Beyond the call of school duty: Parents told to stop telephoning teachers
Carole: Teachers will start turning off their mobiles when they’re not at school, which is not fair to them. Teachers should not be regarded as an after hours counselling service. There are limits to how much pressure they should be expected to accept. Meetings should be scheduled immediately before/after school and probably best in some instances to insist on executive support. Emails should be ‘no reply’ type and be funnelled to a central email address so teachers are not exposed to abusive responses. Parental meetings should be included in hours towards PD requirements and strictly limited for specific parents/issues. Teachers should review their privacy settings on FB and perhaps use a disguised name so they can’t be abused publicly on FB or any other media. The day you need to attend a workplace violence seminar to find out how to deal with the pressures of your job is the day you start to think twice about being in the profession.
Jeremy: Viewed by some (minority) as a 24/7 help desk.
Emma: I love the idea of only scheduling meetings directly after school. When I was year adviser, I had parents request to meet at 6pm and 7pm.
Debbie: It’s the ‘I want it now’ attitude. When you have clocked off for the day, you are no longer on duty. Send numbers to the auto reject. Use school phones only to make calls and don’t open emails. Also, don’t use your mobile to make calls to parents. School phone only. I’m sure school wouldn’t pay for the phone if it breaks.
Natasha: If a workplace requires you to use a phone for work purposes, they provide you with a phone. Or an allowance. Teachers must stop using their phones for work purposes.
The Liberal candidate for Wentworth was under fire for saying teachers don’t work hard enough
Belinda: Mmm well he’d know a lot about being a teacher! Come and spend a day with me and all my extremely hard working colleagues! So sad to think a possible candidate for our government makes such an ignorant and inflammatory comment. Is this the calibre of person we want running our country and possibly in charge of the education of our our children? Please think very carefully and do your homework people of Wentworth before you vote.
French schools ban mobile phones
Stephanie: Yes! And laptops! I reckon laptops decrease productivity significantly. Unfortunately, schools have invested so much money in facilitating BYOD programs, they are not going to get rid of them for a long time, even though BYOD is a disaster!
Sherryl: We are a school where every student has a school issued laptop as well as staff, so banning phones is useless.
Tom: Perhaps we should reinstate chalkboards while we’re at it?
Paulo: Before I was a teacher I worked in industry as a business manager and also as an accountant. Many jobs need phones and laptops, many roles operate remotely and require technological self discipline. Whilst it may be hard (for some) to operate in a classroom with these things it’s important to remember that by banning the items we are allowing our students to be disadvantaged especially when most assessments require electonic devices. Imagine how difficult it would be to tell teachers they no longer can use these things at all for planning and assessment?
How your birth date influences how well you do in school and later in life
Stephanie: I’m a March baby and so was young for my year group. I definitely think being young affected my performance at school. Looking at my friends who were almost a year older than me, born in May, I definitely think their extra maturity gave them an advantage. Maybe not so much in primary school or early high school, but from about Year 10.
Michelle: Don’t agree. I think it is a very individual thing. There is no definitive answer, it is completely dependent on each child. I do believe however that it would be beneficial to have an age cut off and then stick to it. If the child makes the age cut off then they attend school except with a specific medical/learning reason. This would reduce the gap to 12 months rather than the 18 months that exists these days as parents wait to send their January babies so we have kids that turn six in January and some who don’t turn five till July.
Could your divorce get you fired?
Michael: Yes, technically divorce could get you fired depending on the school’s statement of faith. It’s interesting, are we going to go through nominating each potential sin someone makes that could cost people their employment? Further, what sins did Christ die for are now acceptable for us to commit, is that covered in the podcast?
Debbie: t’s time to stop discrimination. Federal funding – federal laws.
Gay law teacher changes will have to wait: PM
Wendy: His true colours are shining through.
Dale: Waited long enough.
Simon: For anyone interested, please refer to Section 2358 of the Catholic Catechism: The number of men and women who have deep seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. They do not choose their sexuality. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter...