John Henry Primary School teacher Belinda Pedersen has been named as one of the top three Outstanding Primary Teachers in Victoria as part of the 2021 Victorian Education Excellence Awards, as SHELBY BROOKS reports.
In her sixth year of teaching, Belinda Pedersen has worked out a simple teaching philosophy.
“If the students that are walking into the classroom feel loved, safe, heard, listened to and respected, I feel you get so much more out of them,” she said.
That relationship of trust built between teacher and student underpins Belinda’s teaching as a grade 5 teacher at John Henry Primary School in Pakenham.
“I definitely find I always spend a lot of time focussing on that relationship building with the student in that early time of the year,” she said.
“It’s about building common ground and connection and that trust.
“I do think that positive relationship building something that underpins my teaching at school.”
It’s not just the welcoming atmosphere that Belinda creates in the classroom that had her named a finalist in the Outstanding Primary Teacher category the 2021 Victorian Education Excellence.
Belinda has been advocating for developing students’ voice, agency and leadership within the classroom by leading the school’s ‘Amplify’ initiative, a new role she took on this year.
“I’ve been working mainly with grade 3 to 6, making sure the students feel like they’re being heard in the classroom and have a say in what the learning journey looks like for them,” she said.
Another element of Belinda’s nomination has been how she has applied High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS), by developing success criteria and learning intentions with individual students to set goals and shape lessons from the students’ point of need.
“This has been really useful in the student voice as well because it allows the students set goals and they get a big say in how the lessons are shapes or what type of projects they undertake,” she said.
“We can monitor the students’ progress but it’s at their point of need so the kids know if they are struggling with a particular concept they can pick their entry point into that whether that be in a teacher focus group or work with kids of a similar ability.
“We were finding that engagement levels had increased because they felt they were being heard and they were putting out the ideas and we were taking that and running with it.”
Belinda is also passionate about literacy.
“With that I’ve been trying to develop expertise across the school and actually ran a few professional development to help build our younger staff’s ability and confidence in literacy,” she said.
“I’ve also been engaging with the wider community, our parents and families, and how I can support them with literacy at home especially during the time when the kids were learning from home.”
She also coaches a school aerobics team.
“Something I enjoy is seeing the kids be successful in other areas, not necessary literacy and maths but areas of passion and interest,” Belinda said.
Belinda was nominated for the award by her principal Tanya Roberts and a graduate teacher she mentored last year.
“I’m feeling very thankful and feel gratitude for the staff members around me who think so highly of me,“ she said.
“I’m happy with top three in Victoria, I’ll take it any day of the week!“
Belinda began her teaching career in 2015 after attending Monash University to study teaching.
She always knew teaching was her calling.
“I wanted to be a primary school teacher right from the get go, when I was little,” she said.
“I grew up in a really big family. I have five siblings- three younger sisters.
“I was always helping them at home with their learning like spelling words and readers, whatever it may be, it was something I was always really interested in.”
She said since beginning her schooling journey, she knew she wanted to become a teacher.
“When I was in prep, I wrote that in the future I wanted to be a primary teacher,” Belinda said.
“It’s something that has never changed. I’ve never questioned doing anything else.
“I feel fortunate that at such a young age I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
“I think that is a credit to my prep teacher because she really inspired me to pursue that dream and made school a really fun place.”
Belinda said she doesn’t have a favourite year level to teach.
“Honestly I’m pretty flexible and I’d be happy to go anywhere. I really love teaching junior school, because you have so many ‘ah ha’ moments. You get those in grade five but not as regularly,” she said.
“In junior school they are like little sponges that absorb everything and they’re really willing to learn and impress.“
Though she said teaching senior levels during Covid has been a blessing.
“I feel fortunate that I am teaching senior school during a pandemic because they’re quite independent, they log into WebX make sure they’re completing the work and responding to questions,“ she said.
“It’s been really good to see the kids working with other students within grade five which they might not have the opportunity to work with normally. We set up breakout rooms and they complete tasks with different groups and teams.“
But nothing makes up for face to face learning.
“I definitely cannot wait until I can get them all back here in the classroom that’s for sure,“ she said.
“I wish it was sooner but keep holding onto hope they’ll be back in full force soon.“
The winners of the Victorian Education Excellence Awards will be announced this Friday.
