Why did we make a booklet for CRTs?

So. Why would we embark on a project like the guidebook to becoming a desirable CRT? Well first, of course, is that these are things that every CRT deserves to know. When you get a lengthy contract in a school they sit you down and go through all the things that are expected of you, give you advice about how to achieve these things and then usually assign a mentor to provide ongoing support.

CRTs often just get a list of "dos and don'ts", told which programs the school uses and that they should follow them and then just get thrown in the deep end. Sink or swim. That, in my opinion, is neither fair nor the best way to go about things with regards to school community and student outcomes.

The second is tied up with the following document and EVERY CRT should read the first paragraph:

http://www.vit.vic.edu.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/SPLC_AARE_The%20Professional%20Identity%20of%20Relief%20Teachers.pdf

Dawn Colcott is my personal hero for writing those words and if you ever run across her you should introduce yourself to her and thank her from the bottom of your heart for saying it (and say hi from Mel in Wodonga!). We are NOT lesser teachers, we deserve to be respected and we shouldn't have to feel isolated just because of the way our work moves us around. In fact I often refer to us CRTs as "Specialist Teachers" and I have plenty of evidence to prove it.

That is just the tip of the iceberg and yet there's not anything much out there that actually tells us what our job actually is. Even many CRT agencies lack anything specific and it's their job (and in their best interests) to make sure you know exactly what your job is. Those agencies that DO have these sorts of resources jealously guard their documents because they are a business that relies on having "better CRTs than anyone else". While some most certainly "are in the know" many others just assume that, because we are "lesser teachers", it should be simple to just instinctively know what our job is. Well, most of us figure out within our first couple of days worth of work that it's sort of not that simple. The information is so bare and/or exclusive that I felt moved to make a video for Network members (and anyone else who stumbles across it) to describe it.

Yes, I get flustered in front of the camera and that's one of the reasons we moved along to a booklet ;). The booklet, however, is the natural progression of that video in both content and purpose. Content is obvious, we put more stuff in, but what about purpose? To start to blow the doors off of the insular and restrictive practices that contribute to the professional isolation Dawn Colcott is telling us about in the first paragraph of that paper.

It's also to target this notion of us as "lesser teachers". We aren't "lesser" anything, let alone teachers.  Although outside people have been given a look at this document it is almost 100% the product of CRT knowledge and skill (I made my husband do some of the typing when work got busy :P). Companies pay professionals thousands upon thousands of dollars to produce booklets of this type. Researchers, specialists, surveys, writers, editors and so on.

We did it under our own steam with all the stuff we already knew.

This booklet is the work of CRTs spread across the now defunct Hume educational region of Victoria (which is now mostly part of the NEVR educational region). A stretch of geography that amounts to about 1/5th the area of Victoria. It shows what can be achieved despite the perpetuation of the isolationist ideals still dominating CRT work in the Victorian education system. Imagine if the barriers in our way were removed... What could we achieve?

We wanted to produce something that would show the world that CRTs are a collective that are willing and capable agents of positive change for the Victorian education system. Despite the handicaps of being considered "lesser teachers", despite the isolation, despite the graduate pay, despite a whole lot of things... Just look at what we have achieved. 

It might seem like a small thing to some until you consider that it's by CRTs, for CRTs, for no other reason than to benefit fellow CRTs.

The motto for the Wodonga CRT Support Network is "Individually Unique, Together Amazing!"  I believe that is true with every ounce of my heart and every shred of my soul.  In my five and a half years as a CRT Network coordinator, interacting with literally hundreds of Victorian CRTs, I have never seen anything that shakes my faith in that motto.

CRTs are deserving of a higher level of support from our governing bodies and we just added one more piece of solid evidence to the growing pile that shows everyone that it's in their own best interests to give it to us.

Congratulations each and every one of you.

Mel.