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Picture






Oj (Ojars) Rugins

Cooroy State School

Language learning has been transformed in many classrooms across Queensland thanks to an inspirational French teacher who has locally trail blazed a new method of teaching.

Cooroy State School teacher Oj  (Ojars) Rugins is a passionate advocate of the Accelerative Integrated Method (AIM), which combines gestures, stories, plays, music, drama and pared down language in a ‘French only’ immersion setting to rapidly develop fluency.

Oj, who won an inaugural Modern Language Teachers’ Association of Queensland (MLTAQ) Award for Exemplary Primary Practice in 2013, is a Queensland College of Teachers (QCT) Excellence in Teaching Award finalist this year.

While AIM is currently used in about 750 schools across Australia and New Zealand, and in thousands of schools in Canada where the method was invented primarily for French, official AIM materials and workshops for teaching Mandarin and Japanese have now been produced here in Australia.

 “It is really powerful – it is like night and day,” Oj says of the difference AIM has made to his language teaching. “This develops critical fluency, right from the very early stages and it engages the students – they can see themselves being successful.”

 “This really, really works; it is really effective – that is why I am so vocal about it,” he says.

As well as countless drama presentations in the community, his students have performed twice at the Brisbane French Festival and this year they closed the Department of Education and Training Global Schools Conference.

In 2014 Cooroy State School was the highest placed primary school in the Language Perfect online world championships, coming 51st out of about 1000 schools worldwide.

Oj has also received a Queensland Government Languages Innovation and Improvement Grant, which he has used to launch a classroom research project to engage Prep to Year 3 students in the AIM program, and is a founding member of the MLTAQ Sunshine Coast Branch, which he has been involved with for more than 20 years.

Starting out as a Physical Education (PE) teacher in England before coming to Australia to teach French, Oj says he was inspired to take up teaching by his high school PE teacher and he now loves “the light bulb moments”, when you see a student understanding something they had previously grappled with.

QCT Director John Ryan thanks Oj for his commitment and passion to see his students learn French, and for his leadership in language learning.

The winners of the QCT Excellence in Teaching Awards will be announced on 27 October, the night before World Teachers’ Day is celebrated in Australia. 

Congratulations Oj on being a finalist. 
 
Written by Joshua Pickstone

Queensland College of Teachers
Level 5, 601 Coronation Drive
​Toowong Qld 4066
Call (07) 3377 4777
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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