The English Staff Room Podcast

Welcome to The English Staff Room Podcast where a collection of English teachers gather to chat about relevant texts in the Australian syllabus and within our classrooms. As teachers we want to provide students an opportunity to either revise and consolidate their learning within the classroom or the opportunity to get ahead with their learning through pre-teaching texts. We are trying to provide students with multiple methods to access learning in a modern world.

The English Staff Room podcast is composed of teachers looking at ways to engage students beyond the classroom and make teaching interesting and exciting for ourselves. We are hoping that the podcast becomes a supplementary resource of starting point for other teachers and students as well as our own.  We have just started the podcasting journey so please be patient with us as we learn the ropes. Meet the regular team!

CATHARINA SIMMONDS

I am a reader, writer, and teacher in my forth year of teaching at Mosman High School.  Gerard Manly Hopkins use of sprung rhythm and perspective into the unique inscape of the everyday I find particularly thrilling. My favourite novel is Philip Pullman’s The Subtle Knife, which inspired me to start reading novels and to experiment with the notion of blurring the boundaries between reality and the fantastical within many of my own creative pieces.

 

SALLY MOCK

I am a visual artist, avid reader and teacher at Mosman High school. I draw upon my creative practice within my teaching, bringing visual elements into the English classroom. I am inspired by the vastness of our Australian landscape and the purity of the ocean. My favourite novel of late is Charlotte Wood’s The Natural Way of Things, an imaginative and thought provoking exploration of contemporary misogyny.

RAPUNZEL ESPIRITU 

My name is Rapunzel Espiritu and I am in my second year of teaching at Mosman High School. I enjoy collecting words, reading and writing poetry, sitting in the salty air of the summer and trying my luck in cryptic crosswords. One of my favourite books is Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, because I am reminded of the inevitability of mortality and the futile pursuit of eternal youth, which is, you know, important for an ageing woman like me.