Posted by: PPTAweb
on 27, Sep, 2011
Tagged in:
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Anne Tolley
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.
Posted by: blogger
on 12, Mar, 2010
Tagged in:
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ACE
By Observer
This government doesn’t seem to have the slightest commitment to the idea that employers should act in good faith or that the State Sector Act 1988 (s77A) requires schools to “operate a personnel policy that complies with the principles of being a good employer”.
When it announced its poorly thought-through decision to can ACE (night schools) funding within the 2010 year, it appears to have had no clue as to how schools were meant to pay redundancy costs except that they should use whatever spare ACE money they had. Even a quick risk analysis would have told them that schools would not have enough to pay if the employees had had a lengthy period of employment.
Posted by: blogger
on 10, Feb, 2010
By Flying Pig
Last month PPTA was notified that the Quality Teaching Partnership Fund (QTPF) will be the latest casualty of cost-cutting at the Ministry of Education.
The QTPF is a fund that has supported the last two subject association forums by covering the cost of accommodation for participants. PPTA also had funding from it for one of our professional conferences.
Posted by: blogger
on 22, Dec, 2009
By Winged Rodent
At a time when the world focuses on the dangers of climate change, the government appears to be going green - by recycling its spending this Christmas.
We could see the $200 million 'budget' allocated to fighting truancy and crime among teens as a form of "up-cycling” – a term coined to describe "the creation of a product with higher intrinsic value from a material at the end of its service life."
In other words, it is taking an empty ice-cream container, covering it with glitter and calling it a present.
Posted by: blogger
on 03, Nov, 2009
By Peter Sumpter
A scientist was researching cockroaches. He trained one to jump out of a petrie dish each time it heard the command “Jump”. He then removed its legs and repeated the experiment. On the command “Jump” it stayed motionless in the dish. This proves scientifically that if you take the legs off a cockroach it will go deaf.
Most high schools have larger classes for their high achieving and well motivated students, allowing the school to have smaller classes for low achieving students or students who require learning support.
Enter New Zealand’s leading educational researchers to survey the students. The statistics clearly show that the highest achieving students came from a class of 30 taught by teacher A, while the lowest achieving students come from a class of 18 taught by teacher B.
