World Teachers’ Day – Art teacher Ruby Kavanagh is inspiring the next generation one brush stroke, capture, and sketch mark at a time, writes Lauren Grimson.
For the last 3 years, Ruby Kavanagh has taught Years 7 to 12 Visual Arts and Photography at Northlakes High School. Northlakes High School is located on the Central Coast of New South Wales on Darkinjung land – the shared land of the people of the mountains and the sea – and has a student population of around 800. The school centres around a Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) framework, which sits at the core of Ruby’s teaching.
“We are a PBL school, which means we focus on the positives happening among our students and strive to create a strong sense of place and belonging to ‘#Team Northlakes’,” Ruby explained.
“My aim is for my students to walk away with the sense that they can achieve anything, as long as they give themselves the opportunity to strive for their best.”
Ruby has been teaching for 5 years and sees her work as a pivotal part of the journey of the young people who pass through her classroom.
“To me, teaching means being a part of the journey of self-development for young people. It’s an opportunity to show them the world outside school and to give them the tools to succeed and find their place in it,” Ruby explained. “I believe education has great power in helping students achieve this.”
An infectious love of visual arts and seeing her students succeed is what continues to motivate Ruby, day in, day out.
“I love teaching Visual Arts and really enjoying seeing students strive to achieve their personal best, whatever that might look like for each individual student,” Ruby added. “Ultimately, I would like to be remembered as the teacher who encouraged learning and growth through school and beyond.”
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