Monthly Meetings.

The next meeting has been scheduled for Thursday the 10th of November, 2011. It will be held in the Wodonga South Primary School library, access via the entry to the main office.

The meeting time is 4pm - 6pm. Late arrivals and early departures are fine if necessary but sign-in sheets are kept as record of your PD time.

Tea, Coffee and snacks will be provided and entry is gold coin donation.

Help will be available to create accounts to access the members area on Skydrive and post comments on the Blog.

Please DO NOT use the 2 minute parking at the front of the school.

Please RSVP to Mel by Tuesday 8th October (Wednesday at the latest) so I know how much milk and snacks to provide.

wodongacrt@vit.vic.gov.au

See you there!
Mel

Activity report.

Network News:

Monthly meetings have been a recent topic and we recieved a lot of replies to the network emails. It is clear that we need to use both Wednesdays and Thursdays for meetings as it's a pretty even split. We will alternate between the two to allow everyone equal chances to attend. Whichever we get the most for by FRIDAY the 28th will be the day for November.

The topics for the first meeting will be:

• The network and it's structure, how it fits with VIT and DEECD.


• accessing the blog and skydrive and using them to their full potential.


• We will then use member resources on skydrive for a professional reading and discussion afterwards.


• If there's any time left it will be open discussion, socializing and swapping ideas for personal research and resources.

As soon as parking and a few other niggly details are rounded up we will announce firm dates and times.

We also added pages to the blog covering general CRT and Network information.

PD News:

In the last week we put down some miles on the PD front for 2012.

• eLearning - a couple half day workshops.


• Literacy - full day.


• Maths - full day.


• Sue King is also on the cards with a Visual Resources full day PD.

Emails have been going out to multiple places looking for locally relevant presenters in the last few weeks. This week we went through the replies and sent out some more emails.

Things are on-track to provide 4 x full-day PDs and some half-day PDs at under our budget for 2012. We should see the return of some old faces and a couple of new ones too.


Mel.

PD Activity Structure page.

Today we are adding a very important page to our blog. We believe it is of interest to our members, other CRTs in the Upper Hume region and Coordinators of other networks who might be struggling with members or PD seminar/workshop costs.

http://wodongacrtsupportnetwork.blogspot.com/p/pd-activity-structure.html

You can think of it as the "grand unveiling" of our plans for the future and what we are attempting to accomplish.

There ARE dangers associated with this plan but we are convinced that they are acceptable risks with minimal possible impact should anything go wrong. We have taken care to ensure that if anything DOES go wrong, it won't hurt the Network in any way. The worst that happens is we change our plans and do things a little differently!

The main risk is in one of the basic principles: Providing too many professional development opportunities leading to low attendance in some cases. This will still be seen as a success by VIT and the DEECD as long as CRTs are getting what they need from the Network. If everything is going well we can continue to provide too many opportunities or we can start to provide fewer.

However; we hope that the activites we provide and the way in which we provide them encourage you to obtain more PD than is required to satisfy VIT. In this case we win by becoming better teachers, schools win by getting access to us and (most importantly) local school children win as we are better prepared to meet the needs of each and every classroom.

Mel.

Welcome to Lauren Naldrett, our newest member!

Mel.

Blog: Issues with permissions resolved.

There was an issue with permissions on the blog causing some people to be unable to post comments.

This has now been fixed! I hope... Ok, no they aren't.... Alrighty, now they are!

Pauly the House Nerd sends his apologies.

Ok, our issues are fixed.

If you have any further problems this is a problem with Blogger. If you still cannot post comments, please log out of your google account and go to http://www.blogger.com/.

When you log in, do NOT check the "stay logged in" box. This causes issues with the way your browser handles the login cookie used to verify posts.

This should fix your problems! It should reset the way your browser handles the cookies for Blogger and work normally in the future.

Please note: Older posts were created with a different permission set and required authenticated administrators to post. These permisisons must be manually changed and we will reset permissions for posts back to the beginning of September 2011 so all can post. You may not be able to reply to posts submitted before this date.

The same issue is now also fixed on the PD information blog.

Please remember that we only allow comments on blog posts as standard. Pages may or may not allow commenting.

Mel and Paul.

