Posts Tagged ‘School’

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Pay Attention to our Principals

November 10, 2010

Just a week after the damning State of our Schools survey that shone light on some of the challenges faced by teachers and schools, a new survey has surfaced. Actually, the survey which shows that principals thought students were being dumbed down by poor resources, red tape and stressed principals, is not new at all.  It was completed in 2008 and summarily ignored by the Victorian State Government.

The report was so bad the Government swept it under the carpet for two years until it was leaked to the Herald Sun this week.

In the 220-page report, principals complained of:

RED tape being a huge hurdle in teaching kids.

SCHOOLS crippled by a lack of resources.

UNDERSTAFFING being a major issue in more than half of schools and extreme stress affecting 42 per cent of principals.

A CHRONIC breakdown in Education Department decision-making and support for teachers.

PRINCIPALS being worn out by the pace of change forced by bureaucrats.

It is time politicians stopped talking about how passionate they are about education and started taking decisive action.

Don’t talk!  Pay attention and fix the problem!

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Posted in Government Funding | Leave a Comment »

Proper Reward for our Teachers

November 8, 2010

AUSTRALIA needs a more professional approach to evaluating and rewarding teachers than the promise of bonuses for just 10 per cent of staff in any year, according to a leading United States researcher on teacher performance.

Drew Gitomer, a director of Educational Testing Service in New Jersey, says policymakers should trust teachers to develop professional standards, rather than imposing standards and bonus schemes on them.

I’m not a big fan of bonus payments to teachers.  I prefer an across the board payment rise.  I think that the bonus system is flawed for the following reasons:

  1. It creates unnecessary competition amongst teachers.  Teachers are supposed to work together and collaborate, not compete against each other.
  2. What fair method can one possibly use to measure how good teachers are?
  3. Where did they come up with 10%?  What kind of message is that sending to the rest of the teaching fraternity?  Are they not worthy of extra pay for their time and dedication?

Teachers do a difficult job.  Many get burnt out.  Some leave because the pay is insufficient to meet cost of living expenses.  It’s time to stop using teachers as a scapegoat when dealing with the academic results of our children, and support them with a framework that helps them excel.

 

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Posted in Teachers Salary | 1 Comment »

Downplaying Childhood Obesity

November 7, 2010

Dr Jennifer O’Dea from the University of Sydney claims that Australia’s childhood obesity problem is an “exaggeration”. An exaggeration?

Dr O’Dea also said the scale of this problem for Australian children has become increasingly overblown.  “People have to stop exaggerating the numbers about childhood obesity – that’s not to say that it is not an issue but you know, hysteria, fear campaigns and exaggeration are not very scientific … In children and teenagers, obesity has been stable really since the late 1990s … and around Australia, it is still about six per cent.”

Whilst I don’t subscribe to hysteria or fear campaigns it is my experience that obesity is still an area of deep concern.  Whilst the numbers may have stabilised in recent years it has not sufficiently decreased.  This isn’t about “blaming and shaming and finger pointing and focusing on how the parents have failed,” as Dr. O’Dea asserts, it’s about taking enough of an interest to help tackle the problem rather than sit on our hands.

I agree with Dr O’Dea that a junk food tax is not the answer, but I find that downplaying the problem beacause it isn’t getting worse is simply not responsible.

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Posted in Childhood Obesity | Leave a Comment »

Single Sex vs Co-Ed

November 6, 2010

According to a Courier Mail report, there is an increasing preference towards single sex classrooms. Education experts say the trend of single-sex classrooms for young students is gaining momentum and works, but the State Government has left the matter up to principals as the debate heats up in primary schools. Personally, whilst I realise that the data shows that single sex classrooms are more inclined to deliver favourable academic outcomes, I think that the classroom is supposed to be a microcosm for the outside world. A co-ed class gives students much-needed experience in  repect and appreciation for different cultures, genders and nationalities. Besides, I prefer teaching co-ed classes because I like a diverse and multi-faceted classroom.

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Posted in Teaching boys | 3 Comments »

National Curriculum Proves Rocket Science

November 4, 2010

It seems that Science is the most challenging subject for curriculum officials to agree on as they endeavour to complete the national curriculum.  We teachers have been waiting for a while to find out what the completed national curriculum looks like, but at the moment all we have available to us is a rough draft.

The chairman of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, Barry McGaw, said the curriculums for maths, English and history were ”essentially done and dusted” but more work lay ahead to achieve agreement on the science curriculum.

”Comparisons show Australia is in the top five countries in science by the time students are 15. But we’re in the bottom 10 to 20 out of nearly 60 nations in how much our kids like science, how important they think science is for their futures, and how important they think science is for the national future,” he said.

”So we’ve got students who are good at a subject but are not engaged with it and thus not likely to continue to engage with it.”

It sounds like ‘spin’ to me.  I’ve heard that the draft science curriculum was panned for being too difficult for teachers to effectively implement.  The national curriculum has been marred with bad publicity, and teachers are starting to get a bit edgy.

I just hope the final product is worth the wait.

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Swim for Good Grades

November 3, 2010

Researchers from Griffith University in Australia are in the midst of a study to find out if swimming helps children to become smarter. They say children who learn to swim appear to be smarter than children who don’t.

The study looked at over ten thousand children in Australia from five years of age and older.

Professor Robyn Jorgensen, of Griffith University said “Anecdotal evidence found swimmers tended to be more confident than same-age, non-swimming peers.”

Imagine the reaction from parents if my response to the question, “Should I get a tutor for my child,” was, “No, not a tutor – but a swimming coach would be great”?

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