Assessment too often fails to prioritise learning
Deborah: Exactly! I’ve had a double whammy this term with Kindergarten and Year One assessments. Then there is the data entry! It has put my teaching and the children’s learning so far behind. Relationship building and routines suffer as well.
Carole: This is what is wrong with teaching now, there’s so much assessment and writing of ILPs, reporting, research planning, meetings, discussions with specialists, TQI points, etc. How much can one person be expected to do and handle the enormous amount of stress put on them to do it? Is it any wonder teachers are leaving in droves? Interestingly enough we have just celebrated Anti-Bullying Day, I have a suggestion to make – start the process in the place where it’s not just kids being bullied!
French children to start school at three
Joy: We don’t want children at school at three surely unless school changes drastically. I would not support the formal type of education we see in some schools until seven actually. Yes, to EC education done beautifully, play based etc.
Kirri: School at three?! This is so wrong. Research has shown time and time again that starting children at a later age (six or seven) is much more beneficial to their learning outcomes and overall wellbeing. By all means send kids to preschool, but make their learning play based and not formalised and structured.
Japan taking steps to curb teacher workload
Natasha: ‘Death by overwork’. A very accurate description of what teaching has become globally. No job is worth this. Time for some rule changes here too.
Charles: As a teacher who works in Japan, but luckily not in a ‘state’ or Japanese style school. This is a very true depiction. Japanese teachers (or those employed under a Japanese style contract) are required to work almost year round, hours that go into the evening and seven days. Japan has been trying to curb these kind of work expectations in many vocations, sadly this battle is far from over.
Teachers despair the ‘demise’ of play based learning in NAPLAN era
Shazza: Testing tools such as NAPLAN are only beneficial to assist promoting school league tables, in turn assisting schools on a financial level, not beneficial to children, unfortunately it’s all about money, free play and interest based learning which equals life long learning, this has been justified in research and displayed by the children in early childhood and the students in VET as they learn an area of speciality that they are interested in and excel in far beyond those who have parrot learned for the sake of passing a test.
Margaret: Free play for young children is so important for them to develop socially and use their imagination. And for them to be happy.
School support staff ‘feeling the brunt’ of funding cuts in UK
Debbie: Same to follow here I suspect!
Jessica: So sad what is happening to our support staff over the last few years…not fair!
Seven reasons people no longer want to be teachers
Stephanie: I’d like to add to the list the terrible situation of working in a community where there is a lack of passion from both colleagues and students. Nothing kills the spirit more than turning up daily with a positive attitude to be drowning in negativity by the end of the day...every day.
Samantha: I understand the reasoning but isn’t this article just adding to the negativity that is reported on in the article itself? Let’s be more proactive and promote articles that celebrate teaching and teachers.
Lee: So sad!! Such a wonderful profession. Forty four years on and I still love every day I am in the classroom with my students.
Aidan: Yep, this is what happens when bureaucrats, politicians and professional managers who have never been in a classroom take over the teaching profession. Inadequate funding by governments with wrong priorities also a constant issue. Australian leaders can be very unambitious when it comes to education.
Katherine: Standardised testing has been around since 1985 with the basic skills. It’s not new but the interest and obsession of national assessment over in-class teaching learning and assessment cycles is.
Nathan: The article doesn’t mention paying 100 bucks a year to maintain ‘accreditation’ either.
