Alumni in profile
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Catherine Agrotis
Bachelor of Arts (Professional Writing) 2003
Secondary school English and Humanities teacher Catherine Agrotis, says playing a key role in developing and extending young minds is 'just the best reward'.
"Taking students of weaker abilities and tutoring them for a year and showing them how far they have come at the end of that year is one of the great things about my job. Their self belief skyrockets and this is the best reward anyone could hope for in this profession. I love seeing students that had previously not enjoyed writing, grow to love it and want to excel in all areas of it - it's something I am very passionate about," she said.
Catherine, who is currently a teacher in the Middle School at Beaconhills College in Melbourne Victoria, explained that she enjoys her varied and challenging role.
"My job requires me to implement curriculum for students across the middle school in English, Humanities (Geography, History, SOSE), work as part of a team in order to write curriculum documentation and planners, work with students as part of smaller groups to tutor and enhance their learning style and liaise between parents, students and their relevant teaching groups to maximise the learning of the student in all classrooms - I even get to go on school camps!"
"However, the area I enjoy most is creating different lessons for different needs within the classroom - which is often challenging. I also enjoy writing curriculum as it allows me to see the entire scope and sequence of it for the year and I can have a direct impact on subject content to make it as enjoyable as possible for the students," she said.
Graduating from the Melbourne Campus at Burwood with a Bachelor of Arts in 2003 with majors in Professional Writing and History, Catherine believes that the skills she developed during her degree are invaluable to her in the classroom.
"The writing and editing skills that I learned at Deakin are implemented in my classroom every day. I constantly teach my students the editing skills necessary to read through work with purpose and find the errors. I also use the different writing styles that were taught to me at Deakin to teach the students."
"I find the students enjoy learning the editing symbols that 'real editors' use as it makes their classes more interesting. Rather than just red pen everywhere - there are symbols that have to be understood and the students enjoy learning these."
For Catherine the diversity and flexibility of the Arts course at Deakin was one of the major reason she chose to study at Deakin.
"I undertook the course at Deakin because I absolutely love writing and all the elements of it. The course was diverse enough that I could get a range of experiences in writing different genres for various audiences. It appealed to me because the flexibility of the course enabled me to express myself in all different writing styles and work with a variety of different tutors and students."
"The course has also helped my career because it taught me to synthesise writing. From this, I am able to help the students to learn to read other people's writing and take ideas from that to form their own stories," she said.
As for the future Catherine would like to take on a key position in curriculum research and development at Beaconhills College and 'put her skills to the test' to write a book.
"I do intend to use my Professional Writing degree to write a novel - I think that's everyone's dream!" she said.
