Friday, March 30, 2012

PD and YOU.

Recently we've had more than one CRT talk to us about their PD issues and worries and it has become clear to us that there's quite a few of you out there who don't fully understand what "professional development" is and what VIT is looking for in your submissions.

This is generating a lot of confusion amongst CRTs leading to effects such as CRTs visiting any seminar or workshop they can regardless of the value they see in it OR not having enough PD simply because they have no idea where to start.

Unfortunately the VIT website is a little "technical" in the way it supplies information which many people find obscures the intentions behind requiring you to submit your PD.  Their documents, by nature, have to strictly set out what is acceptable.  This is ok but it lacks any explanation of why it accepts it, it's aim in accepting things the way it does, the overall aim of requiring you to seek out PD in the first place and those other little tidbits that most people need to fully comprehend what it is they should be doing.

Over the holidays we are going to take a little look at PD and hopefully clear up some of the confusion surrounding professional development.

For our interstate and international readers, this will largely revolve around the Victorian Institute of Teaching and what they require.  If you aren't in Victoria it might not hold as much relevance to you.  Keep in mind that we know you are there and over the coming weeks the plan is to make sure that most of our posts hold at least some relevance for you too!

Why require teachers to seek out PD opportunities?

This one is fairly simple to answer.

The face of teaching is changing all the time.  There are vast amounts of research being done every year on how different students learn and effective ways to transfer your knowledge to them.  New theories and practices emerge at a fantastic rate these days and requiring teachers to seek out PD keeps them up to date on these ideas, the research behind them and the types of practices they promote.

Simply put, the aim is to keep Victorian teacher practices and skills at a high level so they can provide Victorian Students with a world-class education.  In short, to expose you to thought provoking maeterial that will genuinely have a positive effect on how you approach your classroom.

It's not the spanish inquisition!

The logical piece of information to take away from that?  To understand that VIT requiring you to submit PD doesn't mean that they are out to get you!  While it is their duty to make sure that all teachers are continually improving on their practices (which is what requiring you to do PD is all about), they are very flexible and realistic about the sources of PD and the level of "proof" that they require you to supply.

You do NOT need rock-solid, third party proof for everything you do.  In most cases a personal reflection on the subject matter showing your understanding of the material, what you got from it and how you intend to use it to improve your teaching practices is all that is required.

All you need to do is show them how you are upholding the above intentions behind having you seek out PD opportunities in the first place.  

MyVIT online Portal.

Please keep in mind that I, like many others, don't have a MyVIT login yet so I can't give any fine detail on this at all.  They are coming over the next few months so we just have to be patient.  It's a big move that will benefit us all in the end.

PD for MyVIT comes in two broad categories; "Quality Assured" (Pdi programs)and "Self Nominated". (Teacher identified PD)

Some words from MyPD

Teachers are able to identify professional development activities that support or enhance their
knowledge and practice to improve the learning of their students.
Some examples of teacher ID professional development activities:
  • Teacher professional reading sourced from the Pdi website or through professional associations
  • Professional network meetings, professional learning team meetings held within or outside
  • the school
  •  School based in-service days
  • In school action research projects
  • Preparation for presentation to colleagues about professional knowledge and practice
  • (which will often occur on an in-service or curriculum day or as part of a team based meeting/seminar)
Quality Assured PD is any PD that comes with a Pdi "PASS" code.  These workshops and seminars have been put through the Pdi application process and verified as to their suitability for teachers to develop their professional practices.
"Self Nominated" is everything else. 

It is important to understand that no delineation is made between a workshop or seminar, a professional reading, collegial discussions, video, online articles, etc.  Either it has a Pdi PASS code or it doesn't.

The implications here are exactly as they are above.  VIT is providing you with an open and fair way to submit all of the PD you do without chaining you to certificates and material forms of proof.  They are displaying a flexibility in the submission process which acknowledges that the most worthwhile method for you to become a better teacher doesn't always come with a certificate or a reciept as "proof of authenticity".

As long as you always keep the original intentions in mind it should be fairly easy for you to decipher what should or shouldn't count as PD.  They DO expect you to be professional in your approach to their overall goals though.  Using the occasional staff discussion that made a light come on for you?  Those are excellent.  Using just your in-school discussions because they fill the 20 hour quota?  This is likely to be frowned upon without some pretty bulletproof reflections on your submissions.  They had that old 50/50 system for a reason and you should keep that in mind even though it's now going by the wayside.

