Graduation Night October '09

Hi Chickens,
I am afraid that I have been neglecting my blog lately - not enough hours in the day! I have made time, however to put the graduation photos on. I look uniformly awful in all of them, but haven't got time to photoshop them so will have to go au naturelle (everyone else looks great). Huge Congratulations to all those who made the graduation, and the rest of you - I haven't given up hope that you will be at the next one.
Click here to view photos.
Where has the year gone? We will be counting the shopping days to Christmas soon.

Sorry it has been so long!

Hello Chickens,
well I have finally found time to update my blog. As the title says, sorry that it has been so long. Lots has happened since the last posting. The February group has finished classes and is now on the road to getting their certificates. There are a couple of contenders for first to the post. Mr. Salter is closest to finishing, but may be pipped at the post by one of the others. There are a few recalcitrants who need to extract the digit and get some folders in (you know who you are). Those who were at the BBQ had a good time and it was great to catch up outside class. Graduation for your group is currently scheduled for 14th of August, but I will have to reschedule as I will be in Alice Springs on that date. I will email you after another date is arranged. The April group is rocking and only has two classes left to go. They are in the midst of assessment and motoring towards the finish collecting as many ticks as possible on the way.

My Alice Springs Chickens (pictured above) will be seeing me again on 9th April and I am looking forward to going back there. Alice Springs was great and I was made to feel really welcome. I was even given a lift to the airport, thanks to Anita for your kind gesture. I hope I can arrange a dinner out with you before I leave this time, but it will have to be during the week as I fly out friday afternoon (couldn't arrange saturday flight unfortunately). You never know what you will see in the Alice - I have added a photo of an man taking his alpaca for a walk in the Todd Mall - just an average day in the red centre!

Now please make sure that any of you whatever group you are in calls me if you need help with assessment tasks. Don't stress out just send an email and I will be in touch. I will try to make more regular postings on the blog from now on. Things have settled down a bit now and hopefully will stay that way.
cheers, Mother Hen.

Our first TAA baby!

Massive congratulations to Bill and his wife on the arrival of Tyler Brayden Ojeda, weighing in at 3.8 Kg, on 16th April, 2009. All the staff and students at the academy send thier warmest wishes to you. Bill has achieved competency for this outstanding independent project and we are wondering if in his quest for 'continuous improvement' he will be aiming for twins next time!
To more serious matters, I would strongly urge those who have yet to hand in their Cluster One folders (group1)to make it a priority as it will get easier once you have completed this cluster.
For those in group 2 see if you can get yours in on time if at all possible. You know where to find me if you need any help.

Hello from Mother Hen

Hi Chickens,
well I now have two flocks to guide through the murky waters of TAA40104. Group 2 made a great start on Wednesday and have started accumulating ticks! Group 1 will be half way through after Monday (doesn't time fly when you are having fun), so are the big kids in the play ground now. I have as usual put all the requirements for next week onto the news forum and an email.

I thought that you might be interested in the review and reccomendations for the new model for the TAA40104 Cert IV the link is below:
http://www.ibsa.org.au/content/currentprojects/TAA40104_Review.html
You can register with ibsa and add your feedback to the review process if you like. I think that the more voices that are added to the feed back processes the better. I think that all the candidates who have done this course are eager to see changes made. You can also download a copy of the proposed new model and have a look at it. Ok, well have a good week end and see you all next week.

Day Three

Hi Chickens,
well I thought that I would give you a pretty picture this time to cheer you up before I give instructions for completing Cluster One assessment tasks. I have as usual put the information all over the place to try to ensure that everyone gets it. PLEASE contact me if you are having problems with anything - that is what I am here for.
For those students who have attended all classes and completed all the in-class assessment tasks you will need to:

• Complete the TAA Quiz 12 env
• 6 env Inclusivity 3rd Party report to be filled in and signed by a supervisor or other competent witness
• 10 env OHS 3rd Party report to be filled in and signed by a supervisor or other competent witness
• 15 env Working in VET 3rd Party report to be filled in and signed by a supervisor or other competent witness
• 14 env Workplace project to be completed as per instructions - if you check off the items (where applicable) on the check list provided you can't go far wrong.

The important things are to design a learning plan to meet the needs of a particular target group in consultation with anyone else involved and to contextualise the chosen unit/s or accredited courses you will be using to that target group.