Our online activities

Yesterday we put up a new page about how to be able to post on the blog and how to get access to member-only files on Skydrive.

http://wodongacrtsupportnetwork.blogspot.com/p/getting-online-with-us.html

If you require any help with this, please feel free to email wodongacrt@vic.vit.edu.au.

Pauly the House Nerd will get onto it as soon as he sees the eMail.

Mel.

Another new page.

Today we put up a new "MyVIT" page. It explains how we intend to approach MyVIT and Pdi program numbers to make your life easier.

This page is mirrored on our PD information blog as "MyVIT and our PD".

Mel.

New Coordinator Resources.

Today we added 2 new files to our Skydrive coordinator resources.

Starting a newtork 101 is intended to be helpful hints for new networks to help build their membership numbers and community profile.

We also uploaded a .PDF version of our "Network PD and VIT" page. This document is not locked so you can copy and paste from it or modify it to reflect your network instead of ours. You will need PDF authoring software to modify it but copy/paste will bring most formatting and pictures with it into Microsoft Word and other word processors.

Mel.

New Page.

We've had a word with Dawn Colcott at VIT about how the PD opportunities we offer go towards your Professional Development requirements for VIT.

Please see the new Network PD and VIT tab to see the full page.

Mel

Stuff.

We've done a few things in the last couple days.

We had a talk to Dawn Colcott about the CRT Support network, the things we do and how that fits in with your PD requirements for continued VIT registration. We are planning to add a no-mess, no-fuss page setting it out for you.

We did a lot of work on the second installment for the Coordinator documents on creating a blog. It's not finished yet but it will be soon!

We fielded a few emails from people looking to become members too.

Speaking of which, membership is going to change a little soon. There will still be no cost! Because we are putting member-only content on Skydrive we need to set up an access system. When we have it finalized we'll send instructions out to members on how to get access.

We also put some groundwork in on securing a room for monthly meetings to start up again. Hopefully we'll have it all arranged by the end of next week and meeting scheduled for November and December. They will be just like before, gold-coin donation to cover the Tea, coffee, biscuits and buns.

Mel.
Wodonga CRT Support Network Coordinator.

CRT Network Coordinator documents added to Skydrive.

Wishes have been expressed by other CRT Support Network Coordinators that we share certain kinds of resources we all use for running our Networks and PDs. Rather than email everything out we have placed the documents on our skydrive. These documents are kept in the CRT Support Network Coordinator Docs folder.

Please see the Skydrive tab for the web address.

Most of these documents are of little use to members but you are free to have a look if you like!


Recently added documents:

• AAA PLEASE READ FIRST.docx - a short note on document formats.




• Attendance Certificate.pub - The attendance certificate we use for PDs - Requires MS Publisher to use, not viewable online.




• PD registration form.docx: Registration form to be submitted to book a seat in a PD.




• WCRTSN PD Feedback Form.docx: The form we submit to DEECD ragarding PD attendee feedback.




• WCRTSN Starting a blog for your network.PDF: A short intro to blogs and how to create one on Blogspot.com. Part 2 of this document will follow.




• Interactive Whiteboard.docx




• Michael Ymer - mathematics.docx




• Sue King - Autism.docx

Mel.

Sue King PD success!

Yesterday we held the "Positive Partnerships" PD with presenter Sue King.

You can see a brief report here:

http://wodongacrtsupportnetworkpd.blogspot.com/

and see the new Sue King PD Multimedia page here:

http://wodongacrtsupportnetworkpd.blogspot.com/p/sue-king-pd.html

Mel.

Microsoft Office tab has appeared!

There is a new tab at the top of our blog with the second static page being added. Because CRTs aren't supplied with laptops by the DEECD this raised an issue for tomorrow's Professional Development Seminar. The digital resources contained a lot of PowerPoint presentations which are not too handy if you don't have the software to use them.

So after some research, the new page covers which Microsoft Office version you need as a CRT and an excellent alternative that can read most Microsoft Office file types including PowerPoint if you simply can't afford to buy Microsoft Office.

If you are attending tomorrow's PD and don't have Microsoft Office, DON'T DOWNLOAD THE ALTERNATIVE WE HAVE LINKED ON THE NEW PAGE. We have included the appropriate OpenOffice.org installer package with your digital resources!

Enjoy!

Mel.

About Us page now up.

