Collegial Learning part 3

Collegial Learning from fellow CRTs vs other Teaching professionals.

CRTs get many opportunities for some form of collegial learning.  School staff meetings, advice from leading Teachers, talking to other Teachers on breaks, talking to Teachers who are friends on an evening out. I always understood that in some respects this wasn't quite enough.  While I learned a lot from these sorts of interactions it was often from the perspective of full-time teachers.  

It didn't really help me deal with CRT specific issues like being able to grab the attention of a class and lead a productive day of learning.  Full time teachers get a class for the year, can take a week learning the ins and outs of each class and then settle in for the year.  We often have to do this multiple times a week and on top of that we have to do it in about 10 minutes!

What happens when you walk into a class and there's no lesson plan, you can't read the lesson plan or (even if you can read it) without knowing what comes before or after it's practically useless?  Plans left for CRTs are usually pretty straight forward but many of the teachers who you replace at the last minute due to sickness or injury?  Their notes are often written in a way they understand fully but most others simply can't wrap their heads around.  Full timers write their own plans, always know where they have been, where they are going and exactly what they want students to get out of those 5 shorthand lines of lesson plan.  Every time I ask a full timer when I hit this situation?  I get advised to just give them activity sheets for the day, keep them out of trouble and don't worry about it.

Ask a CRT?  Off the cuff activities, which are engaging and educational, come out of the woodwork.  "Why don't you try this?"  "I use these activities and the kids always have fun and learn things". Being a CRT in a room full of CRTs is a far different collegial learning experience than being in a room full of full timers.

This is one of the main reasons why I started the Wodonga CRT Support Network.  I wanted to bring CRTs together to learn from each other so everyone landed on their feet no matter what happened.  I wanted this learning experience for myself and if I wanted it I was sure that others would want the same thing.  Yes, we now organize and run Pdi approved workshops and seminars with some pretty high-class presenters but our core still revolves around the collegial learning aspects of our monthly meetings.

The simple fact is that the only group of people who deal with all of the same issues as CRTs is CRTs.  It's the only "one stop shopping" you can do where advice on every aspect of your working life is bound to be on offer.  It's becoming realized in more places than Victoria that Casual/substitute/emergency teachers not only want this sort of atmosphere, they need it.

More and more we are being recognized as a valuable asset in the education of children and we are continually drifting away from the "babysitter" role that has been expected of us in the past.  That one CRT we remember from our childhood who we always hoped to get, because they were fun and interesting, is starting to be recognized as what "should be".  The ones we hated, the ones that sat at the front of the class reading while they made sure we bahaved and spent a day doing Homework, are becoming a thing of the past.

With more and more being required of us, less and less of everything we need to have skill for is able to be given to us by full-timers.  They want to help as much as they can but the simple fact is that they aren't stepping into a different class every day.  They haven't honed their skills at taking command of a class of unruly students in 10 minutes.  They don't have to remember the names of a new batch of 25 students compared to yesterday.  They haven't honed their skills in following through on lesson plans at a moment's notice.  They get to plan, they don't have to have an arsenal of resourses and strategies that can be tailored to different grades that can be pulled out at a moment's notice.  They don't have to walk into a new classroom and have bulletproof strategies for working out which students are fine and which need help in the first 20 minutes.

While a lot of what we do is the same as a full-time teacher, a lot we do is different too.  We need collegial learning from CRTs to help bring us all of the best strategies to deal with the special needs of being in a classroom for only a day.

Here's a big one, we often don't get told what we are doing "wrong" and I'd like to take a second to explode a few myths generated recently in the Australian media.  Unlike a full-time teacher that needs help we often don't get it in schools.  If you put someone on for a year you have to deal with them.  If they are having issues you have no choice but to train them to operate in your particular school environment.  CRTs?  You just don't hire them anymore and get someone new in.  Cycle through them until you get the ones that fit in and you can completely avoid the effort and cost of training them.

It's not that they don't want to help you.  It's not that they don't care.  It's not that they just want to take the easy way out instead.  Here in Australia we hear every few weeks about how most schools are under funded and budgets need to be increased.  It's not just media hype and political mudslinging, it's true.  Many schools simply don't have the funding or resources on hand to be able to train CRTs, it's simply impossible for them to do it for more than a few core CRTs working in their schools.

Collegial learning is the first step to taking matters into your own hands.  It's cheap, it's easy to organize and it's highly effective.

The good news is that here in Victoria (Australia)? The Victorian Institute of Teaching and the DEECD are picking up the provision of CRT specific PD workshop opportunities.  Unfortunately it's not the case everywhere though.  In the final part to this topic I'm going to pass on some info about how to create a collegial learning atmosphere for local CRTs to access and learn from.  While most of you won't have the time or drive for such a venture I'm hoping that some of you out there take up the torch and head down the road I have.

Regards,

Mel.