Belvoir Special School Fund Raiser

Hello everyone, 

Please find attached a ‘mock’ race guide which has important information regarding Belvoir's Auction fundraiser on Sat 25^th February 2012.

The Auction will include live auction items such as a solar panel system + installation, a quilt, a bed and breakfast in Falls Creek and other items will be included in the silent auction throughout the day.  Belvoir will also receive 10% of ticket sales. 

This Race Day event is a ladies luncheon (men included) where a two course meal and all the wine and beer is included (sponsored by Sam Miranda) for $110 per person.  On the pamphlet you will find gate open times and a free bus schedule of pick up and drop off points.

 

Ask your friends and family and make it a social event of the year.  It would also be a good opportunity for businesses to use it as a staff team building event.  Belvoir can get pamphlets to you if you would like some.

Naturally there will be horses racing that day with live feeds of the Blue Diamond Colts and Fillies Race as well as the star attraction of the day “BLACK CAVIER” who will also be racing that day at Caulfield.  She will be running for her 18^th win at Moonee Valley on February 27^th Australia Stakes and her 19^th win at the Futurity Stakes at Caulfield.

Come along, you do not need to like horses, but who doesn’t like a good drop of local Australian wine?

Let Belvior know and they can get a table together or if you can organise a table even better!

belvoir.wodonga.sds@edumail.vic.gov.au

Hello everyone!

It's time for a weekly round-up.

First of all we would like to say hello our two newest members, Toni and Karen.  Welcome aboard!

Our first PD for the year is announced and the first meeting is organized. Judging from the blog views, membership enquiries and rate at which the Michael Ymer "hands on maths" bookings are coming in it appears we aren't the only ones gearing up early.

We are happy to announce that our second PD for the year has been approved.  This is the second approval out of the 4 planned DEECD funded full-day PDs for 2012.  There will be more information for this one at a later date, it is a fair way off yet, we just wanted you to know we are still going full steam ahead and everything is right on track.

We have also received offers from some of the more experienced of our members to do something similar to the "mini PD" presented by myself at the December monthly meeting. I would like to make it clear that most of these offers came in before I ran the one in December, not because I started a trend.  The offers were made off of their own bat, not knowing anyone else was doing the same, as genuine efforts to support fellow CRTs.  We have some wonderful members and I would like to thank them all!  We will all see who they are in the coming months at our meetings ;).

We are also talking to guest speakers on various topics for short presentations followed by open discussion/Q&A time.  None of these are set in stone though so we can't promise anything will come of it, but we want you to know we are working on it ;).

We have also left time open, for both PD workshops and monthly meetings, so that we can take the results of February's meeting into account and go in the direction we need to go.  We hope to cover the basics we have been covering as well as provide more specifically targeted activities that we all agree are needed.

It should be a full and fruitful year for us and we look forward to seeing you all.

Mel.

We have been asked to pass on information about an upcoming PD opportunity on Thursday the 16th of February at the Commercial Club in Albury.

"Building Sensory Bridges; Motivating the person with ASD to Communicate - an evening for parents, educators and carers."

 It will run from 7.00pm to 9.30pm and the cost is $40 for parents and carers, $50 for professionals.

Thanks to Tammy for the heads up!

We would also like to point out that this is the same date for our February Network meeting though that should finish up in plenty of time to get to the Commercial Club for the start of this seminar. As usual, we don't mind you leaving the meeting early in order to make the seminar.

On that note,


We are bringing a new format to how we give out information on monthly meetings.  Rather than just announce it in the blog and let it descend, we are going to give each month's meeting a separate page and then remove it when the meeting has been run.  This allows everyone to find the information without hunting for it.As usual we will make an announcement when the new page goes up.

February's page is now up!

http://wodongacrtsupportnetwork.blogspot.com/p/february-meeting.html

This is an important one so please read the page carefully.

Mel.

We would like to add a reminder to our PD announcement for those subscribed to this blog but not the PD information blog;

Network membership, to either the Wodonga CRT Support Network or another VIT sponsored CRT network, is not a requirement to attend any of our PDs that are funded by the DEECD.

They are, and will remain, open to anyone described in the announcement regardless of network affiliation!

We would also like to address something else that has come up, the issue of people that travel to PDs, only to find that we are putting on the same PD at a later date.

We devised a simple set of rules to avoid possible pitfalls, rule 1 being the most important;

1) Never announce a PD before it is approved by the DEECD or funding body.
2) Never announce a PD before all necessary bookings have been made (presenter, venue, catering etc).
3) Open bookings 6 weeks prior to the PD if at all possible.

In some cases this is likely to give rise to the situation where someone travels to another network for the PD only to find that we are running the PD in the not too distant future.  We apologise for this but there are certain things that MUST be avoided at all costs.

Please be aware that this does not stop us from announcing a PD has been approved and which term we intend on holding it in.  If we can give more than 6 weeks notice we will attempt to do so if at all possible.  Exact dates will not be announced and bookings will not be opened at that time.

When bookings for any PD are being accepted all members will receive an announcement via email and both blogs will announce that the PD is open for booking.

Regards,

Mel.

Hello everyone,

Today we received approval for the first of our 2012 PDs;  

Hands on Maths with Michael Ymer.

It will be held on Saturday the 3rd of March 2012 and bookings are now open.  You can get all the relevant details from our PD Information Blog:

http://wodongacrtsupportnetworkpd.blogspot.com/

This will be a Workshop style PD with hands-on learning and activities. It is Pdi approved and will be 5 "Verified PD Hours" for VIT requirements to maintain your registration.

Remember that you can include the reflection time, as well as the time writing your reflection, as well as these 5 hours!

If you attended last year?  We can happily announce that Michael has varied the content from May 2011's PD.  It will be worth while attending even if you were at the last one, while at the same time being perfectly suitable for those who have never attended one of Michael's PD's before!  We thank Michael for his flexibility and willingness to help us squeeze every ounce of benefit out of his workshop for as many of us as possible!

As usual the cost for CRTs will be a $10 non-refundable booking fee.  The non-CRT Teaching Staff booking fee is $30 (also non-refundable and payable regardless of attendance).

All other costs (presenter, catering, venue, etc) are funded by the DEECD's Casual Relief Teachers Professional Learning Support Initiative and WCRTSN funds. 

Regards,

Mel.

Hello everyone

We hope you had a safe and happy Christmas/New Year!

First I would like to remind everyone that we are taking a break for January but Monthly Meetings start up again on the 16th of February in the Wodonga South Primary School Library.

We also had a bit of a setback with a PD in that it didn't get approved before the holidays.  We will have to wait until the DEECD is again open for business but we have every confidence that the Term 1 PD will be approved!

Also a message to all you recent Teaching graduates, especially those of the local Charles Sturt and Latrobe Universities.  Congratulations! 

We know that it's everyone's hope to get full time work right off the bat but that doesn't always happen.  Becoming a CRT and joining your nearest CRT Network is an excellent way to generate some extra income.  It's also a great way to get teaching experience / extra training to pad out your resume with and get your PD hours for your VIT registration.

We encourage all of you to look up your local CRT network and take advantage of everything they are offering whether you plan to stay a CRT or move on to permanent / full-time positions.

Enjoy the rest of your holidays everyone!

Mel.