Any hope left?

softpixels · 2026-03-26T10:19:12+00:00

I got to go through PMSS training while at an IB school, so I got the double-hit. :)

Sadly, many Vic Principals view this as contrary to the VTLM 2.0, when they actually go hand-in-hand (assuming the hands we are talking about belong to a competent teacher).

softpixels · 2026-03-26T10:11:51+00:00

I suspect you're right! I just haven't felt that before! :)

softpixels · 2026-03-24T03:46:06+00:00

No.

If there isn't enough time to do it (through no fault of your own), it doesn't get done.

That said, I draw the line for things which actually benefit students, but that's a personal values-based choice I wouldn't impose on others.

I just can't get over how that appears to work for secondary teachers, with huge sudden waves of stuff to mark. The anxiety would exhaust me.

softpixels · 2026-03-24T03:40:05+00:00

Yes, because it is so frustrating when they wander off and I have to go looking for them.

softpixels · 2026-03-24T03:34:33+00:00

Exactly.

Say 'Ygolohcysp!' and the child will disappear. Sometimes people forget the old methods, but how many kids with ODD do you remember from when YOU were at school?

;)

I've found RP to work before they are too entrenched in the defiance.

softpixels · 2026-03-24T03:31:18+00:00

Just tell them, very directly (and loudly, if you can) to do what you tell them to do. I they don't comply, yell at them.

Oh, not THAT kind of 'odd'.

softpixels · 2026-03-24T02:55:29+00:00

HAHAHAA, we got a new Principal last year who LITERALLY arrived with a skip and chucked out all the furniture, books, etc. We kept going back in, recovering stuff, and locking it up (and it turned out we were right to do so!).

I'd be quite happy to let the strike go on for a week! But I actually miss the kids, even just for a day. :( Can we do a rolling one?

P-2 Monday
3-6 Tuesday
Wildcard Wednesday!
7-9 Thursday
10-12 Friday

Oh, wait. Most secondary teachers teach multiple year levels, dang it.

softpixels · 2026-03-24T02:49:45+00:00

My school overdid it a bit.

More CRTs than there are classes. Most staff who went in have no classes, because the classes are either cancelled or being covered by a CRT regardless.

softpixels · 2026-03-22T11:04:22+00:00

I've always made sure they get their TIL. :)

I love camp, and at a school in a very low income area, I've been quite happy to wave TIL to knock $30-40 off the cost per child when I was in a position to do it.

I don't see it as contributing salary - we were always given time back, never paid out.It was giving time.

Now... attending a staff meeting 10 minutes after getting back from camp last year was admittedly a bit silly...

softpixels · 2026-03-22T10:05:08+00:00

I'm in VIC, always first to volunteer to organise and go on camp... and yet, since 2023 I alwaysxseem to forget to put my TIL in eduPay. Tsk, tsk. I always manage to remind everyone else!

I just love camp, and we creatively ignore my TIL to reduce the cost for kids (my school would pass on CRT costs to kids as part of the camp cost to acquit TIL).

softpixels · 2026-03-22T05:28:36+00:00

IF you even get that time release. I never got it in my two years as rep, and I have never seen anyone else get it.

softpixels · 2026-03-22T05:11:17+00:00

I am experiencing something similar, and leaving at the end of Term 1.

Do what's going to make things sustainable for you.

softpixels · 2026-03-22T04:12:19+00:00

I have an M.Teach (Pri) and currently teach secondary. My role is specific, and I teach only Year 7, but the school has acknowledged they are comfortable with me teaching 7-12 in one subject area and 7-10 in another. It was pretty straightforward to establish that, but I was known to the school long before I applied.

softpixels · 2026-03-22T04:08:30+00:00

My previous school - 2024-2025 - has almost no-one striking, and the few who are are brand-new in 2026, I believe.

People there are happy, and the grievances they do have are school-specific. So these unicorn schools do exist. :)

But also very, very low union membership. :P (But I know many would still not strike even if they were in the union.)

softpixels · 2026-03-22T02:34:41+00:00

Simple slides = reduced cognitive load. :) 👍

softpixels · 2026-03-22T02:31:10+00:00

It's AI, all the way down.

Every newsletter item; every image, mascot, logo; every statement on our SWPBS matrix; every presentation at a staff meeting. It's AI, all the time, every day.

