Australian Excellence in Teaching Awards

[Anne Mirtschin]

The annual "Australian Excellence in Teaching Award" reward innovators in a number of categories - including excellence by a teacher, beginning teacher, leading teacher, principal, support staff member and schools and its community. A number of highly commended educationalists were also given awards. These awards were given to the winners by the Federal Minister for Education and Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, in a recent ceremony at Parliament House in Canberra.
As I was fortunate to be at this ceremony, I felt great pride in seeing one of our younger teachers, Adrian Camm awarded both the highly commended teacher award plus, the Minister's new award, Excellence in ICT. This is a great accomplishment on Adrian's part and it was a proud moment to see one of our Victorian teachers receive this award. Well done and congratulations, Adrian - an award well deserved!
A professional exchange took part in the afternoon and the next morning, where educationalists got to share their innovative work. Time was taken to look at how the innovation can continue and shared beyond. Eric Frangenheim of ITC Publications ran some thought provoking workshops with those who were present. Here are some of the comments that caused discussion and further reflection.

"It may not be broken, but how could it be done better?"
"How do we make innovation contagious?"
"Modesty as an innovator, should lead to instant dismissal!"

There were many stories to be shared - many of them quite amazing. There was one teacher who worked in a detention centre with children who were aged 10 - 18 years old. These students might be there 2 weeks, 2 years or longer. She spoke passionately of the literacy and numeracy program they had developed for work with small groups of 4 students. Some of these kids could not add 2+ 2. Others work in schools with high levels of students with disabilities, running an ignite program simultaneously for gifted students. Profound success has been achieved with both groups. Others worked with ethnic and different cultural communities including our indigeneous communities. Some were into using cutting edge technology to improve student learning outcomes. Others were working with communities both inside and outside school grounds. See the full list of the winners for 2009.
The final session was presented by another innovative Victorian teacher, Andrew Douch, who was himself a past winner of these illustrious awards. His journey in the two years since then, was another amazing story to listen to.
If innovation is happening in your school or others, please share it with us all, as this will encourage the innovation to grow and continue.

[Suz Arnott]

fantastic stuff...well done Anne and Adrian

[Krystie Alleaume]

Congratulations Anne and Adrian!
I just thought I would paste in the descriptions I read on the award page for others to see. These descriptions of your teaching practice are a celabration of the tireless efforts you have both put into promoting innovation in your schools and are a great inspiration to others!


"Teaching in a rural school, Anne Mirtschin has had a major impact on the thinking and learning of students by introducing online tools to extend their virtual experience to countries and cultures around the globe.
Despite the distance from major cities, Anne uses creative teaching strategies where students explore, create and collaborate with experts in a variety of fields such as visual arts, music and science. She inspires students to participate in a connected world and prepares them to be part of the global workforce of the future.
Anne is a respected educator who shares her enthusiasm, innovative practices and vision for emerging technologies with colleagues, parents and school communities across the region."

"Adrian Camm is a dynamic young teacher whose pioneering use of emerging technologies is impacting positively on student engagement and learning outcomes in mathematics and science across the state of Victoria. Adrian understands that to capture students’ attention and to create positive perceptions about the relevance of mathematics and science for their lives, you have to bring their digital world into the classroom and use it as a tool for learning.

Walls, doors and windows are non-existent in Adrian’s innovative approach. Through the virtual learning community Adrian has developed, students and teachers are able to interact with each other and with experts,
including practising physicists, anytime, anywhere. These conversations highlight for students the tentative nature of scientific inquiry and the need for collaborative critical thinking. A hallmark of Adrian’s work is his willingness to share his experience and expertise at forums and conferences and through his online personal network with forward-thinking educators world-wide.

Any school would be delighted to have a teacher like Adrian, who places student engagement at the heart of
education and who bridges generations, connecting with students, staff, families and the community."

[Adrian Camm]

Thanks for the kind words Brendan.

[Brendan O'Brien]

Congrats Adrian ... well deserved! A great teacher who is normalising Innovation ... making it seamless and integrated into a diverse set of pedagogies