Derek McMillan

(I was not quite sure where to post this one to be honest) The St Valentine's Day NUT Reps Course will be at Field Place. <a href="Click here"> Veronica Peppiatt of the NUT National Executive Kevin Courtney of the NUT National Executive How to deal with * Disciplinary issues * Capability procedures * Sickness absence policy * Redundancy If you are an NUT rep and you are interested email wstalearn@yahoo.co.uk

Oh dear. What I mean is the link works fine but the page it goes to has a very small video window and I couldn't read the text which scrolled up it. I could hear the words however.

Unfortunately your link comes out rather small on my computer and I can't read it.

Defend Teachers Threatened With the sack for Antiwar Student Walkout BRIEF BACKGROUND: On November 16th, over 1,000 students in Washington State walked out to protest the war in Iraq and the presence of military recruiters in public schools. Students at Foster High School in Tukwila, Washington organized and 150 walked out, saying "Money for Schools, Not War." Foster students rallied at the school flagpole, marched down to the I-5 overpass, and then marched to the Tukwila City Hall. The march and rally were student generated and entirely peaceful. In reaction the Tukwila School District has done the following: · Suspended one Social Studies teacher, Brett Rogers, who supported his students in a student generated democratic movement · Threatened administrative action against five other teachers · Threatened to discipline students for exercising their First Amendment Right to free speech When Brett Rogers was asked if he had a personal stake in the war, he said: "It's an illegal war and my cousin is deploying December 4th, and I'm not happy about it." Please call and email the Principal and Superintendent now! Tell them they need to: 1. Reinstate the teacher Brett Rogers who has been put on administrative leave! 2. Drop the disciplinary hearings against all six teachers who face investigations! 3. Support the initiative and moral fortitude of students who took a stand against the effects caused by this war to their communities! 4. Take no disciplinary action against students who participated in the walkout! We request that you flood the school administration with phone calls and emails. Tell them to halt all disciplinary action against students and the Tukwila Six! CONTACT: Foster HS Principal George Ilgenfritz: (206) 901-7905 ilgenfritz@tukwila.wednet.edu And Interim Superintendent Ethelda Burke: (206) 901-8000, (206) 901-8006, burke@tukwila.wednet.edu Please send a copy of protest emails to us at tukwila.teachers.solidarity@hotmail.com so we can count how many protest emails have been sent in. If they refuse to answer your call, call Foster HS Assistant Principal Daryl Wright (206) 901-7902 and Foster HS Office Manager Darlene Aguiluz (206) 901-7915. More background information available http://socialistteachers.org.uk/weblog/200...s-teachers.html

If you are interested I have put a video about Socialism 2007 on youtube: http://uk.youtube.com/user/socialistteacher Actually if you are not interested it is still there anyway. My daughter's complaint? "Why didn't you teach me the words of the Internationale?" I am a bad parent!

Pimlico School Strike Action, Tuesday, November 27th Members of the National Union of Teachers at Pimlico School are taking strike action on Tuesday, November 27th because we believe 30 minutes is an unreasonably short lunch break for staff and students. Westminster City Council leaders told NUT representatives at a last minute meeting to try to avert the strike, that “there is not a compromise on offer here”. Hours before the meeting, the Council sent out a press release denouncing the Union. Clearly they have no desire to reach an agreement. The explanation given by the Council for the 30 minute lunch break is to manage the school during the two and a half year demolition and rebuilding of the school due to start in January. By keeping staff and pupils on site during what will be a difficult period, the Westminster will save £millions and they will earn even more by selling the site of a public library which they propose to move on to the School site. (They want to take away the School’s swimming pool to make room for this). Imposing a 30-minute lunch break is part of the process of forcing Pimlico School to become an academy. Both Westminster and Paddington academies, which opened in Sept 2006, tired to impose a 30 minute lunch break and it was only the threat of action by the NUT which won an extension for staff and pupils. NUT members understand that there will be problems managing a school on a building site for more than two years. However, we do not believe that staff and students should be forced to bear the brunt of this, especially given the fact that Westminster City Council is (as in the sale of the sites of North Westminster Community School) going to make a huge financial gain from the process. We urge the Council to come forward with serious proposals to help the school through this difficult time. We are taking strike action only very reluctantly – having already postponed it once to avoid disruption of a parents evening – and only after a long period of trying to negotiate a settlement. But we do not believe that staff and students should suffer in order to save money for one of the richest local authorities in the world. NUT members represent the majority of teaching staff at Pimlico. We are asking that members of other unions, including Support Staff, do not cover for work normally done by NUT members. We believe, that in the light of this, the Head should close the school. Padraic Finn Secretary, Westminster National Union of Teachers

Socialism 2007 was great for anyone who attended, which would include my daughter. Her complaint however was: "Why didn't you teach me the words of the Internationale?" Does anyone else have an opinion about Billy Bragg's updated lyrics? I think the idea of updating the Internationale for people who don't use the word "starveling" much in everyday conversation is a good one but one line seemed inapt. "Don't cling too hard to your possessions." put me in mind of the major crises of the Tsunami and New Orleans and Bangladesh (and a dozen others) where that line would not mean much to the victims.