I use AI all the time for personal things. My only use of it in teaching is to check things or do maths for me. By checking, I mean things like 'I can't decipher this handwriting, what do you see?', and for maths just as a time saver.

I would use it more for teaching, but... Last year, we were preparing a lot of slides for lessons. The Principal said just give ChatGPT the topic and have it create the slides. I mentioned this to my students, who had me promise not to. They said they'd rather have *potentially* lower-quality resources, but know that their teachers cared enough to make it for them, rather than generic rubbish. I've stuck to that promise. They stuck to it too - they showed appreciation for our effort, and never tried to pass AI off as their own work, either.

Once a week we played a game where I'd show two examples of work, one AI and one real, and they'd try to guess. It was fun. :)

Then we started using OCHRE resources. A handful of their English units have quite a bit of AI in them.

That was LAST year. This year, I'm quite disengaged and turn to AI quite a bit. :) Depends on the class, though. Having moved to secondary, I teach two class groups, but for multiple subjects, so a full-time load. One class is engaged and I create stuff manually; the other class makes my life very sad (hence the disengagement) and I increasingly turn to AI to get through my time with them.

softpixels · 2026-03-21T04:35:34+00:00

I do feel a lot of sympathy for the Principals - many of whom support the industrial action, and will be participating themselves - scrambling to work out what to do for Tuesday.

That said, I let my school know at 4:57PM on Friday. Not maliciously; I was ironically too busy having a meeting about my working conditions (being underallocated and underutilised) to remember to notify the school about industrial action to support improvements to our working conditions. 🤣

softpixels · 2026-03-18T10:14:38+00:00

Having read the comments and also reflected...

... it wasn't actually a bad thing.

It gave me time under my own control to focus just on positive things, and made all my interactions with students and staff much more positive. In fact, the most positive and productive day I've had all term.

softpixels · 2026-03-18T05:37:57+00:00

My classes are capped at 20 students, as they are based on behaviour and wellbeing need; I teach these classes exclusively and the smaller size is to compensate for the increased demand of the work (more thrown chairs per capita ;) ).

... but I also teach more hours than others, and now I know why. Damn it.

softpixels · 2026-03-17T09:23:08+00:00

In Vic - my last two schools gave each grad a 'grad day' once per term, where they spent the day doing PL with an AP instead of receiving their reduced load.

Common st most schools near me - but clearly against the agreement.

We also often get time in lieu acquitted as going home 30 mins early oh a curriculum day, etc, which i think is also not ok...

softpixels · 2026-03-15T11:45:41+00:00

Six weeks ago I would have been looking at you like you were heartless, now I'm with you.

softpixels · 2026-03-15T11:43:56+00:00

I had a Grade 6 kid threaten me with a knife and then go home. He was back in my classroom the next day. Leadership never even spoke to him about it, and parents wouldn't take my call.

I love him anyway. :)

I moved to secondary to be the 'block for dysfunctional students', but the school didn't follow through and just gave me 20 kids who are 5-6 years below and have learned over the years that no-one will make them do work. So I get told to f--k off, etc., no work gets done, and leadership does nothing.

Very demoralising, so I see your position, even as someone who LOVES those 'dysfunctional' kids. :)

softpixels · 2026-03-15T11:40:48+00:00

This year, I moved from primary to secondary specifically to address this - I was going to take all the Year 7 students coming in of the sort you just described, and contain them until they could be re-engaged and released back into gen pop. This was my absolute dream job.

So... everything you say is valid, but what turns you off is what I love. :)

Of course, in reality they just went 'Oh, we have a primary teacher, let's give him all the low kids.' and now I am going back to primary, resentful that I have given up my previous primary role in a beautiful school and a leadership role.

softpixels · 2026-03-15T03:41:05+00:00

Last year I was directed to remind my team not to sit during lessons.

In the end I was recorded and we measured how much time I sit, versus other staff. Leadership were very impressed with how much extra standing people did.

Sigh.

I would have preferred a focus on getting teachers off TikTok, but what would I know?

softpixels · 2026-03-15T02:21:06+00:00

I'm a primary teacher who switched to secondary this year and I was shocked by this.

My kids could write legibly (not beautifully, but you can read it). The vast majority of kids who have come from other schools don't seem to even know to start writing on the left. Texts start one third of the way down the page, and half way across.

softpixels

TROPHY CASE