Chris C,
Re Report cards.

By this I mean end of term assessment forms that the students bring home for their parents (or in our society “parent”) to sign.

But if the teachers are using the same comments about students from a standard database, and also using the same exam paper year after year, then the whole thing must be getting very close to a form of plagiarism.

The student is required to show original thought and use original words in their essays and assignments, but the teachers use words from a standard database and use the same exam paper.

“Do as I say, but don’t do as I do” should become the motto of such teachers.

My son received the same assignments twice this year as he received once last year - Buddhism - what was God telling us...LOL...an emphasis for peace and respect in our lives?... along with a repetition of two other assignments for other subjects. My line of repetition to son "Hold on, these assignments appear identical to the others we've done, they are on the computer saved".

Those people who have not taught at all or regularly for years should spend a few terms in classrooms, participate in staff meetings and attend courses, take kids on excursions, arrange and conduct interviews, mark papers, liaise with parents over student issues, plan a great deal of the work for students and continue/further teacher educational studies during holiday periods, key in performance indicators, complete teacher performance evaluations, arrange and participate in sporting, charity and fundraising school events often after hours as occurs with most excursions minus the overtime

ChrisC, & w a u, I lived with one teacher for 12 years, she was a head when we split up. She was not over worked any more than someone in private enterprise, earning similar money. In fact her over all hours were less than mine.

A lot of our friends were teachers, & the entire crew of my yacht, for Wednesday afternoon, & Friday evening races were teachers. They always had the time.

I was also an office bearer, mostly treasurer of P&C associations for 12 years.

My present partner established & ran, for the P&C, the school text book hire scheme, for our local high school. She put in 3 days a week, I did all the book work, & together we covered, & or repaired some hundreds of thousands of books in 17 years.

That scheme averages $170,000 a year net input into that school, & saves the parents quite a bit of money.

So no, of course, I wouldn't have a clue about schools, but I'm sure I have attended as many planning meetings than any teacher below a deputy head.

I had read your contributions to schools on previous threads Hasbeen however over the past 8-10 years times have changed dramatically work load wise for teachers [one of my siblings is a school principal and teacher] and often compared both eras regarding many aspects of the education system, students, curriculums, standards, staffing and other issues. One of the main topics discussed is that people in general have absolutely no idea of all the extra hours, over many years that teachers have contributed, educating Australian children.

Fetes and other events attended by teachers, in their own time, on weekends, in addition to sporting events when schools compete with one another, along with many more after hours events, yet few people are honest or just thoughtless in acknowledging all the sacrifices and unpaid time Australian teachers over their 30 year career, have made, for the simple love of educating thousands of Australians now working.

My comments are curriculum based.

vanna,

As I have already said, I never heard the term “report cards” used by anyone in my 33 years of teaching. Every principal, teacher, parent, student and departmental official spoke of “reports”, meaning the “end of term assessment[s] that students bring home for their parents”. Americans say “report cards”, and now the term is being used here.

Plagiarism is copying someone else’s work, passing if off as your own in an academic or creative context. Using databases and re-using material you or your colleagues have prepared is not plagiarism.

The teacher is not requited to show original thought and use original words in assignments and reports. The task of the teacher in preparing work is to help a student learn. If something used before does this, the task has been met. The purpose of reports is to convey information on student learning. If comments from a database do this, the task has been met.

Has been,

The availability of teachers on particular afternoons or evenings to crew yachts is irrelevant to their total working week. What they could not do Friday evening because they were on your yacht they could on Saturday morning. Teachers average over 50 hours a week on work, far more than the standard 38-hour week.

It may be that your hours are excessive.

Your efforts to help local high school’s textbook hire scheme are commendable, but they do not show knowledge of the daily work of teachers, whose holidays are justified by the stressful nature of their work.

You might also consider the difference between teaching year 7 and year 12 and the difference between teaching PE and teaching English.

I don’t know why you specify “planning” meetings, but the typical teacher has three meetings a week. Those on administrative committees, curriculum committees, School Councils and the like have more.

Chris C
Repeating the same exam year after year may be constructive, because it can help find the areas that students are normally weakest in, and steps can then be taken to improve the teaching methods in those areas.

However, with the tragic decline in maths and science in so-called Australian education, and it seems a likely decline in English also, teachers do not seem to be taking any steps to find better teaching methods for those areas that students are normally weakest in.

While repeating the same exams, the teachers also repeat the same comments about students on their report cards, and overall show a continuing lack of innovation and willingness to try something different.

Like Hasbeen, I have also had considerable experience with teachers over the years, and their No 1 priority seems to be “getting money from government”. In fact they seem to think that spending as much taxpayer money as possible improves student marks, when the records show very different.

Their last priority was to spend any of the money from the Australian taxpayer in Australia, and they never blinked an eye at importing everthing they used.

About middle priority was the actual education of the student.

Like Hasbeen, I have also ived with a number of teachers in the past, and at that time I had to start work at 6.00 am, (while they were still asleep), and I got home about 5.00 pm, long after they got home.

My work also involved working weekends and public holidays, and during the annual leave of 5 weeks, it was expected that you spend a number of days of that leave at the workplace.