Day 7 : Now It Begins

Date : 3rd May 2010 (Monday)
Venue : Tallangatta Secondary College









Period 1 :
INTRODUCTION TO STAFF

Meet with Albert Freijah, Principal of Tallangatta Secondary College and Con Madden, Assistant Principal. Introduced to other teachers and staffs of Tallangatta Secondary College.

DAILY BRIEFING

Then all the teachers had short meeting just 10 minutes before 9.00 o’clock where they had briefing and short announcement from principal, assistant principal and other teachers. These take place at the beginning of each day, starting at 8.45am. All staff are expected to attend. A student daily bulletin is distributed at briefing for communication with students as part of the home group routine at the beginning of each day. Information for inclusion on the bulletin is to be placed electronically in the C Staff folder for the appropriate day by 2.30pm on the previous day. The bulletin is printed at 8.30am each morning.

HOMEGROUP MEETING

After staff meeting, all teachers had a Homegroup meeting at designated places for 10 minutes. Homegroup is where a teacher is assigned a few students from different year level to :
• Daily roll marking and administrative procedures through Home Group meetings.
• Advocating for the students in their Home Group
• Monitoring the social and emotional development of each student
• Encouraging positive behaviours and work habits

DISCUSSION WITH PRINCIPAL AND ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

After homegroup meeting I had a short discussion with Mr Albert Freijah, Principal and Mr Con Madden, Assistant Principal and Janet Floyd, a Senior Leading Teacher and Curriculum Co-ordinator. We discussed on education culture in Malaysia and Australia, school organizational structure and the current activities of reviewing 2009 Action Plan. The process of reviewing their action plan includes diagnostic, feedback from students, teachers, parents and other staff.

Period 2:
SCHOOL ORIENTATION

Went on tour of the school with School Captain, Jacintha, Maddy and Teagan. TSC has 7 buildings which were the main buiding, Year 12 Senior Student Centre, Design and Technology building, English Class building, Music Class building, Locker building and the Sports Centre building.

Offices in the main building are :
1. Administrative office
2. Principal office
3. Assistant Principal office
4. Library
5. Staff Room
6. Food Technology Kitchen
7. Classes
8. Photocopying areas
9. Sick Room
10. Classes

















Period 3 :
CLASS VISIT – Visual Art

Visited Sue Ledsam’s art class at Design and Technology Building. In this class she instructed the students to create reports on activities they had done before which was sculpture building. She graphically draw the overall view of the reports assigned on the whiteboard.

A discussion with her later revealed that Visual Communication subject was similar to Visual Arts subject in Malaysia whereas the Studio Art subject mostly focused on sculpture building and photography.
















Period 4 & 5 :
CLASS VISIT – Mathematic

Visited Jacqui Veal’s VCE mathematic class for year 12. She was using ICT technology to deliver the content on Probability topic. Technology used were powerpoint presentation with relevant graphics, LCD projector, screen and whiteboards. Teaching and learning then followed by exercises and discussions with individual students.


Period 6 & 7 :
DISCUSSIONS – ICT

Infrastructure
Janet and I had discussions with Mr Geoff Love, an ICT and multimedia teacher who also incharge of the ICT wellbeing of the school. There are 75 computers that were networked throughout the school, 55 laptops for teachers, LCD projectors and 4 interactive whiteboards, wireless access point and network cables. Network computer, colour printer and Internet access is available on all network computers throughout the college. Laptop trolleys are located in the Maths area, the science area, the technology area, , and the Languages area. Ben is a student IT Technician who is available every Tuesday.

Sofware
Sofware installed in most of the computers were Adobe Photoshop, Office 2007, Markbook (for assessment reporting) and the Learning Management System which is located at their school intranet.

Website and LMS
The school website was developed by Mr Geoff Love using Joomla while theLearning Management Sytem (LMS) was created using an open source software, Moodle. Student Digital Portfolio were designed with Mahara software where students posted their sample of work, their reflections and anything that involved especially with their Personal Best Program activities.

Some of the LMS for certain subject needed a username and password even though they are in the same protected intranet. The reason was in that particular LMS, students pictures may be posted where Australia had a strict policy on privacy. Teachers are not allowed to posted any pictures of their students over the internet.

