Are you a pre-service or beginning teacher, finding your feet in the classroom? You’re going to want to tune in.

In this episode, we speak to pre-service teacher, Inara, who is in her final year of a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Education (Secondary) at the University of Sydney, specialising in modern history and business studies. 

We first met (fan-girled over) Inara at a Future Teachers Club (FTC) conference and were inspired by her passion for teaching. More on the FTC later.

For someone so committed to her career path, Inara didn’t always know she wanted to be a teacher. In fact, in primary and early high school, she struggled with reading and writing. It was her own teachers that changed the course of her life and shaped her teaching philosophy.

But what really guided and supported Inara’s journey into teaching has been the FTC. This club was started at Macquarie Fields High School by the principal at the time, Jan Dolstra, and geography teacher, Perry Celestino.

What is the FTC you ask? It’s a club for students from Year 9 to 12 that aims to introduce teaching as a profession to students who are still at school. Members become familiarised with concepts of lesson planning and review, have a chance to teach micro lessons and go on excursions to universities and various school environments in metro, regional and rural NSW. For Inara, it meant starting her teaching degree at university with a lot of practical experience already in her back pocket. 

Inara draws on her experiences in the FTC, sharing advice for how students can best prepare for a practicum, the importance of being intentional and genuine in your teaching persona and the pitfalls of perfectionism.

Other topics future teachers will not want to miss: tips for building rapport with your students (hint: a game of dodgeball goes a long way), using intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivators in the classroom and the important concepts of reflection and finding your ‘teacher voice’.

We hope you enjoy this episode.

We acknowledge that this episode of the Teach NSW Podcast was recorded on the homelands of the Darug people. We pay respect to Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples listening to the Teach NSW Podcast today. 

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If you would like to provide feedback or suggestions for future episodes, please contact teachnsw@det.nsw.edu.au to get in touch with the Teach NSW Podcast team. Follow the Teach NSW team on Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter) and YouTube to be the first to know when new episodes are released.