THE REAL CONTEXT
In 2006, I was offered a permanent (on-going) position at Vermont Secondary College. I took the job on this proviso. An agreement was made with Tony Jacobs, an assistant principal who is the head principal now. I went back to my previous school where I was working, after the interview and told this to Kerrie Dowsley and Ian Crocker at the end of year party. He had rung the teachers at the school, who had both seen my work and who I had good relationships with on the staff. He was impressed with my contribution to the school.
I was classified as a graduate teacher. Despite teaching for 10 years, even in roles as a coordinator and as a head of department. My teaching experience was not acknowledged, because I did not complete my teaching diploma in Sydney after my fiance split with me then. I had completed most of the course. I could never complete the two final subjects, as a university will not enrol students to complete just one or two subjects, one has to redo 50% of the subject load to be enrolled under Hecs or Help. As such I could never finish my degree. In the end in 2005, I completed this, paying $5000 to do it by correspondence and doing another practicum, this to gain provisional registration. The principal John Atkinson, frustrated by VIT and DEECD's bureaocracy, employed me on the school payroll, without qualification and registration because of the lunacy of the system. He said, don't tell them about your teaching experience, it'll just delay you becoming a teacher.
In most of the schools I taught in, I had a better understanding, experience and skills than the other teachers. This despite being on a graduate salary. I could not believe the ignorance of these teachers, teaching incorrect knowledge and poor skills to students. What parents need to know about schools and the brazen and cowboy attitudes of principals generally.
This is one reason VIT and DEECD are somewhat useless at delivering quality education to the public. It panders to principals, many who have little interest in curriculum and teaching (which they usually do not understand very well) as I showed at the VIT tribunal. Many are just bland administrators playing the game of show business. Lets take a case in point:
In an article in the Age yesterday, Bronwyn Pike's office says: "minor offences are examined by schools and the department," while serious allegations such as "sexual misconduct and theft are referred to the VIT."
This is not true.
In my case there was no investigation done at the department or the school. The principals word is taken for granted. Other principals were not even rung by Conduct and Ethics as I discovered from Carmel White (The Head of Conduct and Ethics at DEECD) who failed to identify the many breaches of procedure in her area and at the school and the serious misdemeanors of the principals and certain coordinators at the school. Theft, drug taking and sexual indiscretion are often added in witness statements, just to get these documents to VIT, despite these not being in the original allegations at the school.
This is part of the corruption of VASSP, DEECD and VIT. These organisations are just political show pieces, whose real function is destroying teachers who have integrity in their education practice. They threaten their positions, well aware of the ignorance and lies that they feed the public. Teachers in Victoria have been duped into paying $70 per year, for an organisation (VIT) whose function is to oppress them with prejudice and fear, even kicking the union representatives off the VIT council.
There is seemingly no one who polices this corruption of principals. When I brought this up, with the Ombudsman's office, they have failed to act appropriately, against their duty.
I had to report the school and certain teachers to the safety authorities. I noticed that this year and last, the Department has, at last started cracking down on this. But even then, instead of using qualified teachers, it is re-training ones who are permanent in schools, then complains that there are not enough qualified teachers in the area. This is a HR lie. My supervisor at Vermont at the hearing said, "I was the only person who really fitted the job description." At the VIT hearing, speaking with him, he said, that there are problems with the latest teacher there.
DEECD employs teachers unqualified in their subject. VIT fails to to regulate this, while claiming to regulate qualifications to teach in Victoria.
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VIT AGAINST GOOD TEACHING
VIT and DEECD are often made up of people ignorant of education. They promote teachers who are unqualified in areas such as mine, to appease an Education Department and DEECD. These are often more interested in minimising cost and bureaucracy, rather than maximising quality education. This is why at Vermont, teachers unqualified to teach design and technology, were not picking up extremely dangerous behaviors from students. I have described some of the issues.
When I did my practicum (I had already done 4 in my teaching experience) at Pascoe Vale Girls College, my mentor, challenged me in front of my students, when I showed them a technique. After this, she went on long term personal leave, because she wasn't coping, my students then did not respect my expertise and it was an up hill battle from here. Despite this my students achieved excellent outcomes at Pascoe Vale Girls in 2005.
