In today's ever-changing technological landscape, missing to update one's professional knowledge is equivalent to remaining stagnant and simply waiting to be replaced. Continuing professional development (CPD) is very much part of educators’ lives. Identifying what kind of CPD is needed in line with personal and organisational objectives and then sourcing it can be difficult.
Casual staff are routinely denied professional development opportunities, which may hamper their careers. They report feeling isolated and invisible.
Therefore, two of the key challenges for relief teachers are:
The RTA launched their first accredited PD courses on OpenLearning in 2015. With now over 85 hours of learning across their suite of courses, the RTA has been able to ensure that their members needs are met by providing relief teachers across Australia with:
With the Relief Teacher Association, teachers can access these courses all online and at their own pace – meaning teachers don’t have to skip a day of work or pay hundreds for the day.
Relief Teacher Association offers 32.5 hours of NESA Interim Accredited PD that will count towards their hours.
Since launching in 2015, the RTA have managed to:
This has helped Relief Teachers Association fulfil their goal of creating a thriving community of practice amongst teachers while enabling the opportunity to maintain and develop accreditation.
"I have been doing relief teaching for a few years. As a relief teacher i always feel so different ....like an outsider.It is great to be doing these courses as it keeps us up to date with teaching as well as giving us such useful ideas and information. Relief teachers have never been given these opportunities before."
"Thank you to the Relief Teacher Association for bringing together a range of experienced educators and professionals that provide practical advice and effective teaching strategies to expand our toolbox of ideas and solutions. By participating in professional development via the RTA, teachers learn new practices and have another context for sharing knowledge and experience outside of the workplace"
Relief Teacher Association is a division of ClassCover, a platform that helps schools manage their casual relief teachers in an easy and effortless way. The Relief Teacher Association offers teachers a wide range of high quality and accredited professional development opportunities, through conferences, collaborative online courses and webinars, whilst connecting them to a thriving teaching community.
Nationwide, Australia
Membership Association and Education