Perhaps we need a new workers' party. http:www.cnwp.org.uk

If anybody here is on facebook (and you can pretend you aren't!) there is a facebook group for a street party when Thatcher dies. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2225383734 Personally I think a state funeral would be apt. The coffin carried by the families of former miners, a delegeation of the people imprisoned for non-payment of the poll tax and the widows of the Belgrano crew could be specially invited to ditch the bitch into the Thames. (local pollution regulations allowing)

The late Chris Woodhead was wrong to think educational theory is pointless. Everybody has a theory of education. The taxi driver who took me from Moodlemoot to Milton Keynes station certainly did. I won’t bore you with everything he said when he found out I was “one of those politically-correct nancy boys called teachers” but it would be no exaggeration to say he wants every classroom to be like a less pleasant version of Guantanamo “to teach the little c*nts to behave.” I don’t know how many of his passengers get in his cab and tell him how to be a cabbie. Perhaps a lot of them do which would explain why he is so bitter and twisted. I was not going to go into the detailed educational theory involved so I told him three things: I went to a school where the school bully was caned every week, sometimes every day. He went in a bully and he came out a bully with a sore backside. It did not help his victims. My brother went to a school where the cane was used much more often than it was in mine. The behaviour at his school was substantially worse than it was at mine by any measure. The opposite of his theory. I was caned for drawing a cartoon. It did work. I have never drawn a cartoon since. It was all anecdotal of course but better than nothing. The temptation after a tiring day was to let him have his say. If everybody does that he will assume everyone agrees with him, “even some ponce of a teacher I had in here the other day!” (Yes I know Woodhead is still alive but a man can dream!)

Well I am now the NUT Union Learning Rep for West Sussex which means I have been involved in interesting things like assertiveness training (OH YES I HAVE!) and of course ICT training. We even got an honourable mention in Learning Report Click here I still run a helpline for stressed teachers in West Sussex. We sometimes get calls from further afield. The most recent of these was from South Wales. This is all very flattering but perhaps other divisions of the NUT will consider setting up helplines! I still teach part-time at Sackville School in East Grinstead

Running a forum is a remarkably thankless task so I take this opportunity to thank John and Andy and offering the small consolation (such as it is) that every forum I have ever come across has had similar problems. This includes the old usenet forums many of which were unmoderated. However the forums do more good than harm.

Hotmail claims to reject all emails from my IP address. Being a curious soul I tested this by sending messages via my little-used hotmail account. They got through. If people will only be able to contact others using the same email provider the internet will become very difficult!

Hotmail claims to reject all emails from my IP address. Being a curious soul I tested this by sending messages via my little-used hotmail account. They got through. If people will only be able to contact others using the same email provider the internet will become very difficult!

The latest edition of Learning Report was launched at the TUC. It is an annual publication about Learning Reps and has a feature on West Sussex Teachers' Association and our use of the internet and Moodle. Click here for the whole report Click here to jump straight to page three!

I can hardly say I was surprised. However, every union member who draws the same conclusion tips the balance towards unions pursuing their own political objectives. An example would be setting up political funds not tied to any political party but used to pursue the political aspirations of the members.

Didactic is a good name as is "pedagogy". I suggest searching Google using any name you come up with in order to find out if anyone else has done so. Good luck.

If I am *indisputably* paranoid and confused you must have a lot of fun debating me I think inviting Thatcher was a calculated insult to the miners in particular and trade unionists in general and a growing number of trade unionists are drawing the conclusion that the union's political funds should not be used to support political parties but to pursue the policies of the union and the interests of its members. That is the likelihood of the establishment of a political fund by the NUT for example. A move which actually has the backing of Steve Sinnott who is notoriously soft on Brown and soft on the causes of Brown.

I am inclined to think that the Labour Party which I belonged to and which campaigned for social ownership, opposed war and corruption is actually different from the Labour Party which exists now and has reversed those policies. I remember when workers engaged in struggle would use the local GMC as their first port of call to seek support. Now they are more likely to be the general staff of the enemy.

It says it all really. They would be more honest if they didn't pretend to be two different parties. Labour, Tory both the same Puppets in the bosses game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8yf2Sl2eSo

The point about the working class is not that they are oppressed but that they can do something about it. They are far more powerful than they might think. The general strike of 1926 was a classic example. The workers were effectively in power but their leaders called the strike off because they feared the consequences. And in 1968 in France the same situation. De Gaulle recognised this. When the American ambassador came to present his credentials to the president, De Gaulle suggested he take them to the leaders of the general strike which was talking place. On the other hand Duclos took the view "one has to know how to end a strike." Lenin described the British working class as "lions led by donkeys." And usually led up the garden path at that

The talk I am going to give to the West Sussex Teachers reps course is previewed here. It is quite funny. IMHO

I always thought of Spartacus as the first socialist. Not because he has a rounded-out socialist program suitable for the 21st Century but because he established the idea that only the oppressed can do anything about their own oppression. If the poor of Venezuela or elsewhere don't take action to liberate themselves nobody has a vested interest in liberating them.

The poor cannot rely on *somebody else* to abolish poverty. Only the working class are going to do anything about it because as George Orwell succinctly put it "they cannot be permanently bought off." The role of the church in slavery is not all sweetness and light is it? Many Bishops supported slavery and condemned the abolitionists.

It hasn't happened and I cannot claim to be very surprised. In the nineteenth century there was appalling poverty and people reacted to it. they didn't react by holding a chamber concert and trying to persuade Gladstone and Disraeli to wear "make poverty history" wristbands. They said "you are rich because we are poor. We are poor because you are rich. We need to turn the world upside down." This is not exactly volume three of Das Capital but it is the beginning of a theory which could make poverty history for real. http://socialistparty.org.uk