We have started expanding the blog to include static pages that don't disappear over time as new blog posts go up. The first of these is the "about us" page giving basic information about how we were formed, what we do and how VIT and DEECD offer us assistance.

To allow people to easily navigate to these pages we have taken a tabbed approach. At the top of the blog tabs now appear and clicking them will bring up the static pages. We have current plans for 4 more pages that should be appearing in the next couple weeks.

It should allow us to "clean up" the blog's main page a little and keep important information in an easily accessible and permanent place.

Mel.

Changes to PD assessment for VIT registration.

First off, let us say that we don't have this totally sorted out for ourselves yet. It's changed twice in recent months and much of our research went out the window with the second change. Because we have so much going on, it's quite possible that you know more about this than we do.

What we have looked into closely is what it means for the network and our role in providing PD opportunities. What we'll deal with for now is it's effects on how the network needs to operate in order to provide adequate support for CRTs so they get everything they need to meet or exceed the new requirements.

The main change that concerns us is the change from a 5 year assessment cycle to a 1 year assessment cycle of our Professional Development activities. The change that concerns us most is the split of the required 100 hours over 5 years into 20 hours every year for full registration.

This has drastically changed our plan of attack for the near future. What we have done over the last year is to lower our efforts in some areas in order to devote sufficient attention to the new funding opportunities available to us from the Victorian Department of Education. Under a 5 year cycle we could afford to do this without damaging your chances to meet the PD requirements. This was because as long as we kept Professional development Seminars running we were still contributing to the hardest portion of the requirement to obtain. The need for PD from an Expert on the given topic.

We feel that this is no longer viable and resuming other activities is now required. Namely the monthly CRT Support Network meetings and greater attention to the blog. Some of you have expressed concerns that suddenly the Network became all about PDs and department funding. We want to stress that while this was true in the short term, something we felt was as necessary as it was disappointing, it was never supposed to be the long term state of affairs.

For us, the meetings and the blog are partly aimed at achieving the same goal; to provide you with resources to study for the individual and collaborative efforts of teachers to contribute to their own professional learning.

The blog's role in this is simple. We provide links to free online PDs, professional readings, other resources and the blog sites of other CRT support networks. The aim is to give you a gateway into searching out your own topics for study, hopefully having you arrive at a topic you not only learn from but enjoy reading about. In short, to get your PD requirements in the way that's most enjoyable for you and hopefully prevent it from being a chore.

The monthly meetings then allow us to bring what we've learnt to the table. We can share resources we've found, discuss topics with those of similar interests, share points of view and learn from each other. All in a social and enjoyable environment.

We feel that these are important opportunities for us to provide you with sooner rather than later now that we have been put under the gun.

Autism PD Bookings.

Bookings for the "Positive Partnership" seminar on Autism with presenter Sue King are now closed.

A huge thankyou to everyone attending!

PD formats for the future.

One big up-front note: The DEECD is NOT funding CRT Support Networks. They are providing funding for PDs specifically for CRT's, regardless of network affiliation, and using the network leaders to help distribute the funds with local input. DEECD funded PDs are open to all CRT's and what follows applies ONLY to DEECD funded PD's.

We have no intention of stopping with what we are currently doing to run a full-day PD with a nationally or internationally renown presenter. Local CRTs deserve that quality PD and the results from the Michael Ymer PD were unanimously positive. We are now also in the position to run these seminars in a very cost-effective way. There is no reason to stop going down that road. There are, of course, things we can do differently but we are not without restrictions.

There is a major barrier to the number of ways we can offer PD. One of the criteria to receive funding is that the PD be cost effective. This is assessed based on the cost per head to run the PD. This is required to be under a certain amount to receive the funding. Not only this, but part of the paperwork submitted afterwards includes the Cost per Head based on actual attendance. This means that non-attendance resulting in a very high cost-per-head will see the format rejected in the future regardless of the cost per head in the application.

PD formats ruled out on this cost-per-head basis I'm simply not going to discuss.

There is also a barrier contained within our ethics behind how we run PDs. We believe fully that you should be attending a PD because you think you are going to enjoy yourself and improve yourself. Filling in your PD hours for VIT registration should be the absolute last consideration on your list and you shouldn't have to give up something important in your personal life either. This not only means a variety of presenters but a variety of times and formats. It also means a high number of PDs.

