Unregistered at last

It's official. I am no longer eligible to teach in Scotland - I have the letter telling me so. I thought it was time to give up any pretence that I might one day feel the need to re-enter the classroom; in the past four-and-a-half years I have not been even remotely tempted. I stayed registered during that period, I suppose, in case boredom or penury should prove too much for me in my retired state, but it has not been so. The letter from the GTC thanked me for the time I have given to the teaching profession in Scotland, and wished me well for the future.

I take heart from their assurance that I still have a future, but today I was reflecting on the past, for the setting up of the GTC coincided with my time at university, when I was already sure that I would teach. Before that, I remember the dreaded "non-certificated" teachers who occasionally made an appearance in our classrooms, usually in times of prolonged staff illness. They never lasted, and even as teenagers we knew they didn't quite cut it. The GTC, I reckon, has been A Good Thing. And like all good things, for me, it has come to an end.

The Devil's web?

Caught a news item on Radio Scotland this morning, discussing the GTC's newly-launched Code of Professionalism and Conduct. The discussion on the radio gave the distinct impression that the entire document was devoted to the perils of social networking and online contact, and it was only the comment by the last speaker - a teacher - which would lead you to think otherwise.

In fact, the guidelines are what anyone would expect; the three bullet-points devoted to new technologies merely reinforce accepted practice within a new medium. For example, when talking about being alone with a pupil the guidelines now add

using common sense and professional judgement to avoid circumstances which are, or could be, perceived to be of an inappropriate nature. This is also the case in
connection with social networking websites ...

So no change there. But coming on the back of last night's Panorama programme, of which I caught only the last five minutes, I have a horrid feeling that a number of people both in and outside the profession will be reinforced in their perception that Web 2.0 is of the devil.

And meanwhile the young will be getting on with it, as usual, with or without the guidance that informed teaching can give.

Glaring Technical Codswallop

One of the features of being a retired teacher is the requirement to do something about staying registered - something I still do lest I am overcome by penury or boredom. And so it was that in the last couple of weeks I received two missives from the GTC, one informing me that a direct debit was being taken for this year's sub and therefore I need do nothing and the second informing me that I had to pay £40 by the end of May. The trouble arose from the opening sentence of this second letter:

You may recently have received a letter with regards to a Direct Debit being deducted, please ignore this letter.

I quote this verbatim primarily for the delectation of my more pernickety readership, but I must confess that I rang the contact number on the letter to complain, Meldrew-fashion, about the slight ambiguity and the far-from-slight horror of the sentence. I did ask the very civil chap at the other end if he would like me to take time from my retired life to come and teach English to his minions, and I'm afraid I pointed out that this was supposed to be a council for "maintaining and enhancing professional standards" (if you enlarge the screenshot you'll see this claim from their site).

He promised that they would try harder, and we both laughed. But I bet he's away looking up "comma-splice" somewhere.