Strike On ! Proposed New Junior Cert See Mod Warning Post #1

f3232 · 21-11-2014 12:44am

acequion wrote: »

Do people ever wonder where all this antipathy /hostility towards teachers came from? Because it is totally and completely unjustified. Ok,decades back you had some very lazy and some very useless teachers,who nowadays wouldn't last five minutes. But back then you had the brilliant ones too and overall the majority were good to very good. I'm teaching long enough to remember when teaching was a highly respected profession and teachers, as individuals, were treated with courtesy and respect.

So,what happened? Did teachers en masse create some enormous fcuk up? Not a bit of it. Was there some big scandal somewhere linking teachers to some sort of corruption, a la politicians of Ireland? Not a bit of that either. So,what went wrong? Quite simply,folks,at some point it became the "in" thing to hate teachers and teacher bashing, along the lines of priest bashing and politician bashing, became a national sport. Brought in no doubt by the all powerful media. All of a sudden,it was fine to express the ugliest of jealousy over the holidays and other advantages as if we'd only just acquired these things.As if teachers of the past didn't have those so called perks as well.

I have also worked in the private service and in other countries and I've never seen a harder working,more committed group of professionals than today's teachers. So,the bashing is nothing less than revolting and that's why I couldn't care less about the public,or at least those elements in the public who treat us so shabbily.

We've got to fight for our rights and let them think what they want. They will anyway.

Neo Liberal Agenda

Ed Walsh

United Newspapers

acequion · 21-11-2014 12:46am

Too true,more's the pity.:(

Moody_mona · 21-11-2014 2:06am

I heard Ed Walsh for the first time on Newstalk this morning. Such a mad way to start the day.

doc_17 · 21-11-2014 4:18pm

Moody_mona wrote: »

I heard Ed Walsh for the first time on Newstalk this morning. Such a mad way to start the day.

He is the personification of the attitude that exists in this country towards the teaching profession.

evolving_doors · 21-11-2014 5:33pm

doc_17 wrote: »

He is the personification of the attitude that exists in this country towards the teaching profession.

Same as Eddie Hobbs.

byhookorbycrook · 21-11-2014 5:55pm

Moody_mona wrote: »

I heard Ed Walsh for the first time on Newstalk this morning. Such a mad way to start the day.

Never once have I heard him justify the huge salary he got in UL.

acequion · 21-11-2014 6:31pm

Sorry to turn people's stomachs just before dinner time, but for anyone not clear on the condescension and sheer arrogance of typical neo liberals like Ed Walsh,with their profit at the expense of people agenda,have a read of this:

http://www.edwalsh.ie/2011/01/

spurious · 21-11-2014 7:22pm

Usual oul' manure.
He wouldn't last two minutes with 204.

2011abc · 21-11-2014 9:47pm

Ive seen better presented websites made by primary school children .

The Letheram · 21-11-2014 11:23pm

Don't give the clown the oxygen of publicity.

killbillvol2 · 22-11-2014 1:49am

acequion wrote: »

Sorry to turn people's stomachs just before dinner time, but for anyone not clear on the condescension and sheer arrogance of typical neo liberals like Ed Walsh,with their profit at the expense of people agenda,have a read of this:

http://www.edwalsh.ie/2011/01/

I've reported your post to have the link removed. Adding clicks to this rodent's blog is helping him.

evolving_doors · 22-11-2014 10:15am

killbillvol2 wrote: »

I've reported your post to have the link removed. Adding clicks to this rodent's blog is helping him.

aahhh thanks for reporting but I spse. its not really against the charter to link to webpages of poor standard... I think! unless he has incitement to hatred on it! ...

mod

killbillvol2 · 22-11-2014 1:09pm

killbillvol2 wrote: »

I've reported your post to have the link removed. Adding clicks to this rodent's blog is helping him.

Armelodie wrote: »

aahhh thanks for reporting but I spse. its not really against the charter to link to webpages of poor standard... I think! unless he has incitement to hatred on it! ...

mod

It was a bit tongue in cheek

acequion · 22-11-2014 1:46pm

killbillvol2 wrote: »

I've reported your post to have the link removed. Adding clicks to this rodent's blog is helping him.

killbillvol2,I put it there because there are many people,of whom teachers,most unfortunately,who regularly read threads like this and wonder what all the fuss is about. They think we overact, that we are too militant,trouble makers etc and would like us at each turn to just get on with it,roll over and put our heads in the sand,so to speak. Such apathetic people need to see with their own eyes the real threat teachers,and indeed all workers, face from such individuals as Edward Walsh. Because these are the people who, most regrettably,are influencing policy. Howard Hislop,the chief inspector at the DES and Anne Looney ,of the NCCA,are also of that ilk and by reading the above from Edward Walsh,it is not so hard to figure out where Ruari Quinn was coming from,preposterous and all as it was.

