Well this whole blog thing has been a bit slow. Nearly everyone was keen, some even promised to blog weekly and possibly more often. But with the exception of Observer's sharp blogs the intentions of 'nearly everyone' didn't quite make the reality. Then came the day that the boss instructed- "there WILL be a blog every week - it's a roster- if you are responsible for facilitating the advisory team meeting on Monday - you are responsible for the blog that week".  The result would suggest we either don't have meetings on Mondays ... or don't follow instructions too well?

So here I am, thinking we either take the blog off the website or someone takes responsibility. I don't have anyone to delegate to ... and suspect disabling the blog would have been a "no-can-do" from the boss, which means I have to think of some regular PPTA or education fodder that has a little bit of interest/use.

I've started following, on Twitter(!), Dave Armstrong @malosilima, a co-writer of Mr Gormsby - and that got me thinking about Mr Gormsby - Gormsby occasionally  referred to PPTA National Office so that's my fodder.

 

PPTA national office is never dull and it can be noisy and opinionated. So I'm putting on record - that I like my colleagues but we certainly don't all agree, although I respect their opinions; nor is national office staffed entirely by women; nor do we all have the same dress sense, fortunately. Also for the record I'm not an English teacher (or even a teacher) so in the interests of staff PD - this blog will provide hours of happy correction moments for some of them :-)

What we all have in common is a belief in advocating for secondary teachers and public education. PPTA Executive keeps us on the straight and narrow and keeps our work programmes full.

This week's office agenda includes a PPP taskforce meeting, and a professional advisory executive committee meeting with Teach First NZ; the Minister’s vision for the education workforce; RTC Guidelines; and Behaviour issues as items to action.

Jane is still trying to sort out the issues around the RTLB 'transformation', and we'll be asking members to vote on a variation to the STCA which will see teacher registration being recognised as equivalent to a verified teacher training qualification.
 
Nga Manu Korero national speech competition finals are on in Tauranga, and we've got some concerns about the high handed and interfering way the MoE and STA are attempting to manipulate teachers' access to professional development - in particular study awards.

So I'm hoping I can keep this up - you'll also find us on Twitter @PPTAweb and Facebook. Have a great day!