AISA Members’ Circular October 2015 I Vol . 6 No 3
In this Issue:
From the Desk of the Executive Director AISA GISS - Funguka: Are You Ready? Is your school ‘closure proof’? AISA Service Learning Working Group Update Reminders & Opportunities
From the Desk of the Executive Director Normally around this time of year (October) we would all be gearing up to travel to the AISA Educators Conference (AEC). But this year we are only organizing the AISA Leadership Conference (ALC) in March 2016 (full details can be found later in this circular). For 2015/16 there is no AISA Regional Educators Conference. We’ll start the new format AEC again in October 2016 in Johannesburg. It may be worth reminding our members why the AISA Board took this decision. Well - in short – it was your idea. Following the Pathways Evaluation we undertook in 2013/14, our members requested that we offer more in depth opportunities for you to learn AND that these opportunities should be much more targeted and much more differentiated. Your request is bolstered by research that suggests that ‘teachers typically need substantial professional development in a given area (close to 50 hours) to improve their skills and their students’ learning.’ So AISA is changing the way we offer our Professional Learning both at our AEC and ALC conferences and during our Professional Learning Institutes (PLIs). These PLIs are a series of targeted, differentiated, deep-dive (+/- 18 hour) learning events exploring all sorts of relevant topics that are being held over weekends at AISA host schools across the continent. In addition, at our annual ALC and AEC conferences you can now expect to actively participate in longer format deep dive sessions on a single topic that will help improve your skills and understanding with the primary goal of improving your students’ learning.
“teachers typically need substantial professional development in a given area (close to 50 hours) to improve their skills and their students’ learning.” Professional Learning in the Learning Profession, Stanford University, 2009
We believe that the way we learn as professionals has changed with the expansion of online opportunities. You don’t need us to fly out expensive keynote speakers for an hour to hear a new idea. These opportunities are widely available to you on YouTube and elsewhere. Soon AISA will start to flag some of the best of these to guide your viewing. We would rather spend our limited resources creating opportunities for deeper learning that will extend your thinking rather than a series of short, shallow exposés that, while interesting, will not change what you do in the classroom. If we fly in top quality people – we think we should strive to get the most from them so you can actively challenge and clarify your thinking around a topic and reflect together on your practice - rather than passively sit and osmote! We also believe that one of the most valuable resources we have as educators is each other – so AISA now promotes opportunities for you to connect with each other in professional learning communities. Some of these opportunities are within online communities, others are during the PLIs and conferences where cohorts of educators will be given time and space during our unconference sessions to connect with each other, acknowledge their concerns, present their ideas, and share good practice. I would value your thoughts on AISA’s more progressive approach to Professional Learning. Why not write to me with your ideas, concerns and suggestions. Dr Peter Bateman Executive Director