I am a teacher and I consider myself a passionate and good teacher. I go to work at 7am and leave at 7pm, I work at the weekends and I work during the holidays. At all times, my only concern is how I can help my students be the best they can be. I work alongside parents and other teachers at my school to ensure that I am delivering quality education to my students.I am leaving New Zealand because I only see doom on the horizon after National Standards have wrecked such an amazing education system. Who will be the ones blamed for their failure? Anne Tolley? John Key? No, teachers! I recently went to a PD gathering regarding Standards and we were told that it too the ministry 34 days to set up the website that is available for parents to see how schools should be reporting to parents. 34 days! So rushed. Then we were told that that website was a 'work in progress'. I thought to myself, then SURELY, National Standards themselves will be a 'work in progress' and isn't essentially a TRIAL? If so, why are we trialling these standards on every child in Aotearoa?
Is this about student achievement or poorly performing teachers? Doing something to help those kids who need some extra assistance or blaming teachers? Do you think like me that we have moved from the 'kids need this' stage to the real reason behind all this - that National has a far right agenda for education that needs the teacher unions battered a bit before it is implemented?
The real deal with National Standards is where are the 20% who are failing. The reality is that they are low socio-economic areas of NZ. The money needs to be put into supporting those communities to support children at home with regards to literacy and numeracy. Yes, there are schools (and teachers) that need to pull their socks up. But having introduced the revised NZ Curriculum, schools that struggle to meet National Standards will simply narrow their curriculum down to teaching Reading, Writing and Maths. So much for a balance curriculum. Teachers aren't opposed to National Standards. They are opposed to not being part of the consultation process regarding the development of the standards. The reality is that they are here, so all of us in the profession need to deal with it and get on doing the awesome work we get paid for. Educating young NZers for a great future.
Any person who thinks that teachers are lazy and don't do their jobs, I'd like to see you plan for, prepare for, teach, assess and mark for 20 odd or even 30 odd eager learners in front of a class and attend endless meetings and deal with PD constantly.Teachers are WARY of National Standards because there is NO research to say this is the way to go. We have seen similar systems implemented a fail overseas. Some of us have experienced the trauma for children in UK schools during their national testing.NZEI IS NOT saying don't go down this track. NZEI IS saying, taihoa (wait in Maori), let's trial this, do a little more research. Then we can proceed and adjust as appropriate.If National Standards was a medicine that was released to the public to cure something without being tested would the public and medical profession roll over meekly? Imagine the possible side effects of an untested medicine on the general public. Now imagine the consequences of National Standards that are untested on the future leaders and workers of New Zealand.Is it worth the experimentation on innocent children?
I am a solo mother of 3 kids, 2 school age and 1 starting school this year. I find the school my kids attend to be very good, the teachers work along side the parents if their is an issue with the kids education, also as a mother I work along side my children supporting them in their homework at home. Maybe thats where the break down is? Are we to busy as parents to work along side our children and support them in their learning? Maybe we need to look as much at ourselfs as we do at teachers, The education of our children does not lay in the hands of JUST the teachers, But hey lets blame teachers for the fact our children are failing cause we're stayin late at work, at the gym or we just had to go for that coffee and Adult time.Oh yes and this coming from a young mother, fulltime student and part time work, and still find the time to support my children in their learning.
As the reporter who filed this report (from Bluff/Invercargill), I have to say that the headline added above, 'National standards get an F from teachers, parents', is a bit overboard and misleading. Many parents seemed to have limited knowledge of the planned system, and others were concerned about the speed with which it is being rolled out. However, few were labelling it an outright failure. Rather they were callin gfor a trial or pilot programme, or more consultation. (I believe in new-agey NCEA terms that could be marked as "unsatisfactory", but I understand that simply means "have another go" rather than "fail"...)
This can only be good for our children Im a parent of four and an early childhood teacher. If teachers were doing their job to the best of their ability they should have nothing to worry about. I know a lot of teachers who slack off in the classroom or don't inform parents of problems until its too late. I also know alot of teachers that go the extra mile for the children they teach because they are passionate about their children they work with and want the best for each and everyone of them. Im sick of college teachers telling children they are loosers and not to come back to school next year or Im only here for the money I dont care about you. This will hopefully expose the teachers who are in the job for the wrong reason.
I can not believe how many DVD movies my son watched at school last year and school basically stopped three weeks before end of term and they just played games. School finished early because the teachers had not taken all their teacher only days!! Bet they were not used to improve their teaching. I am sure my son learns more from quality time with his dad than he does at school.I agree with Jo.
Tolley is a dangerous idiot. And Key isa disgrace for letting her on.
How many parents did you have to interview to find one who would actually say something negative about this policy!??? Of COURSE teachers would be opposed (turkeys don't vote for an early Xmas) - but I speak to many parents every day and am yet to find ONE who thinks this is a bad idea!