Bonus Meeting - Dawn Colcott.

As many will know, Dawn Colcott was unable to attend the Bonus May Meeting we had scheduled.  Since then she has kept us in mind and again has an opportunity to do so.

We will be scheduling a special meeting for Thursday 9 August 2012.

This meeting will be held in an alternate venue due to the non-standard time.  We will be holding this meeting at the Albury Wodonga Community College.

The Meeting will begin at 5.30pm.

We will begin the meeting with an activity that encourages us to think about education as a whole.  The topic will be "What disappoints us most about education".  We encourage you to think a little about this on personal, school-based, regional, state, national and international basis.  We are going to limit you to a certain number of responses on the night so we DO encourage you to prioritize the issues you think modern Teachrs face in the world we live in.

Dawn Colcott from VIT will appear as a guest speaker from 6.30pm to 7.30pm.

This will be followed by discussion of Dawn's presentation (with Q&A time if people would like it), as well as further discussion of the "what disappoints us about education" activity and open member-driven discussion.

As usual, tea, coffee and hot chocolate will be provided as will a light evening tea.

You are welcome to join at 5.30pm to participate in the activity or join us at 6.30pm to attend the guest-speaker segment.

Please email Mel on wodongacrt@vit.vic.edu.au if you intend on attending.

Find full details on the following link;

http://wodongacrtsupportnetwork.blogspot.com.au/p/bonus-august-meeting.html


Regards,

Mel

Literacy Games

A literacy PD with presenter Melinda Lichnovsky-Klock.

We are happy to announce that the asked for second running of Melinda Lichnovsky-Klock's "Literacy Games" workshop has been arranged.

Melinda is a CRT with 8 years experience, including a year of part-time Literacy in a Special Development setting.  She has used this experience to successfully tutor mainstream students struggling with literacy both as a volunteer in schools and in after-school group sessions.  She is also the Coordinator of the Wodonga CRT Support Network, a wife and mother of 3.

Her methods center around Student Engagement, making learning fun and using a hands-on approach in order to get students to motivate themselves on the road to Literacy. 

It will be held on Wednesday 7th November 2012, 4.00pm - 6.30pm in the Wodonga South Primary School Library.

You can find out more about this PD on it's page:

http://wodongacrtsupportnetworkpd.blogspot.com.au/p/literacy-games-pd-workshop.html

Pdi approved 2.5 hours;   http://search.pdi.vic.edu.au/vitdb/course/5793

Regards,

Mel.

The Wodonga CRT Support Network July meeting is scheduled for Wednesday the 25th of July, 4.00pm - 6.30pm.

 

For July I thought we'd take a look at all of those strategies that we as CRTs use a lot more than full-timers, share our ideas and hopefully create some new ones!

• Remembering Student's Names.
• Setting Ground Rules.
• Immediately effective behaviour management strategies.
• Ice breaker activities
• Recognizing who needs more help than who.

and anything else you think fits into this sort of category!

 

It is open to all network members whether you are a CRT, Beginning and Returning Teacher or on Family Leave.  No booking is required but we would like you to RSVP by Tuesday the 24th so we know how many nibbles and drinks to supply.  Walk-ins without RSVP are welcome, just be aware it means you might have to bring your own snacks!

 

If you aren't a member but would like to check it all out?  Please feel free to email and make arrangements.  We welcome interested parties whether they be potential members, University Students looking at becoming a CRT or just other teaching professionals curious about what we get up to!  

 

Please keep in mind that ongoing attendance requires membership!  We apologise but we do not accept full time Teachers as members UNLESS they are beginning and returning teachers or on family leave!

 

You can find full details here;

 

http://wodongacrtsupportnetwork.blogspot.com.au/p/july-meeting.html 

We cannot supply Pdi PASS codes for meetings.  This meeting is able to be used for PD under the "teacher identified" criteria (2.5 hours) in line with VIT's intentions for VIT CRT Networks.

Regards,

Melinda Lichnovsky-Klock

Wodonga CRT Support Network Coordinator.

Karen Starkiss:

 Creating Dyslexia Friendly Classrooms.

After PD report.

By reading her list of accomplishments it is 100% clear that Karen Starkiss is very knowledgable and has a great deal of experience in dealing with Dyslexia.  It is not until you sit in a room with her that you begin to understand exactly how valuable a presenter she is.  Karen Starkiss has a professional air and the ability to transfer her knowledge to those attending in an engaging and understandable way.  This professional approach is tempered with a wonderous childlike quality with an underlying wisdom that also makes her instantly likeable and trustworthy.  It is rare to come across a presenter able to transfer so much knowledge and wisdom in so little time without much of it being lost due to being assaulted by such a high volume of information.

