Case studies of HALT teachers

Julie Birchley, Lead teacher: The best part of being a teacher is absolutely the adventure. I see it as an adventure every day.

It's that shared learning that goes on uniquely in that space and it's that moment to moment interaction that I find really exciting about my job.

Shireen Kumar, assistant principal: So my name's Shireen Kumar and I'm working at Burwood Public School for about ten years now.

Throughout that time I've known Julie in and out of different classroom settings but only in the last two years we've gotten to know each other really well.

Throughout that time Julie has been very supportive and she's heard about me wanting to be a Highly Accomplished Teacher and now that we were sharing an AP role together, I've learned so much with her and it's been a lot of learning for me from someone who's a Lead teacher. It's amazing to be working with someone like that.

Julie: So I think it's a really exciting time to be accredited at Lead.

In education we're asking: 'what's the value of an expert?' 'what does an expert do?' and we can lead those conversations across schools and through our actions and the practices that we do.

Shireen: She's ethical she's very respectful of teachers and students in everything that she does so it could be the recycling program that she's running for our school all the other initiatives that she does do it goes back to our school goals as well as looking after the teachers that she's working with as well.

It's exciting to be part of that learning for students and staff and their communities.

I think what it can do is grow great humans so I think it's a really exciting kind of my role every day.

Ross Montague, Highly Accomplished Teacher: The best part of my job is building positive relationships where students and teachers feel valued and it's very important to provide opportunities so that people can grow and continue to develop and I think I do that very well as a teacher.

Andrew Millican, Deputy Principal: I would describe Ross as someone who is very keen enthusiastic, very motivated and quite driven.

Ross: I'm really passionate about my job. I love my job and I love working with students.

Andrew: It doesn't surprise me that Ross has achieved his Highly Accomplished accreditation. Just the way he operates, the way prepares. Like I said, his enthusiasm for teaching and his passion for teaching.

It was a fairly long process and a fairly tough process, particularly with a young child and you know there's a lot of work involved yet he managed his time really well and was very motivated to get it done.

Ross: For me being a highly accomplished teacher is a great achievement and I feel privileged to have been able to achieve that status.

I've worked very hard over many different years across a number of different schools and I believe I have enacted a positive change to both staff and students and I feel that I want to share my experiences so that other teachers, again who might be interested in going through that accreditation process, can get some information on how best to apply.

It's really beneficial to students that they had teachers that are doing their best at all times and obviously providing teacher quality and I think if I can help in any way I'll definitely put my hand up to help out.

Andrew: It's funny, he seems excited a lot of the time, he's just keen, enthusiastic. Yeah, and that's the first impression you sort of get.

Students: Hi, I'm Tarnni, this is Jasper and this is Zac and we're making a video about how awesome Mr Foster is and how proud of him we are.

Joel Foster, Highly Accomplished Teacher: Probably the best thing about my job is the fact that I get to work with a range of students who are interested not only in my subject area
but just education in general.

I get to work not only with them but as my role in transition and Aboriginal education I get to work with my wider community and their family members both of primary schools and once they've finished and gone on to TAFE, university or post-school opportunities.

Reaching my higher level accreditation for me is more of a personal achievement. I set about doing it just to see if I was at a level where I thought I was, so that I could reflect on my own practice and make improvements that would make a difference in my classroom and encourage those students to learn more and be more engaged in my classrooms as well.

Paul Roger, principal: So what makes Joel a great teacher? He's very focused on improving the learning outcomes for all of his students. He's one of those teachers who's committed to his craft. He is very knowledgeable about quality subject content.

Hayley Chisholm, English teacher: I would say that Joel is just an expert in his field. He's incredibly generous and gracious in what he does for the school and for the students, particularly in sharing his knowledge.

Meripa, Year 9 student: Throughout my years of attending Corrimal High, Mr Foster has not only been a teacher but a mentor and role model.

Students: Congratulations Mr Foster, we're so proud of you.

Kelly Sharwood, assistant principal at Tumbarumba Public School: My name is Kelly Sharwood, I'm an assistant principal at Tumbarumba Public School.

The best part of my job is the imparting of knowledge on to students and working with students.

I love teaching students to be risk takers, to be critical thinkers and to really extend their learning and be committed to their learning and become lifelong learners.

Jennifer Lumsden, Principal Tumbarumba Public School: It's a real privilege for Tumbarumba Public School to have a highly accomplished teacher on our staff. Kelly has worked here for quite a number of years but through that time she's always striving to improve her practice and is very willing to take on new pedagogies, to constantly improve and to grow as a teacher, and when someone is like that they're bringing to the school a very powerful quality which is all about improving what we do for our students and that is the key to being an amazing teacher.

Kelly Sharwood: Being a highly accomplished teacher to me means that I'm being recognized for the skills that I do have. It also, as a supervisor, it ensures that I know the process by going through it myself when I need to supervise other teachers who are going through profession or wanting to seek the higher level of accreditation, I can help them out because I've been through it myself and know the system and I keep up to date with it.

It's also a nice pat on the back to know that I wasn't happy with just coming as proficient, I wanted to be recognised for the skills that I do have, so seeking higher accreditation was a way to enable to do that for myself and for the other staff that I work with.

Anyone who's thinking of going for a highly accomplished or higher levels I would really encourage you to do so. I don't believe that there's any teachers working in schools that can't meet the highly accomplished if you're a dedicated teacher, if you like to do research and keep up with current trends, if you want your students to achieve greater outcomes then highly accomplished is for you and I really urge teachers to do it because it not only makes you feel good but it's making the teacher profession being recognised that the fact that we do have highly accomplished teachers especially in public schools and our students are everyday being fronted by a teacher who has high skills.