However the use of LMS in the future is uncertain due to the development of ULTRANET by the government which connect all schools in Victoria.

Sister School on LMS
Mr Geoff Love created an account for me to start the discussions of Sister School activities on the LMS. This is to enable teachers and students of TSC and SMKDPM to keep informed of the activities of Sister School.


















Homestay
Homestay with Sue

















SIMILARITIES
- Similarities in basic school infrastructure.
- Similarities in teachers are teaching and students are learning.
- Similarities in teaching and learning of Arts and Mathematics in terms of technology wise.

DIFFERENCES
- Subject syllabus and assessment were created by the teacher who teach the subject by following guidelines by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD).
- Daily briefing is very short, simple and direct to the point. In complete contrary to our school’s weekly morning prayer.
- TSC had a comprehensive style of reviewing their action plan which involved getting feedback from students and parents in written form.
- The school started at 9.00 am until 3.20 pm with 30 minutes recess time in the morning and another 30 minutes of lunch time.
- Very small number of students in class which usually on the average of 20.
- Numerous and latest ICT infrastructure such as interactive whiteboard, videoconferencing , intranet and high technology of scanner vs photocopying machine which can be sent to their email.
- Communication between principal and teachers are strengthen through the use of local intranet email.
- Students of Year 12 had a special privilege where they have their own building to rest when they had no class.
- In TSC, the students and teachers moved to their classes in rooms designated to them at specific time which keep changing everyday.

Day 6 : Looking For Koala

Date : 2nd May 2010 (Sunday)

With Mrs Janet Floyd and her daughter visited Oze Wildlife to see some kanggaroos, wallabies, wombats and especially the koala. The Koalas were so cute, very, very cute. It is just so pity that there was only 3 in the centre.

Day 5 : Handover

Date : 1 May 2010 (Saturday)
Time : 11.30 am

Host school representatives arrived at Mantra Apartments to bring their respective sister school teachers and we left for lunch at Kanzaman Restaurant at Bridge Road, Richmond.
























Janet Floyd from Tallangatta Secondary College and me left for Tallangatta at 2.30 and the journey tooks approximately 4 hours before arriving at Tallangatta. We arrived at 7.30pm and went to Jacqui Veal and David Veal house for dinner.

Thank you Jacqui and David for the wonderful dinner.

Day 4 : Collaboration Culture and Technology

Date : 30 April 2010 (Friday)
Time : 8.30 am - 9.30 am
Event : Briefing on Cultural Differences - Asia Link

Time : 9.30 am - 12.30 pm
Event : Talk on "Use of Information Technology to facilitate exchange between schools" by Aaron O'Shannessy at University of Melbourne

Time : 2.00 am - 3.00 pm
Event : Visit to Victorian Institute of Sports at Olympic Park, Olympic Boulevard, Melbourne.

Day 3 : Its all about Teaching and Learning

Date : 29th April 2010 (Thursday)
Time : 9.00am – 10.00 am
Event : Engaging Science and Math by Andrew Popov, a Senior Policy Officer at St Andrews Place.

Efforts to attract students attention and interest in Science and Mathematics through 4 priority action areas which were Infrastructure, Strategic Partnership, Workforce Capacity, Resources to Support a Contemporary curriculum. The development of infrastructures to boost Science and Math are Ecoline:

1. Ecoline – Sustainable Environment Practices
2. GTAC – Molecular and Cell Biology
3. The Victorian Space Science Education Centre – Space Science
4. Victorian Bioscience Education Centre – Bioscience and Health Science
5. Earth Science Education Centre – Renewable Energies
6. Quantum Victoria - Physical Science
























And also with the development of John Monash Science School and 42 BER Science Centre Schools. Students in Victoria in other school can visits the centre and developed interest in Science and Mathematics and their application. Innovative use of ICT through outreach program and the use of Ultranet to help teacher in teaching and learning.

Strategic Partnership is where a department selected company will collaborate with schools in helping them in teaching and learning. A prementoring program in the strategic partnership where a student in university will voluntarily assist teacher in teaching and learning of science and math at school. They will bring teaching and learning materials from the university.

















Time : 10.30 am- 11.30 am
Event : Workshop on Thinking Skills by Libby Tudball, from Monash University.
























