After completing my Bachelor of Education in November 2013 I began applying for work. I received my first contract in January 2014 and moved to the Kimberly and later the Pilbara for five terms at three different schools. I loved living and working in the Kimberly and the Pilbara. I especially enjoyed my time at Wangkatjungka Remote Community. I saw no problems with living remote and could have happily lived out there for the rest of my life. As a consequence of not acknowledging the so-called issues of living in remote areas was rejected from the Remote Teaching Pool. In April 2015 I got engaged and after being rejected from the remote pool for the third time I made the decision to move back to the Perth Metropolitan Area.
During our engagement I moved back in with my parents in Rockingham I worked at a childcare centre in Warwick. When the morning two-and-a-half-hour commute got too much for me I began doing relief teaching at primary schools around the Peel Area and Southern Metropolitan Suburbs.
After James and I married I moved to East Perth and continued relief teaching while also working at a petrol station in Mandurah. In January 2016 I started the Switch program for Design and Technology. While still completing this program I received a one term contract at Bullsbrook College. After working at Bullsbrook College I went back to relief teaching. Majority of my work came from East Waikiki Primary School. I was offered a contract on term-by-term bases covering for a teacher on sick leave. This contract saw me employed from April 2017 to December 2018.
In 2018, I wanted to see if working in Childcare again was the right move for myself. I tried two different Early Learning Centres before it became clear to me that Childcare was not my calling. I returned to relief teaching and began doing relief work at Comet Bay College. At first, I still missed teaching Primary school and felt torn between Highschool teaching and Primary school teaching. This led to me working part time at Comet Bay College and relief teaching in Primary Schools. In 2024 it became clear to me that I enjoy teaching high school the most. I found that I felt fulfilled with high school teaching and decided to stop pursuing primary school teaching opportunities instead focusing solely on teaching Design and Technology.
For details of each place I have worked please click the links below. Alternatively you can scroll down through this page to see my employment history.
Before starting at Comet Bay I felt under skilled to teach Design and Technology subjects. However, as the my time here has continued and after spending many of my D.O.T.T. periods working closely with my colleagues to develop my skills, I feel a lot more confidant.
Teaching at Comet Bay has been an amazing learning opportunity and I feel that working there has greatly improved my teaching strategies and developed my skill set.
I began working at Comet Bay at a relief teacher at the beginning of Term 3 2019. By the end of week 3 I was asked to begin working full time. I taught a variety of subjects and year groups in the design and technology learning area including:
Between my contracts I have had the pleasure of working within a variety of schools as a relief teacher. One of the great pleasures of relief teaching is that I am able to see what other teachers are doing in their classrooms. My experience relief teaching has broadened my teaching strategies and knowledge of different whole school curriculum and programs. Some programs I am familiar are mentioned on my home page.
Working in relief teaching taught me to communicate more with other staff with in the school. I also enjoy meeting new Admin staff and having the opportunity to gain knowledge from them. I am not afraid to ask for help or offer help. After all teaching is a collaborative practice.
All schools have a whole school behaviour management system
in place. Working at a huge variety of schools has allowed me to see many
different strategies in action. I learnt to quickly adapt to different schools
policies. Moreover through relief teaching I have had the opportunity to
trial different behaviour management strategies. It is well known that students
often try to misbehave for relief staff. I have found that the gentle but firm
approach works best.
As a relief teacher I have the opportunity to work across
every year group. This has endowed me with a broad range of curriculum
knowledge. I have been able to see and use a variety of recording and
assessment strategies.
Sometimes I was called in with very little notice and arrived in the classroom to find no plan for the day had been left. These situations taught me to think on my feet. I am able to plan lessons at short notice by looking at what is around me. I also have a go to pack for different age groups and a variety of quick no printing needed lessons that cover the Australian Curriculum outcomes.
I taught at East Waikiki Primary School from the beginning of term 2 2017 covering for Mrs Melanie Woolf who was away on extended sick leave. This was a full-time term by term contract. When I stepped into the classroom everything was in disarray as the class had many relief teachers in Term 1. I had to reestablish order in the classroom. I started by introducing a rewards system using a classroom currency and jobs within the classroom. The students enjoyed this system and most quickly changed their behaviour to earn the rewards. However, there was one student in the room, Bob*, who had a troubled home life, and this came out in violent outbursts directed at other children and teachers. Using a calm and gentle approach I was able to get Bob* to open up to me. With the admin staff, we organised plans to monitor and prevent his outbursts. We also organised plans to ensure the safety of other students in case he had an outburst.
In Semester two Bob* left the school. Many students in my classroom enjoyed the Harry Potter series so I implemented Harry Potter themed behaviour management and grouping. The students loved it and asked if we could have a whole class Book Week costume. Together we decided on characters and costumes and all twenty-one students received an individual character from within the Harry Potter world. Later in the term, we had a great feast and house cup ceremony as our end-of-term party. The students asked our school principal to come and award the house cup to the group with the most points.
In 2018, I was given a 4-day-a-week fixed-term contract on a term-by-term basis. Melanie desired to return from sick leave for one day a week. Sadly, Melanie was unable to fulfil her desire to return to work at any point during 2018. Because she was unable to return I worked full time. In 2018 I had a class of 21 year 3 students again. This cohort of students was very bright and mature. However, in my classroom, I had two students who were unable to read or write and four other students who were suspected to have Learning Disabilities. One of these students, Jack* was diagnosed with autism and low IQ at the end of 2017. It was recommended Jack* attend a special needs school. However, his family wanted him in Mainstream education. Jack began the year at the mental age of a toddler and did not understand much of what was happening in the room. He could not participate in any year 3 work and had his own curriculum. When left to work independently he would start throwing items in the classroom. Through working with admin staff, previous teachers, SSEND, Rocky Bay and Jack’s* mother and grandmother we were able to establish plans for Jack*. He had EA allocation. The EAs that worked with him spent the year focusing on basic literacy and numeracy skills.
