Teacher. With a capital T.

Back to this video again;

 

I'd like to highlight the section starting at 3 minutes and going through to about 5 minutes again.  There's 3 very important points in there.

• Having great teachers is key to student outcomes.
• The transfer of knowledge from great teachers is key to making more great teachers.
• You are who you are going to be as a teacher after 3 years.

1) Having great teachers is key to student outcomes.

We are not just some cog in the wheel of some massive machine designed to turn out functional adults capable of reading, writing and basic maths.  We are the most important part of that machine and we create rocket scientists, politicians, humanitarians and business giants too.  No mater how marvelous a construction or feat of planning, design and engineering the machine is?  It will fail without us.  Miserably.

Many people don't know this but in many Asian countries Teachers, even in the equivalent of Primary education, hold a position of respect in the community right up there with Doctors.  While I don't see this being achieved in Australian communities any time soon I marvel at the Teachers who buy into that community view that we are often "just teachers".

We are some of the most important people in the lives of millions of Australians, both children and adults.  Teachers as a whole are some of the most important people in the lives of billions world wide.  We aren't "just teachers", we are Teachers.  With a capital T.

2) The transfer of knowledge from great teachers is key to making more great teachers.

I covered this one in a previous post so I won't go into great depth.  If you missed it, please feel free to scroll down the page!

The transfer of inspiration is also key.  Everyone gets jaded about their job sometimes and it's a lot easier to do better, and have fun, if we are happy and excited walking in the gate.

3) You are who you are going to be as a teacher after 3 years.

My first reaction was to get a little worked up over this.  Until I actually stopped and looked back on my 8 years as a CRT and all of the experiences that came along with that.

I believe this is true.  Being a CRT I am perhaps in one of the best positions to see this in action.  I move through schools and see many different teachers in action.  We replace other teachers and get to observe the similarities in their classes year after year.

I have now taught along side some of my old teachers and on behalf of some of them too.  Watching them in action, and observing their class, it is easy to draw parallels to my experience with the same teacher 10-20 years ago.  I have observed a large number of beginning and returning teachers, seeing their skills evolve at a massive rate for the first few years and then plateau after about the third year.

And it's not just others, I recognised this in myself too.  There was a period there where I "knew I was good enough".  It wasn't until outside forces started in on me, namely becoming a CRT Network Coordinator, that I thought I needed to change the way I did anything.

My observations mirror what Bill Gates is saying the study showed.

There are a couple though.  The exceptions that prove the rule.  What makes them exceptions?

In a clinical sense, we need to look at VIT and what it does for a moment.  It maintains our registrations partially on the basis of ongoing learning.  The learning requirement is the same for everyone, 20 hours a year (or 100 hours in 5 years which amounts to the same).If continued learning part of maintaining your registration, meaning we all do it, there shouldn't be a 3 year plateau.  Our continued improvement is reliant on more than just continued gaining of knowledge.

They want us to submit 20 hours of PD a year and what should we think about that? Everyone receives ongoing training but some teachers are "better" than others.

Which begs the question "is the key to continued growth as a teacher getting well-rounded doses of knowledge and inspiration"? Of course I'm on post number two backing that statement so I guess it's easy to see which side of the fence I sit on.

The question I'd like Teachers asking themselves though, is this;

Is it the teaching strategies and methods you employ that define who you are as a teacher or is it something else?

Continuing education certainly helps you keep abreast of the latest teaching theories and strategies but if a Master's Degree is showing so little improvement in the end quality of teaching being delivered?  Extra training, even some of the highest level training available, can't be the complete answer.

So should we really be defining ourselves by how many degrees we have or how many diplomas hang on our wall?  Or should we, perhaps, be digging deeper to find that aspect that defines us as a teacher and using it just as much as any training we receive?

That something that made us decide to be Teachers in the first place.  I firmly believe "that something" is just as important today as it was back then.  Find it every time you want to think that you are "just a teacher".  You aren't "just a teacher".  You are a Teacher.  With a capital "T".

