Message from the Branch President, Karen Fox

13/09/2021

“I recognise that teaching is a collaborative profession and I am not the only teacher in a young person’s life. My work is enriched through working with my colleagues, learning from them and contributing to their practice.”

Statement of Commitment to the Profession of Teaching, ACELQ (April 2017).

This excerpt from the Statement * was our inspiration for the theme of the recent ACELQ/SLRC In Dialogue seminar. Offered through the partnership between ACELQ and the Science of Learning Research Centre (SLRC) these seminars have been running since 2019. Hosted at the School of Education, University of Queensland, this term’s event continued the practice of bringing together a multidisciplinary group of researchers, educational leaders and teachers around a common topic. This term the theme was:

Learning with and from one another: the power of social connection, collaboration and shared understanding in professional learning.

Professor Ross Cunnington (Professor of Cognitive Neurosciece, UQ) provided a fascinating neuroscientist’s perspective on the topic of Social connection, emotional responses, empathy and the brain. Dr Suraiya Abdul Hameed ( Lecturer, School of Education, UQ) developed the concept of professional collaboration by offering the research lens of educational leadership for collaborative professional learning in the 21st century. The school perspective was provided by team members from three schools outlining their research and experiences around building and developing collaborative professional learning communities to meet identifiable school goals or needs. Participants online and in person had opportunity to draw together the threads of the theme, question the presenters and comment on observations. It was a wonderful evening of shared learning and collaboration.

Thankyou to the UQ School of Education and Head of School, Professor Tisha Morrell, Professor Ross Cunnington and Dr Suraiya Hameed for their presentations, and Dr Stephanie McMahon from SLRC and UQ School of Education for planning and organisation of the evening. Special thanks to the school teams who enhanced our learning with their real life examples

Our Lady Help of Christians School, Cairns
Robyn Arri, Elisa Dingle, Myree Sam ,Richard Ketchell

Ambrose Treacy College
Lisa Holohan, David Mapleston, Sarah McCallan, Cameron Pickering

Canterbury College
Luke Van Leuveren

Thanks also to ACELQ Executive Branch members Alexander Mason as series organiser and Dr Sandra Nissen, online facilitator.

The Term 4 In Dialogue will be held on 4th November. * More information on the Statement of Commitment to the Profession of Teaching is available on the Queensland section of the ACEL website ( link here)

Middle Leaders: Message from Branch Executive member, Liz Benson.

The Pivotal People theme for 2021 has been 'Pivotal People: Middle leaders looking after themselves and others.' We have engaged in stimulating and rigorous conversations about practices middle leaders can employ to create cultures within their teams that support the wellbeing of everyone. We will finish of the year on October 20th with a bang when Patrick Duignan and I present workshop on Pivotal People: Being an Authentic middle leader.

Click here to register

This week (September 9th 4-5pm via Zoom) we start planning our theme and program for 2022. I have been contemplating a couple of ideas that we could incorporate into our theme:

* Middle leaders and teaching teams are best placed to make decisions about what is taught and how it is taught.
* Middle leaders as influencers

More information, pre-reading, and registration here.

We’re always keen to receive feedback and suggestions from our Queensland members. Contact us through:
Twitter: @AcelQueensland
Linked In: ACEL Queensland
Or via email: [email protected]