mas notified MLTAV, Modern Language Teach-ers’ Association of Victo-ria, then from there we became a Single Lan-guage association under the umbrella of MLTAV. This means we receive financial assistance, news of the Language Associa-tions and knowledge of educational initiatives.

We held our first AGM last November and have had two successful PD workshops. Our next workshop will be on the 15th May where we have the opportunity to share resources and ideas to enhance our own teach-ing.

Our sincere thanks must go to Irene Holub for the establishment of the ATAV. Without her drive and enthusiasm, we would still be a group of Auslan teachers with little direction. Irene contacted all the regions, established a contact list for all schools where Auslan was being taught and gathered us all together with the aim of forming a cohesive group to further the teaching of Auslan.

A committee was formed to develop a constitution so we could become incor-porated and be recognised as a Language Association. Many thanks must go to Mac Adam, Chris Dunn, Marnie Kerridge, Gwenda Thomas and of course,

Irene Holub for all the work that went into this constitu-tion. Thanks also to Anne Bremner for her valuable advice.

While this was happening, James Blyth agreed to be our interim president and we held a meeting at VicDeaf one year ago in April where we all had the opportunity to indicate the areas in which we wanted profes-sional development. It was interesting to see that as teachers all of us wanted to improve our standards. We also wanted to give our stu-dents the best in LOTE teaching and to be fully pro-fessional in our approach in Auslan teaching.

Once the constitution was incorporated, Gwenda Tho-

How ATAV was established and Auslan became

recognised as a SLA under MLTAV

Inside this issue:

Our New ATAV Logo? 2

Heather Mills:

Deaf Educator and

Auslan Teacher

2

Do we as Auslan

Teachers have Profes-

sional Standards?

3

Upcoming MLTAV

Annual Conference 3

“Getting to Know You” 4

Auslan Teachers Association

of Victoria

Special Points

of Interest:

Auslan is the 7th most com-

monly used language in our

LOTE programs.

Victoria is the highest state

in LOTE teaching in Austra-

lia.

March 2010 Volume 1, Issue #2

Auslan Teachers Association of Victoria

What is Auslan Teachers

Association?

Auslan Teachers Associa-

tion is a professional or-

ganisation forming an

umbrella for its members

who are Auslan Teachers

or anyone who works us-

ing Auslan in all education

settings (Primary, Secon-

dary, and Tertiary; Deaf

schools and Integrated

schools/Deaf Units/

Facilities), community

classes and families of

deaf children via early

intervention programs in

their own homes. This is

an organisation or associa-

tion that has been formed

with the sponsorship or

support of MLTAV

(Modern Language Teachers

Association of Victoria). We

would like to see that

Auslan is recognised as part

of the LOTE association, and

can become equivalent to

that of other LOTE teacher

organisations. We as an

association would meet on a

regular basis as a profes-

sional body to encourage the

teaching and learning of

Auslan within the Education

system. We would strive to

gain knowledge of what is

happening within this field,

and to update periodically

with new information re-

garding Auslan Education.

It is our hope that this asso-

ciation will look after the

Auslan teachers and tutors,

and to provide support and

training through profes-

sional development work-

shops to focus on profes-

sionalism and teaching

skills. It is also the hope

that we as Auslan teach-

ers will work together as

a team to promote Auslan

as a viable LOTE in the

educational settings and

to improve the profession

through networking by

sharing ideas and infor-

mation in relation to

teaching Auslan. Also,

there is a need to develop

more resources including

curriculum and lesson

plans and to encourage

the teaching of Auslan

especially among inexpe-

rienced Auslan teachers. (Continued on page 4)

This early communication

program provides the parents

and educators with an under-

standing of the various ways

we can communicate with

children who have a hearing

loss. All children benefit

from communication that

includes visual, auditory and

kinaesthetic stimulation.

This session showed partici-

pants a range of strategies

that support early visual

communication and also

develop skills in Australian

Sign Language or Auslan.

