23 June 2017
Newsletter Articles
President’s Message
This Term has focused on finalising the Program for the Festival of Teaching, which all of you should have received via email from your Associations. To have a Program out and registrations open at least two months prior to the Festival is an amazing achievement and recognises the hard work of Associations to seek workshop proposals from their members. I commend the Program to you and encourage you to spend the time perusing the workshops on offer and then going online to register for the sessions you wish to attend. You should register for your sessions quickly as places are limited and will fill up quickly. Please visit the PTANT Website below to register for your sessions. As they say, first in, best dressed! We will keep all Associations apprised of the registration process so participants know about key deadlines for registration.
http://ptant.com.au/festival-of-teaching-2017
Again this year, His Honour the Honourable John Hardy AO, Administrator of the Northern Territory, and Mrs Marie Hardy, are hosting a welcome reception for the Festival of Teaching. Invitations have been sent to those Associations volunteering on the Festival of Teaching Steering Committee asking them to nominate attendees for the Welcome Reception. The Welcome Reception will be followed by another speculator event which is the opening of the Art Educators of the Northern Territory Exhibition where NT Art teachers will exhibit their personal pieces of art. PTANT recognises this as an important event in the professional learning of teachers as we can see first hand what our Art teachers are contributing to the artistic scene in the Northern Territory. I encourage as many of you to attend to celebrate the work of our colleagues.
The PTANT AGM was held on 13 May and the following people were elected to positions on the Management Committee:
President – John Sarev
Vice-President – Jenni Webber
Treasurer – Rebecca Johnson
Secretary – Leonard Freeman
Executive Member – Pam Adam
Executive Member – Gayle Raymond
Executive Member – Virg Hughes
The Honourable Eva Lawler, Minister for Education, spoke at the AGM and paid tribute to the work of professional teaching associations in the NT. As a former member of many associations herself, the Minister shared some fond memories with us about how her associations developed her career as a teacher, Assistant Principal, Principal and then as a leader in the Department of Education. The Minister's words were warmly received by those at the AGM. I would like to officially recognise the contribution of Bala Naidoo who stepped down as PTANT Treasurer. Bala has served in this position for almost 10 years and I would like to thank him for his contributions to PTANT and recognise the work he has done for BETANT and PTANT. The Minister acknowledged Bala's contribution; however Bala was not able to attend the meeting owing to personal commitments at the time.
The next round of grants will commence next Term and I encourage all associations to submit applications for a range of grants available. More information about the grants can be found on the PTANT Website.
On behalf of professional teaching associations, I extend a warm welcome back to Drama Territory who have reaffiliated with PTANT. Drama Territory dissolved a number of years ago and I would like to acknowledge the commitment of Mark Bunnett in re-establishing the association in the NT. Please make contact with Mark if you wish to know more about the work of Drama Territory.
Finally I would like to acknowledge the exemplary work of our Executive Officer, Amanda Youell, who, unfortunately, is leaving us for bigger adventures outside of the NT. Since coming into the position, Amanda has modernised PTANT's systems and processes so that they stand up to scrutiny and accountability. Amanda has been a powerhouse of energy, drive and commitment and has helped the PTANT Management Committee realise its strategic intention and purpose in teachers leading teachers in the Northern Territory. On behalf of all professional teaching associations in the NT we wish Amanda every success in her future pursuits. With Amanda's departure, we have filled the position with an incoming Executive Officer Coordination. I would like to welcome Kristina Miletic to PTANT. Kristina brings comparable skills to those of Amanda and the handover of the roles and responsibilities has commenced already. You can read more about Kristina’s work history and experiences below in this Newsletter.
Enjoy the June/July break and I look forward to seeing you all at the Festival of Teaching.
John Sarev
President
Executive Officer
PTANT would like to welcome Kristina Miletic. With over 13 years’ experience working in the Department of Education, Kristina has succeeded in several positions including records management, accounts and procurement, project coordination, human resources, and is also a qualified teacher herself. Kristina will bring a wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm to the role of Executive Officer Coordination.
Kristina officially commences in the position on Monday 17th July.
AASE Report
2017 National Australian Association of Special Education
The 2017 National Australian Association of Special Education was held at the Darwin Convention Centre in April. The conference theme was Walk with Me. 363 delegates from across Australia and overseas gained valuable knowledge and practical strategies from the keynote speakers and workshop presenters.
Highlights of the conference included:
- Dr George Sugai shared about Moving from Whole School Positive Behaviour Support systems, data and practices. Classroom practices providing a continuum of support for all students.
- Professor Elizabeth Elliott shared the medical information about FASD and then how educators can support these students in the classroom.
- Associate Professor Helen Cahill shared about enriching learning and lives of students through social and emotional learning and the need to develop the whole class not just the student who needs it.
