iConnect meeting reflections

Last Friday was our first TROPIC II team meeting using iConnect. This was an excellent opportunity for us to share our reflections on how we have been applying the learning from the workshop.

Unfortunately attendance wasn't so great with three members of the group unable to attend. However the input from Terrie, Simon and Phil was great. Meredith and Bob sent reports on what they had been doing.

The technology has its limitations - as Terrie commented, when you are presenting it can feel like you're just talking and that's all that's going on, with no feedback or interaction. Of course it's new to all of us and with trial and error hopefully we can get used to the environment and use it to its full capacity. One great advantage is having the recording of the meeting - I was able to get more out of the presentations hearing them a second time.

TROPIC II - the first workshop

Last week was our first Instructional Intelligence workshop, brilliantly facilitated by Vivienne Scott. Our learning covered two main areas: lesson design and cooperative learning. If I try to convey in writing what is involved in those two things, it would probably sound dry and boring, but it certainly is not. Let me attempt to summarise by saying, lesson design is all about increasing the chances students will learn. Cooperative learning is about recognising that simply putting students in groups does not ensure they will work together or that they will learn. Deliberately establishing the conditions and explicitly teaching the social and other skills required, greatly increases the likelihood that students will learn cooperatively.

Research shows that when students engage in cooperative learning and particularly when processing and reflection of both content and group work are built into the learning, retention of knowledge is up to 40% greater than with individualistic learning.

The great thing about the workshop is that we were fully immersed in the process - it wasn't a matter of learning about cooperative learning; we were engaging in it.

Next steps are for the participants to apply some of what we learned in our own teaching practice. We have a meeting scheduled via Elluminate on March 19 when we will report back on what that experience was like.

The next workshop is scheduled for April 20-22.

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.

december 2008

We had some great workshops this month: at Maryborough from December 2 we ran the first ever combined Teacher and Mentor Workshop, with 11 teachers and 8 mentors present on Day One. The 8 mentors stayed on for the next two days. They were Suzy, Cheryl, Cheryll (with two l's), Jonathon, Emma, Anne and Trevor from WBIT and Peter from SkillsTech. Meredith was there too co-facilitating and multi-tasking.

Then on December 5 Meredith and I facilitated a Teacher Workshop at Bundaberg.

I got to have a weekend shopping in Brisbane and dinner with Simon and Janet on the Sunday evening then on December 8 and 9 Teacher Workshops at Acacia Ridge and 10 at Eagle Farm. Simon was there for all of these and I really appreciate his support and enthusiasm for TROPIC. We had fantastic participants in the workshops and great support also from Alex and Peter. Bob and Gillian from SQIT came along on the 8th. They have got a lot of things happening at SQIT in the new year and Gillian is setting up a TROPIC space in my.tafe so I'm sure we'll hear more about that soon. Lyndal co-facilitated on the 9th and took over the reins along with Simon on the 10th so I could get home and attend my youngest son's primary school graduation. Thanks to you all for your support and participation.

In the meantime there was another Teacher Workshop back here in Cairns on December 3 co-facilitated by Mike, Phil and Lyndal and the feedback from that was very positive.

There will be plenty happening with TROPIC next year as the action research project continues with WBIT, SQIT and TNQT. It looks like SkillsTech is going to continue to expand TROPIC as well and hopefully we can keep building the network links.

More photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/marthatropic and check out Simon's resources too at http://delicious.com/stonemasonry/TROPIC - link to Simon's photos also at left.

Wishing everyone a great Christmas and all the best for 2009.

cheers,

Martha

September already

Last week Meredith and I ran two one day Teacher Workshops at SkillsTech, one at Acacia Ridge and one at Eagle Farm. In between we had dinner with Sue, Pam, Simon and his wife. Sue presented me with this fabulous SkillsTech toolbox. Makes me want to get a shed! Photo courtesy of Simon - see link on the left to his flickr site where there are more TROPIC photos and much much more.

The workshops were low in numbers but great. I was especially interested in the flexible delivery of construction that Mark and Phil from Logan were telling us about. The students come in at various times when they can get released from work, do theory self-paced using interactive online learning and teacher support, then do practical assessments with the teachers when they are ready to do them.

A couple of weeks before that Phil H and I did another Teacher Workshop in Cairns. There were 11 people at that one and Jo Balatti was there observing. She has given some very useful feedback which is (or soon will be) in the action research wiki.

