourselves section of the magazine, where members and the public can read reports about Council and committee activities, from reports on the accreditation of teacher education programs to summaries of the disciplinary hearings that are also a mandatory part of professional self-regulation.

The Mandate section of the magazine highlights the objectives of the College.

Feedback from College members about what features of the College magazine they find most useful in their work, or the most enjoyable, help the Editorial Board continually improve our official publication. The judgment of experts in the magazine publishing industry is another important source of feedback.

The College magazine received an unprecedented number of accolades in 2009. It was a big winner at the Kenneth R. Wilson (KRW) Awards presentation in June taking one gold and two silvers:

• gold for Best Art Direction of an Opening Spread or Complete Feature for Le français dépoussiéré, the feature on changes to French spelling that appeared in the March 2008 issue of Pour parler profession.
• silver for Best Illustration for Marie-Eve Tremblay’s work in the same article
• silver for Best Profile of a Person for the article on Plantagenet tech-ed teacher Marc Lalonde, OCT, written by Jean-François Dugas, which appeared in the December 2008 issue of Pour parler profession.

Professionally Speaking also emerged a winner for the third year in a row at the annual international TABBIE awards announced in mid-July.

Raising Cognitive Capacity by Leanne Miller (September 2008) took gold in the profile article category, while Le français Tidied Up (March 2008) won bronze for its opening spread by the design team at Radonic Rodgers and illustration by Marie-Eve Tremblay.

Top-five entries were featured on the big screen at the awards presentation, attended by magazine-industry professionals and advertisers from across Canada. Among the honourees, Leata Lekushoff’s Remarkable Teacher profile of Elizabeth Hay (September 2008) placed third, while illustrations by Huan Tran and design by Radonic Rodgers for the member survey story in the same issue took fourth, and Le français Tidied Up, by Lyse Ward (March 2008) placed fifth.

Also in 2009, at The Eco-Generation: Greening Your Business - an annual MagNet professional-development seminar for the magazine-industry - the College magazine was cited as an example of how to achieve high-quality printing on FSC or recycled paper.

Then, at the annual awards of the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors (CSME), Professionally Speaking received an honorary mention in the Best Trade Magazine category.

In 2009, the Editorial Board introduced a number of initiatives to provide more information about the work of Council committees and to raise awareness of the range of committee activities and responsibilities.

An important part of this initiative was the development of a survey of 1,001 College members, which replaced the previous State of the Teaching Profession survey in the fall issue. The Editorial Board developed the new member survey (PDF) based on research requests from Council committees to provide information that helps guide committee initiatives.

This telephone survey, conducted last summer by COMPAS Research, revealed that:

• Ontario's teachers were familiar with the Ethical Standards for the Teaching Profession, which broadly encompass the notions of care, trust, respect and integrity and they say that these ethics closely reflect their personal values.
• the standards guide the work of education administrators, inspire members to reflect and uphold the honour and dignity of the teaching profession, and promote public trust and confidence in teaching
• more than half of teachers polled will probably or definitely serve as associate teachers and keeping current is reason number one that they take Additional Qualification courses.

Professionally Speaking is an efficient means of reaching our members and has become even more cost-effective. In 2009, the per-member annual cost for four issues – including postage – was about $2.16.