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It’s important we keep students at school and become
members of a community so that when they leave school and
go out into the workforce, they are prepared for it and,
you know, they’re at their best – the best they can be.
My name’s Cam. I’m a vocational education teacher at Kwinana Senior High School.
I had an environmental science degree behind me and decided I wanted a career change
knew some people that were teachers and thought, you
know, it might be a good change for me, a good challenge.
All right. You guys are going to be dividing some plants today.
I’ve put it in the board inside.
There may be four new plants that we can make from this one.
If you want to go and get all the gear ready then
I’ll show you how we’re going to divide these up.
I’ll get you guys to do some potting mix so that we can use that in the
cuttings and in the replanting of the plants, the division of the plants.
It’s a straightforward 50/50 white sand and organic soil mix.
And don’t overfill it because we want a nice consistent mix.
I do teach maths to these guys but it’s all vocational maths.
We try and fit everything in out here so that the students
aren’t stuck in the classroom with their maths books
because a lot of the really good work, as you see out here – you put them
in the classroom like that and they don’t really function that well.
I reckon I learn more in this class than I do in any other class.
It’s more hands-on.
You actually do … do the work instead of teachers explaining it
Well, Brownie does explain it to us but he also actually
makes us do it. That’s how we learn this stuff.
Just have a look at how it grows. They grow from the middle. See that? Yeah.
Cut that. You might even have to cut the pod off with a saw.
But if you’re going to go to recess … Yeah. Probably not.
All right. You’re more than welcome to. You can go.
I enjoy being here, ’cos I like doing stuff with like being able to watch
it go from a big root bound plant like this to several smaller plants.
So they’ve come a long way since the start of the year.
Migration last year.
Yeah, you did have a few problems, didn’t you?
Yeah. Still have a few but I’m trying to sort them out. He’s an awesome teacher.
Yeah, he’s like the best teacher in the school.
Yeah, one of the best. No doubt about that. Yeah.
He loves to have a joke around, unlike all the other
teachers and yeah … You can actually talk to him.
He’s also like a friend not just a teacher.
Mr Brown, someone broke that fence.Yes, was it you? No.
And that’s where I cut my finger. Well, I helped.
Yeah, me and Bec undid the wire and then someone broke the fold
Cos we were sick of jumping it to get home … That’s probably showing some initiative, Tash.
But it’s also bordering on vandalism.
I provide them with a really good environment to learn in and
they need to provide me a really good environment to teach in.
And if we don’t get both ways, then I’ll just
take all their privileges away and turn it back
into more of a normal style of classroom and they
soon learn from that and pull their head in.
But I’ll show you these plants before we get back
to the shed and you can pack everything up then.
If I remember where they are, Malcolm. Where were they?
This stand of grass trees here are the ones that we’re going to be working
on because they’re going to actually go so we’re going to trim those back.
That’s great. Get into it. It’ll take you quite a while.
To come out and explain to them that next week
there’s going to be machinery coming through here,
it sort of gives them a real meaning to what they’re doing.
All of a sudden they get enthusiastic and they get
more out of it because they know that it’s real.
It’s not just from a textbook or it’s not a pointless exercise.
I had really shocking grades last year.
I left school last year and I was working in an
abattoir for a while and then I came back to school.
Mr Brown was the only teacher that would give me a chance and him
giving me a chance was like opened my eyes to new opportunities.
A lot of the time coming to me is a last resort.
To actually see them succeed when you know maybe they’ve
been given up on, that’s really, really, really rewarding.
Yeah, it’s supposed to be rounded.
See how you just made it nice and … but you’ve done that again. So you
reckon it’s too high up so you need to drag it back up from the bottom.
Steve, work from the edge and then make the edge height the same height.
That’s exactly it, mate, because then you’ve got a starting level, OK?
Yeah, today we’ve put the students down.
We’re going to be planting out in some areas that we’re rehabilitating.
Some concrete arrived at the last minute so I thought
it was a good opportunity for the guys to get involved
in that and then we’re going to go off and start
planting all the plants that we’ve grown all year round,
actually taken from other areas of the new school and put them in the ground.
Now make sure you do this nice and safely. Consider your backs.
Consider what else is going to happen. Tuck a
stake on those trees on the other side of … Yeah.
John, just hold it mate while they shovel …
Get the water on to that now, Scott.
One of the most important things for me when I get
new students is to build up a relationship with them
where they know that I’m there to do the right thing by them.
And whether it be an issue within or without the school,
that they can come and speak to me and that there’s a trust there and I
need to know that I can trust them to do the right thing and vice versa.
That tends to make the classroom extremely relaxed. It tends to bring the group of
students together and they tend to work as a team and they don’t feel isolated.
They don’t feel threatened by anyone. And that’s another
thing I do is make sure everyone treats each other right.
I’m probably one of the few teachers that doesn’t go home and, you know, in a stressed way.
I can go home and think, well, I’ve had a great day and I
can wake up the next day and look forward to going to work.
He’s a great teacher. Yeah,
he deserves to be recognised, I reckon, ’cos he does a
great job and he takes care of his students really well
and he treats them, he treats them like they’re his best
friends and stuff ’cos he just makes learning so fun.
Yeah, I’ve never had a teacher like Brownie. He’s
like so unique and that, yeah, he’s great to have.