Posted by: PPTAweb
on 31, Oct, 2011
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student achievement ,
secondary schools ,
schools ,
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PPTA ,
parliament ,
education politics
I described PPTA as being 'apolitical' recently and then immediately thought "oops don't think I used the right word", Kevin Bunker (PPTA General Secretary) always carefully describes PPTA "as not supporting any particular political party". So to Wikipedia I turned
"The state or quality of being apolitical can be the apathy and/or the antipathy towards all political affiliations. Being apolitical can also refer to situations in which people take an unbiased position in regard to political matters."
Wiktionary took it further
Posted by: PPTAweb
on 25, Oct, 2011
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conditions ,
collective agreement
Decisions are made by those who make themselves heard ... and those who vote
Not only is it election time where, next month, we get to have our say on what the future of New Zealand will look like and under whose leadership; but over the next fortnight secondary teachers will have the opportunity to vote on the leadership of PPTA. There are two nominations for president and three nominations for junior vice president (JVP).
There is a saying around elections along the lines of "we get what we deserve" - i.e if you don't vote you'll just have to put up with the result!
The leadership of PPTA, an incredibly important voice for teachers and public education, is too important to leave to chance.
Posted by: PPTAweb
on 16, Oct, 2011
Tagged in:
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teaching ,
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power ,
OECD ,
learning ,
equity ,
elections ,
education politics
PPTA president Robin Duff responds to the challenge of PPTA being 'dreamers' if we really think politicians of all stripes can work together for a better future for New Zealand students and our education system.
"Dream on"
Firstly, 'dream on' is quite a perceptive comment in that I believe that much of my work has, is and perhaps always will be based on 'dreams' for education as much as it was/is for other areas of my life.
The dream actually motivates and drives us all.
Posted by: PPTAweb
on 10, Oct, 2011
Tagged in:
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secondary schools ,
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Performance pay ,
MOE ,
Ministry of Education ,
learning ,
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education politics ,
education ,
Class size ,
annual conference
Sitting on the train wondering where to begin with this week's blog. Class size seems a good place to start as Kate Gainsford, PPTA vice president, was on breakfast TV yesterday morning discussing class size - and in the twitterverse a couple of commentators suggested performance pay for teachers would be better value for money in improving student achievement.
Posted by: PPTAweb
on 03, Oct, 2011
Tagged in:
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annual conference
Having just read Teacher in a strange land: Regular Teachers, Regular Schools it got me thinking about conferences/forums and how often (when I do go to these events) I get to meet 'regular teachers'. It certainly can be an issue, who speaks for teachers - who the experts are and who nominated those experts to speak for and/or about teachers/teaching? An issue that extends beyond the boundaries of conferences and forums to areas such as submissions processes and the workings of advisory groups.
Although, you could add 'who is a regular teacher and what is a regular school' given the number of extraordinary teachers working in extraordinary schools :-)
PPTA National office this week has annual conference on the collective mind. Conference is where the elected representatives of NZ secondary teachers get to discuss and work towards a better secondary school education system. PPTA Annual Conference is 18-20 October - the programme is online and conference papers include:
