The CRT story unfolding - it's truly impressive.

Back in 2008 when I first became a VIT CRT Network coordinator I had a local understanding of issues facing CRTs mostly through personal experience.  Along the way VIT helped interested coordinators become more familiar with the overall situation for CRTs as a workforce for the state (and to some extent the rest of Australia as well) through directing us to certain documents in Coordinator meetings.

Along the way we were given a document that opened like this;

Teachers working in casual relief and emergency positions (CRTs) struggle to establish an identity within the profession. The nature of their work and professional isolation often means that they are marginalised by their colleagues and perceived to be a ‘lesser’ group of teachers. While this view of CRTs may have been justified in the past, CRTs deserve to be respected, as members of the profession because all teachers registered in Victoria are now required to meet and maintain professional standards.

Dawn Colcott - VIT

It is very encouraging about how far things have come since those times with CRTs getting more and more avenues to become connected all the time.  I thought that this week I'd give people a look at one of the ways I am able to observe this process as a VIT CRT Network Coordinator.
 
When I write editorial posts on this blog about 25% of them are picked up and posted to Facebook groups, re-blogged, stuck up on pinterest and put in various forums around the traps (in a greater capacity than I do myself).  Many online things such as Blogger.com give you more "behind the scenes" statistics than just how many views and comments you are getting.  Information like geolocations of where your views are coming from by country, which links people use to come to your blog and so on.

I love watching it happen from behind the scenes not because my view counters skyrocket but because it lets me see a few really important things going on in the background.

What gets re-shared and where it goes gives me a good idea of how general populations dotted about the place are thinking.  If a topic is carried somewhere it shows you some little pocket of where that particular topic is important, what's a hot topic generally and what's not and so on.  It's a really good look at how not all CRTs have the same issues as everyone else and it's also a really good look at how CRTs function as a community.  Social media is having an enormous impact on the isolated nature of CRT work in the past.

It's sort of like those class experiments where they take a picture and then float it on Facebook as an experiment to see how it travels.  We've probably all seen them with the comments underneath about where the poster is from so the students can see where it's reached.  I just do the same thing time and time again across multiple social media outlets (blogging, Facebook, Youtube, pinterest and so on) and watch it all unfold into a big, wonderful picture.

One of the fascinating things is how some of the things I'm saying or for CRTs are being taken into pre-service teacher forums.  They are starting to understand that the way in which we work has many parallels with the nature of their Uni prac placements and the valuable source of knowledge we CRTs provide to tackle those situations in a way that will help them excel. 

This can also be seen in many Facebook groups like Relief Teaching Ideas where pre-service teachers are joining to get access to CRT advice even when they already have access to Uni lecturers, vast libraries of text books, mentors and the like.  And we just help. 

This isn't just "being nice to future colleagues" when you look from an overall perspective.  Where education frameworks are concerned there are a couple of distinct advantages.  It helps those on placement come to grips with the students quickly in order to maximise the learning advantage that those placements are meant to offer.  Universities, as a rule, also don't say too awful much about CRT work either, we are helping to fill those particular gaps.  We are also helping these CRTs to get a running start in the profession by helping them find many resources both in regards to student lessons/activities as well as classroom management and so on.

All of this just confirms something I (well, as a lot of us really) had always known.  We CRTs are here, we're valuable AND there's always a bazillion of us willing to jump on board and help.  What's going on, both visible and invisible, is a credit to CRTs and giving Australian educational bodies solid reasons to take a new and fresh look at the capability and dedication of their respective CRT cohorts.  Like any other teachers our value to education systems extends well beyond what we do in classrooms.

Having been able to watch this revolution from behind the scenes is well is truly impressive from that "education framework" perspective.  It gives me a really good look at how the traditional professional isolationism that's been associated with the nature of our role in Education has been detrimental to education as a whole, not just our ability to preserve student outcomes when the classroom teacher is away. 

We are leaving that isolationism behind and our education systems are emerging all the better for it.

Keep up the excellent work everyone!

Regards,

Mel.

What's on the Feed? Today's Schools on Diversity.

Every now and then something quite interesting pops up on my various feeds through social networks.  I thought it was a good time to start a new feature on the blog and try to bring these through on a more regular basis.  Some of our long term readers may remember that we've done link spotlights in the past and this is pretty much a renaming and upgrading of that old concept to be more inclusive of a wider range of interesting things to look at.

So here we are with "What's on the feed?"  Sometimes this will just be a look at something that you might like to add to your own feeds and at other times, like today, it will be something that I'll also want to say something about.

