Meet a Teacher
Girton Grammar School
Mr Marcus Smalley
Head of Jones House
Life before Girton
- Graduated Girton Grammar School 2005 (Aherne House)
- 2010 graduated LaTrobe University completing a Bachelor of Physical and Outdoor Education
- 2011 Commenced full time employment at Wedderburn P-12 College
- 2014 June – Commenced in a Physical Education role a Girton Grammar
What I Love about Teaching
I feel that being able to support, educate and guide children through such an exciting and changing time of their lives is a huge responsibility and one that I thoroughly enjoy. Creating a rapport with students with different interests and backgrounds is both challenging and extremely rewarding.
Girton provides such a fantastic scaffold for young people to grow both intellectually and emotionally, and I can attest from personal experience that this is extremely beneficial for adolescents in our school system.
What do you like best about the subject/s you teach?
The Girton Sports Excellence Programme is an outstanding platform supporting students passionate about sport, as well as elite athletes, in improving their mobility, strength and flexibility to improve performance and avoid injury. I wish I was involved in it when I was at school!
Physical Education provides students with a wide range of experiences and skills. Apart from the obvious lifelong health benefits of physical activity, PE teaches students the importance of fair play, resilience, responsibility and team building skills.
Aside from having plenty of fun, students are exposed to new and exciting sports, develop their existing skills and sports the already play and can have some friendly competition with classmates.
My favourite classroom activity
Students generally enjoy invasion games that involve soft balls which can be used to throw, kick or hit depending on the game’s requirements. These games are always plenty of fun which is a nice stress release for students.
What difference can good teaching make?
I believe creating a rapport with students is essential to creating a successful working relationship. By understanding each student’s individual interests and work requirements, you can deliver specialised content, designed to target individual learning styles. It is essential that students are not treated as “one size fits all” in relation to understanding subject content.
Other Hats
I am into my second year as the Head of Jones House, a role that I’m thoroughly enjoying. We have amazing staff and students in Jones and it’s a great group of people to be involved with. I coach our Senior Cricket teams also. When I’m away from school I love spending time with my family, and as the father of two young kids I’m kept pretty busy.
Personally, I am an active sportsman with experience in AFL, Basketball and Cricket with the Bendigo United Cricket Club where I have previously been a senior coach, premiership player and recently awarded life membership.