The funding is not endless. We have a set amount per year to organise PDs with. PD formats that we consider too expensive are still discussed but the caveats on how expensive they are are included. The lower we can keep costs, however, the more PDs we can put on. It's that simple. What follows is our ideas on how to make sure we run the best PDs possible while keeping in line with the Department's value for money requirements.

There's 3 major costs to running a PD. There's minor ones too but they are generally easy to absorb into the "cost per head" equation.

1) Presenter costs. Presenter costs not only include running the seminar. They can also include travel costs, accommodation and meals. Resources supplied to participants can also come in this section.

2) Venue costs. These are the cost to hire an adequate venue with the facilities required by the presenter. This includes the space to fit the people attending, any Audio/Visual requirements and other considerations requested by the presenter.

3) Catering. Catering can be a big issue. If you use a venue, they often require that they also do the catering. They will have set menus for a set cost which they often refuse to alter as well as set prices that they do not negotiate on. Other venues allow us to source catering from any source we choose, allowing us almost complete control of the menu and the ability to bargain on cost. We are also not bound to use just one caterer. We can source the menu from a variety of places if it's in our best interest for Quality or Price.

As an example: We use Wodonga South Primary School wherever possible as a venue. It is a pleasant environment overall, has free parking and all amenities. It has a separate meal room with a warm and social atmosphere and outside seating if the day is nice enough for you to want to eat in the great outdoors. We can supply an urn and tea and coffee all day without paying an arm and a leg for it. It also has access to A/V equipment in the form of an interactive whiteboard and a portable projector. We pay virtually nothing for this venue as the school wants to support us in getting our PD.

On top of this we are free to source our catering from whatever suits us best.

As previously mentioned, it is a venue that allows us to get the best of both worlds. A nice venue and we can cover travel costs of presenters without breaking the Department's cost per head requirements. While the DEECD has assured us that regional CRT networks are allowed leeway because of travel costs we see no reason to push that particular envelope unless the PD in question is undoubtedly worth it.

When deciding on a format for a PD this all counts. If the presenter we want costs too much, the venue is stacking on the prices and the catering is costing us a fortune then it is very easy to see how we can easily over-run costs to a point where the Department will never agree on value. That being said, we can mix and match to suit. We can hire a venue and pay for catering if it's required, but that means getting a local presenter to eliminate travel costs so it all comes under that cost per head requirement.

This leaves us with an initial 5 possible PD formats. Keep in mind that we are always open to suggestions.

1) Non-local presenters at the Wodonga South Primary School on weekends. We obviously can't use the school during the week. This is about even with the cost-per-head requirement of funding criteria. Projected viable attendance, 25+.
2) Non-local presenters on weekdays. These will be expensive but depending on the venue and presenter it's viable provided a sufficient number of CRT's attend. Projected viable attendance, 30+.
3) Local presenters during the week. Without travel and accommodation costs this becomes much more viable. Projected viable attendance, 20+.
4) Local presenters on weekends. This is very cost effective because inexpensive venue and catering plus the lack of travel costs keeps us well under the criteria's value requirement. Projected viable attendance, 15+.
5) Local presenters for 3 hour PD's in the evening on weekdays or any time of day on weekends. We could use the school because the kids have all gone home. Catering doesn't include lunch, the presenter will be cheaper because it's only 3 hours, and travel costs will be minimal or non-existent. Projected viable attendance, 10+

Obviously we are not keen on option 2. By spending so much on one PD we are basically eating the money for an evening PD at Wodonga South Primary School. Just because we aren't keen on it doesn't mean we have ruled it out though, it just means we HAVE to have sufficient interest from local CRT's in order even start looking at organising it.

The other 4 formats are all completely viable in our opinion. Provided we balance the type we should see a large number of local PD opportunities that suit a wide range of people and everyone can get PD that's enjoyable and relevant to their specific needs.

Our current plan (and keep in mind that this is the current plan, not necessarily what WILL happen) is 1 full-day PD per term using a variety of local and travelling presenters. After that it's how many 3 hour sessions we can afford.At least 2 of the full-day PDs will be aimed directly at what the DEECD wants us to be educated about. We will use presenters selected and negotiated by the DEECD. The other 2 will be governed more by local needs. This may involve DEECD negotiated presenters or presenters negotiated by ourselves.

