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2018 QCT Excellence in Teaching Award finalist

Natalie Harris

Pacific Pines Primary School
Global recognition for five Gold Coast students’ app-building talents has turned into a movement at one school where 30 girls have joined a technology club.

The Pacific Pines Primary School (PPPS) Tech Girl Club is led by an inspirational teacher who has just been named as a finalist in state teaching awards. 
​
PPPS teacher Natalie Harris is a finalist in the Queensland College of Teachers Excellence in Teaching Awards – the only State Government awards which recognise teachers from all schooling sectors state-wide. Winners will be announced on October 25, on the eve of World Teachers’ Day celebrations in Australia.

​The Year 4 teacher, and leader of PPPS robotics and dance clubs, has set up school partnerships with Google, IBM, Cancer Council Queensland, BOP Industries, Suncayr and Technology One. This year she was awarded a RMIT scholarship to study Apple Swift Programming. 
Picture
A member of the Gold Coast Dance Alliance Committee, Mrs Harris said she started off her journey in teaching wanting partly to share her passion for dance and the Arts, but found herself also becoming passionate about teaching Science and Digital Technology after she put up her hand to become one of the school’s first iPad teachers. She was also inspired during her student practical placement by a teacher who was passionate about Science.

“For kids to contribute as digital citizens in the workforce they are going into, they need to be digitally literate and fluent if they are going to succeed,” Mrs Harris said. “It doesn’t matter what field or what role they are going to end up in, the way that our society is heading they need to be 21st century learners; they need to be able to learn and engage with technology in a way that is going to enhance their lives and the lives around them.”
​
Mrs Harris’s encouragement of five girls to enter the Tech Girls Movement Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero (SNTGS) competition, which they won on a state and national level before being named as one of 20 global semi-finalists for Global Technovation, has fuelled the interest of other girls and started “a generation of tech girls” at PPPS.
​“Little girls come up to me and say, ‘Oh Mrs Harris, when can I be a Tech Girl?’ … so we just started a Tech Girls Club,” Mrs Harris said. 
PPSS was the first Queensland state school to win the SNTGS and Mrs Harris acted as the girls’ coach. She is now a regular speaker on digital technology for the school and sector.

Mrs Harris, who also likes to inspire her students by her achievements outside the classroom – including winning a recent dance medal and dancing at the opening of this year’s Commonwealth Games – said she hoped her school’s story encouraged other teachers to think of ways to turn their passions into new paths and opportunities for their students.  

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  • Home
  • TEACHX AWARDS
    • 2019 TEACHX Winners
    • 2019 TEACHX Finalists
    • 2019 TEACHX Nominees >
      • Beginning to Teach Award Nominees 2019
      • OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO SCHOOL COMMUNITY AWARD NOMINEES 2019
      • Excellence in Teaching Award Nominees 2019
      • Innovation in Teaching Award Nominees 2019
      • Excellent Leadership in Teaching and Learning Award Nominees 2019
      • Outstanding Contribution to Teaching Award Nominees 2019
  • Teacher Stories
    • Teaching graduates meet tough standards
    • Rachel Downie
    • The importance of teachers
    • Marsden State High School has the answer to keeping beginning teachers in the classroom
    • Exceptional support for early career teachers in Far North Queensland
    • QBECT
    • 2018 Awards >
      • 2018 Winners
      • 2018 Finalists
      • 2018 Nominees >
        • Excellence in Beginning to Teach Award
        • Excellent Leadership in Teaching and Learning Award
        • Excellence in Teaching Award
        • Outstanding Contribution to Teaching Award
        • Outstanding Contribution to School Community Award
    • 2017 Awards >
      • 2017 Winners
      • 2017finalists
      • 2017 nominees >
        • Excellence in Beginning to Teach
        • Excellent Leadership in Teaching and Learning
        • Excellence in Teaching
        • Outstanding Contribution to Teaching
    • 2016 Awards >
      • Excellence in Beginning to Teach
      • Excellent Leadership in Teaching and Learning
      • Excellence in Teaching
      • Outstanding Contribution to Teaching
    • HAT and LT >
      • Meet the Assessors
      • Ruth Graham
      • Tracey Peden
      • Helen and Dwayne
      • Carly Sopronick
      • Jessica Roberts
      • Jessica Roth
    • OAM >
      • Kathryn George, OAM
      • Keith Graham, OAM
      • Dr Judith Grimes, OAM
      • Michael Goodwin, OAM
      • Steve Parle, OAM
      • Dr Lyn Bishop, OAM
      • Dr Catherine Day, OAM
    • Taryn Gollshewsky
    • Vanuatu
    • NAIDOC >
      • NAIDOC Week 2017
      • NAIDOC Week 2016
    • QLD Day >
      • Bundaberg East State School
      • St Catherine's Catholic College
      • Mornington Island State School
      • Queensland Week 2016
    • ANZAC
  • Anxiety and trauma―an expert’s advice