I went to Vermont as an expert in my area. I was called a graduate on a salary of $45,000, with very basic skills supposedly, despite having been a Junior School Coordinator, a head of resistant materials and graphics at a previous school in the UK and having taught for about 10 years, in Australia and the UK on contracts. Rod Williamson made the claim at VIT, "He was very inexperienced."
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THE CONVENIENT TECHNICALITY
In the interview at Vermont in 2006, principal Tony Jacobs said, in this vein, "there's a technicality, because we advertised it in the newspaper, I can't make the position official as on-going. We have to re-advertise it and will formalise this early in the new year." I discovered later from DEECD, that this was a lie from principal Tony Jacob.
At the start of 2007, I asked for my contract as was promised, which was not given to me on paper. In the Victorian Department of Education (DEECD), there is a three month minimum probation period for teachers. Every week I went to the school manager Pam Brutervic and Tony Jacobs and asked them how I was going. They always responded with "no complaints, everything is good, heard great feedback from the open day about your display and student work."
On one occasion, I went in and Tony Jacobs and said the students are excellent, really well behaved in my classes. He said, "just wait until next term, they turn really ferral." I discovered the next term, that as the students were allowed out of class for sport and returned in the same way, classes became unsettled and students prioritised the sport and the social messing around at sport events over the work to be done.
While I personally promoted sport, students I coached having reached the state finals in badminton at St.Albans Secondary and the Eastern region finals at Vermont just before I left the school. I always instructed my students, when returning to classes after sport, that they were to get back into it, and it would affect their place on the team if I heard anything else. But because Tony Jacobs, is a PE teacher, some principals would not acknowledge this dynamic at the school I believe. It is actually simple to solve, but they didn't seem to have the common sense to identify the problem. It was a common pattern at the school, seen in other poorly designed systems, that just made it harder for teachers to operate. Systems actually impeded the learning and the curriculum generally.
When I had a student give me death threats and raise a tool up to me as a weapon, after asking him to comply, he was just allowed to return to class. I rang the police about this. They said its the principal's responsibility. When I told the principals they did not act until another teacher was threatened similarly by the same student. The difference. I was technically an experienced graduate, while they were an older woman.
Rod Williamson, the head principal, did not acknowledge this general failure of school systems; hiding in his office. He said once, "I always support their decisions 100%." This is the attitude of a principal paid well over $100,000 to school problems. What is he paid for ? To allow incompetence to flourish.
The behavior of students did decline in the second term generally. But in my classes students were kept under control. All teachers struggled and there were serious incidents of injury in other classes, not in mine. While I had two students threaten me, "one with tools," they were not removed from my class. They were only disciplined after another "older female teacher," was threatened by this same student. Despite death threats and a student threatening me with a tool and receiving abuses, one of these students completed all their work, while the other finished his work to a very poor quality, partly because they were not in class half the time.
Wolfgang, my mentor, often had trouble with students in his class. I heard his shouting at them frequently, even over the sound of the machines in the class. Extra-curricula activities were poorly monitored. Once in second term, an unsupervised student outside threw a ball at a window in my class, showering glass over a student and myself who was using a dangerous power tool. He was doing Assistant Principal Kim Fallon's "Wombles" activity outside.
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MAY 23
After the 3 month probation, I kept asking Tony Jacobs "where is my contract ?" I asked for my increment too. I discovered that no performance review had been made because (against department policy) the lazy principals did not do one. At this meeting, what Tony Jacobs called a "fireside chat," a few vague and strange accusations were made, which had no basis in fact. Things like, "your students fiddle with power sockets," or "you haven't supervised classes, because you use the toolroom at the back of the class." They made out that I had told a class to "fuck off." Apart from me witnessing other teachers doing this at other schools and happening in other classes with principal Tony Jacobs swearing commonly and publicly (Rod Williamson knew this),
I did not swear, against the claims of this student !
The only event I was aware of was in the context of telling a kid what would happen at a Tafe college, or in the Army for that matter. I had been in the Army Reserves for 5 years and had taught and studied at Tafe before. But honestly, when I did my PhD, people professors, used this sort of language too.
But not me !
The cases above were never lacking in supervision and I was following what my mentor had instructed to me, a necessary step in projects. This step was designed into those projects, that he had set. It was not as was claimed at the hearing, "he spent too long there," by Wolfgang. He did the same things as did the other teachers as specified by him. I discovered that much of this slander had come from a fill in teacher Sabrina Crosswaithe. She was a teacher, trying to get my position at the school, which had been promised to me at the school. I discovered this later, at the VIT hearing. While she had major deficiencies as a teacher, I did not slander her while at the school, because I considered such behavior uncollegial.
