Courtney

DOLPHINS TEACHER (PREP & KINDY)

What is your background?

I am a Tassie girl and grew up in a small coastal town just outside of Hobart. I left as soon as I graduated at the ripe old age of 21 and after travelling through South America for 6 months, I arrived in London. I spent 5 years teaching and travelling around Europe before  yearning for the beach and fresh air, and returned home to Tasmania where I met my husband. Together we have travelled the world and have two beautiful children, Florence (10) and Artie (6). We have lived in Lennox Head for the past 10 years, and although we adore Tasmania and still spend a lot of time there, The Northern Rivers truly feels like home. We  have just spent 6 incredible months travelling around Australia in a little caravan, and it was a great feeling to return home and feel like this was where we belonged.
 

Where else have you worked and how has it shaped your general outlook and your approach to teaching children today? 

I began my teaching career in Kings Cross, inner- city London. It was here that I learnt that teaching is so much more than curriculum. We were a melting pot of cultures, languages and religions from all over the world, but we were one big family. Some of the kids in that school had the toughest backgrounds and home lives I have ever witnessed in my time teaching, yet they had the biggest hearts. It was a mostly EAL school, so the traditional way of teaching reading and writing went out the window. We did a lot of play based learning as a way for students to access the learning and found that the students flourished when given a purpose. There is no point learning the word ‘bread’ if the sole purpose is to read it in a book. But if you are running a bakery in the middle of a busy classroom, you need to know that word in order to write it on an order form or find it on a menu. After returning home to Tasmania, I taught at a small school on the river in New Norfolk as their Early Years Coordinator and Prep teacher. At the time, it was predominantly a farming community, and literacy rates were quite low community wide. In this context, I quickly found all that I had learned about students reading and writing in London had value in Tasmania. And so my love of play- based learning and outdoor classrooms were born. I am proud of the 5 years I spent teaching in Tasmania- I became a lead teacher and mentor and worked with teachers across the Independent, Public and Catholic Systems to help improve literacy in low socio-economic areas. Since moving to the Northern Rivers, I have been teaching at St Finbarr’s in Byron Bay, as a teacher and Leader of Learning for K-2. 

What are your main teaching and classroom philosophies?

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” - Plutarch

Students come to us with their own knowledge, experiences and stories about the world around them. I believe in teaching the individual by igniting and inspiring students’ curiosity, critical thinking and innate desire to learn.  I hope to lay the foundation for  a passion for learning and spend my days encouraging students to actively engage with the world around them, think for themselves, ask questions and feel safe to voice their opinions. I am a firm believer in age appropriate pedagogies and letting children ‘be little.’

What do you enjoy teaching the most? 

Too hard to answer! But probably teaching students to read. It is extremely challenging, but I live for the ‘aha’ moments, the light bulbs going off, and that moment a child begins to access the print on a page for the first time. It is truly a beautiful and magical thing.

What is your greatest achievement?  

A cliche one here - my children. They are my biggest inspiration, and motivate me to be a better person each and every day.

What aspirations still lie ahead of you?

So much to do and so little time! More travel, more time with my children before they get too big and don’t want anything to do with me anymore. I’d like to live and work in another country again one day and learn to play the guitar.

What occupies your time outside school hours?

My family, outdoor adventures, ignoring the housework, running, spending time at the beach and eating. I spend a lot of time thinking about food-what I’m going to cook and where I’m going to eat. I love food. Which is probably why I love running to be honest, because I’m always hungry.

If you weren’t a primary teacher, how do you think you’d be spending your days?

I think I would still be working with children. Perhaps as a speech therapist or play therapist. My friends and I have a dream to find a place somewhere in the hinterland and set up an inclusive space to work with children offering equine therapy, play therapy, play-based speech programs, tutoring and art therapy.