- Dr Kaye Ayre shared about challenging behaviour and trauma informed positive behaviour support and how to develop behaviour response plans.
Delegates enjoyed tours of schools and disability services: Forest Parade School, Rosebery Middle School, Helping People Achieve (HPA), Manunda Terrace Primary School, The Patch, Project 21 (Down Syndrome Association), Henbury School, Wagaman Primary School and Nemarluk School.
AASE NT thanks the Department of Education and PTANT for their support.
ALEA Report
Fastest Growing Local Council
ALEA Top End is the fastest growing Local Council (based on membership numbers from Feb 2016 - Feb 2017).
As of April 2017 ALEA Top End Council has 85 members, compared with 76 this time 12 months ago.
We strive to fulfill “The ALEA Declaration” by playing a significant role in advocating for a rich and coherent understanding of literacy among educators, by providing PD from local, national and international presenters.
In May we held our AGM and are delighted to have three new people on board.
ALEA has hosted two major PDs in semester one.
Beryl Exley presented:
- “Building on Student Writing by Starting with Student Writing” to participants at Girraween PS on 20 March
- “Building Great Sentences into Great Paragraphs in Year 1 and Beyond” to 40 participants at Girraween PS on 22 March
Sheena Cameron presented:
- “Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies” to 70 participants at CDU on 7 June
- “Developing an Effective Writing Program” to 140 participants at Girraween Primary School on 9 June
- “Embedding oral language across the curriculum” to 40 participants on 10 June
Sheena translated research into classroom practice, based on her experience of teaching strategies in real classrooms.
Many thanks to:
- ALEA Top End Council Executive and Committee for their long term planning to ensure these events were a success. And their support on the days.
- CDU Casuarina campus in allowing us to use the AKICKE Building and its facilities
- Girraween Primary School for hosting 140 participants for the whole day Writing PD and the 40 participants for the Oral Language PD.
ALEA greatly appreciates the support of the NT Department of Education through the Professional Teachers’ Association (PTANT), in providing a grant to support the costs in ALEA bringing presenters to Darwin and Alice Springs.
MTANT Report
Flying visit from a ‘Big Data’ mathematician – Dr Yoni Nazarathy
Students and teachers in Alice Springs enjoyed working with Yoni Nazarathy, visiting from the University of Queensland. A conference at Yulara brought Yoni to Central Australia, and he managed to fit in three workshops with students and teachers on Wednesday 19 April at Centralian Senior College.
Dr Yoni Nazarathy is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Queensland. His research area is stochastic operations research, statistics, probability and control. In these fields, he focuses on optimisation problems associated with resource allocation under constraints and uncertainty. This field of research is also related to big data analytics and the analysis of large volumes of varied complex data. At UQ, Yoni teaches statistics courses for engineers and data scientists. Yoni has lived in Israel, USA, Netherlands, Melbourne and Brisbane, but this is his first visit to the centre of Australia.
In his presentations, Yoni shared examples of how mathematics is used to solve both simple and complicated problems, and spoke about his present work he is doing for Maths Education, including his blog for the public below. Adults and children interested in Mathematics are invited to sign up to his blog to enjoy some interesting and accessible mathematical ideas
https://www.oneonepsilon.com/blog
Yoni Nazarathy is a passionate supporter of CSIRO’s Mathematicians in Schools Program, and supports the next generation of mathematicians and growing the community of people interested in mathematics and how it can be used in the world.
MTANT is grateful for Yoni’s generosity in sharing his expertise during his whirlwind trip. Thanks to Centralian Senior College for hosting the event, and in particular, Mark Goonan and Lewis Choi for their local organisation.
Charles Darwin University Student Talk
John Bament, MTANT President and Mathematics teacher at O’Loughlin Catholic College was recently invited to talk to our future NT teachers at Charles Darwin University about education, Mathematics, our teaching community and his personal experiences as a teacher.
Organised by Dr Sattar, Lecturer in Education (Mathematics) at CDU, John had the opportunity to meet and talk in person to her students, as well as broadcasting on-line to external students from all over Australia.
Teaching at a new school can be daunting for even the most experienced teachers, let alone if it is your first teaching position straight from University. John wanted the student teachers to know that teaching is a wonderful vocation and to encourage them to seek support and guidance from their Head of Faculty and fellow peers. There is also a supportive Mathematics community in the NT, in terms of the Mathematics Teachers Association of the Northern Territory, and on a National level through the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers.
As teachers, it is easy to get caught up in the busyness and security of our own teaching and it is important to reflect on our own journey and support those entering the profession.
Please support your peers, especially new and student teachers, and encourage them to become members of a professional teaching organisation.