Half of the 3 hour sessions will be selected based directly on other presenters negotiated by DEECD. They will cover either part of the topics covered by DEECD presenters or approach the same topics in a different way. The other half will be selected more based on local needs.

Our email address is wodongacrt@vit.vic.edu.au and we encourage you to use it to ask questions or provide input. Remember that these are CURRENT PLANS only. We are open to suggestions from CRT's, full time teachers and school principals. Of course there's also the possibility that what we have planned simply isn't possible so changes would need to be made because of that too. As always, input is welcomed.

Mel.

CRT Support Network Leader meeting with the Victorian Department of Education.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011 was the latest meeting held by the Victorian Department of Education for the leaders of the Victorian CRT Support networks.

We think that overall it was a very positive meeting that discussed the relationship between the Department of Education, VIT and the Vic CRT Support networks. It did a great deal to clarify the roles of each party and how we all fit in together.

We also recieved some education and training regarding the application process, understanding application criteria, ideals on which we should run our PDs, ways to improve the PD selection to fit local needs and covered a lot of other ground. You'll be happy to know that our present plans are already all in line with all of this!

We feel confident that the education and open discussions of the day will solve the last of our teething problems regarding the applications for PD and we expect much smoother sailing from here on out!

Mel.

Follow us by eMail!

Some people have requested to have email updates for new blog posts so we have activated the feature.

The option is at the top right hand side of the blog.

Enter your email and click "submit"
Type the code into the box
Go to your email and click the link in the verification email
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Don't forget to mark the updates as safe in your spam filter!

How we keep our PD costs down.

To make informed decisions about the upcoming PD scheduling options, we would like to make you aware of a few things before hand. Today, it's why we run PDs like we do.


1) Adopting an Ethic.

Professional Development Seminars can be boring and take time away from other things we'd rather be doing or should be doing. In recent years this makes our regions PD attendance quite low compared to Metro because we simply don't have the CRT population like Metro does. To make matters worse, the other regional CRT networks are places like Shepparton, Mildura and Bendigo. It's not like CRT's can pop across to the next suburb in 20 minutes to attend the PDs run by a neighbouring networks. We simply can't pick and choose like Metro CRTs can without a lot of travel time involved.


This makes it crucial that our PDs are not only quality education but that the presenters are animated and enjoyable and the atmosphere is social and as fun a possisble. We think that if you absolutely HAVE to take time away from something else, you'd better enjoy yourself while you are doing it!


We also want to try and make sure that no-one ends up in a position where they "absolutely have to" give up something important in their daily lives. This involves making sure that as many opportunities are presented as posisble in a variety of ways at a variety of times. We are here to support CRT's not to inconvenience them.


2) Why CRT attendance at Professional Development Seminars is getting more important.


Last month VIT changed the way in which it assesses how much Professional Development is required to maintain your registration. It has gone from a 5-yearly cycle to a yearly cycle. What was happpening under the 5 year cycle is that people would do no PD for 4 years and then cram the 100 hours in at the last minute. They have decided that this is undesirable.


What they did was split the 100 hours into yearly portions of 20 hours. The same amount is required as before but it is now necessary to approach it on a more regular and consistent basis.


What they are looking for is a variety of activities from reading (books, visiting blogs, nings and other online resources), teaching-oriented discussions with peers and Professional Development Seminars. 50% of this (10 hours) must be gained from an expert in a given field and/or staff members who are providing exposure to research and resources from outside of the immediate school environment.


A Professional Development Seminar's duration is generally accepted to be 5 hours for a full day. This is the actual face-time where the presenter is standing at the front of the room giving the seminar. This means that realisticly most CRTs are looking at attending at least one PD seminar per year. This means that it's vital that we are able to run a large enough number so that everyone can attend at least one without ruining their other plans. If we spend too much on each PD seminar the number will be few and this won't happen.


Keeping the number of seminars up is vital to our ethic of doing things in a way that makes sure the maximum number of CRT's get the support and education they need. It is now also profoundly important that we supply sufficient opportunities so that all CRT's can comfortably meet or exceed VIT requirements for registration.


3) How all this effects the way we have been spending Department allocated funds.