It's not about the 20 hours a year, it's about exposure to ideas that will have a positive and purposeful impact on your teaching and the outcomes of your students.

The coming weeks;

In the next 2 weeks we are going to be looking at teacher PD in a little more detail.  If you would like to know what kind, simply look in the side bar of the blog.  We link a lot of different kinds of resources and many different topics as "launching points" into your own search for PD.  This is important to us and our next post should go quite a ways to explaining why.

Regards,

Mel.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Network Update.

Easter is almost here.

Everyone going away for the holidays, please drive safely!  Everyone staying home, please relax safely!

e5 PD bookings.

Bookings open tomorrow, Friday the 30th of March!  


Please be aware that we will NOT be reserving seats for non-travellers until they have paid their booking fee.  These PDs take money to run and the booking fees are essential to their running successfully.  While the DEECD fund the PD it is on a reimbursement / pay on invoice system.  The advance money from booking payments is required to maintain our current PD quality!

Up until now this has been coming primarily from my pocket and I regret that I simply can't keep doing it that way.

Captain Pete Literacy PD;

This PD will be held on Thursday the 19th of April (Thursday of the first week after the holidays).  Only 3 places remain!  Please email wodongacrt@vit.vic.edu.au to reserve your place!

The Blog during the Holidays.

My Holidays is one mostly of relaxation.  Apart from a CRT Network Coordinator's Meeting in Melbourne in the first week I plan on doing a whole lot of not much!

Because I won't be going away I will keep up with the blog.  If you are relaxing for the holidays I will be providing a couple of posts to get a little ahead on your PD if you find the time.  Otherwise it will be waiting for you when you get back!

Regards,

Mel.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Blog changes

Navigating between our blogs.

We have added tabs at the top of the page to jump between our 2 blogs.  On the main blog, the "PD Workshops" tab will take you through to our PD Information Blog.  On the PD information blog the "Main Blog" will bring you here.

Due to feedback we have also changed the background picture and colour theme of the PD Information to make it clearer which blog you are viewing.

PD Information Blog format.

We have changed the format of the PD Information Blog a little.  Because we have stepped up the PD timetable some will now overlap during booking.  Each PD will now get it's own page to prevent it from being pushed down the page or off the bottom.  The main portion of the blog will be reserved for announcements, booking status updates, etc.

Pdi Provider link.

You will now find a link to the CRT Networks Pdi Provider page in the "Websites of interest" group of links. This will take you to a page showing the PD Workshops from all networks that have Pdi approval and are being advertised through Pdi.  note;  this means the PDs listed are statewide, not just local.  As always ours are prefaced with "Wodonga" to make them easy to pick out of the list.

New Links List.

We have replaced an old text box with a new links list, "Resources".  This list is to be populated with all the stuff that "doesn't quite fit" anywhere else.  Here you will find links to kids art and music TV shows that I steal ideas from when required, children's educational gaming sites (all pre-approved by my 3 year old!) and similar places on the internet.

Regards,

Mel.


Sunday, March 25, 2012

Reflective Practice


Reflection is something every teacher does.  It just might take place in different forms.  It makes us more aware of our strengths and weaknesses as teachers and the learning outcomes of our students.  It also makes us aware of what we could do better, differently or need support or assistance in.  In my usual Youtube browsing I came across these;





Reflective Practice.  The more I watched, and read as I also looked at some articles, the more I realized that I didn't fully understand what reflective practice was. I didn't consider I did a great deal of reflection on my teaching, and what I did do was usually in conversation with other teaching or educational professionals and with my husband after the class.  I have learnt that, despite what I thought  I am always reflecting on my teaching and using the thoughts to adapt my practices in the classroom ALL THE TIME! 

As a casual relief teacher we are constantly learning as we interact with new classes and new students.  We are also continually reflecting as we adjust what we do in each new class and for each new student.  Not one day is the same as another, whether you have the same class of students for a week or a new class every day.  Reflection In Action (RIA) is a large part of our jobs.

