Uncertainty and Upheaval - Strategies for coping better during periods of anxiety in our lives

Anxiety is an important and necessary emotion. We need to feel the ‘pinch’ of pressure in order to prepare for challenges. Deadlines need to be looming in order to help us focus and achieve our goals. Anxiety is our body’s natural mechanism for ensuring that we are prepared for the everyday challenges of life.

With the advent of COVID-19 everything has changed. We find ourselves in a place where we were never before. We are doing different things and doing things differently. We humans like to plan but we find ourselves uneasy and apprehensive about the future. It’s very unsettling.

Anxiety is the prevalent emotion of this time. Excessive anxiety can hinder our preparations and impact on performance. It is vital that we do not become engulfed by it. Learning how to rise to new challenges ensures that we stay motivated and in control. An awareness of coping strategies for times of upheaval and uncertainty would be useful and empowering.

This PD session will offer tips for coping better with anxiety and scientifically validated strategies for growing stronger during challenging times.

The target audience for this event is: FET Staff including teachers, tutors, trainers, co-ordinators, managers.

Facilitation: This event will be hosted by FESS and facilitated by Shane Martin. Shane is a Chartered Psychologist of the Psychological Society of Ireland and is dedicated to teaching the very best self-help psychology to empower people to enhance the quality of their lives. His ‘Moodwatchers’ psychology course has been delivered the length and breadth of Ireland. He is the author of ‘Your Precious Life -How to Live it Well’.

Please note: Pre-booking is essential. Please do not book onto this session unless you are sure that you will attend / have approval to attend (if required). If an emergency arises, please inform us ASAP (cpdcancellations@fess.ie) as we operate a waiting list system and if time allows we can offer your booked place to another person.

 Dates

Time 

 Venues

 Wednesday, 3rd February 2021

10.00 - 12.00

Online

Link to the event will be emailed in advance

  Feedback to Learners on Summative Assessment Tasks

The focus of this PD event is on supporting the assessor on giving meaningful learner feedback on summative assessment tasks. This event will supplement the resources already uploaded to www.fess.ie (https://www.fess.ie/assessment/feedback-to-learners).

This event will consist of a synchronous webinar that will facilitate those booked into the event to ask questions with a view to teasing out the purpose, approaches, benefits and challenges associated with giving feedback to learners.

The target audience for this event is: Assessors or those in a co-ordination and/or quality assurance role.

Facilitation: This event will be facilitated by FESS.

Please note: Pre-booking is essential. Please do not book onto this session unless you are sure that you will attend / have approval to attend (if required). If an emergency arises, please inform us ASAP (cpdcancellations@fess.ie) as we operate a waiting list system and if time allows we can offer your booked place to another person.

 Dates

Time 

 Venues

 Wednesday, 24 February 2021

 14.00 - 16.00

Online

Link to the event will be emailed in advance

   An Introduction to Local Assessment for New Assessors

This online workshop will support the assessor working in a further education and training environment, where the assessor is required to develop local assessment instruments and related documentation.

In advance of the workshop, a Powerpoint presentation with supporting documentation will be made available to those who have booked a place, with the expectation that they will review them prior to the workshop. The workshop will then facilitate new assessors to tease out the detail contained in the presentation and documentation. Those who log into the session will also be facilitated to ask questions and request clarification on issues relevant to their provision and/or context.

The following topics will be covered:

• An overview of the assessment process, including key milestones
• Ensuring an understanding of the standard associated with levels 1 – 6 of the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ)
• Devising local assessment instruments (briefs and examination papers), marking schemes and outline solutions
• Making assessment judgements/decisions

The target audience for this event is: those assessing learners for the first time, using locally devised assessment instruments.

Facilitation: This event will be facilitated by FESS.

Please note: Pre-booking is essential. Please do not book onto this session unless you are sure that you will attend / have approval to attend (if required). If an emergency arises, please inform us ASAP (cpdcancellations@fess.ie) as we operate a waiting list system and if time allows we can offer your booked place to another person.

 Date

Time 

 Venue

 Tuesday, 16th March 2021

10.00 - 12.00

Online

Link to the event will be emailed in advance

   Reflective Practice in Further Education and Training Settings

Why Reflective Practice?

Reflective practice has become a focus of interest and a powerful movement in education. The complexity of teaching requires educators to question their practices for their own professional development in order to improve and to increase learner performance. Reflective practice is the ability to reflect on an action so as to engage in a process of continuous learning. A key rationale for reflective practice is that experience alone does not automatically lead to learning, deliberate reflection on experience is essential.

Further Education and Training (FET) programmes often take place in settings that have a great deal of ambiguity, complexity, variety, and conflicting values that make unique demands on an educator's skills and knowledge. As a result FET personnel are constantly making choices about the nature of problems that arise and how to solve them in a caring and supportive way. We review our teaching methods and behaviours and determine what works or doesn’t work for learners, cognitively and affectively, in given contexts.

