​Innovative, exciting and engaging curriculum is being shaped and delivered at Yeronga State High School (YSHS) by an exceptional beginning teacher who is helping students to showcase their work on a state stage.
 
Ian Vogt’s dedication to furthering his own professional development to improve his teaching practice is tireless, and has led to him being named a finalist in the 2018 Excellence in Beginning to Teach Award.
 
While working as a teacher over the past three years, Ian has completed a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, a Certificate III in Visual Art, and a Certificate III in Screen and Media. To improve his pedagogical practice he also completed a 50-hour program on Teaching ESL students in mainstream classrooms.

​At YSHS he is the school’s Editor-in-Chief of the school magazine, a member of the School Musical Committee, a member of the Multicultural Day Festival Planning Committee and last year was a crew mentor for Creative Generation: State Schools on Stage Media.

The prolific reader and researcher is also a member of the Queensland Art Teachers’ Association; has attended Beginning Teachers, GOMA University of Queensland conferences and curriculum writing workshops; Safe Schools; Calmer Classrooms; and is currently leading the collaborative writing of the senior Art program at YSHS.
 
Drawing on all of the above, Ian is able to provide exciting curriculum opportunities for his students.  He has started 3 new classes at Yeronga: year 9 media, year 10 media, and Extension English – a 9 & 10 composite class that makes the school yearbook.
 
He uses Virtual classrooms and digital media to engage students. Students have class excursions to the Queensland Art Gallery, the Gallery of Modern Art and the Queensland College of Art, where his students’ video-art installation was displayed in a collaboration with artist Naomi O’Reilly under an initiative pioneered by Ian.
 
YSHS Principal Terry Heath says Ian, who teaches Visual Arts, Media Arts, English, Design Technology and Geography, is “an outstanding beginning teacher who has demonstrated knowledge, skills, and behaviours that far exceed his years of teaching”.

​“He uses a range of data to plan curriculum and deliver differentiated lessons of the highest quality,” Terry says.

“Ian employs a range of research-based teaching strategies and digital resources to ensure high-level student engagement and success.

“He consistently reflects on his practice, undertakes regular relevant PD, and improves teaching and learning programs.”

Congratulations Ian on being named a finalist.