This included a range of ac-

tivities that support bonding

and communication between

children with identified hear-

ing loss and their families.

Heather is a Deaf educator at

Aurora School where she

supports the Early Interven-

tion program. One of her

responsibilities is to work in

the home with families who

have infant children diag-

nosed with hearing loss. She

supports them with early

visual communication strate-

gies as the foundation of a

child's sign language devel-

opment.

Her presentation has been

published on the DEECD

“It’s All About

Communication!”

Heather Mills, a Deaf Educa-

tor of Aurora School makes

a presentation on the Online

Professional Learning Pro-

gram where teachers were

able to access quality profes-

sional learning provided by

the Department of Education

and Early Childhood Devel-

opment of Victoria during

the course of three days in

January. In the area of sup-

porting Deaf and Hard of

Hearing Students, she talks

about the Early Visual Com-

munication starting from the

diagnosis of deafness in a

child.

website. You can access it

by clicking on the link listed

above. Her presentation actu-

ally starts 8 minutes into the

session, so you start from that

time to watch her make her

presentation.

We are excited that from this

session more teachers within

our schools will be more

aware of how important it is

for our Deaf children to have

a language at an early age.

Our New ATAV Logo ???

Auslan Teacher Makes a Presentation on DEECD Online

Professional Learning Programs for Teachers

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/researchinnovation/events/jan2010d2s6a.htm

Calling for a new Logo for

our Auslan Teacher’s or-

ganization. We would like

to encourage many to come

up with some logo ideas.

The winner of the chosen

logo will win a prize.

Deadline: 1st of May 2010

E-mail to ATAV or send to

postal address. (see page 4)

Page 2 Auslan Teachers Association

of Victoria

He who does not

know foreign

languages does

not know

anything

about his own.

~Johann

Wolfgang von

Goethe, Kunst and

Alterthum

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/researchinnovation/events/jan2010d2s6a.htm

On February 25th, at our first PD

Workshop for 2010, we had 19 1/2

people present. The half being

Trisha Balharrie’s much awaited

baby at 33 weeks. In this work-

shop, Gwenda Thomas made a

presentation on the “Professional

and Program Standards for Accom-

plished Teachers of Languages and

Cultures.” She started the evening

to explain what accomplished

means in terms of teaching. An

accomplished teacher can be de-

scribed as one who is an expert,

experienced and successful in his or

her teaching. Throughout the work-

shop, we were challenged with

many questions to answer in six

different areas of Professional Stan-

dards.

Language and Culture

Educational Theory and Practice

Language Pedagogy

Ethics and Responsibility

Professional Relationships

Personal Characteristics

We also looked at eight different

Program Standards that should be

implemented in our Auslan pro-

grams across the schools in Victoria

to make the program more effective.

These Standards deals with plan-

ning and using resources effectively

and building up the knowledge of

Auslan among the LOTE students.

Effective Auslan programs should

also have timetables that allow

frequency and regularity and have

limited class size. Each Auslan

program should have an assigned

space that would be suitable for

teaching and learning. In order to

have effective Auslan programs, we

should have budgets that would

allow us to obtain resources for the

purpose of teaching and learning. It

is important that the school thinks

about the students and their experi-

ences of language learning and their

background when making decisions

about Auslan class groups and

class size, especially those students

who have transferred from another

school.

After the presentation, we were

divided into three groups to discuss

the program standards. The aim of

the group discussions were to put

the program standards in an order

in which we felt that was most

important to the least important.

The results of the group discus-

sions will be put together on paper

and shared at the next PD work-

shop.

Thank you Gwenda for an excel-

lent presentation, and we will look

forward to working together to

raise the standards higher in every

aspect of Auslan teaching.

Do we as Auslan Teachers have

Professional and Program Standards?

MLTAV Annual Conference 2010

“Victoria—The State of Languages?”

Caption de-

Page 3 Volume 1, Issue #2

A different

language is a

different vision

of life.

