ALUMNI STORIES
No strangers to Preshil
ELIANA HORN (COHORT 2007)
Being a Preshilian myself, I was thrilled to be offered the position of interim Media and English teacher while David Cobb (a past teacher of mine) went on his South American adventure. Returning to Preshil in this new capacity felt fitting, as, while it was Lenny who sparked my interest in Philosophy, it was Preshil as a whole which sparked my interest in education. Why was it, I wondered, that while most of my peers couldn’t wait to finish school, I felt somewhat heartbroken at the prospect? What made my experience different?
Having had ten years to ponder pedagogy, it’s my hope that I might bring to Preshil what it brought to me as a student - amongst many other things, the capacity to foster meaningful, mutually respectful relationships, the ability to take responsibility for my own learning and the skills to be a critically engaged citizen - I will never stop asking questions!
Year 11
This term in English, the Year 11s have been studying a set of short and characteristically challenging Peter Carey stories which have given rise to discussions surrounding the Americanisation of Australia, gender roles and the idea of the stereotypical ‘male fantasy’.
Year 10
The Year 10s have been studying a series of stories, the common thread of which is death. In our most recent class, students split into two teams (the defence and the prosecution) and argued (admirably passionately!) for a character’s guilt or innocence.
In Media, both Years 10 and 11 have used this term to put their theory of film-making into practice. All students have written a screenplay, drawn storyboards and designed sets and costumes. We are eagerly awaiting the final products of so much hard work.
It’s also been a pleasure to facilitate a Philosophy elective every Tuesday with a small group of Years 7-10. I’ve already discussed an array of issues and concepts, from moral relativism in relation to equal marriage rights, to topics in aesthetics - can anything be art? Most recently we did a conceptual analysis of ‘leadership’ and came up with a comprehensive working definition of what it is to be a ‘good leader’.
"It was Preshil as a whole which sparked my interest in education."
by Eliana Horn (Cohort 2007),
Stand-in Teacher for David Cobb
Eliana also ran the very popular Harry Potter Baking elective during our Autumn School Holiday Program. The Leaky Cauldron's famous butterbeer, pumpkin pasties from the Hogwarts Express and the chocolate cake Hagrid made for Harry's 11th birthday were particular favourites.
RILEY TURNER & ELI HOCH (COHORT 2014)
"Both Eli and I greatly enjoyed teaching the Kerbal Rocket Science elective at Preshil this term. It was lovely to catch up with our former teachers. While the school has undergone a bit of a makeover since we graduated in 2014, it didn’t feel that different. I’m sure I could still easily find my way to any of my old classrooms. We both still cherish the memories of our time at Preshil.
As a teacher I found the format of the elective to be interesting. We had the students work in the video game Kerbal Space Program to build rockets and send them into space. To me, this program gives the perfect opportunity for a ‘hands-on’ kind of approach to some basic concepts of physics.
The game would simulate weight, thrust, and air resistance so that the students had to design efficient rockets to get into orbit. Each lesson we would challenge the students to tasks of increasing difficulty, from flying straight up as far as they could go to conducting a soft landing on one of the game’s fictional moons, with each stage requiring a more sophisticated design of rocket.
The idea was that in order to create rockets which would successfully complete the challenge, the students would need to understand certain concepts like inertia, thrust, and gravity. Eli and I talked to the students about these ideas and helped them apply them to their rocket designs. The students were faced with the difficulties which would also have confronted the NASA scientists in the real moon mission.
Overall it was a great and enjoyable challenge for Eli and me, and I think the students got a lot out of it too."
By Riley Turner and Eli Hoch
Special Thanks
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our returning Alumni who participate regularly in all areas of our program to share their passion, knowledge and skills and whom inspire our future generations of Preshilians.
Nicolette Fraillon AM
Nicolette Fraillon (Cohort 1978 ) is the Musical Director and Chief Conductor of the Australian Ballet. Nicolette recently received an AM in the last Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to the Arts, Musical Performance, Arts Education and Women (she is the only woman in the world to hold the position that she does with such a company).
Nicolette was in the very first group of 35 students to start in the Preshil Secondary School in 1973 and continued through to go on to the Melbourne University Conservatorium and further to Europe, returning to Australia to take up the position of Director of the Music School at ANU.
Congratulations to Nicolette and we wish her continued success throughout the future.
Book of the Year 2017
ZANA FRAILLON (COHORT 1998)
Over the last weeks, Zana Fraillon's book "The Bone Sparrow" has gone on to win the Victorian Premier's prize for Writing for Young Adults; the Amnesty International book prize and was awarded Book of the Year 2017 for young adults at the Sydney Writes' Festival. It has also been short-listed for the Reading's book award and was in the final short- list for the prestigious Carnegie Medal, awarded by the English Guardian.
Zana (Georgeff) is an alumna and married to Julian Fraillon, who went through Preshil from the 3's to Year 12 and is a Senior Fellow at ACER.
Zana's new book, "The Ones that Disappeared" was launched last week at Readings.
