Her classroom is often hands-on and maybe a little chaotic, but it’s always fun because Jessica Beaton is the teacher who’s trying new things alongside her students.
But how is it that Miss Beaton landed at Shepparton East following stints in Melbourne, the Northern Territory and Melbourne again?
It was the quiet scene she craved, and a friend’s referral that drew her in.
“A friend worked at the school and said there might be a spot for me,” she said.
“The rest is history.”
That was 2019, when she entered the school as a classroom teacher.
Miss Beaton has since had two children and returned from maternity leave this year into a new role — the STEM and performing arts programs, working three days a week.
Two subjects that, on paper, sit at opposite ends of the curriculum, with no two days looking the same.
Sometimes you might find her students engaging in robotics or mid-rehearsal for the school concert.
“I’m teaching a lot of different content and get to work with all the classes,” she said.
Miss Beaton says students initially misread the two programs, STEM in particular.
It’s hands-on and a bit loose compared to a normal lesson of English or maths, so the assumption is that it’s less serious.
The science, technology, engineering and maths ideas they’re using are still being used in normal classroom settings, just with fewer walls around them.
Performing arts, despite being a long-time program, works on a similar logic, a different kind of discipline, problem-solving and collaboration that doesn’t feel like schoolwork.
“I’m teaching them to try new things and be okay when they don’t work out,” Miss Beaton said.
Rather than one specific skill, it’s the willingness to learn and ability to think outside the box that Miss Beaton wants her students to take away from each class.
But building a subject from scratch has had its challenges too.
“It’s all been sort of learning by doing,” she said.
The one thing she asks her students to do is to take the same risks she’s taking herself, in front of them, every week.
And a lot of that comfort with figuring things out as she goes comes down to the culture around her.
Staff support each other when trying new material, and nobody’s question gets treated as too small to ask.
It’s the kind of environment that allowed Miss Beaton to rediscover something about herself.
“I kind of forgot how much I like doing STEM until this year,” she said.
Three days a week, across two different subjects and every year level, Miss Beaton is able to pass that love for learning on and help the students become good people along the way.
One experiment, one rehearsal, at a time.
By Brynne Timewell
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