In the past three years teacher Matt Tobin has built relationships at Marsden State School with parents, with teaching colleagues and most importantly with his students. “Matt Tobin does a wonderful job catering to the needs of all of his students. He has some high-needs behavioural students within his class this year and he has done an amazing job improving their academic and behaviour results already this year,” Head of Curriculum Amy Cocciolone says.
He is able to do this by first and foremost building a rapport with each child in his class and then making sure he differentiates their learning tasks based on their current capabilities which he gleans from formative assessment results. There has been a noted decrease in behavioural incidents among his students and he is evidently successful in working with challenging students, which feeds into academic progress too. Matt uses a range of strategies to engage his students and he has made good use of Information and Communication Technology to create thought provoking curriculum. He’s developed One Notes and shared his knowledge amongst staff to aid in collaboration and integrated the use of iPads across the curriculum. Always professional, he works collaboratively in all professional learning teams and is happy to take on feedback. “Matt recently volunteered to become a part of a coaching/pilot program that I am leading. He goes above and beyond what is expected of his role,” Amy says. The Year 3 teacher has forged strong connections with students and parents and contributes to several activities outside of school hours including an Indigenous community event this term. Congratulations Matt on your nomination.