Few times have we ever recieved such extensive comments in feedback from those attending.  Karen Starkiss has provided participants with a learning experience for that gives us no reason to hesitate in recommending her to any teacher wishing to deepen their knowledge of, and advance their skills and resources in teaching children with, dyslexia.

We had an issue with the heaters in the morning which we apologise for!  Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it with holiday PD this time of year using our current venue.  Being a school they turn off the climate control during holidays to save money (which leaves more funds for educating students!).

Other than that the PD finished up with a resoundingly positive response from the participants.

We had a lot of new faces this time which was great to see!  We hope you all enjoyed and benefitted from our presenter selection and organization of the day.  We also hope to see you all again!

Estimated Cost per Head value: $225.00 - $355.00 (based on similar commercial PDs)

Cost per head we paid: $86.46

Cost per head for CRTs?   $10.00

Offering this PD would not have been possible without some help. We'd like to thank:

• Karen Starkiss for her wonderful presentation
• The Wodonga South Primary School for the venue.
• The DEECD for the CRT Professional Learning Support Initiative and the funding it provides
• VIT for starting and helping to maintain 24 CRT Networks across Victoria.
• Officeworks Wodonga for their sponsorship of our network
• and everyone who attended for the wonderful atmosphere they provided! 

Please note; Commenting is enabled and you may post anonymously if you wish!  If you attended and enjoyed this PD, or have other comments, please leave them for us ;).  To comment without an account please use the "comment as" pulldown menu and select "Name/URL" to enter your name or "anonymous" to post without leaving your name.

Regards,

Melinda Lichnovsky-Klock

Wodonga CRT Support Network Coordinator.

3 seats for Karen Starkiss - Dyslexia.

Catering arrangements and resource handouts have been finalized for "Creating a Dyslexia Friendly Classroom" with Karen Starkiss.

There are 0 seats open due to cancellations.

This PD has now been run and is no longer available.

Regards,

Mel.

Booking status - Dyslexia and Reading Comprehension

Karen Starkiss - Creating a Dyslexia Friendly Classroom.

Current booking:  24

Max seats:  40

Bookings close Monday 9 July 2012 3.30pm.  Catering arrangements and the production of handouts will be finalized at this time.  As a result bookings will not be accepted after this date and time.

Bookings are being accepted from full-time staff at a booking fee of $30.  CRTs still pay the booking fee of $10.

You can find full details here.

Caryle York - Reading Comprehension.

Current Bookings; 20

Max Seats:  20

Waiting List Only!

Bookings close Tuesday 14 August 2012.  Catering arrangements and the production of handouts will be finalized at this time.  As a result bookings will not be accepted after this date and time.

Due to the low number of available places bookings are accepted from CRTs only.

You can find full details here.

Regards,

Melinda Lichnovsky-Klock

Wodonga CRT Support Network Coordinator.

Caryle York - Reading Comprehension

Bookings are open for the "Reading Comprehension" workshop with Caryle York.



Time: Thursday 16 August 2012, 4.00pm - 6.30pm

Booking status;  Bookings are open!

Pdi approval; 2.5 hours (View Pdi entry) 

You can find full details here;

http://wodongacrtsupportnetworkpd.blogspot.com.au/p/caryle-york-reading-comprehension.html

It's time for a reminder!

While this was delt with in the EOFY report;

This blog deals only with the workshops that we offer.  If all you are interested in is the workshops then this is the place for you!

We do, however, offer other opportunities for local CRTs which are delt with on our other blog.

Meetings;

While we do occasionally deal with network issues, these meetings are primarily about you.  They are intended to facilitate the building of relationships, the sharing of resources, the discussion of the application of up-to- date teaching practice and as a place to find strategies to deal with the particular areas you might be having issues with.

You can find the schedule for our meetings here;

Wodonga CRT Support Network Meetings.

There is also a page on our Main blog which is dedicated to the next meeting on the schedule, outlining the opening topics.  Once a meeting has been run we take down it's page and put one up for the next meeting.  

If you would like to know how Meetings fit in with the PD requirements for your registration you can find out a little more here;

Network PD and VIT.

The Main Blog.

If you follow either of the above links you will see we run two blogs.  Our Main blog provides commentary on education-related issues as well as links to other VIT CRT Network blogs, Teacher blogs and other places where you can access professional readings and other Professional Development related information.

The idea of our Main blog is to provide a launching off point for your own online search for Professional Development opportunities. 

If you have found our workshops engaging and enjoyable we encourage you to give our other activities a try too.

Regards,

Melinda Lichnovsky-Klock

Wodonga CRT Support Network Coordinator.