teacher union conferences

mick kk

I was watching the gra conference today on the news. It got me thinking about the teacher conferences..all the gardai were in shirts/ties/suits - they looked very professional [no woolly jumpers/cardigans etc.!]. Also, only 2 of them spoke to the media and you could tell that they were prepared/trained in dealing with the media. There was none of the childish banners, heckling etc. that you get every year with the teacher conferences. The gardai have issues just like the teachers [actual life and death issues] yet none of them were ranting off to the media like children or walking out when the commissioner walked in. Even the set-up on the stage behind the main guys was classy...does anyone on here go to the teacher conferences?..its usually embarrassing to see the ones who go on the news and give interviews -they seem to have no training/preperation done for what they wish to say and the banners they hold up look ridiculous. Does anyone else think this? - its just that the conferences are coming up and the unions and delegates need to sharpen up the way they deal with the media.

delta_bravo

Big difference between the GRA and the teachers unions. GRA is not a union. Which means it doesn't have the banner waving leftist element that the TUI and ASTI have

mick kk

Your right but its not just the gra. I have noticed other groups having conferences over the years and the delegates always speak very well when interviewed. The ones who appear on the news who attend teacher conferences are often embarrassing....they sometimes look scruffy, and they do nothing to enhance their causes. The tv/radio presenters get great "fun" out of rising them and they always take the bait....I just think that the unions would want to be a bit more prepared for the media...even for example i was listening to one of our reps talking about the 167 days we teach....the interviewer when crazy that we work for less than half the year and rightly so!.....the rep should have pointed out that 104 days of the rest of the year are saturdays and sundays....but no..what does he come back with?....teachers correct copies and train football teams...embarrassing! Its as if no preperation is made for these questions that will definitely be put to them...in fact, they sometimes make it look like we deserve more cuts.

2011abc

I hope Mick youre not one of these (Teaching Council driven?) folk who believe that a teacher in a blazer is better teacher than a teacher in a geansai...one of the many nonsenses peddled in the last decade...

mick kk

don,t get me going on the tc! I suppose, my point is that if you are going to be on the tv speaking on behalf of all the teachers in the country you should make an effort and woolly jumpers/cardigans don't give a good impression if we are menat to be "professionals"!...my best teacher at school wore the same woolly jumper for 5 years btw!....its just that reps from most other professions always come across really well on tv, professional, prepared, well presented etc. and they don't take the "bait" delivered by interviewers. It disappoints me every year when I see teachers talking off the cuff and getting emotional on the news..there was one teacher 2 years ago i think it was running after Batt O Keefe with the news camera behind her....she was having serious financial problems due to her low pay and big mortgage etc. but it looked ridiculous the way she challenged him as he went to his car and it achieved nothing...you just don't see other professions doing it at their conferences...there was another guy last year with a pathetic looking banner with a spelling mistake in it - it made all the national papers and the main news....and another guy who stood in front of a camera with a picture of Sean Fitzpatrick held up over his face...pathetic...and again despite all the important issues that were raised at the conference, this picture took up lots of space in the newspapers!.....there should be no more of these banners, delegates should make an effort to be well presented as they may pictured/filmed and only certain individuals who are prepared/trained for dealing with the media should be aloud to do so....and walking out when an invited minister walks in takes the biscuit. If you can't be in the room with him/her then don't go to the conference.

implausible

The teachers who attend the Union Congresses are just ordinary joes, attending a conference during their holiday time and you expect them all to wear suits? I can understand this requirement for the top table, but I don't really see the point for every delegate. And as for the media training, how would you propose this be delivered to 400+ people? Short of putting a gag on delegates, you cannot stop the media getting people on the hop, the same as they would on the street. Not every teacher is an eloquent speaker.

Maybe you should attend Congress. If more people were willing to do so, you would have fresh faces and voices, instead of the same old few who attend year in, year out or the irate minority who attend because they have an axe to grind.

There are always teachers who complain about every aspect of the Union, but yet never do anything constructive about it, like maybe attending a few meetings. Instead, most teachers are content to let the same few reliables attend on their behalf and then complain about not being adequately represented.

Art Teacher

There was a photo on the front page of the Times at last years TUI conference of Mary - what's her name - former minister for education. Anyway it looked like Mary was being pursued by all these angry men wearing suits , hounded all the way down a corridor. I dont actually think they were TUI ( maybe ministers security chaps!)

The main thing is that it looked very rough. Something that teachers should not be made look like on the front of a national newspaper.

I'd say that teachers shouldn't wear suits - jumpers are more cuddly looking. Unions need to get more women involved so that at least in future we look co -oeducational .