~Federico Fellini When: Friday, 14th May

Where: Karstens at CQ, Conference and Training Centre, 123 Queen Street, Melbourne CBD

Time: 8:45 am —4:30 pm (Registration from 7:45 am)

Major Conference Themes:

1. Primary, Middle Years and VCE LOTE 2. VCE 3. LOTE in VELS 4. Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Language Learning 5. Assessment and Reporting 6. the use of ICT, especially Web 2.0 technologies 7. e5 and LOTE 8. Retention of Students, especially beyond Year 10

For Further information and registration form, see:

http://mltav.asn.au/images/documents/mltav_conf_reg_form_final.pdf

Or

For enquiries please ring the MLTAV office on (03) 9349 5759 or

email: infor@mltav.asn.au

What is your favourite movie? Dr Zhivago

What are you bad at? Sports What characteristic do you despise?

Arrogance What is your most treasured posses-sion? Don’t have treasured possessions

– I would regard my family as my treas-ures. When you were a child what did you

want to be? Teacher of the Deaf What was your worst job? Packing metal handles – 1000 handles a

day..errgh! What is your best trait? Creativity

What did your mother and father always tell you? Never say “ I cant”. If you could live anywhere, where would

you choose? My home.

Irene Holub

Deaf Educator

working with

DEECD

What school did you go to? Princess Elizabeth Kindergarten for three years then was mainstreamed.

What is your most memorable experience? having my four children

What is your favourite day of the week? Monday What do you prefer … watches or rings?

Rings What do you usually have for breakfast? Scrambled eggs with feta.

What food do you dislike? Fried Onions

Getting to Know You

What do you expect from Auslan Teachers Association?

We would expect the ATA to provide opportunities for Professional Develop-

ment sessions or workshops to both the members and non-members. We desire

that ATA would be a form of networking among Auslan Teachers where we can

obtain news and information regarding Auslan Teaching. We as a team can

share with each other our experience, skills, and ideas. When we work as a col-

legial (power-sharing) team, we can generate more power to make the wider

community more aware and familiar with Auslan as a language, to promote

Auslan as a LOTE, and to build up stronger LOTE programs.

We would expect ATA to have high standards to uphold the integrity of the

LOTE qualified teachers and to maintain the integrity of the Auslan language

and the methods of teaching. We would like to see training and mentoring from

experienced Auslan teachers and to become a unified body to help and support

each other to fulfil the need for more qualified and proficient teachers. ATA

should provide a place of knowledge where we can share ideas for curriculum

development and teaching resources.

What benefits do you think should be included in the membership?

The membership should provide support to improve their teaching skills and

resources and professional development sessions, workshops, or special events

at reduced or no cost to members. All members should be a part of the e-mail

networking to regularly receive any information, lesson ideas, references to re-

sources related to Auslan teaching as well as to receive news updates, advertise-

ments of jobs available, and perhaps a newsletter every 3 months or every term.

Auslan Teachers

Association of Victoria

Announcements

and Upcoming Events _____________

MLTAV Annual Conference 2010

”Victoria—The State of Languages”

on Friday, May 14th

(see page 3 for more info)

ATAV PD Workshop

“Sharing Resources”

Saturday, 15th May 2010,

9:30—12:00

To be held at Kangan Institute,

Richmond.

Please reserve August 19th, Thursday

evening for our third PD Workshop in

2010. Topic will be announced at a

later date. _______________

Auslan Tutor Wanted

(Qualified LOTE preferred) to teach

Auslan to family with young deaf child.

Where? St. Albans

When? After 4 pm once a week/fortnight

How long? One hour session for 10 weeks

Pay? $50/hour (must have own ABN)

Interested/Questions? Please contact

Lindy Alexander from Aurora Early

Intervention Centre on 0408 587 701 or at

alexander.melinda.m@edumail.vic.gov.au

We’re on the MLTAV website!

Check us out on

www.mltav.asn.au

Contact Details:

Email: atavictoria@aol.com

Mailing list:

ATAV c/o PO Box 249

Blackburn South 3130