Indigo Interview: A love of teaching

Vikki Gray was born in the Victorian town of Hastings on the Mornington Peninsula, but lived in North Queensland since she was 17 years old. She moved to Beechworth in April this year. “My husband and I decided we wanted to do something different and have an adventure. So far we love it,” Vikki said. What do you do workwise? I am a teacher and have been teaching for approximately 36 years. I have taught in primary, secondary and P-12 schools. Originally I started in secondary school teaching English and Humanities. I then completed a Graduate Diploma in Japanese teaching. I am currently doing casual relief work and have had the pleasure of working at Beechworth Primary School. What brought you to your role/career? I originally became a teacher after being inspired by my Year 12 English teacher. She was fantastic and I enjoyed understanding and analysing literature. I wanted to share this experience with others so that they too could love language and literature. What do you love about your work? I love seeing young people excited about learning. My greatest joy is when a student produces a beautifully crafted piece of writing. This gives me goosebumps! I also love seeing my students after they leave school when they come up and share what they might currently be doing. It’s wonderful to see how they grow into great humans. What do you do in the community? I’m still finding my feet here in Beechworth and haven’t undertaken any volunteer roles in this community. In the past a lot of my volunteer work was really running extra curricula activities in my school community, such as coaching rugby league, coordinating the student Japanese speaking competition or coordinating the Readers’ Cup teams. Is there an important community issue that you think needs addressing? Mental health and wellbeing in our young people needs to be addressed. Our young people face many challenges in today’s world which is not helped by social media. What would you do to solve change or improve that situation? I believe the governments in every state and territory need to fund more guidance officers and psychologists to work in every school. Teachers and school administrators cannot help every student effectively as well as provide education. It would benefit society in the long term if we were able to support our students and their mental health throughout their schooling. What do you see as one of the most important current world issues? Homelessness and displaced people due to the lack of affordable housing is a serious issue. If the person you would most like to meet or knew, came to Indigo Shire or was already here, who would that be, what would you show them, and why? I am looking forward to sharing the Indigo Shire with my sister who is visiting next week from Brisbane. As she loves all things food and wine, with all the wonderful options here, we’re going to be busy. What book are you reading? I am currently reading local author Margaret Hickey’s new novel ‘An Ill Wind.’ I was lucky to attend her book talk here in Beechworth last Thursday and purchased a copy of the crime fiction novel which she signed.

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