By the end of the year, Jack* could identify all the letters of the alphabet and write most of them unassisted. He could also count to 20 without assistance and add and subtract numbers less than 10 when using concrete materials. Our greatest achievement was that Jack* could now write his full name and started sounding out CVC words. While EA’s worked with Jack* I focused on Jill*. Jill* had poor attendance and was often very late for school. Although she was behind academically she was a polite and well-behaved student. Jill* wanted to succeed and was like a sponge. By the end of the year, her attendance had improved greatly. She was now a C grade in Math and able to sound out simple words independently. Her Oxford Words went from one at the start of the year to 124 at the end of the year.
*Student names have been changed to maintain student privacy
In April 2016 I was employed at Bullsbrook College on a one term contract teaching year 6. In my classroom, there was a student with cerebral palsy. He was entitled to EA time however did not require it. There was also a student in my class with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (Bob*) and a student being assessed for Dyslexia (Jack*). The EA worked closely with these two students under my instructions while I worked with the remainder of the class.
While there I organised for Jack* to receive intervention. Jack* was working at a year 2 level across all learning areas. He had a negative opinion of school. I spent the term working to change his opinion of school. By the end of the term he enjoyed school and was more willing to challenge himself.
I also developed a relationship with Bob*. He opened up to me about his life outside of school and how he was feeling about school and home. I was able to take this information to the admin staff and began setting up a behaviour management plan with him that had rewards he had chosen. His behaviour towards the end of the term had greatly improved.
*Student names have been changed to maintain student privacy
In October 2014 I moved to Karratha where I taught at Wickham Primary School running the Talented and Gifted Program. This program did not exist before my commencement. I spent the first week setting up the program and discussing with classroom teachers to find which students would benefit from extension. I set my programs around the whole school literacy and numeracy programs. I taught the year 4 and 5 students for two periods four days a week. The other two periods of the day were spent assisting in other classrooms as directed by admin. On Wednesday’s I worked with the year 1-3 students in the year-based groups with a 30-minute block focused on literacy extension and a 30-minute block for numeracy extension.
The highlight of working in the talented and gifted program was with the year 4 and 5 literacy extension groups. I focused this group on engaging their imaginations. We looked at Narrative text structures and broke down what makes a good narrative. After developing an in-depth understanding of the setting, point of view, characterisation, and plot development the students wrote, computer-processed and illustrated their own narratives. These narratives were combined to make a book that is now in the school library.
In January 2015 I moved to Marble Bar where I taught the year 2 to 4 students where I worked under the direction of Mike Cuneo. Marble Bar Primary School is a small primary school with three multi-age group classrooms; Kindy-Year 1, Year 2-Year 4, and Year 5+.
The school had four teachers. The school had one specialist teacher who taught Health, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Science for one day a week in each classroom.
Three days a week after lunch the classes would rotate to different teachers for the specialty classes: Sport, Visual Art, and Performing Art. I ran the performing art program. Many students in the year 5+ class enjoyed this program and wanted to be able to participate in performing arts more frequently. Because of this, I set up a Drama Club at lunchtimes. The students with my guidance began to write a Drama Club Play. We developed a plan for costumes, stage props, and backstage organisation to be completely student directed. After planning the script a director was chosen by vote out of the year 6 students. This student and I ran auditions for parts in the Drama Club Play. Parts were issued and students began learning their lines. The play was a 15-minute performance that the students had planned to perform at the end of Term 2.
Sadly I left Marble Bar Primary School at the end of the first term after not being accepted into the remote teaching pool. Although the Drama Club was self-sustaining and student ran I am not certain if it continued after I left.
*Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are warned that the following images may contain images of deceased people.
In January 2014 I received my first contract and moved to Wangkatjungka Remote Community where I taught Kindergarten and Pre-primary until September 2014.
Some of my fondest memories of teaching were made in Wangkatjungka. Working at Wangkatjungka was not just a teaching job. When working in remote communities you have to become part of the community. The comunity attaches to your soul and becomes home.
I did everything I could to become a part of the community. I made contact with parents and caregivers and asked if I could join in cultural activities. I asked about the history of Wangkatjungka. I invited Indigenous staff to come over for dinner and to socialise outside of school. As a result of my efforts, I truly became part of the community and received a skin name. Being unofficially adoped as Narnan’s skin daughter.
Once I received my skin name many of my students began to call me Mum or Aunty. This changed my classroom dynamic and I found that the students treated me with even greater respect than before. People from the community were more willing to talk with me and actively came and volunteered in my classroom.
Before long I was fully immersed in the Aboriginal culture. On weekends I would travel and go camping with my skin family. Nanarn (School AIEO and my skin mum) and Showie (my classroom AIEO and my skin sister) taught me about bush tucker and how to survive in the Kimberly. Nanarn spent time teaching me how to track animals and find water. I had the opportunity to participate in smoking ceremonies and was taught about which plants were needed to make the cleansing smoke. Narnan and Showie also began teaching me Kriol.
Wangkatjungka was a live changing experience. It opened my eyes to the true Australian culture. It shaped me as a teacher and a person more than any of my other teaching experiences.
The photos above and below were taken at a whole school trip to Christmas Creek where we were taught about the uses of ochre for art and for skin care. We were also taught about purifying water with eucalyptus
The video below was made with Indigenous Hip Hop Projects while I was working at Wangkatjungka Remote Comunity School and effectively portrays life in Wangkatjunka.
