As a Masters of Education Leadership student at ACU I am undertaking a course called Leadership Spirituality. An assignment for the course required me to look back at some spiritual moments in my life, I will spare you those, but it got me looking back at parts of my life more closely than I probably ever have. Coincidently events last week lead me to think of one of my primary school teachers. That event was Miles Stewart being named CEO of Triathlon Australia. It's funny how the world works.
As pre-service teachers, we are often asked to think about why we want teach and what teachers you were influenced by as a student. I never really had an answer, I would often think about my primary school teachers as nice people who just got on with their jobs. There were no standouts. The longer I have been in education the more I've thought about those teachers and how they did actually influence me. One in recent days has come to mind.
Mrs Shooter, my Year 4 or 5 teacher, was an experienced teacher who I enjoyed having as a teacher. In the early 90's Triathlon was big on TV, and Miles Stewart had won the 1991 ITU World Championship that were held on the Gold Coast where I lived. It just so turned out that Miles Stewart also lived on the Gold Coast and was dating Mrs Shooter's daughter. Now I can't remember the exact unit that we undertook or the precise genre of our writing task, but I do know that Miles came in and we got to interview him. As a sports mad boy, I'm sure I asked numerous questions and probably had more than my fair go. I sure was motivated for that writing task.
I can see correlations between this event and my own teaching. I have constantly attempted to provide opportunities for students such as sports, academic competitions and other learning tasks that will engage them. Opportunities such as an excursion to Tallebudgera Beach for students who may not have been to the beach before, sporting players and organisation visits/clinics and facilitating sports programs. I saw a tweet the a few days ago from an education consultancy company that was along the lines of 'the classroom is our core business, nothing else matters'. I disagree with this statement; our core business in education is the teaching and learning of CHILDREN. That doesn't just pertain to inside the four walls of a classroom, but learning transcends across subjects and areas of life.
I propose for a much more holistic approach to education from all educational stakeholders. Yes literacy and numeracy are extremely important, but they will mean nothing if you can't develop and engage the whole child. Thank you Mrs Shooter for planting the seed in the 90's that would help form my teaching practice and provide opportunities for students that they may not otherwise.
Nathan