Regards,

Mel.

Auditor General's Report - CRT Arrangements.

April of this year saw the release of the Victorian Auditor General's report on CRT Arrangements.

You can read the document here;

http://www.audit.vic.gov.au/publications/20120418-CRTs/20120418-CRTs.pdf

My comments;

As a CRT;

I'm happy that a lot of things have come out of the realm of "we are just complaining" and moved into the arena of "Here is some hard evidence". That being said, I caution against expecting sudden change.  Change takes time and changing in the right way takes even longer.  Hopefully this report will start to move many schools away from the view that we are just babysitters and we start gaining wider recognition as willing and capable educators.

Nothing much in the report is a shock though I'm a little saddened to see schools undervalue us in so many ways.  A while ago Memo's were issued to Victorian principals suggesting that CRTs should, under certain conditions, be included in in-house Professional Learning Opportunities and provide Edumail accounts to CRTs.  The low rate of schools supplying edumail in particular is disappointing.

I organize PD myself.  I understand what an issue it can be.  I also understand that budgets are limited (and the report bears this out) so it's not always practical for schools to be supplying PD to CRTs.  I didnt' expect the numbers to be so low but that one is at least understandable.  The low number of schools actively supplying Edumail accounts is another matter.  Techs in schools are busy, that I understand.  But Edumail is vital if you want your CRTs to be on the ball with things like Ultranet where, to gain access as a teacher, you need to have an edumail account.

As a VIT CRT Network Coordinator

I'd like to point out that some of the details regarding the CRT Professional Learning Support Initiative are a little outdated.  The Initiative has improved since this data was collected though some situations remain the same.

The report puts a somewhat negative light on this but I assure you, we are out there, we are supplying PD and the students in our areas are benefitting immensely.

Regards,

Mel.

Inspire Magazine; May 2012 Edition

Here is the May edition of the DEECD's Inspire Magazine.  Clicking on the picture will take you to the online version of the magazine.

Alternatively you can download the PDF version on the following link;

http://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/inspire/inspiremay2012.pdf


Happy reading,

Mel

e5 after PD report.

The after-PD feedback video and report have been posted on our PD Information Blog.  You can view them here;

http://wodongacrtsupportnetworkpd.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/koncept-masterys-e5-workshop-with-kate.html

Regards,

Mel.

Interactive Whiteboards.

Hi everyone!

Interactive whiteboards are an amazing educational tool and Australian classrooms are rapidly filling up with them!  I thought it would be worth taking a look at the different aspects these bring to our Student's education at a grass-roots level and where the technology is going in the future.

Utility.

At the Michael Ymer PD in March 2012 it was interesting to see the reaction of those in attendance to his use of the interactive whiteboard.

On TV we are seeing the fancy versions of interactive whiteboards used in procedural medical shows, police procedural shows and the like.  From clicking remotes to make the next picture display, dramatically zooming in, showing some clandestine video taken from an ATM or enlarged MRI scans it's easy to see that it's leaning heavily towards the dramatic because viewers are looking to be entertained.

Not a huge deal is made of their capabilities as a whiteboard.  I will admit that not getting frequent access to one had prevented me from understanding the full applications and the grand visions ones were the ones that always stuck in my head.  But you know what?   The basics are beginning to astound me too!

Focusing on the class.

When my parents were in school, times tables were handed to you on a piece of paper.  You memorized them and you got it right on the test or else!  When I was in school though, I got handed a grid of numbers from 0 to 100 too.  When you counted by fives?  You put a counter on the 5.  A counter on the 10.  Then 15 and so on.  It was a step forward that gave us visual learners a big step up.  However there were always the individuals that struggled on their own.

Interactive whiteboards allow you to bring the learn by wrote and visual references together without alienating the strugglers;

The first time I found this video my 3 year old was standing next to me.  With the circles appearing on the board and the kids shouting with a steady beat?  She was engrossed.  Now she can count from 81 to 100 by ones!  It's clear that this sort of activity has marvelous benefits.

