Life before Girton
Bachelor of Education from Rusden State College, (Melbourne) Victoria – majoring in Physical Education.
Have taught at:
- Academy of Mary Immaculate, Fitzroy
- Avila College, Mt Waverley
- Catholic College Wodonga
- Wodonga High School
- Albury North High School
- Catholic College, Bendigo
- Girton College, Bendigo
- Girton Grammar School Bendigo
What I Love about Teaching
I like watching students become involved, encouraging others, showing improvement and achieving; often not realising that they can. I like going to school each day and providing the students with the opportunity to run and jump and throw and kick. Everyone can do it – we are just all at different levels.
What do you like best about the subject/s you teach?
Physical Education is all about life lessons. The skills learnt can be taken into every other subject and aspect of your life. It is about enjoyment, participation, acknowledgement of team and of self, discipline, perseverance and hard work. In Physical Education you can’t hide. You need to accept where you are at so that you can improve.
What do you like best about the year level you teach?
All the students in Junior School love Physical Education and can’t wait for class to start. It would be great to have PE every day. Senior School students also love being involved in physical activity at their level. The improvement shown by students at each year level is very noticeable owing the to the growth rate. Teaching in Junior School is more about introducing and developing the skills, then as they get older it is more about adapting them over a variety of activities.
My favourite classroom activity
All.
What difference can good teaching make?
Students need to gain enjoyment from physical activity so that there is more chance they will continue on once leaving school. Obviously students cannot like and be proficient at all activities but it is the movement skills that I am encouraging them to enjoy. My personality is generally happy and cheerful and I hope I am encouraging of all students to improve no matter what their skill.
I give a lot of time to the Netball co-curricular at Girton. I have spent a major part of my life being involved with Netball. I started playing in Year 3 and finished in my late thirties, as I had a number of injuries which did not allow me to continue playing. I have coached school teams and representative teams for Associations as well as my children’s teams. I have been pretty much involved with sporting clubs all my life. I have four siblings and then I had four children which only increased my involvement. My children have been involved in a number of sports and I think that has been an influencing factor in the development of their personalities.