A couple of days ago it was a notification of a new video from "Today's Schools".  Their YouTube channel is a nice and well-rounded one with a couple of different segment types.  They have interviews with different teachers and schools, "breaking news" videos and often string videos together through the use of common themes.   Its also fairly frequent with a couple of new videos each month.  It's well worth having a look at ;).

Sometimes it astonishes me that the channel doesn't get a lot of views and it's a shame that this channel isn't utilised on a more regular basis.  Some of the stuff is pretty uninteresting sometimes but sometimes their videos are gems of wisdom.

It was a video about how a school has used diversity as a classroom resource and how doing that has allowed students to become teachers for the benefit of the local community.

Watch this video on YouTube.

This struck a cord with me personally because it's essentially about the power to achieve great things that is held within the collective capacity of a community;  Teaching a group to teach other groups to teach the community.  This helps communities to adapt to and overcome adversity through a shared strength.

This is something that the "inner circle" of the Wodonga CRT Support Network understand well as it is one of the very things the Network is founded on.  VIT created CRT Networks with the specific goal of providing a collegial arena for CRTs to meet and learn from each other.  The DEECD utilised CRT Network Coordinators to distribute funding that provides PD for CRTs.  These, of course, are where the two mainstays of the Network come from.

If the quality is kept high, these things allow CRTs to learn strategies and get access to resources that will positively effect their teaching.  They get access to quality PD opportunities for their 20 hours for registration renewal.  The goals of VIT and the DEECD are both met and we hope that each and every CRT who attends finds what we do on this front beneficial!

There is a 3rd, and less obvious but no less important, component to what we attempt to provide for our members.  Like the above we don't want the effect of what we do to end at the door of the classrooms our members teach in.  We always wanted to have a much greater impact on local education in a solid way so that our efforts gained the most positive and productive effects possible.

The Network, through the input of it's members, built a community that inspires it's members.  A community that felt confident not only in it's ability to learn from itself or the professional development workshops provided but was inspired to head out and also become inspirational to others, to become the teachers outside of the network for those inspired to learn.

Of course we worked hard in the background to enable this too.  We sourced high calibre presenters such as Michael Ymer and Karen Starkiss, forerunners in their fields.  Of course the first reason is that these presenters provide valuable knowledge that they explain easily to those attending, maximising the learning potential of our workshops.  This, however, wasn't the only reason.  These two in particular are quite well known in the local educational community because of their quality.  Because they are not brought in locally very often, it's a big deal when someone has seen them.

This generates a certain effect;  "Wow, you saw who?  Tell me all about it!".

The pupil becomes the teacher.  The wider community benefits from what we do in a solid way.

This has a resounding effect.  CRTs become better trained, they become confident and motivated, they are seen as a valuable source of information by their peers (CRT or otherwise).  CRT morale is raised allowing them to become more resilient to the everyday trials and tribulations of working as a CRT.  More local schools begin inviting more CRTs to in-school PD which begins this cycle all over again.

The Network allows us to carry each other through difficult days and difficult times.  That right there is the true power of community.

Regards,

Mel.

Now accepting Albury Area CRTs as members!

Previously we have had to limit our membership to Victorian registered CRTs because the DEECD was funding the majority of the PD we offered. We have spent some months laying groundwork to also include alternate sources of funding and PD that make us more viable to our Albury area CRT counterparts who are not dual registered. We are now accepting NSW registered CRTs from the Albury area as members!

The first step in this has been the MoneySmart Teaching PD which does not rely on DEECD funding to deliver and there are more things in the pipeline too.  Between these efforts and monthly collegial meetings we now feel we are in a position to be of solid benefit.

Please note that there will still be some opportunities you may not be able to attend if they are funded by the DEECD unless you are also registered to teach in Victoria.  We don't like this segregating line within our community of CRTs but it is a choise of either the line or not being able to support NSW CRTs as well. 

We look forward to having you on board!

Regards,

Mel.
Wodonga CRT Suport Network Coordinator.

October Meeting highlights!

Thanks everyone who attended the October meeting, I had a great time and learnt a thing or two!  For those who were unable to attend here's a few of the things that came up and resources that were shared.

This month's meeting topic was this one:

I would like everyone to choose ONE thing that they think every CRT needs to know!  It could be a strategy or a resource for their bag of tricks.  It could be a video you really want them to see or a document you think all CRTs should read.  It could be factual, practical, motivational or inspirational!

Sharing a concept:

I'll be opening with a pre-prepared statement by one of those attending (a CRT teaching Primary and one of the highly experienced members of our group):

Every CRT needs to be flexible and able to teach/adapt anything. Nowadays I use the 'one book lesson' idea where I choose a book and use that book for maths, literacy, art/craft etc. I'm at the stage where I can walk into a classroom without resources and go with what is there. If nothing is there I am still able to provide work for students by looking through their workbooks and making learning games etc from their previous work. Eg; Spelling bingo, round the world, buzz, times tables games etc.