Therefore,people need to read this to realise that teachers are not over reacting. To remove the link would be an over reaction and I'm glad the mods didn't do so. We must put all the facts out there. Our biggest danger is in the apathy of our own collegues and they must be woken up.

RealJohn · 22-11-2014 2:57pm

My understanding is that we are allowed to teach the new course(s) and that our objection has nothing to do with that. After all, courses change. I assume that when they brought the Junior Cert in in the first place all of the courses changed and it wasn't done in a nice, staggered way like this new one is.

The difference is that the Junior Cert didn't introduce a completely new method of assessing, damaging the integrity of the whole examination process, didn't heap a whole lot of extra work on teachers (beyond the extra work that has to come with new courses), didn't expect teachers to implement these changes with almost no training for the new assessment process (since there wasn't one) and no resources to facilitate the change and didn't ask teachers who'd already been screwed over and had their pay cut by the government to take on state marking duties for free.

I will have no problem teaching a new science syllabus next year (though the one they're bringing in is yet another example of our ongoing race to the bottom) but I won't mark my own students for certification and I won't do extra work unpaid in order to facilitate that. I'm doing enough of that as it is.

My point is that we shouldn't be getting distracted from the real issue. The issue isn't that there's a new course coming in. The issue is how it's coming in. Accepting that the new course is inevitable isn't rolling over. Accepting that the new system is inevitable is.

Mardy Bum · 23-11-2014 12:37am

If you are not in a union do you have to take an uncertified day on the day of the strike?

evolving_doors · 23-11-2014 12:51am

Mardy Bum wrote: »

If you are not in a union do you have to take an uncertified day on the day of the strike?

Write a letter to principal stating that you are available to work on that day.

doc_17 · 23-11-2014 10:13am

Stand on the picket line side by side with the people who fund the attempts to defend your pay & conditions. Perhaps at times they haven't acheived al that we would have liked but we'd be a worse place if we didn't have a union. So my advice would be to forget about a sick day. Stand in the picket. You'll only have to do an hour. Don't abandon your colleagues.

km79 · 23-11-2014 12:04pm

Mardy Bum wrote: »

If you are not in a union do you have to take an uncertified day on the day of the strike?

join the union ?

2011abc · 23-11-2014 9:01pm

doc_17 wrote: »

Don't abandon your colleagues.

The union abandoned us years ago .HRA 2 (third vote...) was the last straw for me .They managed to win me a 1700 euro paycut !Im not going to pay for the wages of those who seek to actively undermine teachers' pay and conditions.

doc_17 · 23-11-2014 10:08pm

2011abc wrote: »

The union abandoned us years ago .HRA 2 (third vote...) was the last straw for me .They managed to win me a 1700 euro paycut !Im not going to pay for the wages of those who seek to actively undermine teachers' pay and conditions.

Everyone received that pay cut, not just you. I would have the belief that pre 04 workers abandoned me but it won't do me any good to walk away and then think things will get better all by themselves. If you think that being in a union isn't any real help an that there is a better way to protect or improve our terms and conditions then I respect that. But please tell me what it is. I will help you achieve it.

You can be annoyed and still be a member of the union. Change happens from within. Play the long game. If every pre 04 and post 11 teacher left the union then the government would have carte Blanche to do everything they ever wanted to teachers.

Our strength lies together. Those who don't see that are, in my opinion, naive. And being mislead either by themselves or Ed Walsh. Or else they have a super secret plan that they are reluctant to share.

acequion · 23-11-2014 11:04pm

doc_17 wrote: »

Everyone received that pay cut, not just you. I would have the belief that pre 04 workers abandoned me but it won't do me any good to walk away and then think things will get better all by themselves. If you think that being in a union isn't any real help an that there is a better way to protect or improve our terms and conditions then I respect that. But please tell me what it is. I will help you achieve it.

You can be annoyed and still be a member of the union. Change happens from within. Play the long game. If every pre 04 and post 11 teacher left the union then the government would have carte Blanche to do everything they ever wanted to teachers.

