Teacher draws on television experience in the classroom

Heather Clark is an English teacher and a House Coordinator at Rosebank College in Sydney

My typical week is broken up into two distinct areas, although they tend to overlap during the school day. As an English teacher, I teach, prepare classes, mark work and develop my own knowledge of texts and teaching practice. As a Coordinator, I work closely with students, parents and staff with a focus on student wellbeing. My teaching role is quite routine, whereas the House coordinating tasks vary from day to day.

I’ve been teaching on and off for almost 30 years. After doing a Bachelor of Arts degree I launched into a career in the theatre in Glasgow, Scotland. On my return to Australia, I volunteered for the NSW Youth Arts & Skills Festival, where I had so much fun working with teenagers that I thought I’d have a go at teaching.

Since that time, I’ve dipped in and out of teaching. I had a stint in a ministry, picked up a few commercials and small roles in TV, performed with Playback Theatre Sydney for a number of years and also began my own drama school for primary school children.

In 2010, I became Education Manager at the Australian Theatre for Young People where I had some wonderful opportunities to run programs for Sydney schools and to develop a theatre project in Katherine, in the Northern Territory. The managerial position was exciting, but I found that I missed working directly with adolescents. I did a psychology degree with an idea to become a school counsellor, but after a short stint as a student advisor, I found that I wanted to return to the classroom. I’ve been back in teaching for eight years now and the two roles I currently have offered a perfect blend of all of my previous positions.

The thing I love about my job is the interaction with young people. Those in our next generation are intelligent, funny, bold and passionate. They are interested in the world, concerned about the environment, desirous of making a difference and can see through “phoniness”, to quote Holden Caulfield. It’s always a thrill when a student surprises themselves, when they get a personal best in a test or when they understand a new concept. The classroom is the shared brain space of everyone and I often find myself nodding in appreciation at the insights students have.

For my roles, in particular, I’ve found it important to be organised, patient, curious about the world, creative, and optimistic. Adolescence is such an impressionable time when peers become the loudest influence in their lives. To offer young people another perspective in the safety of a classroom is the gift a teacher can give to their students. Of course, if I can help them enjoy Shakespeare and write a cracker of an essay, then that’s a bonus.