Reflection is a tool that allows us to change course as needed so it not only makes our lives as CRTs easier, it assists us to become better teachers.  So take a small amount of time out of each day and reflect on your teaching (ROA).  You might be surprised with what you learn about yourself as a teacher!

While VIT wants us to reflect on Professional Development opportunities, a little reflection every day on your own performance is a great doorway into seeing what kind of teacher you really are!  Here are a couple of articles and another video that I found on reflection, feel free to take what you want from them and let the rest just fall away.


 

Regards,

Mel.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

The Space Shuttle!




This is a fascinating piece of video to introduce the science involved in putting people into space.  Imagine riding a Space Shuttle Booster Rocket from launch until splashdown.  No matter what your age, though it might be a little long for the youngest students, it's a pretty interesting piece of video!

The article where I found this on a website called io9.

Space Shuttle facts on the NASA website!

Length
Space Shuttle: 184 feet
Orbiter: 122 feet
Height
Orbiter on runway: 57 feet
Wingspan
78 feet
Liftoff Weight*
4.5 million pounds
Orbit
115 to 400 statute miles
Velocity: 17,321 mph


The speed of sound
768 MPH.  The highest speed shown in the speedometer is over 2955 MPH  (3.8 times the speed of sound).  The orbit velocity is 22.5 times the speed of sound!

Other related links;

NASA for Students! (USA grade levels K-4, 5-8, 9-12, higher education).

Hubble Space Telescope Page on NASA website.

Earth's Atmosphere on Wikipedia (yeah, wikipedia is bad, I know ;))

You can bring space into your classroom!  How would you do it?  Use the comments to leave us some lesson ideas!

Friday, March 16, 2012

Sharing of Resources - March Network Meeting



Wednesday night we held our March Network meeting at Wodonga South Primary School.  This meeting was set up out of discussion from the February Meeting on what Professional Development opportunities our network members were looking for this year.

I think Lyn summed up the meeting when she said "I looked at my watch and it was 5.05pm and then I checked again and it was a quarter past six.  That's what you call quality inservice."

Orginally the meeting was set up with the intention of sharing specialist resources.  LOTE, Art, music  etc.  As the session went on, the more and more we were able to connect games, activities and lessons from specialist areas to other learning areas, year levels and activities.

Sharing is an amazing way to learn each other's strategies, manipulate lessons to accommodate different age groups and even gain confidence in areas of teaching that we would not usually have a go at teaching.

From this meeting, a new set of links and activities have been gathered and these with either be added to the blog side bar or the skydrive for others to access.  If you didn't manage to make it to the meeting?  Please don't feel you need to miss out on sharing!  Send us your links and documents and we will get those up for everyone to access too!

I would like to thank those who participated in this very productive meeting by sharing their tried and true tricks, activities and strategies. 

Mel

Thursday, March 15, 2012

English and Additional Languages (EAL)

Something that was discussed at our February Network Meeting was EAL training for CRTs.  We have looked into this and made contact with the Hume Regional Office (thanks to Toni) to find out what is going on in this area.

We are sorry about the late notice as Applications Close Tomorrow - Friday 16th March 2012
 


Global & Multicultural Citizen Education

Professional Development 2012 - Hume region


A one day joint Professional Development Workshop:
Intercultural Understanding and Global Perspectives

Audience:  Primary and secondary teachers, curriculum co-ordinators, and leaders of Global and Multicultural Citizen Education in state, Catholic and independent schools.

Outcomes: Using a lens of Intercultural Understanding, attendees will have their knowledge of Global Perspectives, through All of Us and Global Education Projects to enable transference into the VELS, Australian National Curriculum and wider school community.

Presenters:      Lindy Stirling, Senior Project Officer,
                                                Multicultural Unit

                                 Megan Bourke & Marilyn Snider, 
                                                Global Education Project

Venues & dates:              March 26th - The Seymour Room, Mitchell Shire
                                                Offices
                                                March 27th - Professional Learning Centre,
                                                Wodonga Primary School
                                                March 28th - The Presentation Room, McGuire College
                                                From 8.45am (registration) to 3.30 pm

Cost:  No cost - Attendees will receive resources for immediate use in the classroom.

Registration:   Further information is available on PD Online open now.
Please register promptly as places are limited and registrations close on March 16th.

