Teacher in top three
Award worthy: Neil Cockburn is very happy at being in the running for the MECU Outstanding Secondary Teacher Award.
KORUMBURRA Secondary College teacher, Neil Cockburn, has been included as one of the three finalists for the MECU Outstanding Secondary Teacher Award.
This award is part of the prestigous Victorian Education Excellence Awards that honour teachers, principals, business managers and support staff.
“These awards recognise innovative and passionate individuals and teams who go the extra mile to make our schools and kindergartens exceptional places to learn,” Peter Hall, Minister for Higher Education and Skills and responsible for the teaching profession, said.
Mr Cockburn, a maths teacher, is very pleased to have made it this far in the selection process.
“I was first asked to apply back in December 2010 by the regional department, for my work leading a team of teachers in the area to improve how students learn mathematics,” he said.
Mr Cockburn was then on a short list of nominees and was asked in an interview why he should receive the award.
“While working with this team of mathematics domain leaders, we aimed to create processes which would allow all students to be able to learn and develop individually,” he said.
“We came up with several different approaches and then put sytems into place to have our processes used.”
Mr Cockburn was selected to reflect on his school in the DVD, Literacy and Numeracy – Celebrating Gippsland Success. That DVD presented innovative approaches to teaching at the Mathematics Association of Victoria conference in 2010.
If Mr Cockburn is fortunate enough to win, he will recieve $10,000 towards a professional development program of his choice.
“If I win I will research what strategies enable students to direct thier learning pathway through the middle and senior year of schooling,” he said.
“The investigation will lead to the development of specific support structures and strategies that allow students to reflect, set goals and plan their learning processes.
“Such strategies would allow students to be more aware and responsive to their learning – where they were, where they are now and where they want to be in the future.”
Mr Cockburn will find out if he has received the award at Crown Palladium on May 13.
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Posted by superadmin on May 3 2011. Filed under Community, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
