The primary years provide a foundation for lifelong learning. This is certainly the case in Melanie Egan’s classroom. Melanie’s lessons are rigorous and challenging, but also supportive and fun. Melanie’s excellent knowledge of the syllabus, diverse repertoire of pedagogical techniques and strong content knowledge, means her lessons are always effective. She consistently seeks advice from colleagues about her programs, and is always reflective about her practice and how she can improve her lessons to better support her students.
Melanie takes time to build strong relationships with her students and their parents, and takes the time to celebrate learning and work through challenges and difficulties students are facing. Students in Melanie’s class feel supported, acknowledged and successful. She implements appropriate measures and strategies to address challenging behaviour and works with others in an integrated and networked approach to supporting students. Furthermore, Melanie has a detailed knowledge of her students and actively selects activities and strategies that will motivate them while improving their learning. For example, through hosting a ‘book tasting’ as an end of Term celebration, Melanie inspired students to read more and engage with literature. Melanie has established partnerships with the wider community in order to make units of learning more meaningful. This includes connecting her students with zookeepers to support an integrated Science and English unit and partnering with a local health café to run an assessment item for a health unit. Melanie is actively engaged with developments in educational research and is consistently building her knowledge and skill base. She seeks feedback and advice from her colleagues and draws from the expertise of others. She has presented at a local curriculum conference and was selected by the Catholic Education Office to attend the national Early Childhood Conference in early 2019. Congratulations Melanie on your nomination.
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