Posts by Yamis
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This morning on TV1 or National Radio(I forget which) Anne Tolley said (paraphrasing) that teachers wishing to address class size issues need to take it up wither their school board, as the ministry already assess secondary teacher funding on a class size of 17 pupils and if teachers were teaching classes of 30 or more it was because of local decisions....
A hallelujah moment. She speaks on something other than pay!!! Albeit a load of you know what.
In my school of around 2,400 students and around 80 odd classes the smallest would be around 17, 18 or so, however the average is typically around 27, 28, with many up over 30. Due to a few seniors leaving school this year mine are 23, 26, 27 and 32. They started at 26, 28, 28 and 32.
Schools employ DP's, AP's, deans, guidance counsellors, naughty student counsellors, careers staff, sports staff and on and on, along with deans, level coordinators, HOD's etc who are all on reduced teaching loads so that they can actually do their job.
To say it's the Board of Trustees issue to deal with is pathetic. We're trying to give the kids an education, train up future ABs, silver ferns, Valerie Vili's, and save the world in a semi functional environment.
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If journalists don't have any subject knowledge, or have the time and aptitude to learn about it, then I don't see what value they actually provide.
That's what's been infuriating me and my teaching colleagues in recent times. Surely there are a couple of journalists who could study up on what teachers actually want and comment on a SINGLE THING other than pay and maybe get Tolley to comment on those conditions. As yet, months into it all I can't recall a single time I have heard anything other than pay, pay and pay come from Tolley or Key's mouths.
Some of the articles I've read online are written by two or three journalists and yet contain nothing more than a few quotes from Tolley followed by a few quotes from Gainsford. Surely one could call them both on the telephone or cut and paste from a press release and the other couple COULD DO SOME F*CK$NG SWAT!!!!! Maybe then people would feel like they are learning something new rather than reading the same shit over and over again!!
Smoke coming out of ears.
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On the topic of teachers' pay, I do wonder if they'd settle for the extra manglement units and hard caps on class sizes along with a minor pay increase. The impression I'm getting is that most of their gripe relates to class sizes and NCEA workload rather than rates of pay.
You're not wrong there. In terms of the financial offer it's pretty damn close to what most of us would accept. Keep us up with inflation and we'll worry about anything further down the track. It's the conditions that are what most of us are bitching and moaning about at my work.
More management units so that people who run year levels and courses and sports and co-curricular activities that are a big time and often expertise committment are one thing that's DEFINATELY needed.
The others are class sizes getting to manageable levels so we can like, y'know, get round the room and check out who's doing what and who needs help, lets call it the personal touch to a lesson factor.
and a lot more help in dealing with troubled youths that march through our door in what seems like increasing numbers year after year. It's often a case of build a file of shit big enough on them so that when they go to the board they'll be on their bike, and then field questions from the MoE about why you're suspending and excluding so many fine youths.
Those are the three on my list. They'd be the big three for most but others have some of the other 30 odd issues in our claim high on their list.
But as long as it keeps getting referred to as a "pay dispute" I'll keep throwing shit at the TV, radio and newspapers.
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There isn't any complete way that this data is gathered apart from the census.
Utter nonsense. We are selling our house and moving in a few months taking our 4 year old with us. Our neighbours have just done the same and have a pre schooler. None of this will be on the last census records. Neither will the state housing subdivision that went in up the road after the last census.
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OK. Tell me how many 5 year olds are going to be rocking up to start school at the beginning of next year, what their genders and ethnicities are, their likely locations, and family incomes, so that the Ministry can prepare to provide funding for each school and a total budget, without looking at census data.
The goalposts are either moving or widening. Or have been sold to Bob Dwyer. What does any of that have to do with ethnicity? (apart from the ethnicity bit) ;)
There are separate sections for gender, family income, usual residence, numbers living in the household etc.
I presume kindergartens next to primary schools also provide a further indication in case the primary school hasn't noticed who lives in the neighbourhood already.
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Edward Woodward would be
Sound a bit like a fantail when I say that fast a few times. Not a very cute fantail mind you.
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Which is all very interesting, but doesn't help the Ministry of Health, Education, Police, Corrections, various university researchers, historians etc when they want useful information. It's been put into the census because it's useful information to have.
Neither does telling them you identify as 'a' when you also have equal amounts of 'b', 'c', and 'd' ancestry when it comes to health stats.
Schools ask students what ethnic group they are from when they enrol so each school has it's own records of their ethnic breakdown to run their own programs as a response, so the census matters for diddly squat there. The government gets this info fed back to it and it's a lot more 'live' than a census every several years.
How ticking "European New Zealander" helps them greatly is beyond me. Especially when you're not from Europe and don't know what crimes you need to be committing, grades you should be gaining, and ailments you should be suffering from to fit the criteria.
as time goes by maybe they can look at the figures for "New Zealanders" in education, health, crime etc and get something useful from them.
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Auckland is now one of the most diverse places in the world. The extra attention to matters of ethnicity in things like this and the mayoral election are all part of our ongoing conversation about how to make sense of that reality - when our old official stories about ourselves are mostly populated by blokes in Swanndris who look and sound like Andy Haden. And that's the archetype whose approval snivelling Mr Henry is seeking, whether consciously or otherwise.
And that's why Mr Henry, like his outdated thinking needs to be put out to pasture. He should come teach my Year 10s. Of 28 of them three are white and one of them is from South Africa. Most of them were born in New Zealand but none of them could possibly be New Zealanders.
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I put that question to an acquaintance, and it turned out she "watches" Breakfast much the same way I listen to Morning Report -- most of the time, it's just white noise in the background of her morning round. Some things get her attention, but she's hardly glued to the couch for the wit and wisdom of Paul Henry.
I'd like to say I'm boycotting Breakfast now but I've been actively not watching it for several years because of P Henry. Anybody who has decided to boycott it now has clearly been suffering from bad taste. ;)
I just couldn't handle going off to teach teenagers each morning with my stomach containing two pieces of toast and a knot of hard boiled rage.
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@ stephen
I guess the question is WHY are those people afraid to say those things out loud?
Is it because of the nancy PC brigade who are afraid of the truth about minorities, or because they don't want people to find out that they are dirty, nasty racists and bigots?
That statement from TVNZ is a classic. It's like the guy who cracks racist jokes at his mates house and gets a few laughs using that feedback to justify saying them anywhere and everywhere. But my mates think I'm hilarious!!