Collegial Learning Part 2

We all have something to share!

My personal story about collegial learning. 

Those of you keeping an eye on our PD opportunities will have noticed that more than one member has been used as a presenter and there's more coming in the future.

We started off with Peter Klein and admittedly Peter is a talented guy!  He's a teacher, a poet, a musician and has more than one children's book published!  He also has a history of presenting to classes in schools as "Captain Pete" and he easily used all that background experience to turn it into something for teachers.

I delivered my "Literacy Games" workshop last week and I'm a little different than Pete.  Although I am the Wodonga CRT Support Network coordinator I certainly don't have a list of qualifications and talents a mile long like Pete does!  All you have to have to qualify for my position as a VIT CRT Network Coordinator is to be a VIT registered CRT and have a bit of a passion for making sure CRTs get all of the opportunities that full-timers do!  Other than that all I have is strategies and resources that I have collected due to the experiences of my 8 years as a CRT.

From the feedback between the 2 videos I'm sure you can tell that my presentation wasn't as fun as Peters but those attending still liked hearing what I had to say and found it practical and useful.

My transition from CRT to presenter wasn't an easy one.

I had the mindset that I am a CRT, that's what I do and that's what I'm good at.  While I'm good at it I'm just one among thousands, I'm not the best or the brightest or the most experienced.  My way to give to the CRT community was to run the Wodonga CRT Support Network to allow other, more experienced and qualified, CRTs to come together and teach others like myself the "tricks of the trade".  It took a long time to realize that not being the best, the brightest or the most experienced didn't really matter.

All that mattered was that I had something to say that someone else wanted to hear.  My husband broke it down to a "mathlike" equation a while back and I'll take this opportunity to share what he said:

"You as a unique individual + your unique 8 years of experience = unique solutions to problems that no-one else will have thought of".

Of course I thought he was just spouting supportive comments to help me get over my nerves though I should have known better.

It wasn't until we started resource/strategy sharing sessions at monthly meetings that I began to understand precisely what he meant.  I was busy leading up to a resource sharing meeting so I left selecting resources until the last minute.  Having put myself under the gun I brought in one of my "Literacy Games" one night to share with the group, thinking that if nothing else by bucket of pegs with stuff written on them would be a fun diversion for a couple minutes. 

What I thought would be pretty "no brainer" stuff turned out to be something special.  People were right in there playing with the pegs, all the while commenting on how simple it was saying "why didn't I ever think of this"!  Grown adults having fun with my particular take on "Look, Cover, Write, Check".

I genuinely couldn't comprehend what was going on.  Something that I thought was so basic, so natural and bound to be all over the place, which just brought in as a bit of light fun for a couple minutes...  I don't even remember most of the questions people asked I was that stunned.

What's the point here?  Apart from my passion for my network I'm not really anything special in the Teacher department.  I'm considered good at my job and have a reputation for dealing with difficult classes but I don't have a bunch of qualifications or letters to put after my name.  Yes, I have skills I have acquired in my 8 years but most of them are the same skills anyone will acquire in 8 years.  But there's a couple instances where me as an individual + my unique experiences have created something that people think is special.

YOU, no matter how ordinary you think you are, will have something just as unique and just as special that you have created.  It might be a resource, a lesson plan, a behaviour management strategy or something else entirely, but it's there!  

Even if you are fresh out of university and think you have nothing?  Think of how much Teaching has changed in the last 20 years.  The last 10 years.  Even the last 5 years.  You are able to pass on the latest teachings from your Uni course that those of us out there for years didn't learn.  We learnt other stuff based on the "current practices" when we were still in University.

Every CRT has something to share!

Back to the Bill Gates video.

So, harking back to that "It takes great teachers to make great teachers" quote?  I'm not the fanatical believer I was not so long ago.  While I still firmly believe that Great Teachers should be in there up to their elbows  passing that knowledge on to the rest of us?  You don't have to be, or consider yourself, a "Great Teacher" to have "Something Great" to share with your peers.  Something that is going to impact resoundingly with the other teachers around you.

In my presentation I showed my "Memory Bottles" lesson plan and I thought I was doing well to get 2-4 hours out of a book incorporating literacy, maths, and crafts.  Then I handed out other books to those attending and gave them 15 minutes to come up with a lesson plan of their own as an exercise to help the ideas I'd delivered to stick.  Not one group of CRTs around a random book wasn't able to use my theories to come up with hours of inclusive, individualized, cross-curriculum lessons.

A group of 3 teachers discussing one book came up with 3 solid days of education out of one single book in a quarter of an hour.  Having a listen to them tell us all about what they came up with simply blew my socks off!

My ideas and experiences combined with their ideas and experiences took the whole thing further than I ever could have on my own in each and every group.  I was supposed to be providing Professional development for them and I guess it worked because they all schooled me in return.

It was one of the most satisfying moments in my Teaching career.

If you are ever in doubt about how much you can contribute in a collegial atmosphere?  Remember this story.  All it takes is one great idea and you can improve the educational options offered of 1000's of students making sure they all have a more engaging and fun atmosphere to learn in.

Also on the way;

• Part 3, Collegial Learning from CRTs Vs other teaching professionals.
• Part 4, Getting in on collegial learning.

Regards,

Mel.