We have scheduled two more one day workshops in Cairns this year, one in October and one in December and we have agreed to run a Mentor Workshop in February next year. We still have lots of follow-up to do with the people who did the one day workshops. It's not easy to find the time. I'm now officially full-time in FATSIS - moved to R Block yesterday but am having a day off today as I haven't been feeling well for about a week and decided I really need a day of rest.

Cross-institute action research teleconferece tomorrow.

That's it for now.

keeping the network going

I finally updated the distribution list today and sent this message to the whole network:

Hi all,

Well it’s been some time since my last message to this whole TROPIC network. Welcome to our new members from SkillsTech who trained back in June.

Even though individual institutes are busy with their own initiatives around TROPIC, I thought it would be good to maintain some communication across the whole network. So I will be sending out updates like this on a monthly basis. (Please do let me know if you would prefer to be removed from the email list).

THE NETWORK

Now includes trained Mentors at:

SkillsTech 15

Tropical North 12

Southern Qld 9

Wide Bay 12

Mount Isa 1

Product Services 1

Construction Training Qld 1

Total 51 TROPIC Mentors

Current versions of documents relating to TROPIC (eg observation sheets, descriptors, micro-skills booklet) are available to network members in the TROPIC wiki. Please note these have been recently updated.

THE TRAINING

Now has a two-tiered format – thanks to Angela from Product Services for coming up with this framework:

Now, instead of training lots more Mentors, we have begun running one day Teacher Workshops. These cover the first block – “You the teacher”. The three day Mentor Workshops cover all three blocks. The aim now is, to link graduates of the Teacher Workshops with trained Mentors in each location.

ACTION RESEARCH

This is a project across Wide Bay, Southern Queensland and Tropical North Institutes led by Dr Jo Balatti of James Cook Uni and funded by Product Services, Research & Strategy Unit. Leaders from each institute plan, implement and review actions around TROPIC and we all meet on a regular basis with Jo.

Our aims are to enhance the effectiveness of TROPIC in each of the participating institutes and to share our findings with each other and the broader network. The project will run until June 2009.

All documents relating to the action research project are in the TROPIC action research wiki.
TNQT UPDATE
At Tropical North we ran the first one day Teacher Workshop on July 7th. Fifteen people participated with four of us facilitating. The workshop went very well and with some tweaking the next one will be even better. Participants ranged from literally their first day at TAFE with no teaching experience, to twelve years of TAFE teaching experience. It was great to have a broad range of people involved and was a fun and productive day.

All of the participants indicated they were happy to arrange observations by TROPIC Mentors and we have been following up on these.

Our next Teacher Workshop is scheduled for August 8th and we plan to continue conducting workshops on a monthly basis, with the aim of having the majority of teachers take part in them. We may then need to conduct more Mentor workshops to increase the pool of Mentors. Ultimately we want the TROPIC observation, feedback and mentoring process to be a normal everyday part of teaching culture at TNQT.

And a special note to my TNQT colleagues – although I am now full-time education manager in the Faculty for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies, I am pleased to say that Wayne has agreed I can maintain my TROPIC endeavours so together with Phil, Lyndal, Mike and hopefully support from you as well, we will be progressing the action research project and TROPIC is truly alive and well at TNQT!

Well not wanting to overload you with information, that’s it for now. It would be great to hear updates from other locations so please feel free to email to this group with your news.

I will copy and paste this email into my blog so it’s easy to find again.

Any questions at all please contact me.

All the best everyone.
Regards,
Martha



Martha Goldman Manager Education Training & InnovationTropical North Queensland TAFE, Eureka Street Cairns QLD 4870P (07) 4042 2454 E martha.goldman@deta.qld.gov.au M 0417 741 564

July update - launch of the one day workshops

Mike, Phil, Lyndal and I co-facilitated the first TROPIC One Day Teacher Workshop a couple of weeks ago on Monday July 7th. Fifteen teachers attended - many of them Trades teachers, with teachers from Learning Support, RATEP, TAA, ESL also taking part. The workshop went well - though I know we can do it even better - and we got good feedback.

The next workshop is scheduled for Friday August 8th here at Cairns campus.

I'm also scheduled to conduct some one day workshops at SkillsTech the week of August 25th. I'm hoping Lyndal will be able to co-facilitate a couple of them and maybe some of the SkillsTech mentors will as well.

