On amending Teacher Accreditation Act to restore the voice of teachers
Simon: Considering that we seem to be the only major profession with no say on how it is governed, and the way the current government has decimated the TAFE and VET sectors (and let’s not even mention early childhood), surely members need to consider this when voting.
On Egg Boy, Fraser Anning and why teachers are held to a higher standard of professionalism than elected politicians
Belinda: No one would claim that it was acceptable to blame adrenaline for that response if it was a teacher, so why a politician?
Valerie: Interesting that some media commentators have been suggesting that the boy lacked a level of respect for politicians: have those same commentators never been present at Question Time in Canberra on any given day! I am offended that teachers and politicians are being compared!
Matt: Disgraceful display from an elected official, should resign, probably would if he had any morals.
On the Accreditation and Rating process (early childhood)
Tanya: There is a lot left to be desired with the current A&R and interpretation of some assessors. I had some very disturbing contradictions occur in our visit but had put it down to assessors being understaffed and over worked.
On the status of the teaching profession
Denise: I think a very important message is that to improve the status of teachers we need to trust them to do their job and stop the never ending micro-management of teachers and schools that comes from all levels of education bureaucracy, whether that be government, both federal and state, education systems, CEOs, DoE etc, and principals. The micro-management has done nothing but create workload and been nothing but a distraction to teaching. We need to trust teachers and let teachers teach!
Carole: How about more support in ‘inclusive’ classrooms? Any teacher who has at least one, (sometimes several high needs children in their classes), could do with a whole lot more support than they’re actually getting. The Education Department directs schools to make promises that high needs children will be supported – but those promises fall far sort of the mark in most schools. Parents need to be proactive in making sure that their child is receiving the support that they deserve, to succeed in a regular classroom. Many of them are being short changed by a system that underestimates the amount of support that children actually need. If teachers had more support they’d probably be happier than if they received a minimal pay rise. Money won’t solve the stress issues that are running rampant in the system now!
On classroom data collection
Denise: We need to move away from the ridiculous fixation on data. This is a major distraction from teaching to achieve nothing. The data collecting for collection’s sake often states the bleeding obvious, ie that a student has a learning difficulty in some area. It is as if the teacher who works closely with students on a daily basis is oblivious to this. How many times do we have to collect data on a kid to tell us he/she has a learning difficulty?
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