TORONTO -- Ontario's public elementary school teachers returned to the bargaining table today -- but walked away again soon after.

The teachers, who have been without a contract since the start of the school year, started a work-to-rule campaign today.

Schools will remain open and extracurricular activities and field trips will continue for now, but teachers won't administer standardized tests, add comments to report cards or participate in any professional development related to Ministry of Education initiatives.

Premier Kathleen Wynne said today that talks had resumed with the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, but the union said while that was true, they have already collapsed again.

President Sam Hammond says they returned to the bargaining table at the mediator's request, expecting the government would be removing certain concessions from the table, but that wasn't the case and the meeting ended at 11 a.m.

The elementary teachers' job action comes as more than 70,000 high school students are being kept from class by strikes at boards in Durham Region, Peel Region and Rainbow District, encompassing Sudbury.