Brisbane was GREAT!

Hello to all of you who have come to check out this blog, especially those who just completed an amazing two days talking about all things TROPIC-al! That means YOU, David, Meredith, David, Karen, Martha, Peter, Deb, Keith, Bob, Michelle, Jean, Gillian, and Lisa! What a wonderful workshop that was. It is a priviledge to be associated with you all. I am really looking forward to having more contact via blog, chat, VC, e-mail or whatever we think is appropriate. I hope some of you will start reflective blogs too and we can really benefit from our TROPIC community( in between F2F meetings, of course :-) - we do still have to decide on the amazing venue for the next one, right??)
And I haven't forgotten that there are others who are part of this community - Barbara, Errol, Deanne, Mary, Colleen, Sarah-Jane, Robin, Stef, Jill, Amy, Ann, and anyone else who I have not seen for awhile. Welcome to this space.
If you want to start your own blog, go to www.blogger.com and follow the directions for making your very own. Or pick any of the other excellent blogging spots available for free on the web. Then let us all know how to read your blog, so we can bookmark it as a favourite and start commenting on your postings.
See you 'round (or I'll be seeing you, in the gerand!)

Time for more TROPIC input

This week I am going to get a chance to see how the Teachers we introduced to TROPIC are getting along. It will be a chance to talk about both the 'big picture' of peer observation in classrooms for the whole of TAFE, and the nitty gritty of how peer observation works. We'll be reviewing the way we do the observations, and the feedback we all give together will result in making adjustments to the process, perhaps. It will be a chance for 'time out' to reflect, to gain other's perspectives, to not be interrupted. It is such a great realisation that we are developing a way for Teachers to have professional conversations, to mentor each other, to think about pedagogy and give each other ideas about practical things we can do to develop effective classroom experiences, both for us and for our students.
I was able to complete a peer observation last week. I thought it went well except for the time I had to give feedback. That was inadequate. The Teacher and I were interrupted on two occasions when feedback was attempted. Now I won't get a chance to talk more about it till I come back from this week's trip. I hope the time gap doesn't leave the Teacher unsettled or 'hanging'. I did give some feedback - it was just not as full as I would have liked. I did leave a doorway open for us to talk about the Microskills further, by leaving a copy of same with the Teacher to browse through at their leisure, and I will make a point of getting back to that Teacher as soon as I can when I return. It's still not an ideal situation though....
Will reflect more here when I get back.