Since the start of 2014 I have been working as a teacher in the Sovereign Hill Costumed School, a shift from my previous role as an Education Officer. Since April 2014, marking a year now, I have been full time as the Ma’am in St. Peter’s Denominational School. This role sees me running a 2-day costumed role-play experience for Year 5/6 students twice a week, with one day spent on administration/organisation.
It’s been an easy move in some ways, a big shift in others. Most notably I have moved from focussing on innovation and social media to working, predominately, with technology of the Victorian Era, such as the slate board (which is eerily similar in shape and size to the iPad!). I love living the past. I was also fortunate that my previous role had equipped me well in terms of background knowledge, thus enabling the role-play to come more easily. But I still continuously find gaps in my knowledge that makes it hard to be respond to some situations authentically – such as knowledge of country names, boundaries and rulers as they were in 1854. It is motivating to keep learning contextual information about the era.