Contact:  Amanda Prescott-Smith, Senior Programs Officer, EAL & Multicultural Education ph: (03) 5761 2124 e-mail: prescott-smith.amanda.j@edumail.vic.gov.au


Note; This is not a Wodonga CRT Support Network PD.  It is put on by "Global & Multicultural Citizen Education Professional Development 2012" for all hume region teachers.  

Regards,

Mel.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Ice Breakers!

Ice Breakers.


As CRTs it is imperitave that we walk into a classroom and grab their attention, fast!  If you can do it in an interesting way the students are far more likely to bond with you and motivate themselves to fly headlong into their work.  Even more than regular teachers it is important that we have a handle on a good variety of icebreakers to help us do this time and time again.

Here's an interesting read I found on what Icebreakers can do for you in the classroom;


From my own perspective; research has shown that Icebreakers allow students to become mentally and emotionally invested in their teacher, their class and their school (just like that PDF says).  This has a very positive effect on how well they behave and the effort required on your behalf to engage them in their lessons.

Ice breakers work on the same sort of principle as a reward system from a slightly different angle.  On the reward side of the scale a student will do the work to get the prize and many reward systems are aimed at finishing first, doing the best, etc.  When a student becomes mentally and emotionally invested the majority of the reward comes from the self-satisfaction on doing as good as they can.

While some students will most certainly be faster or "better" than others, the reward becomes relative to their own abilities.  It also becomes relative to their own values.  A simple "well done" with a smile can be a fantastic reward for a student if they think they are getting it for finishing first with their usual standard of work.  Likewise it can be a fantastic reward for a child used to finishing last with substandard work to everyone else.  The "well done" means they have improved and encourages them to do better again next time.  It's a reward that recognises that you don't have to be the first or be the best to have done something good.

Setting yourself up for this kind of self-governing system requires the initial emotional investment to be there and Icebreakers are the first step in making it happen.


Raiding my browser's Favourites bar in no particular order here's some Icebreaker ideas I've found in the last year or so;



and saving the best for last;


Of course many of these are more suitable for full-time teachers rather than CRTs.  As a full-timer you can afford to spend a large amount of time on icebreakers up front.  Once they have the students once they have them tomorrow and next week too so they can spend more time building a more permanent bond.  We are a little more under the gun and have to grab the class quickly so they get through the lessons they need to for that day.  There's quite a few here that you can just pull out of the bag and do quickly or incorporate as part of a lesson so you aren't taking away from their "learning time".

Use your discretion and pick the ones that appeal to you as much as you think they will appeal to studentsIt will help them identify with you as a person as much as you as a teacherThat personal touch is what it's about in my experience!

Regards,

Mel.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Workshop - The E5 Instructional Model

We are happy to announce our newest PD opportunity, a workshop on the e5 instructional Model with Kate Hornsby and Melanie French.

This will be a full-day workshop (Pdi approval pending - 6.5 hrs).  The Venue is the Wodonga South Primary School and it will be a catered workshop.

Bookings open Friday March 30.  You can find full details here;

http://wodongacrtsupportnetworkpd.blogspot.com.au/p/e5-instructional-model-with-kate.html

Regards,

Mel.

Student Engagement

As our members may have guessed by now, through attending our PDs, we place a high priority on teaching methods revolving around student engagement.  There are many studies floating around out there showing statistical links between successful Student Enagament and improved classroom behaviour.  Google will show you many if you look and sometimes it seems like the "new fad".

My Personal Story.

Many of you may know that in 2011 I spent a half a day a week in a Special Development School teaching Literacy.  For some of you this may sound like a nightmare and, believe me, for a little while there it was!  I spent a lot of time concentrating on student behaviour techniques up front to try and come to grips with my VCAL class.  This turned to student engagement as I slowly found ways to  keep the students busy and focused so they had far less "idle" time to think up new ways to misbehave.

"New fad" or not, student engagement works as a way of reducing classroom misbehaviours!   On a personal note, there is nothing like walking in the front gate of a school, seeing students just brighten up because they know they are in for an afternoon of literacy lessons!

The strategies I learnt when teaching that class works in mainstream schools too.  I am able to take on the most difficult classes with minimal fuss compared to many other CRTs.  Occasionally I even get reports back that students were disappointed when they found out they didn't have "Mrs L" while their teacher was away!

