Secondary Teacher, Mrs Tina Maree received one of five scholarships to attend the AATE National Conference, held at Deakin University in Melbourne.

Mrs Maree reflects on her experience at the conference and the English program at Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School.

The theme of the conference was ‘My story flows in more than one direction: power of story, politics of voice.’

Keynote speakers included international academics and well-known authors, such as Maxine Beneeba Clarke, author of The Hate Race and Michael Mohammed Ahmed, author of The Lebs.

Workshop presenters shared the latest research in a myriad of aspects of English teaching; with student agency, reading and creative writing trending as topics.

Overall, the English Department is doing well with pedagogy; this was confirmed for me at the conference.

One of the most exciting innovations I saw at the conference was the development of virtual reality texts by acclaimed filmmakers and authors such as Gabo Arora and Khaleid Hosseini.

Exciting new avenues involving virtual reality texts of outstanding quality are now becoming accessible. Our School will definitely be incorporating these groundbreaking texts into the course selection in 2020.

We are also researching what our students are reading. Students might be reading traditional texts less. However, they are avid readers on digital forums, and we need to tap into this even more.

We currently offer choices in Year 10 where students can choose one unit per semester. They do common assessments and exams, but they approach the concepts from a specific angle.

Choices are adjusted every year according to student interest. In 2020, they will have the following options:  Creative Voices, Crime Fiction, Fantasy, Popular Culture, Screen, Drama and Broadcast, Sports and Language.

Mrs Tina Maree :: Secondary Teacher