Had a request from BRIT for confirmation of costing so they can see if it will fit in their budget.

Next week is our ART teleconference. Yesterday I briefed Donna-Maree on the action research plan and she was very positive.

June update

Just in time too! So many things have happened since the last posting:

Reframing the Future forum in May in Melbourne, for the Change Agency project. This was interesting. The main points from that were: the project is more about my development as a change agent than about the project itself; therefore my goal is to reflect on my capabilities and extend my knowledge and effectiveness as a change agent. And I can use some of the project funding to engage a personal mentor.

So I have done that and after just one conversation I am finding that to be very beneficial. The conversation took place two thirds of the way through the workshop I conducted at SkillsTech and it helped me clarify my objectives for the third day of the workshop. It went very well, with great enthusiasm from the participants. We had a visit from Kay Giles on the last day and she is very supportive. Pam has already drafted an action plan for implementation of TROPIC.

So that is looking promising.

Here at home we have been busy with our action research plan. Following on from the last posting, Phil and I did contact the Mentors here at Tropical North and found that Mike and Lyndal are both very keen and are now part of the core action research group. Others responded they are interested but just too busy, and a few didn't respond at all. At least we know where we stand.

Our plan is to conduct one day Teacher Workshops on a monthly basis. The first one is next Monday and we have 14 participants signed up. We have scheduled another for August 8th and basically each month after that, with the aim of putting at least 60% of teachers through the workshops by June next year.

Our next action research meeting with the other institutes is July 29th and Peter is going to join us to talk about funding on the basis of achievement of milestones with the action research plans.

Had an email exchange today with Suzy McKenna and John Mitchell from Reframing the Future. John encouraged me to link the action research and change agency projects, with a focus on comparing my dual roles as external and internal change agents.

Not much else happening with the commercialisation or with extending TROPIC to other institutes. There does still seem to be interest but the regionals are focused on governance at the moment so the PD network has been more or less put on hold.

More photos from the SkillsTech workshop at http://www.flickr.com/photos/marthatropic/

May update

Met with Phil last week to plan next steps in our action research. I had already met with Richard and he is happy with the draft plan. Phil is going to contact the Mentors to gauge levels of commitment. I need to create an online survey as part of this process. Phil is going to make himself available for drop-in sessions next Friday morning - hopefully that will work better than trying to schedule a meeting for everyone which is always challenging.

Next week I will be in Melbourne for the Reframing the Future Change Agency forum. I need to put together a brief presentation for that, giving an overview of my project with SkillsTech.

I was supposed to meet with the regional institutes PD network earlier this week but the meeting has been postponed, apparently until Monday but I will be in Melbourne then. So we'll see what happens.

Jason and I met with Jo last week to talk about the revenue stream concept for TROPIC and the costings Jason had done. Still need to clarify a few issues there.

action research, skillstech and reframingthefuture

Action Research

We had the action research start-up workshop last week - very productive (and exhausting). In this project, TNQT, WBIT and SQIT Leaders will each plan and implement action research projects in our respective institutes. We will also link together with leadership from Jo Balatti, to review progress and compare findings.

At the workshop we achieved a number of things:

• clarification of TROPIC's purpose, principles and elements
• a shared understanding of what action research is and how it works
• some agreed measures and benchmarks for ensuring the continued quality of TROPIC
• resolution of some identified issues, based on learnings from the TROPIC experience to date
• agreed tasks and timeframes for the central action research team
• a preliminary draft action research plan for SQIT and TNQT (due to exceptional circumstances WBIT Leaders were not able to attend both days and their plan will be forthcoming)

Documents pertaining to the above dot points will be available in the wiki and we will be regularly publishing updates there on the action research, to share with all interested parties.

SkillsTech

On Tuesday I visited SkillsTech with Peter and Angela. We met with Mary Campbell, Sue Forsayth, Pam Blowers and Tracey Hart. It was agreed that we will train a group of Mentors in June, drawing some of these from a pool of retired teachers or those transitioning to retirement. This will solve the problem of time allocation for doing observations and engaging in mentoring activities. These teachers will add to the small pool already created by the training conducted in February (Simon, John, John and Farid).

Then in August we will implement the one day training currently in development. When that's done, those teachers will have a team of Mentors to call on.

