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Michelle Glavine and Tim Jeffares are the latest additions to the team of executive staff officers at the Alberta Teachers’ Association. They were appointed to their positions by Provincial Executive Council in the latter part of the 2018/19 school year.
Glavine fills a vacancy left by Chris Gibbon, who is now with the Member Services program area. Glavine and Jeffares are filling the vacancies in Member Services created by Marvin Hackman and Ihor Kruk, who are retiring at the end of September.
Michelle Glavine
Teacher Welfare
Michelle Glavine brings to the Association a passion for the profession, an abundance of leadership and bargaining experience, all in addition to extensive knowledge of the Association and its operations. She served in various capacities at the local and provincial levels with the Association throughout the 21 years she taught with Rocky View Schools.
Starting out as a school representative, Glavine expanded her involvement to a wide variety of Association committees and specialist councils. Glavine has been president of Rocky View Local No. 35 and also a member of its negotiating subcommittee, its benefits, grievance and workload efficiency committees, and chair of its economic policy committee (now the Teacher Welfare Committee).
At the provincial level, Glavine was an Association economic policy consultant for nine years and the district representative for Calgary District on Provincial Executive Council for seven and a half years, during which time she served on the Association’s finance committee.
Michelle has an MEd in educational leadership, a BA in sociology from the University of Calgary and a BEd from the University of Saskatchewan. She started with the Association on Aug. 1. ❚
5 more things about Michelle
Who or what inspired you to be a teacher?
My grandmother, who was a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in rural Saskatchewan.
Additionally, the many wonderful teachers that I had through the years.
The best things about being a teacher.
The relationships that you build with your students and colleagues. Watching your students grow and successfully transition into their futures. Students that come back to visit you.
Favourite sport
To play—ladies fastball
To watch—baseball
Favourite book
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Favourite thing about summer and winter
Summer—flip flops
Winter—that it ends
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Tim Jeffares
Member Services
Tim Jeffares brings a unique range of teaching and leadership experience to the Association as a result of work he has done in different areas of the education system. He has been employed by Alberta Education, Edmonton Public Schools, Elk Island Public Schools and the Alberta Education-accredited International School of Macau.
Jeffares held teacher, school leadership and governance roles during the years he spent in schools. His involvement with the Association includes service as school representative and member of the diversity, equity and human rights committee. He has also served on numerous committees affiliated with his employers. Very beneficial to his role in Member Services will be his experience with Alberta Education, where he held leadership roles of senior manager in the Practice Assurance Branch and, most recently, director of the Investigations and Governance Branch.
Jeffares has an MEd from the University of Alberta, a BEd from the University of Calgary, a BA from Concordia University College and a Bachelor of Theology from the Canadian Mennonite Bible College at the University of Manitoba. Jeffares assumed his duties with the Association on March 1. ❚
5 more things about Tim
Who or what inspired you to be a teacher?
Our family is permeated with teachers … from my grandfather to uncles, aunts, cousins and even both my parents! Teaching runs in the family. I was also privileged to have incredible teachers who demonstrated a passion for students and the profession. These teachers also inspired me to become an educator.
What is the greatest life lesson teaching has taught you?
There is potential in everyone. While we all begin at a similar starting point, the endpoint is variable. Empowering students to see their own potential is the greatest aspect of teaching.
Describe your first student-teaching experience in three words:
So much fun!
Favourite meal
Anything Thai. Preferably with seafood.
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About Member Services
Staff in the Association’s Member Services (MS) program area provide advice and, where authorized, legal assistance to members facing such contractual problems as transfers, terminations and suspensions. Members with concerns about evaluation processes leading to unsatisfactory decisions about their teaching practice or assignments may also obtain advice from this program area. Investigation and prosecution of members charged with unprofessional conduct, as specified by the Discipline Bylaws, are also the responsibilities of staff in this area.
MS also provides organizational assistance to local associations, training for local executive members and school representatives, presentations and workshops for school staffs and other groups of teachers, advice and assistance to school-based administrators, and support for substitute teachers.
About Teacher Welfare
Staff in the Teacher Welfare program area help teachers attain economic and working conditions that make possible the best level of professional service. They provide members with advice on such topics as collective bargaining, interpretation and application of collective agreements, grievance procedures, group benefit plans, pensions, employment insurance, maternity and adoption leave rights, and the applicability of legislation on labour and employee security. In addition, they also maintain an ongoing record of education statistics that they make available to local economic policy committees.
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