Your efforts don’t go unnoticed and you’re doing an incredible job.
That’s the message to teachers from star athlete and teacher Taryn Gollshewsky, who in just a few weeks’ time will represent Australia for the second time at a Commonwealth Games.
The 24-year-old discus thrower has been a hard worker all her life, but as a first-year teacher at Bundaberg’s St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School, her schedule has stepped up a notch as she excels outside the school and helps students excel inside it.
“I am a PE teacher, so obviously I am in my element getting to teach the kids sport,” Taryn says.
“I am absolutely loving it,” she says.
“All the kids love coming to PE knowing that I am an athlete and they see me on the news and they come to school and say, ‘Miss G, we saw you on the news last night!’”
‘Miss G’ has a punishing schedule.
“I wake up at 4.30 in the morning and I head straight to the gym,” Taryn says.
“I do a gym session in the morning before work, and then I come home, I walk my dog, have breakfast and get ready. I am at school from 8 am to 3.30 pm and then I pretty much go straight to training – I start training at either 4 pm or 4.30 pm and I finish training at about 6.30 pm,” she says.
“So, I get home about a quarter to seven and I pretty much have dinner, have a shower and go straight to bed and I am asleep by 8.30pm, because I need my sleep!”
Taryn – who made her first Wide Bay sports team at age 10, became a national champion when she was 13 and even made the state volleyball team only a few months after a teacher encouraged her to try the sport – has an inspiring message for her fellow Queensland teachers. “Your efforts don’t go unnoticed,” she says.
It is very easy for kids to come to a sports practice or come to one of those extra-curricular activities that teachers do and they (students) seem like they are unappreciative, but all of those extra little things that teachers do along the way, they are the things that form people like me.
“I am so appreciative and so thankful that I was offered those opportunities."
“I would not be the athlete I am if I did not have all of those little extra opportunities that all the teachers offered along the way … so the teachers just need to keep that in mind and remember that, they are forming the future of our nation and they are doing an incredible job.”
Taryn’s heats will take place on April 10 and the discus final will take place on April 12.
Her personal best would have put her on the medals podium at the last Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
“I know that if I am at my best, and if I hit my 60m mark, I’ll be right up there with the top throwers in the Commonwealth – I will be a real medal chance on the Gold Coast, which is exciting,” Taryn says.
Taryn has set up her own athlete’s page on Facebook, where an idea, which originally started as a joke in her family, has taken off – the Team Taryn shirt.
If you want to be part of Team Taryn and show your support for this amazing first-year teacher, check out her Facebook site ‘Taryn Gollshewsky’ for the shirt or to send her a message.
The QCT wishes you all the best Taryn. Thank you for being an outstanding role model and a wonderful ambassador for the teaching profession.
You’ve won a gold medal already in our eyes.