This week’s sessions are provided by members of the Capability and Integrity Unit (formerly Ethical Standards) of the Department of Education. In general terms, as a teacher, you do not ever want to hear from these guys. It means you are in strife.

There are two distinct topics this week. The first looks at how teachers use social media and what is and is not appropriate. Some might think these topics somewhat obvious. Data would disagree. Social Media is the leading cause of investigations in recent years.

I look back and thank my lucky starts that there was no such thing when I was a beginning teacher…Yes, I have been teaching THAT long. In fact, even now I have a very limited social media presence and post to that platform rarely. If you must have it, you need to look very carefully at what it portrays about you and how parents and students might perceive your social media presence should they find it. What did you take from this session? What are you unsure about? What steps are you going to take or have you taken?

The second part of the session is around obligations of state school teachers with respect to the Code of Conduct for Queensland Government employees, and the Standard of Practice that helps contextualise this broad document for teachers.

What areas were news to you? Which ones concern you or do you feel may impact you during your career?

For most of you, the ultimate aim of undertaking your Master of Learning and Teaching is to gain employment as an educator within your selected field. There are, of course, exceptions to this and other reasons for wanting to gain a qualification as an educator.

Rather than discuss the particular ideas put forward about resumes and interview skills discussed in this presentation, I would like us to talk about being ’employable’ more generally.

What do you think being employable means?

What strategies can you or have you put in place to make yourself more attractive to potential employers?

What are some of the enablers and barriers that you can see to gaining your first teaching position?

How might you either maximise the enablers and minimise the impact of barriers?

I am very happy for the conversation to explore and go beyond these initial questions.