Hi everyone and welcome to our EDM8004 blog site. As you may have seen in the Assessment area on StudyDesk, our course is going to help pilot a new ePortfolio platform (CampusPress) this semester. I am excited to be doing this as I will be learning alongside you, developing my own ePortfolio using the same platform.
As part of the trial, I thought it might be nice for us to have a place to share our thoughts about each week’s Industry Presentation. This goes beyond the assessment task, to actually talking about the implications of each presentation for you as a beginning (or soon to be beginning) teacher.
This week’s presentation was by the two education unions in Queensland. The QTU supporting governmental school teachers and the Independent Education Union, supporting those in other schools.
I was a QTU member throughout my career. For me, it was insurance against litigation. However, for me as a young teacher and someone not politically minded, I had always seen unions as a bit unsavoury and militant. Having said that, I most certainly benefited from the union’s cause and saw a raft of improvements due to their influence.
As a principal though, I was sort of caught between a rock and a hard place. When there were strikes, for example, someone had to be at school to look after the students that came in. I also had a young family and mortgage and could not afford to lose a day’s pay.
I’d love to hear your experiences and opinions. Please reply to this post if you would like to join the conversation.