Reframing the Future

I was successful in my application for a Change Agent project with Reframing the Future. This will be about my work with SkillsTech and I believe will also help me develop some skills that I can definitely apply in other realms. Exciting times ahead!

growth, marketing and action research

A lot has happened in the last month or so.

We are about to embark on an action research project that will be led by Jo Balatti and will involve the TROPIC Leaders from TNQT, WBIT and SQIT. Our first meeting is scheduled for the end of next week. The main aims of the project are to enhance the effectiveness of TROPIC in the 3 institutes, and to build the Leadership team's skills in organisational change, evaluation and action research.

Week after next Peter and I are meeting with SkillsTech management to plan implementation of TROPIC there. We should know by the end of the month if we are successful with our Reframing the Future proposals - but I guess we will proceed regardless. They are talking about training 140 teachers this year!

Last week I attended the regional institutes directors forum in Mackay with Jo Pyne. I gave a presentation about TROPIC and asked for discussion about some possible models Jason had drafted, for commercialisation. We agreed that I will link in with the regional institutes PD network chaired by John Elich. The overall aim being (as I understand it) revenue for TNQT in the short to medium term and long-term buy-in from the regional institutes with a goal of building capacity to implement TROPIC across the Queensland VET system. Peter's area will continue to support continuous improvement of the program through the action research project and formalisation of the training program.

Angela has been working on a framework for the program which 'chunks' the training and provides more capacity for current or future Leaders to conduct the training. We're not looking at accreditation but possibly at recognition. What I'd like to see is different levels of benchmarks set for network members, Mentors and Leaders/Facilitators.

Phil and I have had some discussions about promoting more TROPIC activity within TNQT. We have scheduled a lunch meeting next Monday and Phil has invited Mentors to observe his teaching sessions with the School Tech students the following day.

And linking all these elements together, Jason has drafted a strategic plan. Next step is to get together with Jo to discuss before presenting it to other stakeholders.

I'll try to remember to update more frequently.

flooding!

Some photos of the flood in Cairns, around my suburb of Machans Beach - the top ones are of the grounds of the sports club - sports don't usually include boating, either in a traditional dinghy or a fridge! The 'road closed' is the access lane at the back of our house - it normally is closed (but the local kids usually ignore the no motorcycles sign). The girls are playing on the school oval, and the car and trailer are further down my street, closer to the Barron River.

Our access road is still closed as of lunchtime Thursday but the rain has stopped and the river levels are falling. Still no milk or bread at the local shop but things could have been a lot worse! and should be back to normal tomorrow.

TROPIC 2008

TROPIC activities so far this year:

• Phil and Mike ran an innovative micro-skills session for about 50 staff members at the TNQT Learning & Skilling Day
• After much planning and preparation and some uncertainty about who was going to attend, Phil and David and Bob and I ran a TROPIC training workshop in Brisbane last week.
  
• Many thanks to Deb for the massive job of coordinating venue and catering not to mention travel and accommodation for me and the Leaders - this with many last-minute changes and much waiting for information, and all happening just prior to the VET Teaching conference!!
• We had participants from Skills Tech, TNQT, WBIT and SQIT and also Angela from DETA's Research & Strategy Branch.
• The training went well and I'm looking forward to doing some work with Skills Tech and also closer to home with Daniela and Claire.
• Phil and I are also going to get some more activity happening with all the TNQT Mentors.
• This coming week I will be presenting at Ve-Mentoring, thanks to an invitation from Simon.
• Both Simon and Tracie are bringing some expertise and interest in online environments to our network, and Mike has vast experience in videoconferencing.
  

another november update

On Monday I presented at Reframing the Future New Ways of Working in VET forum. Not a huge audience but people did seem pretty interested. I was approached by Paul who is one of the Teach Your Trade graduates. He said that cohort would be very interested in TROPIC as they feel they need the support and also are undertaking the Diploma TAA and networking is a requirement for that.
BRIT has expressed interest in TROPIC and I've also had an invitation to present at VeMentoring in March.
Met by teleconference with the Leaders yesterday and things are moving along with some activity in each institute.
David is presenting at Home Grown Innovations in VET in Brisbane on December 4th. He came up with the idea of including some video testimonials in the presentation and we agreed it would be good to build up a bank of these.
I did an observation with MF last week.
Leaders and I are meeting again in a fortnight and will discuss who's facilitating what at the training session in February.
In the meantime we're planning some more for the Learning & Skilling Day presentation.