Previous to this I carried a couple of story books and a few resources with ideas/quizzes etc that I could adapt for any grade level. I usually gathered resources aimed at grades 3 & 4 and this way I could adapt up or down as the need arose. Most often they were sourced on the internet - I just kept searching until I found what I felt was 'me' and I was comfortable in teaching. 

-Sandi

Sandi is kind of like myself and a couple of others at meetings, often what we bring to share to meetings like these doesn't get shown because we can dominate the focus as the newbies look to the more experienced members for guidance.  We sometimes prefer to hang back so everyone can bring valuable insights to the table and be included in the overall learning process, to be teachers as well as learners regardless of their career stage.

This came up only at the very end and I thought it was worth putting out there as food for thought about being a CRT.  Having talked to Sandi after the meeting concluded she wanted to stimulate discussion around the concept of teachers as individuals and the relationship between that and finding good resources for our classrooms.  It's important that we find resources that suit our individual teaching styles for them to be as effective as possible when we deliver them.

I'd like to take a moment to point out that things like this really make my day in meetings.  It shows me that people are well and truly into the spirit of being as helpful as possible for their colleagues to the point where they'll create something like this as a discussion starter.  They will spend time framing what they want they would like to bring to the table in a way that launches everyone else into thoughtful discussions.  The sharing of teaching concepts as well as resources to pass around.

Security Blankets.

  
Another member brought her emergency teaching ideas book to show us and it was great thing to have a look through.  It had a lot of great stuff in it and it was an eye opener for many.  Not just the book itself and it's activities and resources but what it had become over time. 

Opening the cover showed a bunch of post-it notes about things she'd picked up from around the place that weren't in the book to start with.  She added to it in a way that helped her to stay with the book as her main resource in a compact way (it's cover is about the size of an iPad so is easily portable!).  She also had notes scribbled in the margins about added strategies that allowed her to more effectively use the activities and it had evolved into a much more valuable resource than it started out as.  It was a really interesting look at yet another approach to building up your "bag of tricks".

She continued on to say that she doesn't really use the ideas in the book very much now, but enjoys having with her all the time.  While it was a very valuable resource in it's time, it remained an important part of her CRT tool kit.  The conversation turned to how common it actually is for CRTs to hold onto their "bag of tricks" even when they don't need them anymore as they became something more than a bundle of resources.  Some of us also owned up to doing the same, with boxes ready in the boot of our car or in a prominent place in our house, ready to delve into at a moment's notice even though we never seem to go back to them all that often.  They have become our security blankets, a source of confidence instead of a source of teaching tools.

The rest of that conversation is being reserved for a full post in it's own right ;).

The new version of this book (Emergency:  Inspirational ideas for all teachers - 2nd Ed) can still be purchased from EDSCO Educational Supplies and can be found in various university libraries (some open to the public, some not).

Websites
 
A couple of different websites were also thrown into the mix.  

The Literacy Shed (Visual Literacy).

The Bug Club (Literacy - Subscription fee - free trial available)

Monash University Dean's Lectures.
(can be hard to navigate - see also Monash Uni on YouTube).

Christmas is coming!

I also mentioned that Christmas is just around the corner and it's probably time to start looking at swapping christmasy stuff on the side rather than devoting a whole meeting to it later.  We'll continue that for the November and December meetings too.

Another member brought in Christmas activities that used buttons and other everyday resources usually found in primary school classrooms or art rooms.    The paddlepop snowflakes and button christmas trees were especially popular.  

The conversation moved through different activities you could do in the run up to Christmas, including the materials needed and where they could usually be found.

Wandered off topic...  Art came back!

We usually wander off topic at least once in meetings and in this case christmas art activities was the culprit.  The topic was clung to and there was lots of recycled art work discussed.  Of course no-one complains if a CRT uses recycled materials that were on their way to the bin and it can be very effective both educationally and visually if done the right way.  It lets you combine art/craft with sustainability for a good and well rounded lesson.  Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most effective too!

This recycled polar bear collage ticks all the boxes.  Engaging, fine motor skills, recycled materials easily accessible, minimal tools (paper, glue and scissors), stunning finished product and display item.  You could easily attach a picture book to this activity and finish with a maths activity to wrap the whole thing.
We did this with a couple of activities (the picture is of student work), drawing on our collective knowledge and understanding of learning styles, resources, engagement of students and continuation of activities and discussed how recycled art/craft is often a great place to go in primary on those days when you find yourself without a program ;).