By engaging in reflective practice about our work, we learn to recognise our personal and professional values. We become more adept at trialling new ways of teaching or communicating. We become better educators, administrators, trainers, managers or leaders. We ultimately become masters of our own professional development.

This online PD event will guide you through the theory and practice of reflection on your work. There will be opportunities for you to engage in reflective writing during the session so please bring a pen and paper. On registration, you will be asked to complete an initial exercise that will help you to focus on your present situation. This exercise is for you and will not be shared with others.

The target audience for this event is: FET Staff including teachers, tutors, trainers, co-ordinators, managers.

Facilitation: This event will be hosted by FESS and facilitated by Carmel Lillis. Carmel is an independent education consultant. She has worked in a variety of roles in the education system and has contributed to leadership programmes for teachers in Maynooth University and the University of Limerick in the areas of reflective practice and action research. She is a qualified personal and executive coach. Carmel works with Education Centres and presents programmes for principals and deputy principals. She has delivered professional development seminars to Special Needs Assistants and is involved in supporting nurture groups in schools.

Please note: Pre-booking is essential. Please do not book onto this session unless you are sure that you will attend / have approval to attend (if required). If an emergency arises, please inform us ASAP (cpdcancellations@fess.ie) as we operate a waiting list system and if time allows we can offer your booked place to another person.

 Dates

Time 

 Venues

 Monday, 22 March 2021

10.00 - 11.30

Online

Link to the event will be emailed in advance

Online clinic(s) to support FET practitioners with blended learning

These one hour online sessions complement the FESS Handbook, An Introductory Guide to Blending a Course: Strategies for Blended Delivery. The sessions will provide an opportunity for FET practitioners to pose any blended-learning related questions and queries that they may have. An informal approach will be adopted for these sessions which will also allow for the sharing and discussion of ideas. These clinics will be hosted on Zoom and the link will be emailed to participants a couple of days in advance of the event. 

Target audience: FET practitioners including course co-ordinators, teachers, trainers, tutors involved in the delivery of blended programmes.

Facilitation: Members of the FESS team. 

Please note: Pre-booking is essential. Please do not book onto these clinics unless you are sure that you will attend / have approval to attend (if required). If an emergency arises, please inform us ASAP (cpdcancellations@fess.ie) as we operate a waiting list system and if time allows we can offer your booked place to another person. Prior to each clinic, each participant will be emailed a link to attend. 

 Online

Zoom link to the event will be emailed in advance

Online

Zoom link to the event will be emailed in advance

Tuesday, 2 February 2021

Online

Zoom link to the event will be emailed in advance

Online

Zoom link to the event will be emailed in advance

   Reimagining your Course – The move to Blended Learning

In Autumn/Winter 2020, FESS partnered with H2 Learning to provide an online learning opportunity for FET practitioners. As providers continue to find themselves in a position where learners are accessing their learning online, this course will continue to be available, subject to demand.

As blended learning becomes more common place across the sector, this course will support educators in improving the quality of their online offerings to learners. The goal of the course is to help participants to create a plan for moving some elements of their course or module online.

The course consists of a series of four online sessions that will allow participants to reimagine their course/module to include online learning. Participants will have a blended learning experience where they will participate in a mix of synchronous and asynchronous learning activities.

Participants will initially undertake three asynchronous sessions in their own time and it is expected that each session will take up to 30 minutes. The three sessions are as follows:
1. Reflecting on Covid-19 - Where we came from and where we might go?
2. Blended Learning - What might it look like in your context?
3. Designing Blended Learning - The Foundations of Learning Design
These three sessions will be followed by a fourth session – a live online reimaging workshop. The goal of the workshop is that participants will have a process and a structure by which they can design blended learning that meets their learners’ needs.

This live online workshop will be available to FET practitioners that have completed the previous 3 asynchronous sessions. It is expected that participants will have had time to reflect and begin planning their learning designs in advance of the live workshop. This session will take place on Zoom and will be 2 hours long. The live online workshop will:
• focus on designing a blended learning approach for a programme, module or a centre
• be discussion based and it will use elements of the ABC Learning Framework, Microsoft 21 CLD materials and other appropriate tools
• facilitate discussion and sharing of participants’ designs
The live workshop will be offered to groups of no more than 60 participants.

Target audience: FET practitioners including course co-ordinators, teachers, trainers, tutors involved in the delivery of blended programmes
Facilitators: Dr. Michael Hallisey, H2 Learning and FESS
Date: A link to the asynchronous elements of the course will be forwarded to the person who registers for this PD event. The live online workshop will be scheduled as soon as there is sufficient demand.

Please note: Pre-booking is essential. Please do not book onto this course unless you are sure that you will attend / have approval to attend (if required). If an emergency arises, please inform us ASAP (cpdcancellations@fess.ie) as we operate a waiting list system and if time allows we can offer your booked place to another person.