Penny, Reader's comment, Rookie teachers call it quits, Donna Page, 27

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Posted by Penny, Reader's comment, Rookie teachers call it quits, Donna Page, 27 June 2011, The ( Newcastle ) Herald: http://www.theherald.com.au/news/local/news/general/rookie-teachers-call-it-quits/2206259.aspx Historical link preserved from the original page.

New South Wales: teachers have to endure hours of useless in-service.

The director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute, John Hattie, wants teachers to shut up and listen so ''deep learning'' can take place.

The executive director of schools for Parramatta Catholic Education, Greg Whitby, wants to replace classrooms with ''agile learning spaces'' and, in a fascinating insight into leadership style, notes that his teachers accept it because they aren't ''kicking his door in''.

Of course, like me, most NSW teachers are the wrong side of 50, so there will be less door-kicking than eye-rolling.

We've endured these epiphanies before as our betters frantically replace all the old jargon.

And once you have begun teaching, there is no let-up.

Only the very dim, the gullible and the ambitious teachers will uncritically embrace the passing educational fads.

The rest will just get on with it.

Editor's Note: Having taught in both New South Wales and Queensland, I found Queensland staff meetings and in-service courses to be of a much, much lower standard.

At some Queensland schools in-service even seemed to be used as punishment.

If you tried to discuss problems with the maths curriculum, for example, the whole staff would be told that they did not understand the 'philosophy' of the program and would consequently be subjected to hour after hour after hour of mind-bendingly tedious after-school in-service.

You were eventually forced to pretend to be very dim and gullible in order to get the punishment in-services over with.

Waves of guff wash over the weary teacher, Leon Wright, a teacher in western Sydney high schools for 32 years, 20 June 2011, Opinion, The Brisbane Times: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/waves-of-guff-wash-over-the-weary-teacher-20110619-1g9yu.html Historical link preserved from the original page.

New South Wales: principals and executive staff do not support classroom teachers with behaviour problems.

Many teachers are powerless to stop bullies.

They can't even get a decent standard of good behaviour in their classrooms.

The principals and executive staff don't support them.

This is especially true for teachers of foreign backgrounds, they are mostly left alone to fend for themselves.