So I thought for this week's content-related post I'd steer you towards all the things I read and watched in my journey figuring all of this out!

Student Engagement Articles.

 I have always found that the best way to learn about things isn't to try and find any one particular document I agree with and stick to it.  I like to read widely and just let all the different things I agree with stick and let the rest drift away.  It's led to my own particular style which suits the way I function as a teacher, and relate to students, down to a T.  It makes me somewhat unique in the classroom which the students find engaging in itself!

Here's some of the things I've read or watched over the last year or so which I found quite useful in understanding how to use student engagement to improve behaviour and learning in the classroom;





These articles or videos are nice jump-off points and many have additional links in their sidebar to continue on with.

Types of Learners.

The other thing that has really helped me to grab student's attention is to learn to identify the different types of learners and how to best convey information to them.  Understanding just the basics of dealing with Visual, Auditory and Kinesthenic learners helped me to present information in a way that keeps them all engaged and focused on learning.


A small piece of wisdom.

Here's a quote I found that I live by;
Individuals diagnosed with learning disabilities are not "stupid." In fact, to qualify as having a learning disability, you must have average intelligence. This means that you have to be at least a little bit smart.
Never forget this.  If you do, what you will end up with is students, not just a student with learning disabilities, using their underachievement as a weapon.  A weapon against themselves, a weapon against you, a weapon against their classmates.  They will use it to justify their lack of input and effort.

Get at that "smart".  Find the way to prove to them that they DO, in fact, have smart in there somewhere.  Students thinking that they are chronicly "stupid" is one of the biggest roadblocks to student engagement.  Find out what engages them.  Use it in the classroom.  They will begin to understand that they can do it.  Through that they will begin to want to.
Mel.



Wednesday, March 7, 2012

New Links List

Today we have created a new links list.  This list contains Youtube channels we find useful, informative or inspirational to teachers.  To start with we searched out a few channels on separate and distinct topics like Physical Education, Maths and Literacy.  As usual we will be adding to this one over time and invite the input of everyone who frequents our blog!

During our search we found something I found helpful and inspirational (on the SEDL channel we have linked) which I would like to share with you today:







This neatly wraps up everything we are about as a network.

The DEECD wants us to change the focus from our teaching to the outcomes of students and are supplying us funding to train us to do just that.  The Video explains a little about the research behind why they think this is the best approach from which to fun PD for CRTs.

Collegial Relationships were what I wanted to generate by running a network.  So often as CRTs we are left out in the cold whether it be because we are constantly "outsiders" if we work in many schools or are "just doing someone else's lesson plans" if we are replacing someone who is ill.  Through these some of us were being left on the fringes where mentorship, collegial learning and old-fashioned emotional support.are concerned.  I wanted to help with these situations as much as possible.

VIT wants us to reflect on our Teaching and Professional Development so we can incorporate it into our teaching strategies in constant self-improvement.

In the future we will be pulling more highlights from the Youtube channels we link to.  Do you have some favourite teaching Youtube channels?  Start putting the information in these videos to use and share them with us in the comments!


Mel.

Links from Sandi

Sandi Hunkin has sent us some links that she's found helpful in her online research and thought some of you might get something out of them too!

Here are a few websites that I thought might be of interest to CRT's/relief/subsititute teachers as we are also called:

http://learningcurve.global2.vic.edu.au/2009/01/09/relief-for-relief-teachers/ - Article - Relief for Relief Teachers and other ideas listed

http://www.teacherrelief.com.au/resources.htm - some free resource info etc

http://users.erols.com/interlac/subtch.htm - Packet for Substitute Teachers (USA) website, some of this still applies, resources, ideas etc

These are the ones that I have found and remembered to mark as favourites.  Hoping that someone might find them useful.

Thanks Sandi!  Keep them coming everyone, the more the merrier!

Regards,

Mel.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Literacy Workshop - Peter Klein

We are happy to announce our next Workshop;  "Creativity Knows No Boundaries" with local author and presenter Peter Klein (Captain Pete)!

This will be a 2.5 hour after-school workshop on Thursday the 19th of April, 2012.  It will include writing concepts and more hands-on activities through Writing, Drama and Music.

You can find out more by visiting the page for this PD here.

Regards,

Melinda Lichnovsky-Klock
Wodonga CRT Support Network Coordinator..