Points one and two mean that the choices of Presenter, Venue and Catering are EXTREMELY important for us.


What we intend to achieve is this: Any Professional Development Seminar we run is as close to "a social day out with friends" as possible. We don't want you coming just because you need to clock up some PD time for VIT and your registration. We want to generate an atmosphere where you knowing you will enjoy yourself and getting your required Professional Development are equally important.


This means that the Presenter needs to be animated and enjoyable, the venue needs to be plesant and comfortable, the food needs to be tasty and look inviting. This should help those attending to walk away like they have been a part of something good rather than just attended an educational class.


Where spending money is concerned, this means a lot. We don't want presenters that are just there to teach. We don't want drab and sterile venues. We don't want food that looks or tastes like leftovers. This means that the cheapest is rarely the best.


So far all PDs scheduled have been full-day on a Saturday and we understand that this doesn't really suit everyone but there's reasons we have done that up until now. To understand why we have done it this way up until now you need to be aware of the major disadvantage Regional networks have over Metro Melbourne groups.


When you book a PD the presenter has a standard fee for doing the seminar. On top of this you have to add travel and accomodation for the presenter. You have to remember that these people do this as a business and it has to be worth their while. Travel costs can be either a set fee per kilometer, a set fee per hour travel time or both depending on how they travel.


On top of this it's unreasonable to travel for 3 and a half hours, spend 6-8 hours on the PD and then take 3 and a half hours to drive home again. This means you also have to supply them with accommodation and meals for up to 2 nights depending on the presenter.


These combined can make the price as high as $1500 above the cost of what it would be for Metro to put on the same PD. While the Victorian Department of Education has guaranteed us that travel costs won't result in funding being rejected for a PD, each network only gets a certain amount of money. This all adds up fast realisticly resulting in us being able to run fewer PDs than a Metro CRT Support Network can if we try to run them to the same format.


We get around this by spending less money on things like the venue and catering and doing the serving, cleaning and other similar activities ourselves.


Wodonga South Primary School supplies us with a venue at very low cost, complete with access to an interactive whiteboard, to help support local CRTs. They also give us access to a meal room with a wonderfully social atmosphere and everything else that would normally go along with hiring a venue anywhere else. Because it is not a conference venue, this also leaves us open to source the catering from anywhere which allows us complete control over where we get the food from and the menu. This allows us to "shop around" and get quality food at the best possible price.


What this allows us to do is essential to us getting the highest number of PDs possible. Putting the above together, the big problem with running PDs at any other time than weekends becomes clear. We have to pay for a venue and use the venue's catering. For a PD with 23 places + 1 presenter and 1 organiser it will cost an average of about $1400 dollars for the venue and catering.


As you can see, we are "trading off" the $1400 venue cost against the $1500 travel and accomodation cost to keep us on par with Metro in regards to the number PDs we have and their quality.


This has not been an easy thing to accomplish but we are proud that we are now in a position to keep the standard and volume of PD Seminars high for local CRTs.

Department Funding for CRT PDs!

Once we started drafting the next advertised blog, we found it was just getting bigger and bigger and it has forced us to change our plans. So over the next few days there will be a number of blogs laying the groundwork to bring you up to speed on some key topics. We feel that you need this information in order to make informed choices about how you want the network to proceed.

1) The funding and how it's divided.

In 2010 the Department of Education started a program where a pool of money was allocated to run Professional Development Seminars specifically for CRTs. Through discussion with the Victorian Institute of Teaching, they decided on an effective way to distribute and utilise the funds. The first step was to allocate these funds to regions based on the number of CRT in that region. This set the amount of funds to run PDs in each region.

Next they decided on who should be responsible for allocating these funds to run PD seminars. They utilised the currently running CRT Support Networks so the region's funding was divided again in equal portions based on the number of CRT Support Networks in that region. The leaders of the CRT Support Networks then became responsible for organising PD seminars.

2) Accessing the funding.

The funding is in the hands of 2 groups. The first is the CRT Network leaders who's job it is to organise the PD and apply for funding and the Vic Dept of Education who decide whether PD meets the criteria for recieving funding.

It's the job of the Network leader to talk to local Principals and find out what training they think local CRTs should have. They then have to look at what the principals say and see which areas might also meet the criteria for funding.

