NEWSLETTERS AUGUST 2007
Facilitators
'Chilling' out!: Participants of the Tertiary Educator
workshop in July brave the Canberra cold for a
photo opportunity.
PrimaryConnections is first and foremost a professional learning programme for teachers, supported by quality curriculum resources: demand for professional learning of this programme has never been higher! Each week we hear of more workshops and conference presentations about the programme conducted by trained professional learning facilitators, and at times supported by trial teachers.
Professional Learning Facilitators
There are now almost 300 trained professional learning facilitators available Australia-wide to conduct a range of professional learning for schools interested in the program. The PrimaryConnections website lists the names and contact details of people in each state and territory who coordinate the activities of facilitators.
Following trials in New South Wales and Queensland, further professional learning facilitators will be trained in the states and territories, rather than being centrally trained in Canberra in January 2008. This will allow the programme to be tailored to local needs and priorities, and allow larger numbers to be trained to meet the demand for workshops.
Curriculum Leader workshops
A two-day Curriculum Leader workshop was conducted in the Parramatta Catholic Diocese in March of this year and others were run in Queensland and New South Wales. More than 250 teachers have been trained as curriculum leaders so far: their role is to lead the implementation of PrimaryConnections within their school or community. This training is proving to be one of the most sought after professional learning opportunities for teachers. Further Curriculum Leader workshops are planned for the Northern Territory and South Australia in the near future.
Pre-service Educators workshop
Based on the success of the two-day PrimaryConnections Pre-service Educators workshop held in February 2007, the Department of Education, Science and Training requested a repeat of this workshop. We were delighted to invite 60 tertiary educators to Canberra on 20–21 July to introduce them to the principles that underpin PrimaryConnections.
There has been a lot of interest in the program from pre-service teachers as they explore inquiry-based approaches and prepare for practicum teaching. Several universities have been granted rights under the Education Use Licence to make the Questioning Minds DVD available to students on their university websites.