Tina

Nationality: Australian

Role: Assistant Coach

Hi! I am Tina wife of Peter, mother of Emmanuel and George, and an educator in Adelaide, South Australia for the past 27 years. I specialize in both the teaching of Greek in the Primary Years as well as in general classroom teaching.

I am bilingual and was fortunate enough to win a scholarship to study at Athens University in Greece. Living and studying in Greece and being immersed in the Greek language and culture was an enriching experience and it solidified my interest in teaching Greek upon my return to Australia.

I have taught Greek at many schools in Adelaide, in grades ranging from Reception through Year 7 - the final year of primary school. I am now teaching, and have been for some time, at Norwood Primary School. Norwood is a lovely, old, inner city school that services a wide community with a strong multicultural mix of students. I teach Greek L.O.T.E, which means Languages Other Than English and I am also sharing a Year 2/3 class.

In addition to my passion for languages, I also have a strong interest in the teaching and learning of Information Technology. I found out about ThinkQuest 18 months ago at one of our National Conferences while I was serving on our state computing committee. I was so impressed with ThinkQuest at the time that I signed up to be a judge. The whole introduction to and interaction with ThinkQuest has been a great professional experience for me.

I was fortunate to attend ThinkQuest Live last year, in San Francisco as a chaperone. While there, I met the remaining members of the winning Coffee team and of course, I met Jim. I was really impressed by the hard work and strong sense of team collaboration that the team displayed and I found out first hand what it meant to be on a ThinkQuest team.

On my return to Adelaide, Jim asked me to be the Assistant Coach for his team in this current ThinkQuest competition. I accepted and have thus had the privilege of working with a fantastic group of students whom I have watched come together globally through ThinkQuest. I have been amazed at how well they have collaborated and worked towards their shared goal of producing an awesome educational website. I have learnt so much from them and am continually awed by their commitment to meet regularly and their ability to effortlessly cross time zones to do so. Communication is the key to an effective team effort and this team has achieved it through hard work and sheer determination.

My job as Assistant Coach was to edit text and support Jim and the team wherever I was needed. I also worked closely with Chloe who lives close by in my hometown city of Adelaide. The entire process was an awesome experience as I got to collaborate with an inspiring group of young adults. I also had the privilege of working professionally with Jim, who is an awe inspiring, dynamic educator and a very giving person, both with his time and support.

I would like to thank the team for being a incredible, vibrant group of people to work with. I would also like to thank Jim for inviting me to be on the team. I have thoroughly enjoyed the time I have spent working with all of them and I hope that we all stay in touch down the road through chat, Skype, or e-mail.

See also: Credits, Reference List