March workshop

We had a very productive couple of days in Brisbane at the end of last month. I'll post the minutes in the wiki (which I'm going to tidy up when I get a chance). The main outcomes:

• a clearer shared understanding of our aims - these are outlined in some powerpoint slides Peter put together with help from Carmen and Deb - which I will also post on the wiki
• agreement to build a more explicit focus on coaching and mentoring
• some valuable training from Neva in coaching and mentoring skills
• plans for consolidation across the 3 institutes before further expansion
• dates for training sessions in each of the 3 institutes, with a target of 10 additional TROPIC Mentors in each (June 25-27 in Cairns; July 4-6 in Hervey Bay -tbc- and July 9-11 in Toowoomba)
• plans for a 'teaching and learning conference' in October
• TROPIC Leaders to teleconference fortnightly - Neva will join us to provide high level coaching to us, and the 5 of us will meet face-to-face in late May to plan the training sessions

Tasmania sent me their amended versions of the observation sheets and microskills which I will also post on the wiki and ask members to comment by May 18.

This week I am going to the AVETRA conference in Melbourne where I will give a presentation about the TROPIC evaluation.