The Inspired Kiwi

I’ve had nearly 10 years teaching experience, from Kindergarten to Grade 4. Kindergarten is where I feel I belong. Not so much because I love it, but because I know I give them a great start to school! My little learners leave me with confidence, a love of learning and the ability to articulate what they know and what they’re learning to do. They leave me ‘clued on’ and ready to face what’s next!

I‘m skilled at breaking down early learning progressions and laying out a clear pathway of learning for my students. My plain language approach and explicit teaching in reading, writing and numeracy assists my students development of what I call the ‘language of learning’. That’s incredibly important to me! I expect that my students will be able to explain the ‘what’, ‘why’, ‘how’ and ‘where to next’ of their learning and I provide them with the tools to do so. I utilize curriculum integration and inquiry to develop meaningful, relevant and authentic learning experiences within an e-learning/ICT rich environment. I want all of my learners (regardless of their age) to have started developing the skills, knowledge and values they need to become problem solvers, critical thinkers and learners for life. Wow I like how I’ve worded that *copies and pastes paragraph directly into her resume*

Honors and awards… wow! Is that an actual ‘thing’ within education in America? It’s not something that happens where I’m from (New Zealand), so I’m jealous! I suppose for me my shinning teacher moments have always been when sharing the evidence of what my learners are capable of in professional development meetings or sharing. Not so much data or a piece of writing, but actual video evidence of my little learners explaining what they can do, what they’ve learned and how they monitor their learning. I love letting them shine – that’s what it’s all really about isn’t it? And I suppose the spin off from that is, I get to glow a little in their light, in the background where I belong.

Undergraduate degree in Teaching & Learning (Primary), Post Grad Cert in e-learning, Post Grad Diploma in Education and I’m 1 paper in towards my Masters in Educational Leadership.

I failed EVERYTHING at High School! I was a terrible student with a bad attitude. But said attitude was really a mask for my incredibly low self belief and self esteem. Things weren’t too bad at all until I turned 15. It was that year I had an English teacher (I’ll call her ‘Mrs O’), who made me feel, well, really quite small (FYI that’s a pretty hard thing to do considering I’m over 6 foot). It’s strange because I was actually a bit of a ‘teacher’s pet’ in Mrs O’s classroom at the start of the year. I don’t remember what I did to deserve her disdain, but before long I was sent down to one of single desks at the back of the classroom, with the other ‘useless wastes-of-space’. She’d go out of her way to tell us how useless we were. How we’d never amount to anything. How we’d fail everything in life and would always come up short. I know I sound like I’m exaggerating, but I’m not. These are word for word quotes. In someways I wish I would've been stronger in character, that I wouldn’t have started to believe I was exactly what she told me. It would of saved me years of struggle and self doubt. But had I not of experienced that, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. The teacher I am today. I have been committed to achieving shifts in the equity and effectiveness of education for students that are underachieving or not realizing their potential since I started training as a teacher and thus far, I’m proud of my achievements.