Changes to PD assessment for VIT registration.

First off, let us say that we don't have this totally sorted out for ourselves yet. It's changed twice in recent months and much of our research went out the window with the second change. Because we have so much going on, it's quite possible that you know more about this than we do.

What we have looked into closely is what it means for the network and our role in providing PD opportunities. What we'll deal with for now is it's effects on how the network needs to operate in order to provide adequate support for CRTs so they get everything they need to meet or exceed the new requirements.

The main change that concerns us is the change from a 5 year assessment cycle to a 1 year assessment cycle of our Professional Development activities. The change that concerns us most is the split of the required 100 hours over 5 years into 20 hours every year for full registration.

This has drastically changed our plan of attack for the near future. What we have done over the last year is to lower our efforts in some areas in order to devote sufficient attention to the new funding opportunities available to us from the Victorian Department of Education. Under a 5 year cycle we could afford to do this without damaging your chances to meet the PD requirements. This was because as long as we kept Professional development Seminars running we were still contributing to the hardest portion of the requirement to obtain. The need for PD from an Expert on the given topic.

We feel that this is no longer viable and resuming other activities is now required. Namely the monthly CRT Support Network meetings and greater attention to the blog. Some of you have expressed concerns that suddenly the Network became all about PDs and department funding. We want to stress that while this was true in the short term, something we felt was as necessary as it was disappointing, it was never supposed to be the long term state of affairs.

For us, the meetings and the blog are partly aimed at achieving the same goal; to provide you with resources to study for the individual and collaborative efforts of teachers to contribute to their own professional learning.

The blog's role in this is simple. We provide links to free online PDs, professional readings, other resources and the blog sites of other CRT support networks. The aim is to give you a gateway into searching out your own topics for study, hopefully having you arrive at a topic you not only learn from but enjoy reading about. In short, to get your PD requirements in the way that's most enjoyable for you and hopefully prevent it from being a chore.

The monthly meetings then allow us to bring what we've learnt to the table. We can share resources we've found, discuss topics with those of similar interests, share points of view and learn from each other. All in a social and enjoyable environment.

We feel that these are important opportunities for us to provide you with sooner rather than later now that we have been put under the gun.