Peter Smith: Blog

I came back from ANZAM a little early, so that I could attend the fac­ulty Xmas bash. Part of the event con­sisted of the award­ing of _Teaching Excel­lence Awards_. Hav­ing been nom­in­ated by Peter Box­all, and then spent some con­sid­er­able time put­ting my teach­ing port­fo­lio together, I was hope­ful of an “hon­our­able men­tion”.
So, it was a won­der­ful sur­prise to actu­ally get the award (and the $3,000 grant that goes with it).
It was won­der­ful to have my col­leagues, and more import­antly my stu­dents, recog­nise the effort I put into my teach­ing.
Whilst put­ting my port­fo­lio together, I spent some time think­ing about *why* I’m a good teacher. To mis-quote New­ton, if I have seen bet­ter how to teach, it is only because I’ve stood on the shoulders of giants. In oth­er­words, I’ve learnt a lot from the excel­lent teach­ers who taught me, and the excel­lent teach­ers with whom I have shared teach­ing. In alpha­bet­ical order they are (and apo­lo­gies for any omis­sions):
* Bara­bara Simpson
* Cath­er­ine Casey
* Chris Woods
* Darl Kolb
* David Barry
* Joline Fran­c­oeur
* Judith McMor­land
* Judith Pringle
* Lisa Calla­gher
* Peter Box­all
* Richard Brooks
* Wil­lie Smith
And of course, there are the many stu­dents who were tol­er­ant (most of the time), as I tried new things, and when I made mis­takes.
So, thanks to evey­one for your support.