Welcome to Vocational Education sessional teachers

Welcome to RMIT

Hello. My name is Keith Cowlishaw, I’m the Executive Director of Vocational Education here at RMIT. On behalf of the University I would like to welcome you as a new member of staff joining our Vocational Education teaching teams. Now that you have joined RMIT you’ve joined a fantastic group of teachers. We know that the skills and the experience that you will bring to our students will add value to the RMIT experience for all of our students.

Helping new VE teachers get started

I’m really the first port of call for the teachers who come into the program and I set them up with the practicalities… how to get a staff card, how to get set up with the rolls, which is where you take attendance and that’s available online. And also how to work the technology in the classroom, how to find way around to find a classroom.

Well, we invite them to all team meetings. We make sure that we include them in morning tea and lunch and any other activities we've got going on.

We try to give them a solid orientation, so not only within the building, the localised building that we’re working with, but within the broader RMIT. Within the School we have orientation sessions which allows them to meet other teachers and academics from other parts of the School that may not even teach into the programs that they are teaching into, but really gives them a broader sense of what they’re a part of.

We also have conversations about the context in which they’re teaching. So that... I give them a Training and Assessment Strategy that outlines where the particular course they’re teaching in fits within the program as a whole. It outlines who the student cohort are, the kind of assessments that are delivered in that course. I also help staff in designing and writing assessment briefs and also assessment rubrics.

We make them aware of all the other services that are available at RMIT that they can access and professional development and all of those types of things. And we have a cake every now and again.

My first week at RMIT, in fact pretty much my first year... was just chaos. I felt like I'd landed on another planet where everyone spoke a different language. I’d never seen such complexity. But it did get better.

It is a really huge organisation with quite a labyrinthine structure that it’s very hard to find your way through initially.

Advice for new teachers

Read everything. Read your emails. Definitely come to all the meetings we set up. We set up a lot of meetings for sessional teachers to try and include them in everything that’s going on. So come to all of those. Sometimes we even pay you to come to them. And just be involved and enjoy everything that RMIT has to offer. And also breathe, deep breathe.

Not to be afraid of technology and trialling new things… because I think in the end it’s going to be worth it.

It can be quite hard for sessionals if you’re just coming in for three hour class and then you’re leaving - you don’t get that sense of connection. Just really familiarise yourself with new environment and then gradually build up your communications and your relationships with other staff members. So I suppose get to know admin team because they can be useful. So... ask lots of questions. So that... you know... if you’re not sure, it doesn’t matter. You just ask… I still ask questions and I’ve been here 9 years.

Just to be open with your students, get to know them and their abilities.

So how do I improve my teaching? Constant feedback from students right through length of course. I like to get either sticky notes, or on pieces of paper. Ask three questions. What did you like, what didn’t you like and things you would like to learn in your next classes.

When I first start a class I try to get to know my students and establish trust within the group and that I find helps sets up the environment for trust and enabling students to ask questions.

Here at RMIT we teach young people, wonderful young people with their own thoughts and ideas, hopes and aspirations. We create, we nurture, we shape the future.

You stay inspired. You keep your audience engaged. You remember how it was to be a student yourself. And have fun.