Tony Taylor asked his third year education students to assess which school system was the more transparent and helpful: Australia’s or the UK’s. Their answer was unanimous — and lends support to Julia Gillard’s proposals.
Teachers
Taught by Frank McCourt
To a lucky few, Angela’s Ashes author Frank McCourt was Mr. McCourt, beloved storyteller, creative writing teacher, and master of Room 205 in the old Stuyvesant High School, says student Kenneth R. Weinstein.
History teaching: a problem of supply and demand
Education faculties and schools give limited attention to history teaching — and the hiring practices of educational systems place a low premium on expertise in history, writes Professor Stuart Mcintyre.
Lowbottom High Diaries: Online teacher infiltration
Meanwhile, in a cyber universe far far away (but paradoxically very near you), the kids are compiling their own league table, writes Trevor Diogenes.
Mass staff exodus at Mowbray College: 22 in one year
Of the 200 staff members at Melbourne’s Mowbray College, 22 are thought to have left or be about to leave the school this year.
Lowbottom High Diaries: Parent-teacher interview code revealed
A good part of the stress of parent-teacher interviews resides in the difficulty of tailoring the honest truth to what parents want to hear. Teachers, as a consequence, employ a kind of code, writes Trevor Diogenes.
Lowbottom High Diaries: Good morning sunshine
Getting public transport is a nightmare. Then school starts, writes Trevor Diogenes.
Teacher’s s-xual relationship treated like murder
Does a 28 year old school teacher who has a same s-x relationship with a 14-year-old student deserve the same jail time as the drunken person who kills another while driving? Asks Greg Barns.
Teachers’ rights, a parable
Political correctness in the area of child protection has reached dizzying heights of absurdity in its desire to ensure that students are safe from sexual misconduct by teachers, writes Greg Barns.
Lowbottom High Diaries: Springtime dreaming
As the class attends to some task which produces that rare thing, silence, the ear attunes to the sounds of the body educative, writes Trevor Diogenes.
A teacher’s letter to the PM
Until you start paying teachers decently as they work their way up the pay scale, you will never keep the good people in the job, writes Joycelyn Brewer
Lowbottom High Diaries: the Fu King iWing
As the Federal Minister understands only too well, information technology is the go and by attaching a lower-case “i” to a thing — anything — it acquires instant cred, writes Trevor Diogenes.
Lowbottom High Diaries: How to spot a dud teacher
The news that the Department is considering offering teachers past their use-by date a cash incentive to leave the profession has the common room all a-twitter, writes Trevor.
Lowbottom High Diaries: See how they grow
After two weeks on holiday, it becomes plain that a change has been wrought in our charges in the interim. Trevor Diogenes grows wistful.
Lowbottom High diaries: Teaching Types #2
There are fresh additions to the Lowbottom High staff room. Trevor Diogenes watches their progress.
Lowbottom diaries: An excursion in prose
Graffiti, an excursion, all in prose. From one average school high school teacher to you. By Trevor Diogenes.
Lowbottom diaries: a pay deal sealed with a kiss
News came through that we were to become the highest paid teachers in the land. Trevor Diogenes surveys the staffroom.
Give the Baby Bonus to teachers instead?
There are approximately a quarter of a million babies born in Australia each year, and approximately a quarter of a million teachers. Is there something we can do with this? wonders Andrew Leigh.
Lowbottom High diaries: All’s VEL that ends VEL
Pupil-free days can be the path to valuable insight, writes Trevor Diogenes.
Lowbottom High diaries: Teacher types #1 – the untouchable relief teachers
Spare a thought for the relief teacher because very few of us full-timers do, writes Trevor Diogenes.
Lowbottom High diaries: Like Oberon, teachers are invisible
That teachers feature not at all on the list of professions that Australians trust is most deflating, writes Trevor Diogenes.
Lowbottom High diaries: Boredom in the Common Room
Is boredom prevalent in the teaching profession? Trevor Diogenes investigates.
Lowbottom High diaries: 12 weeks without parole
A long term looms, for Lowbottom High’s Trevor Diogenes
Lowbottom High diaries: End of term, the crow caws
The crows are gathered in the Tyburn tree outside the general office so it must be the end of term, writes Trevor Diogenes.
Lowbottom High diaries: The Seven Week Itch
If at term’s beginning one’s teaching allotment had all the alarming possibilities of a first date, we are now well into that period of a relationship where familiarity breeds contempt, writes Trevor Diogenes.
