first post in over a year...

2009 - the lost year. Many things happened, but in terms of TROPIC it was a year where other demands on my time at work seemed to take precedence and maintaining a focus on TROPIC was difficult at times.

A few events worth noting:

• our action research project continued - a paper will be presented at the 2010 AVETRA conference
• we piloted running the Teacher workshop as a series of 3 x 90 minute sessions - this worked well and was much easier for teachers to access
• Bob, Gillian, Meredith and Phil presented at the VET Teaching Conference
• Teacher and Mentor workshops at Skills Tech were well attended
• We had a fabulous PD/Refresher workshop for Mentors with Andrew Fuller as a keynote speaker - notes from the workshop are on the wiki
• We ran a Mentor workshop at SQIT
• I took long service leave July to October - wonderfully refreshing! I am now a qualified yoga teacher and I visited New Zealand for the first time
• We ran a Mentor workshop and two Teacher workshops at WBIT

Most importantly, late in 2009 we met Vivienne Scott from WA TAFE and learned about the Instructional Intelligence program. We have now commenced the 'TROPIC II' (TROPIC 2/Instructional Intelligence) project.

In this project, teachers from Skills Tech, SQIT, WBIT, TNQT, CQIT and BRIT will be trained in Instructional Intelligence strategies, tactics and skills. These include a whole raft of wonderful things like:

• cooperative learning
• generating student accountability
• lesson design for engaging learners
• employability skills
• embedding literacy skills
• and more

Teachers will then apply II in their own practice; share II with colleagues through structured PD and through coaching/mentoring; and work towards embedding II in their institutes long-term.

Vivienne Scott will facilitate the workshops for us to learn II. Our first workshop is March 2-4 - next week - so I will post again shortly after that with an update.