The pandemic forced teachers to adopt new modes of teaching. It was uber timely that Rotary Altona City established the Hobsons Bay Rotary Teacher Awards program in 2018.
Focusing on early career stage teachers, experienced teachers, and teams, the awards recognise and encourage outstanding performance in local schools.
The pandemic sent everyone into a spin where suddenly, we were all forced to adapt to a socially isolated world. At lightning speed, teachers adopted new modes of teaching that embraced the family unit. It was uber timely that Rotary Altona City established the Hobsons Bay Rotary Teacher Awards program in 2018. Focusing on early career stage teachers, experienced teachers, and teams, the awards recognise and encourage outstanding performance in local schools.
Award founder, Past District Governor and Assistant Principal Baden Powell College, Julie Mason says that it's never been more important to support and honour teachers.
“The requirements we’ve put on teachers in the COVID environment have been extraordinary so it’s particularly relevant to acknowledge their work.”
The Zoom award ceremony took place, 18 October, 2021. It was a powerful event telling stories of passion, dedication and relationship building that went beyond the student teacher relationship and into the families.
Altona College nominated early career stage teachers Megan Clerkin, Blair Clearihan-Jervies and Zoe Harrison for encouragement awards. Their nominations highlighted exceptional starts to their teaching careers, working proactively with students and parents to cement strong home/school partnerships for remote learning.
In their second year of teaching, Olivia Hall and Sarah Hamilton from Bayside P – 12 College were also nominated for encouragement awards. The fact that most of their career’s been spent in remote learning didn’t dampen their enthusiasm and they innovated creative ways to engage students online. As did encouragement award winning Amy Wilson-Matesvac and Keenan Gatens from Emmanuel College, or Wembley Primary School’s Rachel Cullen and Benjamin Landolina. Ben was nominated by the parents for going above and beyond on every call with his class.
One outstanding Wembley teacher was Achievement Award winner Candice DeChalain. Her dexterity meant she could deal with a challenging student on a minute-by-minute basis to ensure their wellbeing while continuing to execute her responsibilities to the rest of the class.
The team awards recognise teacher groups who collaborate to address an important school challenge. Wembley shone once more when its Year 1 team created methods to develop student’s social skills while continuing to deliver quality education, despite the many challenges their families may have faced. Wembley’s Year 6 team went to extraordinary lengths to support students at risk of disengaging through creating differentiated learning opportunities across various subjects while catering for a range of students’ needs.
Fear, and all the pressures of a pandemic, coupled with the requirements placed on teachers in this new environment where schools suddenly closed their doors, are unprecedented. Julie Mason says that teachers lived up to their personal and team expectations in an exemplary manner.
“Teachers had to pivot between onsite and online remote learning while supporting student’s families and in many cases, having to home-school their own children.”
There’s a great synergy between the education sector and Rotary - acting with integrity, giving service and demonstrating leadership.
“Both institutions are involved in developing student agency and leadership. We all want students to thrive. Our self-sacrificing teachers went beyond expectations in a crisis situation to achieve this,” says Julie.
Rotary aims to become more aligned with education and foster opportunities for increased collaboration between Rotary and schools. This will increase Rotary visibility and hopefully attract new members.
For more information and to view photos of the event, visit Altona City website, www.altonacityrotary.org.au.