This month was one of the smallest groups we've had in a while but that's not not a bad thing all told with many apologies received from those who wanted to attend but couldn't.  There's down sides to smaller groups of course; with more in the room more gets shared in a "take home" kind of way, the input of ideas and theories is broader in scope and there's more people to mingle with in the down times.  Smaller groups however allow for more in-depth discussion and a much more personal feel to meetings where CRTs have time to discuss interesting tangents and be more social and we don't have to rush to make sure everyone gets their turn. 

In spite of being a smaller group a LOT of great stuff came out of it (not just what's here of course) for both beginning and more experienced CRTs alike.

Note:  Only one of our members has been mentioned by name.  This is simply a product of the fact that we don't use anyone's name without express permission!  Many great ideas, some of which are mentioned here, came out of this meeting and everyone involved brought their 'A game' to the table!  If you don't mind us using your name simply let us know, we think you all deserve the credit and are only too happy to help see you get it ;).

Regards,

Mel.

Laying some groundwork - What's a "Feed" on the internet and what's a good reason to have them?

Knowing that we have some "technologically challenged" members out there sometimes I feel motivated to spread some tech ideas because "technologically challenged" is exactly where I would be if I didn't have a husband who was a self professed nerd.  Feeds is one of the things where he looked over my shoulder at my ever growing list of browser favourites and said "you know there's an easier way to do that, right?"

Before he explained it to me, I used to think feeds and email messages were just advertising to come look at stuff so the site owners can get more income from advertising.  They partly are, of course, but they are also a tool that you can use to help you make your way through the mind-boggling amount of social media out there.  I thought I'd take a moment to explain Feeds and how they can work for us as teachers.

Most of us are fairly familiar with Facebook.  We log in and stuff that our friends post (or posts in groups we have joined) appear so we can just scroll down instead of checking everyone's all individually.  That's what a "feed" is.  Most social networks have them, often sending out email notifications when new stuff enters your feed.  You can subscribe to or follow things like blogs, YouTube channels, Pinterest boards and so on.

Feeds can be a great way to get a lot of information and I find them VERY useful.  I've subscribed to a couple art boards on Pinterest because they have lots of great stuff that I want to be able to go back to when I'm searching for something specific to target X or Y in the curriculum.  When they put up something new I also get a notification and can have a quick overview through my email, go to it if it grabs my interest and then re-pin it to my own board if I think it's particularly nifty.  Using the feed makes it a quick and easy process instead of sitting down on a Saturday and going to each board I've subbed to has something new to look at.

Generally speaking, all you need in order to do that is to have an account with the social media site.  Then when you "friend", "follow" or "favourite" someone or something it will turn up in your feed.  If it stops being interesting or relevant you can take it off the list again if you think you need to.  It just helps you sort the wheat from the chaff in the massive amount of social media out there.

As teachers we tend to have an affinity with blogs, YouTube channels and so on that share our views on teaching.  Many teachers I know have a huge number of links in their browser's favourites bar and they periodically check back in to see if anything new has cropped up.  I used to be exactly the same but now Feeds are a great time saving measure for me.  I get a notification that something new is there and usually a short excerpt that helps me to decide whether it's going to be of interest to me or not.

Of course there's the downside...  I've got a Blogger account, a YouTube account and a Pinterest Account.  These I actually use so I naturally have an account.  I ALSO have an account for other social media sites that I don't actively use simply to give me access to the feed that goes along with it...  It can be a bit of a jumble of user names and passwords to remember.  Still, as a Network Coordinator I keep an eye on LOTS of stuff so my list of feeds is unusually large.  It's not likely that many will have as many as I do. 

If you use social networking sites regularly through bookmarks in your browser it might be a good idea to create an account to get access to a feed.  A YouTube account, for example, can certainly make sense for the feed alone, even if you never intend on uploading any videos.

When you are on FaceBook you naturally get access to many things like videos and articles.  Sharing them is quite active but somewhere out there there's a person who found it somewhere and created the original post that's being shared around.  Feeds help these people to find things worth sharing and by having them YOU could be the person finding things to bring to Facebook.

Of course as teachers we often are looking at "teachery things" and not all of our friends are teachers.  Bombarding them with "teachery stuff" can get old for them after a while and this weighs on many of our minds.  Belonging to interest groups on Facebook etc allows us to get around this issue.  We're sharing things with groups with a common interest on that thing.  We can become active in sharing things that like-minded people might otherwise not come into contact with.

Feeds, of course, might not be the thing for you and I certainly get notifications of stuff I'm not particularly interested in.  They might be worth it for you though... It's worth learning how to use them effectively if you think they might save you some time.

