Making a difference – TEACHX Awards 2021
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 127 No 1, 11 February 2022, page no.14
Four state school educators who have made a significant difference to the lives of not only their students, but also their students’ families and carers, their colleagues, their entire school communities, and in some cases, students statewide, have been honoured in the Queensland College of Teacher’s 2021 TEACHX Awards. The winners were chosen from 29 finalists and more than 200 nominations and were announced at a virtual awards ceremony. Read on to find out more about these inspiring educators.
Transforming generations
When Zara Hebbel arrived in Sydney as a 10-year-old from Sweden speaking very little English, she was put on a bench at the back of a classroom and “left there to immerse”.
That isolating experience and what happened next was life-changing. Moving to Queensland, Ms Hebbel had a teacher who adjusted the class’s activities to warmly include the 10-year-old.
Decades later, Ms Hebbel has won the Queensland College of Teachers TEACHX Outstanding Contribution to Teaching Award for her passionate championing of student inclusion, based on her innate understanding of the difference it makes in children’s lives.
The extraordinary Goomeri State School teacher has taught children in year levels from play group to Year 12, in urban and rural settings, in Indigenous communities and at an international school in Sweden.
“Every child has the same needs, whether here in Barambah, in Brisbane or at the exclusive international school: to feel safe, to feel valued. With reasonable adjustments and scaffolded learning, they can experience success. Every child can learn,” Ms Hebbel said.
Starting as a preschool teacher at Marsden State School before heading out to Goomeri, and then to the Indigenous community of Cherbourg, in the early 1990s Ms Hebbel was faced with the challenge of better preparing Cherbourg’s preschool children for school.
“After consultation and research, we proposed a pilot program, a unique three-quarter day preschool timetable with an afternoon home-visiting program – a Queensland first. After a trial year, we had consistent feedback from all three feeder schools that there was a significant difference in school readiness for those children,” she said.
Ms Hebbel is passionate about early intervention for children.
“It’s how the brain develops. Prior to the age of eight the brain is much more flexible, so if we can ensure that children are provided with individualised support, to make connections, they will benefit long-term,” Ms Hebbel said.
Cutting-edge technology
Brisbane students are leading the world in using cutting-edge technology to analyse global problems.
The incredible work of Wavell State High School geography students is attracting national and international attention, with one student even presenting at a conference to teachers about how they are using spatial technology to analyse and provide solutions to real-world problems.
The inspirational and dynamic lessons are led by geography teacher Brett Dascombe, who has won the Queensland College of Teachers TEACHX Innovation in Teaching Award.
Mr Dascombe, who has his own YouTube channel and presents at conferences worldwide, has been sharing his resources and providing professional development for other teachers through the Geography Teachers’ Association of Queensland for more than a decade.
He was one of the first teachers in Queensland to embed geospatial mapping in his teaching and assessment, and he now combines that with drone flying and the footage take from that. The technology combination enables students to put together university-level assignments that take a deep dive into analytics to solve environmental and social issues.
“My Year 7 students have created swipe maps of the Great Barrier Reef – of healthy corals and not-so-healthy corals. They get excited by looking at the technology they are using, but they are also learning at the same time – it’s wonderfully engaging,” Mr Dascombe said.
His Year 12 students analyse E. coli levels in a lagoon on North Stradbroke Island.
“We take over data probes and we measure the water quality: we collect water samples, we send them to a laboratory and we test them for E. coli. We put up a drone and the students all collect individual data and shared data on that field trip and then we put it into an interactive web map,” Mr Dascombe said.
“Those senior projects are just so exciting — the quality of work that the students are doing is university-level once they get through to that senior level,” Mr Dascombe said.
Care and commitment change lives
When children were learning at home during the COVID-19 shutdown, teacher Elizabeth Hitchmough checked in weekly, and sometimes daily, with parents to help.For difficult concepts, she provided specific video lessons.
Each family had already been rung at the start of the year by Mrs Hitchmough – in addition to designated-parent teacher meetings – for an annual positive, in-depth start-of the-year discussion to help her better understand how to teach each child and to connect.
More than 30 years after she started teaching, former students still approach Mrs Hitchmough to discuss the classroom activities they undertook decades ago. Her care for each student she teaches, and for supporting their parents wherever she can, is palpable.
The inspirational Edens Landing State School Year 5 teacher, who runs a speaking club which has been life-changing for some students, and who has mentored many colleagues, is the winner of this year’s Queensland College of Teachers Excellence in Teaching Award.
“For me it’s all about relationships – if the child doesn’t know that you care about them, then they can’t learn from you, their brains need security to be able to learn,” Mrs Hitchmough said.
“For that year when you have them, they are your kids – you think about them and you care about them … and then when they go on to Year 6, you think about them occasionally, but you have got a new bunch of kids who are yours and they fill up your mind,” she said.
She said teaching wasn’t the easiest job, but it “could be the most rewarding in the world”.
“When you look at a kid who at the beginning of the year couldn’t sit still, and then you look around and there they are with their head down and their pencil moving, and you read what they have written and it’s amazing, and you can tell that they have listened to what you are saying and they have made such amazing progress – it’s fantastic,” Mrs Hitchmough said.
Stunning school transformation
A stunning school transformation has seen enrolments triple, parent and community engagement soar, students receive life-changing scholarships and cutting-edge career training offered for the first time in Queensland.
Just six years after Mick Hornby took the helm at Logan’s Mabel Park State High School (MPSHS), enrolments have grown from about 500 to 1,500, multicultural events showcasing its students’ 71 cultures have attracted up to 10,000 people, some students have received $30,000 scholarships to study at university, and nearly all its graduates have attained Queensland Certificates of Education, despite experiencing some of the state’s toughest socio-economic circumstances.
MPSHS also introduced Queensland’s first on-site state school GP clinic, a model now being rolled out across the state.
Mr Hornby’s dedication to his diverse school community, his commitment to valuing teachers and their professional development, his innovative projects, his focus on inclusion, and a "student first" policy are just some of the reasons he has been named the winner of this year’s Queensland College of Teachers TEACHX Excellent Leadership in Teaching and Learning Award.
Under Mr Hornby’s leadership, MPSHS was the first school in Queensland to introduce a Certificate III in an Aviation drone course. It was also the first in the state to create, develop and implement a Health Hub on site, with donated hospital equipment, where students attain certificates in individual support and careers in hospitals, aged-care and the disability sector.
The school is working with universities, which provide scholarships and professors who mentor students; it has introduced a hair and beauty salon for training and a sporting excellence program; it has overhauled its teaching framework and introduced extensive and multi-layered professional development for teachers. It’s also piloting a flexible space program for disengaged students.