Now I am faced with a system, where to cover yourself, one has to get others in trouble.
It perpetuates uncollegial environments, reinforcing what is already sometimes a bitchy women's club of an education system.On one occasion I rang about thirty numbers in one day and every person I spoke to in the education sector was a woman, from Bronwyn Pike's office to DEECD to VIT to Julia Guillard's office, to the school. This made me wonder whether feminists have lied about the status of women in Industry. I am beginning to wonder whether there is a female for male swap going on.
Why is it, that so many men are brought up on disciplinary matters at VIT and there are so few women ? No one seems interested in the serious gender inequity issues ignored by the education system.
I now plan to put in multiple complaints about principals, teachers and coordinators, dating back to the beginning of my teaching and must make their serious indiscretions public.
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I WILL ALSO ADVOCATE, WITH MY WIDE GROUP OF FRIENDS DOMESTICALLY & INTERNATIONALLY, THAT:
- Teachers all get immediate open access to their school and department files at no cost
- That any contention they have with the details in these will be challenged immediately en mass by teachers at the schools
- That any good performance not acknowledged will be used as an attack on both the principal's judgment and their position
- That a proforma monitoring principals by the staff in a school, against DEECD, VIT and Australian law be kept to use as documentation of the principal's failure to perform and for future litigation.
- This is more important as principals do not have a clear set of rules by which they are kept accountable. There is no equivalent "principals set of standards" to that of teachers, that addresses administrative issues outside the classroom.
- That because principals are paid so much and have a larger effect on the public interest, that they are kept more accountable by teachers and the system
- That teachers report teachers teaching outside their curriculum areas to government, because VIT and DEECD fail to regulate TRUE QUALIFICATIONS despite all their talk. I have had to compete with language, maths and science teachers to get a permanent/on-going position as a technology teacher, though as my mentor told the VIT tribunal, "He was the only person who really fit the position."
- That these issues when identified, are sent to the newspapers as they are collated generally
This is because the unions have lost their teeth and people like Mary Bluett, get pay raises for bad, poorly educated teachers, who are the woodwork in schools, while those with the skills and qualifications and hard work are oppressed and made to do extra things like VIT portfolios.
Unions no longer back the underdog, or make schools deal with the real issues.
While the agreements national, state and local can have value, teachers have next to no defence against the unconscionable attacks of principals, and their virtually endless power. They have a job to do and they often don't do it very well.
THIS IS THE PUBLIC INTEREST
Educate our kids and make them the best they can be.
help them with their issues and give them access to the best resources and brains that facilitate this development.
The VIT patchwork of default registration for non-graduate teachers is not sufficient. It represents a terrible inequity in education. The really hard working effective teachers are rarely rewarded because of the school politics, which raises some and lowers others, not on the basis of effectiveness or contribution, but who your friends are. This nepotism is not appropriate for a public funded institution.
It is essential that real credence is given to the VIT registration document and portfolio. This will prevent principals with agendas, like atheism or other prejudices, like racism or curriculum area bias or nepotism, stop qualified and better teachers from getting work. A principal's reference should be worth little, in comparison with the qualification of a university and registration when it is improved.
I showed that at VIT a principal's perception of safety is poor at best. Best left to an expert in the area. In Design and tech this is a true Design and technologist.
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WHERE IS MY PERFORMANCE REVIEW
Virtually no positive feedback was given at the MAY 23 meeting. This despite:
- The success of and commitment to the sports teams I coached
- The success of the Open Day displays and information for our area
- The incredible outcomes of my students (some of the best in the state- hands down)
- Advanced Curriculum Initiatives and Fresh projects
- Developing the department physically (eg. shelving), ordering new resources, maintaining tools
- Safety improvements to the department
- Strong collegiality, friendships and involvement in school activities
- Vocal about pedagogy and school improvement
- No acknowledgment of my hard work (I had to be kicked out by the cleaners almost every day because I was working back late)
All this within three months at the school, as a graduate teacher.
With projects I had never taught before.
Any sane principal, with good judgment would be rewarding and encouraging this incredible achievement. But VIT seems to be above that, looking for vulnerable targets to bully with lies, just because they can.
