It is the time of year where you must rug up, consider the ice on the roads before driving to work and constantly fight with the heating in your buildings. Yes, winter is well and truly upon us. But in the world of adult education, this becomes quite an interesting space. Sometimes we lose students as they decide that staying home in the warmth is a better idea than braving the cold for an educational bonus or sorts. Sometimes our students have difficulty with the now better understood SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), making it harder for them to muster the energy to balance their school, work and home lives. Well, even we as educators are not immune to the allure of winter’s tug to stay just 10 more minutes under the blankets. But truly, this is the time that we learn the most about ourselves and the students we teach.
Getting up and going to work despite the pull of winter develops the character and resilience that we all rave about in our classrooms, and sometimes we take that more lightly than we should. In my research, the importance of being predictable and dependable cannot be undervalued when we are trying to engage our students. By showing up every day we model what it is to work through the tougher times and ‘stick it out’ as it were. That being said, it’s important to look after ourselves in this space. Stay warm. If you are lucky enough to have a break, give yourself time to rest and recover. Don’t check those emails, and remember that the job you are doing influences your students more than you may realise.
And while you are looking after yourself, maybe think about feeding the learner within by signing up for some of the fantastic PL sessions coming up in our calendar. You can find the details on our website, or in the space below.
VALBEC President
VALBEC Membership
You can join or renew online.
https://valbec.org.au/membership/
If you join in August, September or October, deduct 50%. Renewal falls due the following February.
Members receive:
- Fine Print three times a year – a high quality journal for discussion and debate about good practice, theory and policy issues. Feedback and contributions are actively sought from members about content and issues.
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eVALBEC – our e-mail communication keeping members informed of professional development activities, general committee activities and more up to date policy changes.
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Discounts for the Annual Conference and other VALBEC statewide professional development.
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Issues-based forums.
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Focus on significant policy issues impacting on the field.
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Free numeracy resources.
Sport and recreation - good themes to use in your numeracy teaching
A VALBEC (Victorian Adult Literacy and Basic Educational Council) Professional Learning session presented by Dave Tout.
This session will focus on practical and hands-on approaches that use the theme or topic of sport and recreation to encourage and support learners to engage with and understand maths and numeracy concepts.
This theme is an accessible and extensive context to use in your teaching. Sport and recreational activities can reveal a range of quantitative, measurement, spatial and statistical (and even algebraic) numeracy knowledge and skills embedded in people’s everyday life.
Come along and learn how to use the theme of sport and recreation in your classrooms, across all levels of the ACSF – from pre-level 1 through to level 5.
Dave is an adult and youth LLN educator who is particularly interested in making mathematics relevant, interesting, and fun for all
students, and is recognised as one of Australia's leading numeracy
personnel with over 50 years' experience working across schools, TAFEs,
community providers, universities, national education bodies and
workplaces.
He has worked at a state, national and international level in research, curriculum, assessment, and professional development. Dave has written many numeracy and maths curriculum, teaching, and PD resources, and is also an author of the Australian Core Skills Framework.
Dave
has been involved in international numeracy assessments including the
OECD's PIAAC and PISA surveys of adults and young people.
Who: Dave Tout
When: Wednesday 12th July 2023, 5.30-6.30 pm AEST
Where: Zoom
Cost: VALBEC Members Free; non-Members $25
Blended learning strategies and tools
A VALBEC (Victorian Adult Literacy and Basic Educational Council) Professional Learning session presented by Melanie Kyle.
The aim of this presentation is to share findings from Melanie’s ISSI Fellowship with examples of international best practice in blended learning for disadvantaged VET learners. The presentation will highlight strategies to improve engagement and participation using the blended learning approach. The rapid shift to blended learning at VET institutions requires increased staff capability and skills in this area.
Melanie is a passionate educator, advocate of life-long
learning and a keen traveller. She has worked at RMIT University since 2008 as
a VE teacher for 14 years and now as a Learning Designer. At the end of 2020 she
was awarded an ISSI Fellowship with the aim to identify international best
practice in blended learning for disadvantaged VET learners. Specifically, her
Fellowship research focuses on how to improve engagement, participation, and
completion rates using the blended learning approach.
Who: Melanie Kyle
When: Monday 24th July 2023, 5.30-6.30 pm AEST
Where: Zoom
Cost: VALBEC Members Free; non-Members $25
Wordwall
Need a fresh teaching resource that fits your class and teaching style? Create a customized pack of interactive and printable activities in just one minute.
ESL Games Plus
ESLGames Plus offers interactive online games,worksheets,quizzes and videos for learning and teaching English as a Second Language. There are activities for teaching and practising English grammar, vocabulary, sentences, listening and pronunciation skills.
Winter Reading
If you haven’t already read Pip Mackey’s article in the most recent issue of Fine Print, here is your chance! Click on this link to read about The Little Things project, designed to develop workplace language training materials for the aged care sector. It’s a must-read whether you’re a researcher, educator, manager or any combination of the three.
The current CGEA curriculum has been extended until June 2024. It may be extended again partly due to the Federal government Foundation Strategy review.
- July 7 - World Chocolate Day
- July 15 - World Youth Skills Day
- July 17 - World Emoji Day
- July 18 - World Listening Day
- July 20 - International Chess Day
- July 21 - National Lamington Day
- July 24 - International Self Care Day
eVALBEC
eVALBEC is the monthly electronic newsletter of (VALBEC) the Victorian Adult Literacy and Basic Education Council and is sent to about 1000 practitioners on the first of each month (other than January). It is also available in the ‘News’ section of our web site
Disclaimer:
The activities, goods and services mentioned in eVALBEC are not endorsed by Valbec in any way. People should make their own judgment about the suitability of each item.
How to submit items: https://www.valbec.org.au/evalbec