The next step is to contact presenters and get quotes on cost and a content outline for the Seminar. They then negotiate with the presenter on cost and content outline until they think it will be approved by the Department.

An application is then submitted to the Department and it is either approved or denied.

If it's approved, the CRT Support Network leader then goes ahead and books the presenter, sets a date, arranges the Venue, the catering, accodomodation for the presenter if required, etc. They are also in charge of advertising the seminar, taking bookings and getting bums on seats.

3) Recent Developments.

One of the drawbacks of the system is that CRT Support Network leaders are CRTs, not event planners and not management. This means some of us were having a hard time understanding the guidelines and submitting successful applications as well as organising everything else that goes hand in hand with running a seminar. This meant that some network leaders were doing the negotiation, submission of applications and all the other work that goes on with getting a PD to run, multiple times for each seminar that went ahead.

The Department has taken a couple of initiatives in order to correct these problems.

The Department has recently begun adding presenters giving preset content to a list. These presenters are guaranteed to be approved on base cost and the content to be delivered. Because venue, catering, travel and accomodation all add to this cost we don't yet know if it is an automatic approval provided it's reasonable.

However, regional CRT Support Network leaders have been assured that they will not have an application rejected because of travel and accomodation costs provided they are reasonable.

Note that it is not an exclusive list. We can still apply for funding for other Professional Development Seminars.

Secondly, they have begun to offer network leaders some training to deal with these issues and make the application for and running of PDs as quick and painless as possible.

4) Summary.

What this means is that the funding is allocated according to local needs as well as a set of guidelines made by someone 100's of kilometers away. It's a framework that makes sure that state-wide and regional needs are both treated as important. It's not without restriction though.

Although we have funding available we can't just run any PD we want using Department funding. There are guidelines in place because the funding was provided for training in specific areas so that's where it needs to be spent. We can tailor those to the specific needs of our region but we cannot go outside of them.

It also means that it's not a bottomless pit from which to draw funds. We have a specific amount of money to spend and how we spend it is directly related to how many seminars we get. The more we spend on each seminar, the fewer seminars we can run. For our network this means a lot of organization, experimentation and penny-pinching to make sure we get the absolute maximum out of this funding as possible.

Hopefully this gives you some idea of how it all works and what's been going on behind the scenes for the past year.

Mel.

Positive Partnerships Autism PD

The information for the Positive Partnerships PD with Sue King scheduled for Saturday 15 Oct has gone up. View it here:

http://wodongacrtsupportnetworkpd.blogspot.com/

There are a few seats left and we are accepting bookings until 4.00pm Wednesday the 12th of October.

A booking fee of $10.00 for CRT's and $30.00 for other teaching staff applies.

See you there!

Mel.

Digital resources and monthly meetings

Today we want to cover two important topics.

The first is to address the issues that some people have had accessing digital resources from PDs through eMails. To combat this we will not be eMailing out digital resources anymore in favour of more reliable ways to make sure you get them!

The first way is quite simple. If you have a Laptop, Netbook or flash drive, we will give you the resources on the day and you can simply copy the resources straight to your own storage device. This will ensure you have them right there on the spot. It's a little time consuming to do on the day but we will make sure it gets done! Getting it this way you will receive all the files ready to just open in your office suite!

Of course not everyone will want to be dragging around a laptop with them so we are going to make them available through Skydrive too. Skydrive is a free file hosting service attached to Microsoft online services like Hotmail or Windows Live Messenger. We took a while checking out different file hosting sites and Skydrive is by far the best for us to use. It's advertisement free and doesn't require you to install anything to use. You simply follow a link and download the file to your computer.

For those who missed out on the digital resources for the Michael Ymer PD, as well as those wanting to try out Skydrive, they are there now! Here's the steps for those who aren't familiar with Skydrive and .zip files:

1) Click the link below.
2) Click on the Michael Ymer folder
3) Click on the Michael Ymer.zip file.
4) SAVE THIS TO YOUR COMPUTER in Documents (called My Documents in earlier versions of windows).
5) Navigate to Documents.
6) Open the Zip File by clicking/double clicking just like any other folder on your computer.

You should now be looking at all the documents from the Michael Ymer PD. If you have ANY problems don't hesitate to email for some help!

