Greater Shepparton Secondary College student teacher Caitlin McLaughlan has worked through two periods of remote learning since starting her placement in Term 2 at Mooroopna Campus.
She said it had been a "big learning curve".
“I'm not the most technologically advanced person,” she said.
“I can also understand from a student's perspective how hard it is being motivated while working at home.”
But Miss McLaughlan has taken the challenge of teaching P.E. and science remotely in her stride.
She is part of the Nexus program which runs within the La Trobe University Masters of Teaching — an accelerated degree which involves education support work as well as teaching.
It's a program for talented individuals who want to teach in low-socioeconomic, regional and rural secondary schools.
Miss McLaughlan is particularly talented — before starting her masters degree, she studied at an American college on a basketball scholarship after growing up near Mildura and Bendigo.
An injury sent her back home and put her on the path of teaching, where she has found her passion.
She hopes to continue working at Greater Shepparton Secondary College once she completes her degree.
“My placement is amazing, I could not ask for a better school,” Miss McLaughlan said.
“The staff at GSSC have made me feel so welcome, it's really great seeing how the students are so motivated even though we’re going back to remote learning.”
As well as helping develop the next generation of teachers, Mooroopna teacher and supervisor Kylie Hoskin gets benefits from the program too.
“I always think I’m on top of a lot of the resources and technology, but they’ve got all these great ideas,” Mrs Hoskin said.
“It’s just really good to be able to share ideas and resources and to give her the opportunity to write lesson plans.”
What's even greater are the benefits Miss McLaughlan brings to the classroom.
“I'm quite resilient and that’s been a really good building block for my relationship with students,” Miss McLaughlan said.
“I grew up on a small farm and I worked hard for the opportunity to go overseas.
“It's something I try to promote — it doesn’t matter where you’re from, if you set your mind to it you can achieve it.”
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