There’s not much point asking me a question (even with smiley face) if you do not expect an answer.

Yes, CS4 Master Suite is about 30GB!

Still, my children have had to suffer a few pretty bad teachers in their 13 years each at school, and we all know there are bad teachers out there – getting the same rewards as the hardest working teachers. Is that fair?

Your argument clearly shows there is a problem with identifying “better” teachers through evidence obtained from student assessment reviews, but maybe that shouldn’t be the key indicator in the first place?

You have thrown in a simple question that has no simple answer (sigh) – especially is teacher “performance” (all the world’s a stage) is to be linked to student achievement (as in national ‘Napalm’ testing). Two aspects that must be appreciated are that teaching is a co-operative profession and also that what is learnt accumulates. Consider the following:

If a student demonstrates a big leap in his/her achievement between NAPLAN tests, say between year three and year five, there are not only three classroom teachers involved in that improvement (his/her year 3, year 4 and year five teacher), but in many cases a selection of specialist teachers who have supported his/her learning. For example, there is the LBOTE teacher, who has worked with the student if he/she has a LBOTE background. There is the community language teacher, who has contributed to the student’s literacy by reinforcing his first or other language. There is the reading support teacher (known as the STLA in NSW) who concentrates on gains in literacy. There is the teacher-librarian, who has given the student a love of reading and matched him/her to booksshe/he has been unable to put down. There is often a technology teacher, who has opened a new world of learning to the student. There is the school counsellor (also a qualified teacher), who has guided the student through emotional difficulties he/she encountered when his/her parents divorced. (sigh)

Then, of course, there are the student’s kindergarten, year one and year two teachers, who did a lot of really hard work providing the foundation of the student’s basic skills.

So, which teacher gets the performance pay for improvement shown between year 3 NAPLAN and year 5 NAPLAN? By my estimation, in most cases, there would be over ten teachers eligible to claim it. One teacher may deserve it (who knows which one?). Several teachers may deserve it (who knows which ones?) and none may be responsible for the gain. The student, now living with his grandparents (after his parents’ divorce) may have found a devoted mentor in his/her grandfather or grandmother. Maybe his mother is more relaxed and able to focus on his/her child’s welfare?

Then again, who is going to take the responsibility or kudos for the achievements of the legion of children who regularly move from school to school? What if a teacher in a particular school always has a significant number of new-to-the-school students. Movement from school to school is the norm in certain areas.

What say you about that – and that’s just the tip of the performance pay iceberg.

See reply above.

Irene

I think schools exclude or ignore the T-L at their peril.

My experience may be unique – or may say something about the difference between primary and high school staffs. However, I rarely see young teachers speaking their minds in meetings, where they should be heard. It seems to me that this is because, as young teachers, my generation was much less accountable than yours is today, and we were given much more professional freedom. In that context, we were more relaxed, confident and willing to express our honest opinions than today’s young teachers. In case you misunderstand me, I have the greatest respect and admiration for early career teachers. As a colleague recently said – there is no other profession where a beginner is expected to do the same job on day of his/her career as his/her colleagues with years (or even decades) of experience under their belts. Teaching has been very good to me, but I would not want to be starting out today.

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My answer to your question might be “recently trained teacher librarians”, who, I suspect, are a largely untapped resource with respect to ICT integration, and who are already in schools.

I’ve recently finished a Master of Education (Teacher Librarianship) through Charles Sturt Uni and one of the emphases of my studies was to view the KLAs as an opportunity to expose students to pre-evaluated, high quality online resources in relation to the teaching of specific KLA outcomes and, to create resource-based learning opportunities for students to use ICT as a means of communicating with each other about the problems they’d solved and the new perspectives they’d gained.

I am bursting with energy to share what I’ve learned with staff and students- but if it weren’t for one key staff member – Clint White – I’d still be teaching exactly the same dated, content-based RFF that I was teaching pre-Masters degree. I must admit tht there are times I’ve asked myself ‘what’s the point of all the thinking I’ve done?’

I see rigid timetabling and inflexible staffing arrangements in primary schools as barriers to the sharing of expertise and therefore, the creation of ‘information literate school communities’ (James Henri’s term).

I’ve already started part-time teaching of ICT and information literacy at a university, because I feel pretty under-utilised by DET. This makes me sad.

Give me some reasons to stay hopeful…please!

Anyone who lives in the real world knows that merit selection is not objective, but a subjective “can of worms”. That’s real life, Stu. If you believe it is different, that is your prerogative, but it is also naive.

If you had an opportunity and it didn’t come off, and EOIs were judged on merit, then that’s fair. No opportunity=resentment.