Katy Korakis: Passionate, Proud and Professional

Passionate about her subject area.

Proud of her family and culture.

Professional about her teaching.

Earlier this year our very own Mrs Katy Korakis was recognised by the Department of Education and Training for 40 years of service to Victorian Education. At a ceremony at the Pullman Melbourne Albert Park Hotel hosted by the Secretary of the Department of Education and Training, Gill Callister, with The Hon. James Merlino MP, Deputy Premier and Minister for Education, recipients were presented with certificates. Congratulations to Mrs Korakis who has taught for most of those years of service at Kew High School.

After some years on a studentship for the Department of Education, Mrs Korakis taught at Coburg High School for two years and established a successful Greek program. She started at Kew High School in 1981 after she was headhunted to begin a Greek program at Kew. There was a demand from the community to have Greek taught at Kew to the extent that she had class numbers in excess of Department specifications.

Quite early in her time at Kew Mrs Korakis established the Greek Parents’ Association which was active for about 20 years, with monthly meetings and annual fundraising functions which contributed a lot of resources to Kew High School. Who could forget some of those amazing Greek Dinner dances with staff, students and parents filling tables in rooms 206A-209 or the old IT rooms on the top floor. She would organise the Greek parents to supply the food; teach and prepare the students to dance and encourage the staff to support multiculturalism. They were fun nights!

Mrs Korakis had a stint as Middle School Coordinator and was an Integration Coordinator for a few years. However, it was her 20 years as our fearless LOTE leader for which many will remember her. In that role she initiated the establishment of Teacher Aides for all Languages and oversaw the implementation of the new study design for VCE Languages and helped design the required resources that helped Kew High School Languages department achieve such great results. Every year she organised celebrations of culture for Greek and later the other languages taught at Kew too. So much fun for students and staff as the Greek dancers made their way through the quadrangle, dressed in blue and white with flags and bunting making a cheerful scene. So much food that all students could taste and enjoy.

As well as holding Positions of Responsibility Mrs Korakis has been a confident, competent and caring classroom teacher in Greek, English and Literacy Support classes. Perhaps most of all she will be remembered as a tough, demanding and effective teacher. Students end up enjoying her classes very much. Firm, but fair, always passionate, she is a very kind and generous person who has always had a lot of love for her students and her job, no matter how clever or how difficult they might be-she dealt with them all and is remembered fondly by students who appreciated the time and effort she put into helping them achieve the best they could. She was like a mother figure to many of the students who she nurtured and guided. She was adamant that students should reach their potential and through her teaching those students flourished. A few years ago an ex-student wanted to know how Mrs Korakis was and proceeded to explain that she had obtained an ‘A+’ in Year 12 English thanks to Mrs Korakis. She attributed her success to Mrs Korakis who took her from a ‘C’ student to an ‘A+’ student. If you were a student who was lucky enough to have Mrs Korakis as a teacher, you would have had the Rolls-Royce of teachers.

Some memories stand out for Mrs Korakis. One special memory is when one of her students, Zoe Darmos was the very first student at Kew High School to achieve a Premier’s Award (for Greek) about 10 years ago. Mrs Korakis is also proud to have had the opportunity to teach students at year 7 when they are eager and so ready to love their 'new school'; when their minds are free to accept all the challenges and then to see them grow and have the opportunity to teach many of them at VCE level and help them reach their potential. She really enjoyed watching them grow up into young men and women. She loved nurturing their thirst for learning, supporting them and guiding them along the way. She believes in the power of education to change lives and feels privileged to have had the opportunity to be part of it.

In January next year Mrs Korakis will retire from Kew High School, but not completely from service to the students of Victoria as she will continue her association with VCAA and may even join her husband Kon in returning to Kew to do a little CRT work from time to time. We congratulate her on 40 years of service and wish her all the best for a happy and fulfilling retirement.

By friends, colleagues and students of Mrs Korakis

CONGRATULATIONS BILLY

Boroondara Literary Awards 2016