November update

Phil and Jen are now TNQT Leaders. They've come up with some great ideas, like getting Michael involved in a role play presentation of the micro-skills at the Learning & Skilling Day in January.

Our main focus now is on recruiting and getting ready for the training in February.

One of the activities we did at the mini-conference was a network mapping exercise. Each individual mapped the relationships they need to maintain, strengthen or establish to promote TROPIC activity.

A couple of weeks ago I gave a brief presentation at the OctoberVET forum in Brisbane. It was basically a repeat of the AVETRA presentation - the evaluation of TROPIC. Two people from SkillsTech approached me and said they want to do the training, and Denise from Wide Bay said they would like to send someone from Gympie. At our Leaders' teleconference last week David said someone has already approached him. So we're basically going to use word of mouth to promote.

Next week I'm giving a presentation at the Reframing the Future forum in Brisbane.

mini-conference

The mini-conference went extremely well I thought. First of all the Leaders (Bob, Gillian and David S) met with me on the Wednesday and we did some productive planning around our next training session - confirmed as February 25-27.

Then the mini-conference on the Thursday and Friday. About 20 TROPIC Mentors attended. We had a session from Laurie Kelly with loads of useful stuff for teaching and learning - understanding learning styles, left brain - right brain, global learners, teaching to multiple intelligences, change of state, brain gym. Then Jeannie gave us a great session on understanding anxiety which ended with hands down the best relaxation session I've ever had. Later on conference dinner with John Moodie talking about leadership. Friday morning Mark Davidson gave us a session on tips and trends which I think really reinforced understanding of the teaching strategies on the observation sheets for everyone. And before lunch we managed to pack in a network mapping session. I have posted some photos on flickr. (Just opened an account so I hope I've linked to it correctly).

October update

Well time got away from me and I never even posted in September. It was a busy month which for me ended with a brief and wonderful holiday at Wallaby Creek with my family - shots above of son Isaac at the magnificent waterfall and me and kids at the lighthouse on top of Grassy Hill in Cooktown.

It hasn't all been fun and play for me though - we do now have a policy document and a set of criteria for Mentors and Leaders in TROPIC (many thanks to Neva for her support in putting those together, and to Deb F as well). These documents can be viewed in the wiki.

We decided not to run a training session in November but to leave it until January - still need to confirm dates. Will be meeting up with the Leaders on October 10th (next week!) to plan this - followed by the TROPIC mini-conference which is going to be a great event. Deb F in particular has put in a mammoth effort organising it. Laurie Kelly and two of his compatriots will be running workshops and Mark Davidson is also going to do his 'tips and trends' presentation. I'm going to run a session on the TROPIC network, following on from an activity we did at the Reframing the Future workshop in Sydney a couple of weeks ago - which leads me to putting in one more photo, from the mini-holiday I built around attending that workshop:

August update

Got together with the Leaders and Peter and Deb last week and we worked through a lot of stuff. Now that the program is expanding we need to formalise some things, like criteria for Mentors and Leaders and an application process. I need to draft a policy.

We agreed that the next training will be in Brisbane November 7-9 and we will recruit participants from the existing institutes as well as approaching BRIT and CQIT (fill in the big gap on the map).

We need to revise the training somewhat as it will be all 4 of us this time without Neva and so we are going to plan via VC, tele and email as well as meeting F2F on October 10th, just prior to the TROPIC mini-conference.

July update

All 3 training sessions have now happened - Cairns, Wide Bay and Toowoomba. Went very well I feel and we now have the flow working and the integration of the different components. I've learned heaps, especially about coaching and mentoring, and the dynamics of working with different groups and different facilitators.

Lots to think about now in terms of the next steps at operational and strategic levels and keeping strong communication going with all stakeholders. Also need to progress the Reframing the Future side of things - as well as the rest of my job at TNQT!! Fun times ahead.

Getting ready for training

Had a good meeting week before last with Gillian, Bob, David and David and I think we're pretty well set now for the training. We had a session with Neva and we're well on track for integrating the coaching and mentoring framework.

Norie is giving me a hand to put together a visual display about "the story of TROPIC" which we can put on the wall during the training, so that participants can see where it's come from and where it's going.

Now have about 11 participants for the training in Cairns. Things are looking good.