United Future

Posted at 2007-10-27 11:14:10.473. Permalink.

Yay Judy! I whole-heartedly agree with you. Performance based pay would be a frightening prospect for the teaching profession as would national standards. You have a very informed and common sense stance on this issue. Performance pay and striving to meet national standards would take the heart out of teaching. For many teachers this is what gets them up in the morning and helps them tolerate less than ideal conditions. Remove the heart from teaching and the profession will be found sadly lacking. Let's instead encourage and recognise teachers for the effort they do put into teaching and find ways to support them in this crucial task.

Friday was World Teacher's day. There was no big advertising campaign or media coverage. Instead teachers quietly got on with the job, finding satisfaction by inspiring their students for another school day.

Posted at 2007-10-30 10:20:20.283. Permalink.

Good comment Rachel,
Yesterday I visited my old stomping ground "Whakatane Intermediate" to look at some fantastic re-modelling that is going on there.... really great BUT what really pushed my buttons was to hear from the Principal that they have cranked their teacher/pupil ratio right down to about 1/23
Now that is something that could change the face of teaching in NZ !

Posted at 2007-10-30 10:23:15.3. Permalink.

I agree Rachel

Yesterday I visited my old stomping ground "Whakatane Intermediate" to see the fantastic remodelling that is going on there. BUT what really pushed my buttons was to hear that the school has been able to crank back their teacher/pupil ratio to about 1/23.
Now there is an initiative that will raise educational standards!