School of Teacher Education Farewell Morning Tea

With the restructuring of the university, the School of Teacher Education has merged with the School of Education, and is now known as the School of Education. Today we had a farewell morning tea for SOTE (virtually due to COVID lockdowns) and to thank special people who were an important part of our school including: 

• Carol Burgess - Head, SOTE 
• Libbey Murray - Associate Head, SOTE
• Graham Daniel - Associate Head, SOTE
• Donna Bateup - Admin, SOTE
• Tamara Cumming - organiser of SOTE morning teas (and MANY other roles)

  

  CSU School of Teacher Education
  

Carol Burgess, SOTE Head of School

Donna Bateup

Dr Graham Daniel

Dr Libbey Murray

Dr Tamara Cumming

Graduation celebrations in the Faculty of Arts and Education

This week, Charles Sturt University is hosting graduation celebrations for our students who officially graduated in 2020, but were unable to attend their ceremonies due to COVID restrictions. 

Wednesday 2nd June was the first School of Teacher Education graduation ceremony and Dr Kelly Tribolet, one of our colleagues graduated. I had played a small role in supporting her PhD completion in my role on as chair of the SOTE Research Committee, so it was wonderful to celebrate this special day with her and her supervisors (Prof Linda Harrison, Dr Loraine Fordham and Dr Deb Clarke). Congratulations Kelly!

Dr Kelly Tribolet, Prof Linda Harrison, Prof Sharynne McLeod

Thursday 3rd June saw the graduation of a number of the Faculty of Arts and Education doctorates including Dr Roslyn Cox, Dr Anna Cronin, Dr Graham Lupp, and Dr Lucia Wuersch. 

Faculty of Arts and Education graduates and staff

Dr Lucia Wuersch

Virtual Christmas party

The School of Teacher Education Christmas party was virtual this year (of course). It was lovely to see everyone, reflect on the year, farewell Helen Logan and Kay Owens and to play COVID Bingo!

Wonderful SOTE colleagues at at distance

 I had a chance to catch up with Donna Bateup from the School of Teacher Education today. She has been doing an amazing job supporting us all from a distance this year. Thanks Donna!

SOTE PhD students

We currently have 23 PhD students in the School of Teacher Education, with three more due to begin in 2021. We have 20 domestic students. Nine are part time and 14 are full time. 

Congratulations to the students who have their dissertations under examination or who are due to graduate this year (including Nicole McGill and Anna Cronin). (Information from Dr Tamara Cumming, HDR Coordinator, SOTE School Board, 30 Sept 2020)

SOTE Colleagues Research Ideas and Encouragement (aka CV writing workshop)

Our School of Teacher Education (SOTE) Colleagues Research Ideas and Encouragement Group (previously called the CV writing workshop). We have had a number of sessions together, so today everyone talked about their life/teaching/research since we last met. I was encouraged to hear that everyone had been working on their research over the semester break, and most had space this semester to continue their momentum. We also talked about:

• Signing up for journal alerts
• Targetting journals when you begin writing each journal article
• ResearchGate
• Google Scholar - linking to CSU library
• Planning for promotion by looking at the requirements for the level above your current employment 
• Teaching quality
• Grant opportunities/workshops/writing ROPES

I really enjoy these meetings.

Belinda, Sharynne, Jenny, Rahul, Jess, James + Brian

Easter bonnet morning tea

This morning Dr Tamara Cumming organised another School of Teacher Education Morning Tea. We typically meet face-to-face every month or two, but now we are meeting virtually (and more regularly). This morning's catch up had an Easter bonnet (hat) theme. We all loved chatting with one another and playing with our virtual backgrounds in Zoom. My Easter hat was inspired by our VietSpeech project and Dr Ben Pham and her family.

School of Teacher Education Easter bonnet morning tea

Sharynne's Vietnamese-inspired Easter bonnet

SOTE Research Committee

For the next 6 months I am the chair of the School of Teacher Education (SOTE) Research Committee while Dr Helen Logan is on SSP (sabbatical). We had our first meeting of the year this afternoon, and it was a pleasure to welcome new members. There was a lot of new information to discuss including COVID-19 (see below).

SOTE CV writing workshop - March 2020

Today a group of staff from the CSU School of Teacher Education met with me to discuss their CVs. It was a supportive discussion to ensure that all of their experiences can be categorised and considered within an academic context, and to imagine next steps/opportunities to assist their growth. This group first met in February and will meet again in a month.