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=0d641ad8750d17a5

You can bookmark this Skydrive because it's the one I will be using for all PD downloads. However, be aware that future PD resources may be limited to those who attended the PD depending on the wishes of the presenter. In this case you will receive a link to the skydrive and instructions on how to access the files.

Because some have expressed a download-limit concern for their internet accounts, these files will always be contained in a compressed file like this one. File compression reduces the amount you have to download and turns multiple files into a single file so you only have to download one thing. We will be using the .zip format for this and the reason is simple. Every version of Windows from XP and newer (Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7) can open zip files just like a folder once you have downloaded it. You won't have to download any extra software in order to be able to get your resources!

For PDs containing very large amounts of resources we are trying another approach. We have received funding from the department for a number of flash drives to use in our upcoming Autism PD because it's simply the cheapest and most reliable way to get the job done. You'll get a flash drive in your goodie bag containing all the files, ready for you to use! We see no reason why this will not be approved again in the future.

We hope that between these 3 solutions everyone's needs will be met and no-one will have any fuss getting their digital resources ever again! If you think these solutions don't cover you, eMail us! It's our goal to make sure that everyone is covered fully and has the access to the digital resources for the PDs they attend!

The second topic for today's blog is getting the monthly meetings happening again! We realise that people have busy lives and just because you are a CRT and finish work when school gets out, that doesn't mean you aren't taking your kids to dance, sports or whatever in the evening too. For this reason we don't want to schedule something like "the first Wednesday of the month at 6.00pm" which might ensure that some people are never able to come.

So what we'd like is for you to tell us when suits you. Of course you can't please everyone and it's unlikely that everyone will pick the same day and the same time. What we will try to do is if we have it on Wednesday this month, we'll use Thursday the following month for example. In rotating it like this we hope to make sure that everyone gets to attend a minimum of twice a year but are aiming at maximum attendance for everyone.

The purposes of the meeting will be to discuss the network and network issues of course, but we would like to get that out of the way quickly which is a big reason for making the blog more active. We want to focus more on ourselves as teachers, be able to compare notes on schools, trade resources, share information on new resources we've found (and anything else that we feel we want to discuss), all in a social atmosphere created by us for us.

We hope that by following this format we can do a bit of self education, vent some frustration, get ourselves some answers and have a social outing all at the same time!

The next blog:

In the next blog I'm going to cover social networking and the all-important scheduling of PDs. Be sure to check in and eMail afterwards to have your say!

Getting the network back into high gear!

The first thing to mention is how important it is to us that you have your say. A network is a group of individuals working together and we want to make sure everyone has sufficient avenues of input. We may be "in charge" of the network but we understand completely that we are nothing without a body of members. You are important to us and we would like to make it understood that, even though communication has been poor up until now, it was not without reason.

The simple fact is that running the network is a lot more work than it looks like on the outside. The Department is now funding PDs for CRTs and it's no simple thing to put together an application likely to succeed at getting the funding. It has been a long, hard road getting to the point where we know the process well enough to achieve regular success.

We watched other networks get caught out and end up in trouble from over-communication or have a series of rejections just because the application process isn't simple and often misunderstood, something we wanted to avoid. Communicating planned PD's and then having to pass on the disappointment to our members wanting to go to them was something we wanted to avoid at all costs. Rest assured, we have had applications rejected too!

With the success of 3 applications, and new automaticly-approved PDs arranged by the department, we feel we are in a good position to start letting you all in on what's going on a lot more frequently than we have been.

Also, because this process is now a lot smoother for us, we now have a lot more time for the other things we wished we could have been doing all along! As a result, there's going to be a lot going on with the blog over the next few weeks as we gear the network back up again.

So, while we are in the planning stage, where would you like to see the network go? We are aware of some of the needs of our members on things like PD scheduling which we plan to cover in a blog soon but what issues do you think the network needs to address to try and cover the needs of all of our members?

Our eMail address is at the top right of the blog, use it and let us know! If your ideas or concerns are similar to many others, you won't be sent a private eMail in reply. Don't despair though, that's because we will be covering it with the blog instead to seek out further feedback!

Tomorrow's blog:

Making sure everyone gets their digital resources from now on and the reboot of monthly Wodonga CRT Support Network meetings!