What’s one thing you wish you’d known about classroom management when you first started teaching?
Stephanie: Students will test you to find out a few things - where the line is, how rigid you are, how fair you are and how easy it is you rattle you. The thing is, they're not necessarily doing it to give you a hard time. They're doing it to figure out how safe they are with you, how much they can trust you.
Leonie: Be super firm in the first term then you can ease off in the next terms. It’s much harder to bring them into line if not.
Kate: Sometimes speaking quietly to a class is more powerful than raising your voice.
Change the rules survey
Martin: Just what Trumble and his billionaire, tax avoiding, mates wanted.
Lyn: Time to raise wages . . . now!
Brian: This is just the way the LNP and their owners in the corporate sector want it. This is what they planned, create poverty and fear in their workers and drive down wages and costs even further. The corporations have admitted social problems are the government’s problem not theirs, profits for their shareholders are their problem and the government listens to them – money talks.
NESA online headache
Jamelie: NESA should not have gone ahead with a program that was not able to cope with the upgrade needed to support all teachers in NSW. It’s very frustrating to be told that they don’t know when it will be operational and working. Still can’t find where to add PD hours.
Removing the link between NAPLAN and the HSC in NSW
Rikky: At the moment they are saying that the results (70% falling below minimum standard) still stand for this year’s Year 10, who did NAPLAN last year. As a parent of one of these 70% of children, I would like assurances that this year group is not going to be the only one penalised.
Gemma: Still linked to NAPLAN for Year 10 2018, and next year’s Year 10 will all sit the tests online to meet min standard. So who will be marking these and will NESA’s online platform be able to cope with it? We tested NAPLAN online at school and it failed miserably. It actually means more testing from 2019, not less.
Michele: If you can't pass NAPLAN effectively how the hell are you going to complete the HSC effectively?
Daniela: The standard should be assessed and embedded within the curriculum package in schools in the various forms they take, eg student needs to get and maintain a C grade in all areas in Year 9/10 to meet the minimum standard for the HSC. This way support can be offered early to those who are not meeting standards.
The results of taking phones away from students has had a real and lasting impact for one Victorian school
Carole: I believe that there is no place in a classroom for any distractions from what is being learned. Until schools are a thing of the past, mobile phones should be kept away from teacher led learning experiences. They are not essential with technology resourced classrooms.
Jenny: I 100% get this. My boys don't have phones either and won't be getting one any time soon. When we go on holiday we don't take devices like tablets and DVD players. We spent 2 x 10+ hour days driving to Townsville a few years back. No devices necessary. We talked and played games instead. The kids were reading maps etc. Our driving New Zealand trip was the same. There is no reason mobile phones need to be at school especially when they are smart phones which can take photos and upload to social media.
Josie: Neither of my boys have phones but I'm very much wanting a resolution to the phone/no phone debate
NESA’s new eTAMs system
Mark: It would be nice to have actually received my welcome kit and the email with my number! I know I am accredited as a pre 2004 teacher, but that’s all I have heard, it’s an absolute joke!
Sharyn: It’s been terrible for months now. I paid my fee via the phone (online function didn’t work) in December and got my accreditation card in the mail today. A dud website.
Bee: Yes, like not being able to pay and with a deadline approaching that’s not very helpful.
Catholic primary schools in Victoria are facing one of the most significant overhauls in their 150 year history, with principals pushing to strip priests of their power over schools
Justin: This needs to happen where we are. Absolute joke.
John: This should have occurred years ago in all Australian Catholic infant and primary schools.
Michael: Governance wherever needs to have an emphasis on skills and knowledge. You are not an expert just because your kids attend a school or your parish has a school. Too much is at stake.
Christine Wilkinson, IEUA NSW/ACT Branch President and a teacher with more than 50 years’ experience, has been appointed to the expert panel reviewing teacher registration requirements
Jeff: Fantastic news! Great to have Christine with so much experience and educational knowledge in such a role. Well done Christine and thanks for the extra effort.
Karyn: Congratulations, excellent choice for this appointment.
Sue: Well done Chris! A dedicated Union member and teacher.
Mary: Congratulations Christine. Thank you for all your work on behalf of teachers and students.
Stephanie: Congratulations to such a wonderful lady. So lucky to have her on board! All the best Christine.
Are increasing amounts of paperwork making life harder for you at school?
Damien: Not only are we drowning in admin tasks that used to be handled by dedicated clerical staff, we’ve got additional admin tasks on top of it all that clerical staff never had to do back in the days they still had jobs. All done with a teaching load that’s no lighter, mind you. And to top it off, performance is judged more harshly and immediately by the degree of compliance with bureacratic admin tasks than with any task related to the classroom.
Glenn: 32 years teaching and still the same face to face time. All that additional compliance and community pressure for schools to do the parenting. Time for a load reduction.
Paul: It's the most taxing part of the job in some ways.
