That being said there's another aspect to being a CRT Network Coordinator which is the opportunities it offers for the advancement of your own career. Keeping this aspect of the position in mind as I progressed, and watching for opportunities to appear, I have been able to take more than one step forward. First and foremost I am a career CRT, and I love being a CRT, but let's face it; as a CRT we often have some downtime that we could be filling with other pursuits.
Still, even if you intend to move on to full-time work there are still many distinct advantages.
First and foremost it is a fantastic opportunity to improve your people skills. In the 6 years I have been a CRT Network Coordinator I have liaised with colleagues, schools, VIT, the DEECD, the AEU, workshop presenters, PD venues, caterers, accommodation providers and so on. These experiences both within the education and business communities have honed my skills over time. Not a day goes by where I don't use these skills in my CRT career whether it be with colleagues, schools or parents.
Having to cooperate with this wide range of people within the educational community it's also given me a keen insight into how Education is put together in Victoria that CRTs don't often get access to. It has given me a far better understanding of my role as a CRT in Victorian schools and has allowed me to identify areas of my skills that I need to hone in order to become a desirable CRT and the confidence to do so. These key aspects have also allowed me to make the transition from mainstream schools into Special Development education through experience rather than a qualification. It gave me the freedom to make this transition when I felt ready to do so.
Lastly, it shouldn't be ignored that as a CRT Network Coordinator I have gained leadership experience. Selecting appropriate professional development opportunities, assisting in raising the morale level of 100's of teachers and building an educational community. It has also given me an insight into understanding the logistics of education such as providing a valuable education within tight budgets and other factors that potentially limit the education that our students will receive.
For those looking to move up the educational leadership ladder in a full-time career, being a CRT Network Coordinator provides you with valuable leadership experience to help boost you up the chain of leadership. The obvious example of course is being a daily organiser where your keen understanding of CRTs as a workforce will serve you well in treating CRTs in a way that gets the most out of their capability for the school you work for. Another is lead in team teaching. You've now got experience in driving discussions, perhaps even sorting the wheat from the chaff in selecting PD, which will be valuable assets in the role.
Many of the experiences are directly applicable to leadership positions in schools and they've served me well on more than one occasion during longer contracts.
But what if you intend to remain a CRT as I have?
As mentioned above, being a CRT Network Coordinator has both widened and strengthened my list of contacts in my professional network and this has allowed some exciting moves for me.
It began when the Wodonga Network was relatively small and we were mostly holding monthly meetings. We held collegial discussions around resources we swapped. Resource trading was basically a vehicle to drive educational discussions by comparing the relative values of resources in different situations and manipulating those resources to better suit our particular needs. At the time I was teaching a half a day a week in Special Development doing VCAL Literacy.
It was a bit of a shock to me but the resources and activities I had designed for special development were proving very popular for mainstream teachers. I was used to sharing and discussing resources in a collegial way but I wasn't really used to being bombarded by questions about the resources I brought with me. It was perhaps the first time that I understood that I had a bit of a unique opportunity to share what I had learnt in Spec Development education because the transition to Mainstream schools turned out to be valuable and effective.
This turned into my first actual PD presentation; "Literacy Games". It focuses on certain aspects of games, why and how they motivate students (and children in general) and how I incorporated those themes into my pedagogy.
This step was generated by opportunity. I had built a Network of over 150 CRTs that provided me with an opportunity to present this PD to my peers. As it is built around the way I teach, it is naturally slanted towards the rigors of working as a primary CRT (though it has since made a transition, becoming valuable for classroom teachers as well).
I have now run this PD multiple times in multiple locations, always receiving very positive feedback. This opportunity has allowed me to combine my teaching ability as well as the collegial/people skills of being a Network Coordinator into a set of effective skills for presenting professional development for Teachers.
Then, earlier this year, there were a couple sessions of MoneySmart presentations being held locally. As it was free I put it out to the Wodonga Network and a group of us attended one of the sessions together. The presentation was being delivered by the MoneySmart project manager and I made sure to thank him for the presentation on behalf of the Network and have a bit of a deeper discussion about the MoneySmart program.