Libby began by a hands on De-Bono Six Thinking Hats
- White : Facts
- Red : Feel
- Green : Creative Possibilities to solve problems
- Yellow : Positive ways to think and act
- Black or Purple : Negative Issues to face
- Blue : What actions are needed

















All activities or thinking skills are used to promote engagement of students in teaching and learning process by applying all multiple intelligence to support students abilities.

Time : 12.30pm

Event : Official Welcome Lunch

An official welcome lunch by Sue Christophers, a General Manager from International Education Division, DEECD. Souvenirs were presented to participants as well as exchange gift between the Department of Education of both Malaysia and Australia.

Time : 1.00 pm

Event : Visits to Strathmore Secondary College, Pascoe Vale Road, Victoria.

Strathmore Secondary College is where the Space Lab or The Victorian Space Science Education Centre which focused on Space Science. Students from other schools can visit, use and experience the content and technology used in the Space Lab. The Victorian Space Science Education Centre was established to promote the learning of science.

After visiting Strathmore Secondary College we went on Tour of The City to Parl House, Captain Coks Cottage, Eureka Towers, Federation Square, St. Hilda Beach, Southbank etc. Returned to hotel at 5.00 pm and dinner with Helen and Saritha.

Day 3 : A Glimpse to Victorian Education System

Date : 28th April 2010 (Wednesday)
Event : Overview of the Victorian Education System, Mr Alan Mc Lean, Manager of International C-operation and Study Tours.

We departed from Mantra Apartment at 9.00 am and walked with Mrs Sarita Yen to our suppose to be meeting room at St. Andrews Place. However since the meeting room was unavailable we went to a Coffe House meeting room nearby.

Mr Alan McLean delivered briefing on Victorian Education System. What I listed here are some of the the significant differences between Victorian Education System and Malaysia Education System.

















- Since Australia is a multi cultural country, some of the students are not using English as their first languge, where over 230 countries of birth and 200 language spoken.

- The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) has 2 minister which are the Minister of Education and Minister of Early Childhood Development.

- Victorian Institut of Teaching (VIT) is an institution controlling entry to the teaching profession. To become a qualified teacher, he or she must undergo four years of teaching qualification including 60 days of practicum, followed by 1 year provisional teaching. Only after the VIT are satisfied with the performance of the provisional teacher, then the teacher can be approved to be a qualified teacher.

- Merit Protection Boards is to ensure that people that were selected for the job of teaching solely based on selection criterias.

- The concept of education in Australia is the department or DEECD created a framework or guidelines on curriculum and the schools responsibilities is to create their own learning program based on the framework.

- The structure of schooling in Australia have a slight differences in states. In Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and ACT students begin their secondary school at the age of 13 (Year 7) whereas in Queensland, SA, NT and WA, the secondary school age begins later at the age of 14 (Year 8)

- There are no assessment examination for primary students before entering secondary school. All assessment which were school based are done at year 3, 5 and 12. All teaching and learning are based on the concept of multiple intelligence.

- For secondary school, Year 11 and Year 12, students are given choice to select elective subject they wish to take upon. There are no restriction, conditions or certain grade need to be achieved before taking the subject. However a counselor will advised and give guidance on the students choices of subjects depends on their chosen career path.

- 90% of funds control by school including the hiring and selection of staffs while the principal himself selected by the school council.

- A principal will report to a Regional Network Leaders who monitor principal performance.


Then Teresa Bossio, a Manager from Leadership and Teacher Development presented a talk on Leadership and Teacher Professional Development. Raylene Dodds, an assistant General Manager for Leadership and Teacher Development briefed us on Developments in School Education.

We were briefed on BASTOW – an Institute of Educational Learning where its function have some similarities with the Malaysian Institute Aminuddin Baki (IAB).

















After lunch we went to visit Broadmeadows Valley PS at 95-98 Johnstone Street, Broadmeadows. At the school we were shown the Broadmeadows regeneration project which emphasize on neighbourhood learning with the construction of new school building with a different concept of open space and new style of teaching and learning.































































Afterwards we went to Ideas Lab at The Age Library building at Dimboola Road, Broadmeadows. “Whats Now Possible” topic presented by Bruce Nixon, a founding Director of IdeasLab, a co-founder of Anytime, Anywhere Learning Foundation.

