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Subcommittee Updates
SLAQ President’s Report – Gold Coast - 2008
2008 proved to be a successful year for our Gold Coast Branch with many opportunities for networking which provided a wealth of personal and professional development.
At the AGM in March, a brief questionnaire was completed by those in attendance, in regards to the types of PD, speakers and social events that were desired for the year. This questionnaire was also circulated to those members who were not present. Based on the results of this survey, the committee planned several PD sessions and intended trialling ‘pod’ sessions to cover smaller interest areas with smaller informal groups.
It also appeared to be the ‘year of conferences’ with the Somerset Celebration of Literature Teacher Librarian Conference being held over two days, the CBCA’s National Conference in Melbourne –‘ All the Wild Wonders’ and of course, the SLAQ biennial conference in Brisbane (Take Flight) in the September holidays. With members’ commitments to these conferences high, the first of the PD’s was the highly successful talk by CBCA judge, Liz Derouet, in May, which was again hosted by Andrew Smith at Kings Christian College. Again, we had a very large attendance and were treated to insightful reflections on those that made the shortlist and those that didn’t and some of the reasons for the decisions. This was Liz’s last year as a Fiction judge and we commend her efforts and dedication over the past two years. Dale Byrne from Symonds is one of the Non Fiction judges for 2009/2010 and we look forward to hearing from her once the short list is announced.
Narelle Oliver ran a delightful session on Book Plates at Saint Stephen’s College with 20 TL’s demonstrating their versatility in design and printing techniques under the very encouraging eye of Narelle who made sure that we all felt that we had something to offer the art world.
Later in the month, we combined sessions with the newly revitalised Teacher Librarian Network (Secondary) for our scheduled PD on Literature Circles with Marj Kirkland from Aquinas. This again was very successful with Marj not only providing us with tips and tricks for our own literature circles but also with statistics from the years that she has been running the programme.
SLAQ Gold Coast continued with its ‘Termly and Timely’ dinners which provided a regular social outing and a relaxed atmosphere for networking and idea pooling. These are always successful events with upwards of fifteen attending most dinners. Coral Tulloch was again a guest at our mid-year dinner where we had 25 members attending and it was also an opportunity for our yearly catch up with Barb Phillip who is still a Gold Coast member although she is based in Singapore. Three evenings were held in total throughout the year.
In Term 3 the ‘Smart Art’ workshop was again run by the library staff at Saint Stephen’s College. This year the workshop was held on a Saturday from 12pm until 3.30pm and involved hands-on activities based on the short-listed books, in particular the early childhood and picture books categories. It was held early in Term 3 in order to give schools an opportunity to have displays and activities well underway by the time Book Week arrived. Sixteen people attended this year and it was a great opportunity to chat and relax while creating amazing art!
Later in August we had an afternoon PD followed by a dinner. This was delivered in two parts with Deb Schinckel from TSS Prep talking to us about Inquiry Based Learning, followed by Janette Planck from Trinity College discussing her studies into ‘Brain Based Learning’. Both these sessions were extremely informative and valuable but unfortunately numbers were down significantly due to a particularly severe flu season.
Term 4's planned PD was cancelled due to several factors. One major factor was that the reformed TL network offered several sessions throughout the year on the same topics that had been planned by our committee in March. It did not, therefore, seem useful to go ahead and duplicate these, and it was a shame that there had not been better communication between the two groups. It should be a goal of SLAQ in 2009 for the two groups to work together to offer a range of PD and activities that complement and support each other. In pursuit of this goal, Deanna Pienaar put together a survey to be discussed at the 2009 AGM as to the direction in which SLAQ members want their committee to head. Hopefully, this will provide a good first step in resolving some of the issues that arose in 2008.
In retrospect, 2008 at times appeared to be a year of two steps forward, one step backwards but the sessions and the PD that went ahead were highly successful. The camaraderie and the support that SLAQ Gold Coast affords its members is invaluable and I would like to take this opportunity to again thank Pat Case for her work as Treasurer, which she has done for many years quietly and efficiently, Andrew Smith as our local councillor who represents the Gold Coast at State level, and Deanna Pienaar for her work as Secretary. I would also like to acknowledge Wendy Gardner for her role as Vice President, which she vacated when she left her position as TL at Palm Beach Currumbin State High.
We look forward to 2009 with renewed vigour and the opportunity to continue to foster and develop our professional lives.
Annie White, President, SLAQ Gold Coast Sub Committee
Last updated 21 September 2009