teachinthekimberley.blogspot.com

The title says it all really..

My name is Corrie, female 22, currently living and working in Tasmania as a Middle School teacher in my first year out on the field. I am about to embark on a journey north to a small Aboriginal Independent Community School. I have secured a one year contract working and living in the community. This is my blog, of which I hope to keep updated for friends and family, as well as other teachers who may be interested in taking the challenge one day themselves.

I was born in Western Australia and lived in my hometown, Kalgoorlie, until I was 11 years old. My family then packed up and moved to a small coastal town in Tasmania. I moved away from home in 2005 to study a Bachelor of Education in a larger town about 2hrs from home. I have lived here ever since, with regular visits home to visit my family and friends. I am scared of moving. It is not the Kimberley I am worried about. It is leaving my friends and family. Unlike the majority of young adults in their twenties, I actually love Tasmania and could happily stay here for another few years.. but I know that eventually my hunger for travel and adventure would result in me resenting the place. I need to get out and about and explore. And so begins the adventure I have been after.

Let me tell you a little bit about how this job became my next venture...

I always planned for 2010 to be my year for adventure, so for most of 2009 I had been planning a trip to Europe somewhere. I also almost booked a trip to Thailand earlier in the year but crashed my car the day before I was confirming my booking and sadly had to cancel. I was pretty devastated and wondered when I would ever get to travel. I have always loved the outback but never thought I would find myself LIVING in it. I was throwing around the idea of working 2010 instead of travelling because my car accident landed me in some debt and threw a spanner in the works, so to speak. I was not content to just work in a state school and live in the suburbs living life purely to earn money so I could one day get to travel. I wanted to be significant in my days, so I started thinking about alternatives.. an adventure lifestyle.. coupled with income.. just enough to sustain me and clear my crash debt.. and I found it. It was scary and all happened so quickly.

I have a few friends working in the Kimberley and I randomly had a few conversations with them about life and teaching etc. It got me a little excited. I sent off my application to a government school based in an aboriginal community. My friend works there and I thought it would be a good thing knowing someone. A week went by and I heard nothing so I decided to apply for a position by email to an independent school.. I just sent my CV and a short note to say I was interested. I was nervous. I re-read my email over and over after I sent it because I was so scared I didn't write enough.. but ten minutes later I had a reply email from the principal saying he was interested and had a position in mind for me. He told me he would call me in 2 days to talk about it. Sure enough, two days later I got a call and had a mini interview with him. He told me he would like to interview me with the aboriginal board members and arranged to call me a few days later. I was on holiday near the Flinders Ranges when I received the call and it lasted about 15 mins with a variety of questions like "why do you want to teach here?", "how will you handle the heat?", "What can you offer the community?", "What are your strengths and weaknesses?"... it was a very relaxed phone interview and I felt very comfortable straight away. He called back ten minutes later and offered me the position. Crazy! Within a week or two of thinking about going to the Kimberley I had secured a job and was then faced with the reality of my decision and began the preparation for the big move.

My friend from university is also teaching at the same school next year. She knows one of the girls teaching there now so we have been facebooking all her photos and getting quite excited about it. It is great to know I will have a friend, support buddy, fellow taswegian, moral support.... a mate.

So... there you have it. The first installment on this blog which I hope will continue to be updated and give you some light reading and perhaps teach you a thing or two about what it means for a tassie girl to teach in the Kimberley.

Corrie.

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