Jenny, Paul, Brian, Andi, Jess, Belinda

Being a "research fairy"

I am acting chair of the School of Teacher Education Research Committee as well as a Senior Research Fellow. Sometimes colleagues have research deadlines, and life gets complex. This week I have been someone's "research fairy", popping in to help them to finalise their 33 pages of references in APA style so that their research deadline can be completed. My years as editor of International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology means that this is a faster task for me so that she can focus on the other parts of the revision.

Starting the academic year in the School of Teacher Education

To commence the academic year in the School of Teacher Education, our Head of School Carol Burgess and Donna Bateup hosted a morning tea welcoming new staff. Afterwards Dr Helen Logan (SOTE Research Committee Chair), Dr Tamara Cumming (SOTE HDR coordinator) and I held a research welcome to new staff where we discussed our research histories and passions. We will hold a research CV writing workshop in a couple of weeks' time.

SOTE staff - February 2020

Belinda, Lana, Stacey, Helen, Andi, Tamara, Sharynne, Rahul, Jessica (Brian not pictured)

Thank you for the celebratory morning tea

This morning we had a celebratory morning tea. Thank you so much to my colleagues and students (past and present) for this wonderful acknowledgment of our collaborative work over the years.

Colleagues from the School of Teacher Education (SOTE)

A/Prof Alan Bain, Carol Burgess (HOS), Prof Sharynne McLeod

From Carol Burgess (Head of School): The School of Teacher Education has had a lot to celebrate over the past few weeks so we would like to come together to take time out to recognise some wonderful achievements for the staff within our school.

• Sharynne McLeod was recently recognised in The Australian newspaper for being Australia’s Top Researcher in the World for the field of Audiology, Speech and Language Pathology.
• Alan Bain was also recently recognised for his work, being named on The Educator’s inaugural ‘Hot List’ of innovators in Australian Higher Education.

These are some amazing achievements and SOTE are very proud of Sharynne and Alan. If staff in Bathurst are able to join us for a morning tea on Wednesday 6 November at 10 am, the school will provide some lovely treats to indulge in during our celebration.

Thank you to Donna Bateup and Carol Burgess for organising the event

A guide to speaking at the United Nations

Today I presented a seminar to the School of Teacher Education titled "A guide to speaking at the United Nations" where I listed 10 steps:

1. Have an important message to share 
2. Read everything you can about the United Nations 
3. Work closely with an organisation 
4. Attend meetings at the Australian Human Rights Commission 
5. Submit your side event proposal and write your speech 
6. Prepare to travel 
7. Read pre-briefing material and write 3 minute “interventions” 
8. Spend the week at the UN: Timetable 
9. Present at the UN 
10. Follow up: Australian Mission to the UN briefing, media

School of Teacher Education Research Working Group

Dr Helen Logan is chair of the Charles Sturt University School of Teacher Education (SOTE) Research Working Group and I am deputy chair. The committee meets regularly, and we also have a number of meetings at the Faculty level, including the Faculty of Arts and Education Research and Graduate Studies Committee. Currently we are on a Honours Working Party providing advice to the University. It is good to have a voice on research issues.

Sharynne McLeod (deputy chair) and Helen Logan (chair)

Farewell to Loraine Fordham

Last night we said farewell to Dr Loraine Fordham from the School of Teacher Education (SOTE). Loraine has been an important member of SOTE for many years.  For example, she was one of Kate Crowe's PhD supervisors and co-published the following paper:

Crowe, K., Fordham, L., McLeod, S., & Ching, T. Y. C. (2014). “Part of our world”: Influences on caregiver decisions about communication choices for children with hearing loss. Deafness and Education International, 16(2), 61–85. doi:10.1179/1557069X13Y.0000000026

We wish her all the best in her new position at Macquarie University.

Past and current members of SOTE farewelling Dr Loraine Fordham

School of Teacher Education research

I am the Chair of the School of Teacher Education (SOTE) Research Committee. This week we have overtaken three SOTE noticeboards to showcase 50+ journal articles published by SOTE researchers 2017 and 2018 (see attached photos). We are now working on another noticeboard to feature the books written by SOTE staff and students. We are a prolific group researching many important issues.

SOTE Head of School, Carol Burgess with one of the SOTE research noticeboards

Chatting with colleagues

This morning my colleague Dr Tamara Cumming organised a morning tea so that the people in our building (who work in different departments) all had a chance to chat with one another. It was a happy occasion where we shared our interests. Events such as this are so important for collegiality and wellbeing.