Abbey Rintoule’s three-year teaching career at TAFE Gippsland has seen her teach Nursing across three campuses and cover most nursing subjects.
As someone that works directly in the industry through Industry Releases, Abbey can pass on her wealth of knowledge from the health field to her students. This included organising subject experts to visit as guest speakers which has been invaluable to students.
Abbey has been most valuable in teaching Palliative Care; a very challenging subject that requires someone with specialised expertise due to the confronting nature of the topic. She is able to teach it in a safe and supportive environment that she has created for her students. Her rapport provides the students with the environment they require to overcome the subject matter and discuss their own circumstances faced with their friends and family members in similar situations.
The other appreciated ability is Abbey’s skill at assessing the learner needs of her class by using different formats to teach. When teaching a subject for the first time, she will review the information and often create an activity, class discussion or group work to enable the students to learn rather than read from a PowerPoint presentation.
Consequently Abbey changes her teaching style to suit the cohort. If she sees they are not engaged, she will introduce a new topic, move on or ask for their feedback.
Abbey Rintoule is very adaptable to any class style and consequently is a praiseworthy recipient of the Teacher of the Year Award in 2020.