Students

Over the last 30 (ish) years I have taught a diverse range of students covering many levels and with a wide range of backgrounds

As a trained secondary teacher I started my career teaching Mathematics to year 10-13 (3rd to 6th form ) students.

Once migrating to Bay of Plenty Community College (renamed to BoP Polytechnic) I taught computing to secretarial students, business students and some community courses. BoP introduced of the NZ Certificate in Data Processing (NZCDP ) which changed into the Certificate in Business Computing (CBC).

At Hawke's Bay Polytechnic (renamed to Eastern Institute of Technology ) I continued with the CBC and the Advanced CBC, to which has been added the Bachelor of Computing Systems (BCS).

From a cultural perspective, students I have taught have come from across the globe, such as: Asian, Indian, German, Russian, Nepalise, Islanders (Fiji, Samoa).

From an age perspective I have covered from year 10 as a teacher at NZ Secondary School through School leavers studying Diploma and degree qualifications, to adult students doing continuing education (both formal qualifications and interest courses), to colleagues and business people doing specialised computing training.  

(who, from where, background – diversity) Motivating and inspiring As part of being a teacher, a task is to motivate and inspire students.

  • "Walking the talk" or "practising what we teach". This creates all sorts of risky situations. I  deliver my content via the web, so issues such as site going down have to be addressed – helps students understand real word implications of managing and maintaining web sites.
  • In the week of graduation I take (and wear) my academic regalia in class. Once student commented that when they were putting theirs on for their graduation they remembered me putting mine on and it helped them to organise their hood.

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