Hi remember me! It has been a couple of weeks since I last posted an update of my activities. I am still enthusiastic about the blog but I am been extremely busy. In the week starting Monday 7th May I worked with the other secondary ESL consultants to plan the next network meeting for secondary ESL teachers. The focus is Australian Curriculum. It will be at EDC Hindmarsh from 4-6 pm on Wednesday 30th May. Email me ross.hamilton@sa.gov.au if you want more details or to register. Other highlights of the week were delivering TESMC Module 6 at Brompton Primary, running regional ESL Scales moderation and attending the ESL consultant meeting. Along with the other members of the ESL Program I gave my input into the corporate review of the program. In brief, three salaries will have to go to offset the continuation of free travel to some new arrivals students. A decision is likely in the next couple of weeks. If I was a betting person, I would not put any money on there still being eight ESL consultants even as early as the start of next term.  The "1 in 7" cuts to salaries that all government departments are supposed to make is still to come so the ESL Program may be very small. I think that the consultants while perhaps a bit unsure about their own personal circumstances are most concerned about how the program will still deliver the same service to regions, sites and teachers with a significant cut in salaries. Stay tuned.
Last week began with a meeting of WASMYLLN where I outlined the joint project between the region and the Literacy Secretariat. Four WASMYLLN members each representing a different secondary school were indentified to be the writers of a unit of work for Year 8 using Australian Curriculum: English. As well as a unit plan they will also produce a task sheet, assessment rubric, student checklist, annotated student text and a teaching and learning sequence. They have a busy term ahead.
The rest of last week I was in Whyalla. I worked with most of the staff at Whyalla Town Primary School so they could begin to assign ESL Scales to all their students. I also provided ESL Scales training to five teachers at Edward John Eyre High and between 25 to 30 teachers from seven other local primary and high schools. I also had the chance to work individually with eight EJEHS teachers to develop their ability to explicity teach some of the literacy demands in senior secondary subjects like PE, Design & Technology, Art and IT.