Regards,

Mel.

Is "should I work half days" the simple question it seems?

Every now and again the topic crops up about whether a CRT should work half days or hold out for a full day position instead. Accepting a half day of work stops you from accepting a full day if it's offered so the pay difference is certainly a big deal. The problem is that this is only looking at it from your end of the deal and only in an immediate way. There's dangers in making decisions based on only half of the information you need in order to make properly informed choices that benefit you overall.

Schools as a general rule want quality CRTs who are reliably available. Familiarity with a CRT simply leads to a greater incidence of settled classrooms working productively. Looking at this aspect, if a CRT is seen frequently around the school there are inherent benefits which go beyond pay issues and legal obligations to have a teacher in classrooms. CRTs which are seen around a school often enough to become familiar leads to them being viewed as "the school's teacher" rather than a CRT. This allows CRTs to access the same pool of authority as any other teacher does through the ability to enforce long-term consequences.

This authority can enable a CRT of lesser experience, and therefore their skills aren't as refined, to deliver a lesson more effectively than their more experienced counterparts who may be hampered by a higher degree of behavioural issues associated with CRT work. This makes a teacher willing to work half days more desirable than one that isn't. The school is able to institute the CRT as one of "their teachers" .

Being the most skilled available on the day is simply not enough to guarantee you will be offered the work on offer on any given day.

So when considered in the greater context of how much you earn in a year than in a day; while you potentially receive more pay on the day (there is no guarantee that you will get a full day instead) you are also risking less work on an ongoing basis which means you will quite possibly earn less money over time.

As an inexperienced teacher, the bonus in this is that through this you gain more work and therefore gain a higher level of experience in any set period of time. Taking half days in specific schools is an excellent strategy to receive more work and help you catch up to more experienced colleagues. Make no mistake, it's not an easy job market out there at the moment and chasing a larger pay packet this week may see your yearly pay less than it could have been and also be detrimental to your overall career because of the amount of experience you are able to accumulate.

My personal advice to any CRT is to NEVER flatly refuse half days for any reason. Instead, signal your preference to not work half days but tell the school/s you are available for "break glass in case of emergency" situations. You are proactively showing that you are a team player who genuinely cares about the schools you work in and when push comes to shove you will support that school and their students even though you obviously have concerns about your own hip pocket.

Teaching is not a job, it is a CAREER. In some ways CRTs need to pay a little more attention to certain aspects than other types of teachers. Making decisions when looking at it like you would a 'job' where you just turn up and perform a series of tasks which you get paid for is a very easy way to make decisions that end up making things worse in the long run rather than better.

When looking at it as a career instead of a job, loyalty is a MASSIVELY EFFECTIVE tool for CRTs in career productivity, advancement and longevity.

When I first started I essentially took the first position offered to me no matter how far I had to travel or otherwise inconvenient it was. I was spread across multiple schools in multiple areas and had a solid chance to build a name for myself within the CRT and School communities. After that I was able to begin picking and choosing the schools I worked for without damaging my long term prospects.

I also took a one year contract doing literacy for half a day a week. This, of course, barred me from being able to accept any conflicting contracts and in that year my overall income certainly suffered because of it (though not by as much as you'd think). At the same time, that year of experience gave me fabulous insights as it allowed me to focus on literacy and refine my skills.

That in turn allowed me to develop my own Literacy PD workshop.

View this Video on Youtube.

Which then saw me working for the VCAA presenting the MoneySmart professional development workshop.

View this video on YouTube.

I am certainly no longer "the typical CRT" and I can tell you that my average yearly earnings are all the better off for it too.

I sometimes harp on about Teaching is a Profession and being a career and that we, as CRTs, are still professionals even though many just treat us like we're doing "a job".  Remembering that we are Teachers and therefore members of a profession, refusing to just consider ourselves as part time public servants like so many others do, helps us make informed decisions that effectively improve our future in Teaching.

As someone who specialises in helping CRTs to excel I assure you that this one key point is a fulcrum on which many other things can be levered.

Don't think I'm saying you MUST work half days, that's an individual choice that each CRT should be making based on their own circumstances.  The choice on whether to work half days or not, however, should be made in an informed way that empowers you to proactively influence the direction your career takes.

Regards,

Mel.

October Meeting details

Hello everyone!

Our October meeting is scheduled for Thursday 16th October in at Wodonga South Primary School Library.

Full details about the meeting can be found here:
http://wodongacrtsupportnetwork.blogspot.com.au/p/hi-everyone-next-wodonga-crt-support.html

Regards,

Mel