I walked out of the conversation with a potential new position with the VCAA. I have an extensive professional network including teachers and schools, knowledge about local educational needs and was also an experienced presenter of professional development for teachers. It took a little bit of work but this weekend just gone the training wheels came off for my new position with the MoneySmart program in the VCAA:
The interesting part about this is that up until a short time ago the MoneySmart program was not available directly to CRTs unless they attended a public presentation or through contact with a school. The program has been structured in a way that is valuable for classroom teachers in many respects, relying on an initial introduction followed by collegial support on an ongoing basis which many CRTs just don't get access to.
My previous experiences as a CRT Network Coordinator and presenter of my own PD gave me valuable insight into what CRTs are looking for as a collective group and my passion for CRTs opened the door to bypass the public/school contact version of this presentation and bring it directly to CRTs. I had both the contacts and the knowledge to make this possible and, just as importantly, successful. Something that I am increasingly discovering is quite rare in the higher echelons of education.
The best part? The nature of this new position allows me to remain everything I have been in the past. A a parent, a CRT and a CRT Network Coordinator. I have been able to select my opportunities for advancement in a way that suits how I want my career to progress. I didn't have to give up CRT work to become a Network Coordinator. I didn't have to give up being a Network Coordinator to become a presenter. I didn't have to give up presenting my own PD to also present for the VCAA.
I have been able to advance at each stage without giving up the things I wanted to be doing.
Of course this isn't the only thing I've done on the side. I have my own blog, a YouTube channel and also a store on Teachers Pay Teachers to sell resources that I create. While the blog and the YouTube channel are labours of love and I don't make that much money from them, they have certainly provided me with valuable experiences and insights along the way. The Teachers Pay Teachers store does provide an income (not huge by any means) but again it's been a gold mine of insights and experience.
These are things I doubt I would have accomplished if I hadn't been a CRT and a CRT Network Coordinator. The combination of available time, the experiences I have gained and the professional network I have built for myself along the way have proved invaluable in getting me to this point.
While this is about my journey, it's not really about me. The first thing I hope everyone would get from this in a general way is that being a "Career CRT" is by no means a dead end job and it doesn't have to stunt your career. Adopting the perspective that sporadic work is as much a benefit as it is a hindrance and can free you up to excel in so many aspects of Teaching.
The second is about being a CRT Network Coordinator. Often I have made the comment that it's a voluntary position rather than a paid one (most of the time anyway, in Vic where the system is in place there are opportunities to be paid via the DEECD in a limited fashion). In spite of the position being a voluntary one, and certainly rewarding in an other-than-monetary way, that doesn't mean that it's not going to benefit your career in a major way in the long run too.
Being a CRT Network Coordinator has launched and supported my career in such an array of ways. I have been able to provide an arena for other CRTs to gain the knowledge and support to excel as well as getting the knowledge and support to excel myself. While CRT Networks are currently only run through educational institutions in Victoria in an official capacity, my hope is that they would spread to other states and offer many more CRTs the same opportunities I had access to.
Even if your state does not officially support CRT Networks, and honestly speaking you should be pushing for your state to do so, collegial groups are an excellent source of knowledge and collegial support. They will still begin to step you into a position to gain leadership skills and they will still put you in a position to begin looking at launching your career in exciting and unexpected directions.
Writing about my journey is my way of showing the possibilities open to you as a CRT if you pay attention to what the world is offering you. My path is described here proving it's perfectly possible to seek out an exciting career as a CRT. The other important part is that the path doesn't have to be the one I have chosen, it is up to you to choose where it can take you whether you stay in education or take those experiences from education and spreading your talents out into other sectors.
Yes, I am still a CRT. I even heavily identify with being a CRT as a part of who I am as a professional. In the end though your job title just doesn't sum up your talents and capabilities and it can be a serious mistake to let it limit the options you see opening up before you.
Regards,
Mel.
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