The astounding rate of technology.

Interactive Whiteboard Technology is coming along in leaps and bounds all of the time.  The previous two videos show dimmed rooms and darting hands to tools here and there.  The current technology is getting more and more user friendly all the time.  Take a quick look at this to see how close to a normal old whiteboard the technology is becoming;

Of course this is a company's own promotional video but notice the difference?  Rather than all revolving around the tools on them, they have truly concentrated on the board itself.  Brighter rooms.  Coloured pens.  Erase with your hands.  Closer and closer to a normal white board in use, closer and closer to a laptop in power and versatility.

It's even getting to the point where mainstream companies are venturing down this road and it's not the realm of specialist companies to produce them anymore.  Samsung's offering integrates true Touchscreen technology without the projector we normally experience;

Again, a company promoting itself but it won't be long before more and more companies begin to go down the same road.  No more bright light in your face when you turn around to address the class!

Further viewing;

If you are like me and don't get much of an opportunity to use Interactive Whiteboards, the following 6-part video series is an eye opener.  It was converted from an online presentation so the audio is a bit grating and the video is a little jerky but there's still a lot of information to absorb!

Cambridge University - Using Interactive Whiteboards.

Have fun everyone!

Mel.

Youtube Channel.

Most of you will have noticed that we have been producing video, putting it up on Youtube and using that to embed in our blog.

Once the blog had all the video etc it needed we had always intended bringing more utility in the PD area into the equation.  Today we are going to be doing the first step in that plan.

We have started formulating Playlists of videos all centered around the same topics but from different people's Youtube channels so it gives a variety of views into the same types of ideas.  These are coming in the future but for today we are introducing the most basic format of our playlists.

Occasionally you run across a series of videos from someone and they havn't created a playlist of their own.  While in the past we wanted to bring them to you, it involved a series of links soaking up space on the page which we weren't happy about.  So we create our own playlist to make it easy for you to watch the series from one end or the other without having to switch between pages or search them out yourself.

In the next post, at the bottom of the page, there is a link to a Playlist that will move you to Youtube and queue up the videos for you.

Alternatively, you can go to our Youtube channel, click the "Playlists" button near the top left (under "Uploaded Videos) and brows through the ones we have on offer.

http://www.youtube.com/user/WodCrt?feature=mhee 

Regards,

Mel.

Network and Blog updates..

Blog Updates

We have been working on adding different teacher blogs, other blogs of interest and websites to the side bar over the last month.  If you have any that are of interest to the wider CRT community, please email me and I will add them to the list! 

May Meeting

A reminder that the May meeting is tonight, the 16th of May.  This will be an open session for the sharing of resources and discussion of any topic those attending would like to discuss.

** Addendum **


We are also making out way through the pages of both blogs.  We are updating information, re-formatting older pages on the PD Information Blog to match the new theme and preparing for new Video content.


You may have noticed that Video content has been slowly appearing since October 2011.  This started with Presenter feedback video's for our Professional development Workshops and included the trial run with the "Wodonga CRT Support Network" promotional video which appears in the side bar.

We have been keeping an eye on how often these videos are utilized by our visitors.  View Counts have reached a stage where we believe it is worthwhile following through and upgrading the entire blog.

Since our first video we have been slowly aquiring the raw video to roll out more promotional/informative videos.  We are approaching the amounts we require to make this a standard feature for the blog and hope to be upgrading with new video content within the month.

Bonus May Meeting page.

We have updated this page (on both blogs) with more up-to-date details more in line with our current PD Information Pages.

e5 Workshop.

The e5 Workshop has been successfully run.  An After PD Report will be up as soon as we have crunched all the numbers and get the video done!

2 New PD Workshops Approved.

In Term 3 we have chosen to focus on students with Learning Difficulties and we have just received Approval for 2 more full-day Professional development Workshops.

You can find out moreby visiting our PD Information Blog;

http://wodongacrtsupportnetworkpd.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/more-pd-opportunities-on-way.html

Regards,

Mel.