Mary Cairncross Reserve, July 2026

After my first six months as a teacher and completion of my first ever contract it was wonderful to walk in the rainforest of Mary Cairncross Reserve and think about what next.

So many things have been learnt, such as; the courage of teachers; the ways to ride the waves of challenges such as how to keep up with lesson plans, how to improve them; and more specifically learn more about Reading Routines, Seven Steps to Sizzling Writing and how to pivot, pivot, pivot.

The first years of teaching after graduating is not easy. And the first 6 months feels like it is a constant search for teaching identity as an avalanche of experiences falls upon me.

The curriculum comes at me like a tsunami wave, language features, text structures, reading visual language, film, speculative fiction what if stories, Australian identity in film, and more.

Finding enough time to reflect on what I am learning from the daily practice is challenging, but without doing this I will never grow.

If only there was a rainforest and listening gardening in every school.

The physical spaces of schools are the challenges of undersized classrooms, narrow corridors, students always wanting to peer at their laptops off task, and flows up and down stairs where there must be respect and rules.

Right now, I am taking a few deep breaths to think about how to balance and move forward with my teaching journey.

When in rainforests I like to look up and down. I listen for birds and try to identify them. Are classrooms simply too fast moving for someone like me, schooled in poetry, nature and narrative?

Are classrooms the best spaces to learn? What can we do to make them feel more like rainforests and suit more students?

Or can I find a way to slow them down and then speed them up like Dalton’s elastic band of time.

Is there something to be said for mindful learning? And yet everyone is so focused on the pressure of assessment, but what skills are being absorbed for life?

Thankfully I live with a brilliant teacher. My respect for him is enormous. He has been doing this for so many years. He rarely complains, except when he needs time to just get on with preparation and marking and there are not enough hours to get it all done.

I thank him for bringing me out on a meander through the rainforest.