Neil Lewis Professional Statement

I have not always been a teacher. Half my working life has been involved in a range of work
other than teaching. I have been fortunate (or, perhaps, unfortunate) enough to have been
involved in a variety of vocational experiences, such as: sitting in the middle of a major
arterial road playing with plasticine, performing in front of ten thousand people, being the go-
to guy for the south of England when something could not be fixed by company engineers
and outside contractors were required on-site in under two hours, as well as caring for
children and adults with multiple disabilities.
My entry into teaching came about when my late wife and I met an old friend, at Salamanca
Market in Hobart, not long after we had returned from a period working overseas. After
disclosing that I was casting around for opportunities, our friend suggested I should think
about retraining to be a teacher. It was not something I would have thought of and was
initially sceptical, yet she believed I would make a good teacher. I followed this line of
enquiry up and soon found myself enrolled in a post-graduate teaching course.
Since my graduation as a teacher, I deliberately set out to gain as wide a breadth on my
practice as I could. I had the pleasure of working in many schools across Australia and
overseas. In addition to the mainstream city and rural schools, I have gained both experience
and insight through working in remote indigenous communities in the Kimberley, East
Arnhem Land, Torres Strait and Palm Island. This, along with my experiences of teaching
English to refugees, has helped me immensely in shaping a philosophy (for want of a better
word) to guide me in my practice.
I have found that students from different backgrounds will bring different methods to their
learning. For example, teaching remote indigenous students is a world away (in almost all
senses) from teaching main stream students, or even EAL/D students. There is a
requirement to plan and implement different teaching techniques as well as implementing
assessment instruments that reflect those differing techniques. This difference brings with it
new challenges. For example, in one school I helped to implement the introduction of a
TAFE Certificate1 in Construction. A TAFE representative carried out the practical side and I
needed to integrate the Literacy and Numeracy program around what the students were doing
on-site at that particular time. Maintaining supportive and safe learning environments, in this
context, takes on a whole new and, literally, concrete form. In all cases, and for all types of
students, I have found that timely, constructive and positive feedback is always appreciated
by students over time. Learning becomes a dialogue. It is the students decisions concerning
their future learning, made with strong and focussed guidance, that are given value in this
process and, as a result, more likely to be taken up. This requires the engagement of not just
the teacher and student, but all stakeholders that the student would look to for guidance. I
have found that it is the smooth interconnection between student, teacher and other
stakeholders that is at the heart of any successful outcome for the education of that student.