He emphasized on various possibilities of sharing teaching and learning using technology which were called Virtual Pedagogy. Some of the powerful ways of connecting examples are Kodu Games, Virtual Courses and range of different technology such as wikispaces, Ning social networking, skypes, etc.

Day 1 : Welcome to Melbourne

Date : 27th April 2010 (Tuesday)
Event : Journey From Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne

















Flight MH 129 depart from Kuala Lumpur at 10.05am and arrive at Melbourne at 19.45 (local time) with a little air turbulence along Northern Australia. We had to endure a strict custom checking on prohibited items entering Australia. The temperature was quite cold and we were greeted by Mrs Saritha Yen, Senior Project Officer.

















Then we were transferred to Mantra Apartments, 333 Exhibition Street, Melbourne. The streets have less cars and all shops were closed. We were given an apartment to share between two participants and I was in the same apartments with Pn. Salbiah Baba.

















After a brief discussion on Sister School Task distribution and guidelines
with Pn. Salbiah, we finally slept at 12.40 of local time.

Day 0 : Briefing

Date : 26 April 2010 (Monday)
Event : Briefing on Australia Malaysia Sister Schools Program
Venue : Australia High Commission

Arrive at Australia High Commission at 2.00pm. After security check in we are allowed to enter
the embassy and the briefing began with program overview by Michael Helleman with
a little bit of Victorian Education System.

All seven participants including officer from Cluster School Department, Ministry of Education, Pn. Salbiah Baba, Ms Amy and Ms Susan from Australia High Commission attended the meeting. After question and answer session, the briefing ended at 4.30 pm.

Malaysian Teacher's Visit

SMK Datuk Peter Mojuntin's teacher, Teacher Surie Aziz will join the Cohort 2 team which will depart to Melbourne on 27th April 2010. She will be in Kuala Lumpur on 26th April to attend a meeting at 3.00 o'clock on the same day.

Sister School Program

This project was announced by Australian Prime Minister, Mr Kevin Rudd, during his visit to Malaysia on 10 July 2008. The aim of the project is to develop mutual understanding and people-to-people links between year 9 and 10 students in Australia and Malaysia.

In 2008/09 six high schools in Malaysia were linked with six schools in Victoria. Victoria was selected because of the interest shown by Ms Bronwyn Pike, the Victorian Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) during a visit to Malaysia. The schools were selected in consultation with the Malaysian Ministry of Education and DEECD.

Participating Schools

Australian School	Malaysian School
Western Port Secondary College, Hastings	SMK Aminuddin Baki, JLN Kampung Pandan, Kuala Lumpur.
Wallan Secondary College, Wallan	SMK Agama Sheikh Abdul Malek, JLN Budiman Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu
Benalla Secondary College, Benalla	SMK Derma, JLN Penjara, Kangar, Perlis
Rosebud Secondary College, Rosebud	SMK Gunung Rapat, Ipoh Perak.
Fountain Gate Secondary College, Fountain Gate	SMK USJ4, Subang Jaya, Selangor
Lalor Secondary College, Lalor	SMK Sains Kuching, Sarawak

Six Malaysian teachers from the participating schools visited Victoria for two weeks in November 2008. The group spent a week undertaking professional development in Melbourne and a week with their host schools. During the second week they were billeted in home-stay arrangements. The reciprocal visit by the six Australian teachers took place in February 2009.

source : http://www.dfat.gov.au/ami/projects/education_science_projects.html

In 2010, seven schools from Malaysia in cohort 2 will visit Australia from 27th April - 8th May 2010. They will be in Melbourne from 27 April until 2nd May and from 3rd May until 7th May in their host school and homestay. The participating school for cohort 2 are :
SMK Datuk Peter Mojuntin - Tallangatta Secondary School
Maktab Sultan Abu Bakar - Maffra Secondary College
SMK Teknik Alor Setar - Cobden Technical School
Sekolah Sukan Bukit Jalil - Maribyrnong Sports School
SMK King George V - Leongatha Secondary College
Malacca High School - Eltham High School
SM(A) Persekutuan Kajang Ashwood College