The Wodonga CRT Support Network holds 11 collegial meetings a year so the ability to drive effective professional conversations is a central component of doing what we do in an effective way.
One thing CRTs sometimes have trouble accessing is long-term relationships with trusted colleagues built on mutual support. This is why "reliability" is often discussed in relation to effective collegial groups. Can constant contact be relied upon? Can the group be relied upon to support instead of judge? Can the group be relied on as a source of accurate, relevant and valuable knowledge? As CRTs often drift in and out of schools and classrooms, a stable and reliable collegial network can be very hard to find or establish.
For classroom teachers, when they get a job they are brought into an established and functioning collegial environment automatically. It is there from day one to engage with and learn from. CRTs are often very different as they aren't "inserted" into schools in the same way simply because of the different way they are utilised by schools. There is a benefit in having access to a wide variety of collegial groups in different schools but at the same time they can be less relevant to the way they work that can prevent any great degree of depth.
The staffroom culture of CRTs as "lesser teachers" can also be an issue. CRTs tend to have to "prove themselves" before being accepted into these groups making the initial time in a school, or entering the career as a CRT, an unsupportive one.
CRT Networks that run collegial meetings help to target these kinds of issues by being the "reliable" collegial group that all teachers need access to in order to excel.
As mentioned, resources can be an important component which is one of the reasons we choose sharing resources so frequently. Beyond our bag of tricks they focus the conversation and draw out the expertise of those in the room to benefit the group. Discussing the implementation, why and how it is engaging, what skills it uses, what classes/grades it is suitable for and so on promotes the transfer of important knowledge and skills.
One of our main discussion drivers is the sharing of resources with a specific focus. That might be games, engagement, maths, hands-on or (like this month's meeting) end of year activities. Of course as CRTs this gives us a whole host of top-class 'stuff' for our bag of tricks that comes from a trusted source but as described in this video, driving discussions is often about focus and solving problems of practice. As each teacher discusses their implementations, group members can ask questions or add one of their own personal strategies that might work well with that resource.
Through this sharing of resources, content knowledge and pedagogy is shared which is what makes our Meetings valuable in terms of the kinds of things the above video is mentioning.
The issue of "the agency to make a difference" is also a big one for CRTs, often more so than for any other kind of teacher. CRTs often feel isolated from the profession in that they don't feel that they are making a difference as their short contact with students just doesn't seem like enough to "make a difference". Universities largely train teachers around the concept in a very "classroom teacher" orientated way which often doesn't give the valuable insights into this that CRTs need. This can also result in CRTs struggling to recognise how their practice fits in with the teaching standards.
This means that CRTs often just don't feel like true professionals, like "real teachers", which is one of the reasons I make such a big deal of these two concepts in online forums. They have a framework that tells them what all good teachers do, "use these standards to make a difference to students" and if they can't see how what they do fits in with that this can have a very damaging effect on their professional identity that can take years to overcome and effect their entire teaching careers.
By helping each other to put our practice into the framework of the National Professional Standards for Teachers and relate our own role in the profession to student outcomes, it enables CRTs to better connect with their own careers. Through this it becomes possible to understand how we can be agents of change even in a single day and supports access to the strategies that make this possible. This is a very important aspect of what we do, especially for Graduates in our Network group, that helps them not only to consider themselves professionals but to use these understandings in a way that benefits their careers.
The sharing of resources using the format we do helps ensure that the collective capacity of the group is accessed in a way that provides new knowledge or a new perspective on 'old' knowledge to reflect upon. We take measures to support an active learning culture that is relevant to and effective in the CRT context and through that to help CRTs understand the importance of their role in education and to find meaning that can often be missed in the "day to day" view of how we teach.
Sometimes from the outside it is not immediately apparent that as a Coordinator I think as deeply about the meetings and PD workshops as I do or that Networks themselves are as important to education as they are. Because of that it's also often not immediately apparent what CRT Networks can do for CRTs beyond "supply professional development hours" to support their career.There is a great deal of potential in CRT Networks whether they are official like the VIT CRT Networks or one of the many informal groups popping up all over Australia. I personally hope these networks become system instituted, country wide, to maximise our effect on our students and our ability to be proud of our role within the Teaching profession.
We deserve it and our students need it to happen.
Regards,
Mel.
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