Celebrating our Teachers on World Teachers’ Day 2020

October 5th is an occasion to celebrate the teaching profession worldwide, acknowledging all the effort and achievements of our dedicated teachers. This year teachers have demonstrated their resilience and passion to support their students more than ever, as they rapidly upskilled and adjusted to remote teaching. A number of teachers have participated in a Flexible Learning Design professional development program to continue to develop skills in flexible learning design and be able to deliver courses both on campus and online. Navitas staff and students were invited to share their gratitude and heartfelt appreciation of teachers on this online social board, and various academic staff have shared further messages below.

The support shown to our students by teaching staff at La Trobe College Australia has been truly humbling. This year has been difficult for staff and students alike, but our teachers have continuously gone above and beyond to offer advice and support. They have approached the challenges faced by students as a result of the sudden move to online teaching with empathy and compassion. It’s difficult to put into words just how exceptional our teaching team have been during this time. While Melbourne has faced lockdowns and our lives have changed dramatically, our teaching team have continued to meet the challenges of this year by always making our students and their welfare and academic outcomes their priority. Although I have not seen many of my colleagues in a face-to-face setting in many (many) months, I have never felt more proud or grateful to work with them.

  • Alyce Hogg, Academic Coordinator at La Trobe College Australia, Melbourne

Our teachers are incredibly driven and resilient. They absorbed the work with no complaints, and they delivered above and beyond, providing an online learning experience for the first time. They are magicians! I am extremely grateful and fortunate to work with such talented and passionate people!

  • Anick Chouinard, Academic Coordinator at Griffith College, Brisbane

2020 has brought so many challenges for us as a teaching community at SAIBT, I have been continuously in awe of our teaching team this year – not only have they worked incredibly hard ensuring students were set up for success with online studies, I have seen so many innovative ideas shared among the SAIBT teaching community. I am so proud of everything we have achieved this year at SAIBT, our students are our success stories and I know they have received high quality teaching and personalised support to stimulate interest and encourage active participation in the digital learning space.

  • Rebekah Nagel, Academic Manager at SAIBT, Adelaide

In what has been the one of the most challenging working experiences we have ever had to manage in our lives, I could not be more in awe of the resilience and commitment the teachers at SIBT have shown this year. Every teacher was pushed outside their comfort zone daily, but they met each challenge with a positive attitude and not one complaint, so that their students could continue to have the best learning experience possible. That is something I have never experienced in all my years leading teams, and I am so privileged to be working with such an amazing group of people. Our students are so lucky to have our teachers as their mentors and we are so lucky to have them in our teaching team at SIBT.

  • Peta Bollen, Program Convenor at SIBT, Sydney

Our teachers have been more flexible and gone above and beyond their comfort zone, to patiently help students adapt to an unprecedented situation. Some teachers made an effort to add personal touches to the online learning experience, sharing experiences and stories in front of cameras (as daunting as it may have been for some in the first few weeks teaching online) to help students open up and boost class communication and engagement.

  • Christopher Sze, Program Convenor at WSUIC, Sydney
What has inspired me about my teachers is their endless ability to bring positivity and creativity into their classes every single week despite being isolated in lockdown themselves.

  • Catherine Sicurella, Academic Coordinator at Deakin College, Melbourne

We would love to say a big thank you to all the Navitas teachers who have participated in Learning & Teaching professional development modules and workshops, particularly to the Flexible Learning Design (Pilot) Program participants. We’ve greatly appreciated your enthusiasm and willingness to share ideas with each other – we’ve certainly learnt a lot from each of you. We’d also like to mention the thoughtful feedback you’ve provided throughout the program, and we hope you found these insights and observations useful in designing your subjects. Most importantly, we hope you enjoyed being able to collaborate with subject matter experts from different fields and colleges, and we hope this has enabled you to develop new collaborations for the future.

  • Navitas Learning & Teaching Services (UPA) team

For more information, or to share your college’s good practice, contact the Learning & Teaching Services team at: learningandteaching@navitas.com.