On my first day of studying my education degree, I remember the lecturer asking us:
“What was your inspiration to be a teacher?”
‘Good question’ I thought, as I had never really analysed why…
Teachers run in my family; two of my aunties are teachers and two of my uncles are teachers, I am a bit of a spelling and grammar nerd (yes, I will tell you if you spell something incorrectly) and when I was younger I would boss my friends around, as if I were their teacher. So I had family connections, an interest in spelling, and I was bossy – that is the definition of a teacher, right…?
However, the more I reflected and thought about it, the true reason behind my passion in education was my inspiration from all of those who had taught me; one, in particular, was my grade 3 teacher. She was my absolute idol growing up, a teacher who would always stop to talk to you in the yard or the hallway, she would take time out of her lunchtimes to mentor students who needed extra help, and she knew how to make you happy when you were sad. She held all the traits of a teacher that I aspired to be; approachable, firm but fair, nurturing, supportive and above all else had a knack for bringing the learning alive. I still remember when she centred our entire day of learning around a mystery that had to be solved, having us use numeracy, literacy, art, ICT, history and French to complete the task – she was definitely ahead of her time with that one!
Fast forward 6 years and I successfully completed my degree. I worked for 2 years at a Geelong Catholic primary school and have since shifted my love of education and the inspiration from that one teacher, into supporting educators at anzuk. My hope is to instil and encourage those same traits that my teacher possessed, into the casuals that walk into our schools, to make a positive impact on the students (no matter how short their assignment is) and inspire the next generation of educators.
