Were the Teaching Council Elections truly Democratic?
The Teaching Council elections took place last week and I was happy to see that almost all of the primary candidates I would have voted for were elected in their respective regions. However, I did have a bit of a beef with the campaign running up to the election and the results demonstrated that they possibly […]
Teaching Council Election Results
Because the Teaching Council elections were done online, results were out very quickly. There were roughly 7,500 teachers who voted in the primary school sector, roughly 25% turnout, which is a lot better than the last election but still worryingly low. However, from Anseo.net’s perspective, it was good to see both Séamus O’Connor and Gregor Kerr elected. […]
An Alternative to Droichead
Following my blog post on Droichead last week, I thought I might expand on my thoughts regarding an alternative solution to teacher probation. I want to first reiterate that I do believe the Teaching Council are correct in changing from the current model of inspectorate to a more internal mechanism and I have been involved in the […]
Droichead: A bridge too far
Droichead is a new model of induction and probation for newly qualified teachers, which has been introduced by the Teaching Council, and is currently in a pilot phase. The model will replace the current probation process where Department of Education inspectors evaluate all newly qualified teachers and deem them satisfactory or not to be a […]
Fitness to teach is all about motivating teachers to love their job-Part 2
Self-actualisation and flow In my first post on performance-related pay, I spoke about the process of performance related pay and how motivation is connected strongly with a high performance for teachers. This is the last post on the topic and will concern the whole area of motivation and achieving goals through pure enjoyment. Flow You […]
Fitness to teach is all about motivating teachers to love their job-Part 1
Managing the performance When the Teaching Council brought up the Fitness to Teach legislation in the most negative way possible, I started to think if this was the best way to motivate and sustain a high standard teaching profession. The Teaching Council( who are us, by the way) will identify the appropriate mechanism for a teacher to […]
Everything I know about Féilte
Féilte is a festival organised by the Teaching Council for World Teachers’ Day on 5th October. Here is everything I know about it today, 6 days before the event. FÉILTE is an acronym standing for the Festival of Education in Learning and Teaching Excellence. It’s being held in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin. Fintan […]
What did the Teaching Council ever do for us?
One of the questions that is often asked amongst teachers is what do the Teaching Council actually do? What exactly does our €90 (now €65) go towards? The Teaching Council has been spending much of the year talking to teachers about different initiatives such as CEPP and the new Professional Competence Document for Teachers. Today they released a […]
Less than 10% vote in Teaching Council Elections
In an article by Seomra Ranga today, it was revealed that less that 10% of teachers voted in the Teaching Council elections. It will be interesting what the party line will be as to the reason for this.
Do we need Teaching Council 2.0?
It hasn’t been the best couple of months for the Teaching Council. Established six years ago “to promote teaching as a profession” and to “regulate standards” in teaching, the general perception amongst the teaching profession is that it hasn’t really achieved its aims. With the latest fiasco of errors in the latest election ballot forms, […]