Believe it !
A teacher that really helps students to shine is the who the Department of Education attacks.
So why the criticisms ? With no date, time, source, context or real event.
I was being forced to believe vague obtuse undefined slander, that was not true and was further not described or raised appropriately. I could not contest them with facts, or evidence. It was never framed as a disciplinary meeting. I thought it was going to be an increment meeting. Even in the meeting there was no sense of it being disciplinary.
I complained to Rod Williamson about the broken promise of the permanent position and the employement of unqualified teachers in my area and the vague slander at the May 23 meeting. He responded by blackmailing me, that he will take disciplinary action if I made the real situation at the school public. I received a letter later saying that the school would
While the principals have later tried to make out it was disciplinary, there is clear evidence that it was not. I believe it had one function, or for Harry Ruff. To intimidate me, attempting to make any claim to a permanent position unreasonable. I believe they were trying to cover for their failure to stand up to a few teachers in the school, who were placing pressure on them not to give me the job they had promised. I believe this was Rebecca Eames, Adam Star and Andrew Doyle.
The action was raised against me, after I had left Vermont Secondary College.
The strategy of the principals it seems was: a teacher cannot defend themselves, if they were not an employee of DEECD. It was an attempt to attack a defenceless person.
These teachers were openly atheist, had spoken against my mentor at the school Wolfgang and had clear agendas against him and myself, because I actually got along with him, despite most people who worked with him, not getting along with him. All these people had slandered Wolfgang to me on various occasions and I had defended him. I actually was learning stuff for once in a school, rather than being the expert in my area (not officially, but in practice).
Tony Jacobs was just commenting on some "supposed perceptions," at the meeting. he was actually encouraging, saying, "we want a young guy like you in Technology, to raise the profile of the subject." Little did he know that Rod Williamson's perception of the subject was, "a break from academic work for the students." I explained that design and tech was the hardest area of cognition, both mentally and physically.
I argued that language is the product of design, including maths and "English." That science was better understood as design and further this was education, business management and most human endeavor.
In a performance review, any issues must be measurable such that they can be improved.
The issues claimed at the May 23, were not of this nature they were ill defined and vague, such that they could not be proven, investigated measured, understood or changed.
Straight after the May 23 meeting, I believe some coordinators were briefed to dig up trouble on me at the camp. Not one point of their allegations sticks. Indeed they show great irresponsibility both on the part of the coordinators, teachers and the principals.
Even allegations like, "tailgating a bus," are shown to be ridiculous. According to the descriptions by law, the bus behind was tailgating me. Even then the conditions make this perception virtually impossible. Andrew Doyle, wasn't even able to describe what tailgating was on the stand, calling it "2-3 meters from the car in front." I have shown that scientifically, visually by the research and police rules, he could not make this claim.
To give the claim legitimacy, Terry Hayes lies in the determination from the hearing, which is at best a document of State level Institutional Bullying and torture. See my blog "State Sanctioned Torture in Victoria."
There is no reference to "overtaking a bus on the dirt road." This is made up and a pure lie. They make out that I was tailgating. On what basis ? Just because it was said by a coordinator at the school.
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WHAT IS A DESIGNER ?
But its only designers that have mastery and good coordination of that skill set. Designers and teachers like myself have applied training in:
- marketing to a high level
- business management to a high level
- materials science
- manufacturing
- operations health and safety and high level risk management
- communication skills, visual verbal, negotiation skills
- conflict resolution (when a win-win is available)
- operations management, optimisation
- cad (computer aided design), desktop publishing
- accounting, MYOB and excel, cost benefit analysis and bill of materials
- drawing, drafting, modelling
- systems design
- general and art and design theory and history
- futures studies
- design semantics
- creativity and innovation theory
- psychology and ergonomics and anthropometrics
- fashion and social
- eco-friendly design/re-design, ecology and studies of environment
In my education training and experience I have acquired and employed knowledge and skills in:
- learning theory
- child, adolescent and general psychology
- various curricula: Victorian, UK and NSW
- disability studies and inclusive practices
- coordination
- behavior management and policy
In my PhD studies, I gained strong understanding and skills in:
- human behavior
- gestures and body movement research
- cognitive modelling
- situated cognition
- embodied cognition
- statistics and research methodology
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