Our strength lies together. Those who don't see that are, in my opinion, naive. And being mislead either by themselves or Ed Walsh. Or else they have a super secret plan that they are reluctant to share.

I really couldn't agree more and I'd even go so far as to say that those harping on about having quit the union after the HRA acceptance are getting rather tiresome at this stage.

We all know that the union sold us out on HRA. We'd all love to get rid of Pat King and have someone who represents us better at the top.Heck,many of us have fought bitterly with them and I'm even still barred from ASTI facebook page. But,when you read the kind of propaganda coming from the likes of Ed Walsh and read Government policy documents about public service reform and what they still hope to bring in - performance related pay,regular performance reviews,liberalisation of public services where schools may have to compete with each other for state funds, it makes me very,very glad that we have a union,flawed though it may be.

So folks,it is up to each one of us to take ownership of the union!! It was never more important than it is now.

2011abc · 24-11-2014 9:35pm

All credit to the above pair of psoters but the ASTI was usurped and ripped off in the early noughties and here we are again ...There IS another alternative , a new union .At an ASTI Fightback meeting proposing /exploring this 30-35 people turned up(including two absolute legends who 'saved' the ASTI the last time it was under siege and conceded it was back to square one again )It would require 1000 signatures @25 euro a head .
So guys ?Are you going to reclaim your union ?Wait for the nice man to leave in his own good time and hope the next guy is better (some stirrings that incoming candidates have an existing track record of non resistance)Or do you want a new union ?
I think there are about 27000 secondary teachers in Ireland .

evolving_doors · 24-11-2014 9:48pm

2011abc wrote: »

All credit to the above pair of psoters but the ASTI was usurped and ripped off in the early noughties and here we are again ...There IS another alternative , a new union .At an ASTI Fightback meeting proposing /exploring this 30-35 people turned up(including two absolute legends who 'saved' the ASTI the last time it was under siege and conceded it was back to square one again )It would require 1000 signatures @25 euro a head .
So guys ?Are you going to reclaim your union ?Wait for the nice man to leave in his own good time and hope the next guy is better (some stirrings that incoming candidates have an existing track record of non resistance)Or do you want a new union ?
I think there are about 27000 secondary teachers in Ireland .

Can you be in 2 unions though?

acequion · 24-11-2014 10:18pm

2011abc wrote: »

All credit to the above pair of psoters but the ASTI was usurped and ripped off in the early noughties and here we are again ...There IS another alternative , a new union .At an ASTI Fightback meeting proposing /exploring this 30-35 people turned up(including two absolute legends who 'saved' the ASTI the last time it was under siege and conceded it was back to square one again )It would require 1000 signatures @25 euro a head .
So guys ?Are you going to reclaim your union ?Wait for the nice man to leave in his own good time and hope the next guy is better (some stirrings that incoming candidates have an existing track record of non resistance)Or do you want a new union ?
I think there are about 27000 secondary teachers in Ireland .

I was there too that day and the general consensus was that as too few were interested,the setting up of a new union had to be shelved. A pity,but the next best thing is the existing unions.

gaeilgebeo · 25-11-2014 10:16pm

Anyone know where the secretarial staff and SNAs stand on Tuesday?

happywithlife · 25-11-2014 10:22pm

gaeilgebeo wrote: »

Anyone know where the secretarial staff and SNAs stand on Tuesday?

I would have thought they'd have to present themselves for work as usual as per their contract. Presume the secretaries have enough work tobe getting on with. Not sure about the sna's If the students are out? I know plenty of schools where they'd be asked to do photocopying or filing etc but don't know how legit that is

gaeilgebeo · 25-11-2014 10:26pm

Yeah, thought as much.
Was just wondering.
We have 22 SNAs and 3 office staff.
Some seemed a bit unsure today.

mirrorwall14 · 25-11-2014 10:29pm

Our secretaries are probably only bloody delighted that they have time to try and catch up. Mental busy in the office all the time.

happywithlife · 25-11-2014 10:29pm

gaeilgebeo wrote: »

Yeah, thought as much.
Was just wondering.
We have 22 SNAs and 3 office staff.
Some seemed a bit unsure today.

22 SNAs 😯

Strike On ! Proposed New Junior Cert **See Mod Warning Post #1**

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Strike On ! Proposed New Junior Cert See Mod Warning Post #1