I would suggest that you choose at least 2 units from a training package or accredited course for your learning plan, but you only need to contextualise one of them. It will save you a lot of time if you design a learning plan that you can the deliver and assess for assessment tasks in future clusters. If you are already carrying out training in the workplace see if you can fit this project in with that. If you do not have a practise environment then you will have to set up a simulation. Don't forget to include an OHS inspection of your prospective learning environment and an OHS briefing to learners in your learning plan to fulfill evidence requirements for the OHS unit. Your learning plan should also contain at least 2 session plans to fulfill evidence requirements for deliveries in Cluster 2.
But the good news is that you will be a quarter of the way through when you have done this and well on your way to completion. I also reckon that it becomes easier and more interestin from now on and starts to make more sense. Here ends the sandwich!!!!!

This is some information I got together for a previous student to help him get the most out of the delivery he did for his workplace project, It ocurred to me that others may be able to use this information as well.

Hope this makes sense and doesn’t look too overwhelming, but remember you are gathering evidence for nearly every unit in the course.

Cluster 2
You will need:

- delivery plan – include venue resources, learner records (enrolment forms), promotional information (anything announcing the course or publicizing it)

- Session plans (at least 2)

- Delivery (2 consecutive sessions, 1 for at least an hour and recorded)

- 3^rd party report from suitably qualified person

- Evaluations – student, observer and yours

- Journal – your reflections

Refer to checklist (they are combined on one list) in work place project folder Cluster 2)

Cluster 3

5. Develop teams and individuals through a Workbased learning projecf.

If you can add a component of learning on the job – practicing a skill – as well as the two deliveries you can gather evidence for this project as well. Refer to checklist 5.2 in Workbased learning Project folder in Cluster 3.

I suggest you do the coaching project in cluster 3 as a separate project as it is only one on one and relatively easy to organize.

Cluster 4

11.3 Workplace Assessment Observation Report (all templates required are in the cluster 4 folder)

You will need to do:

- an assessment plan

- design tools/methods

- conduct at least one assessment (2 showing different methods would be better eg. A questionnaire and a direct observation) Don’t forget you must have a list of answers!!!!

- Conduct assessment with an observer to witness

- Validate – you can do this by writing a report showing how your assessment methods collect evidence to meet all the critical evidence requirements of this unit.

Refer to checklist in Workplace Project folder Cluster 4.

Hope this is of assistance.

Edit | Delete

Day Two

PANICKING



Yes Chickens, if anyone is tempted to feel that way - stop now. You are all doing really well for this early stage of the course and I thought you guys did a fantastic job of the presentations on Monday afternoon. Everyone was really in the groove re the dreaded topic of 'contextualisation'.

I have put the revised training plan on Moodle. I thought it wasn't a bad idea to have it there for reference anyway. Those who missed class on Monday please note that the date of the last day of the course has changed due to difficulties arranging flights to Alice Springs for a course I am delivering there.

For the Day 3 assessment tasks you will need to print out the contents of the OHS_task folder and the Inclusivity_tasks folder. The 3rd party reports are not for the in-class activities, but you may have questions about them. The Workplace Project is an independent assessment task. It would be a very good idea to print out the instructions, read them and come to the next class ready to ask questions about them. All these documents are in the Assessment tasks_Cluster One folder. I have put the due date for the hand in of the the Cluster One assessment tasks on the Calender.

I have put this information on Moodle as well- so there can be no excuses for not getting it. Next week we will be quarter way through the course. Doesn't time fly when you're having fun.

Quote for the week 'The first step is half way on a thousand mile journey.' This gem comes from a chinese philosopher called Lao Tzu.

Day One for the Class of Feb 09

Hi Chickens,
Well I hope you guys weren't too overwhemed by your first plunge into the dangerous waters of VET. I promise you that soon all the Vet-speak will become second nature and the complex web of Vet organisations will become familiar, then everything will fall in place for you.

I have made an email folder and will shortly send out the first group email. If anyone doesn't get it please send me an email to carole.buck@dhrca.com and I will edit your address as necessary.

For day 2 Cert IV TAA you will need to print out the contents of the BTP_simulation folder and also 11 env_Use_TAAO4_T.P.v1.doc. You will find these in the Assessment Tasks_Cluster One folder on Moodle. You should also have a browse through the DES401B resource book to familiarise yourselves with the topic.

I have also put this information on the news forum in Moodle and also in the email so hopefully everyone will get the message.

See you all on the 23rd Feb, and remember, as Bette Midler once said:
'To be successful you don't need good looks or talent - all you need is enthusiasm.' It is my favourite quote.