I was a teacher for about five years.
I loved teaching. I love working with children.
I thought I was very good at it. Then I needed a change.
I needed a challenge.
So I decided to become an educational psychologist because
my interest was in education, and children, and their development.
And, I thought that was a perfect fit.
When I was teaching my influence was limited to, to what I could do in the classroom.
The odd conversation with a parent to try and untangle a problem.
And I didn't feel that I was having as much influence as I could.
Being a teacher and being an educational psychologist, there are some similarities.
You're both in a profession where you can actually make a difference in people's lives.
After my three, or four years primary school teaching I was really ready
and I really have a strong commitment to making a change for the young people that we work with.
We tend to focus on more individual children as opposed to a class.
We're working with the adults as opposed to the child.
- How do you see me supporting you to support the classroom teacher?
- I think what would be really fantastic is for you to come in and observe
and it would be really great to get your take on what are some of those challenging behaviours.
You might be able to give us an idea,
a different perspective on why some of these certain behaviours are happening.
I can change things around the ecology of the child, which, as a teacher, at times, I felt helpless to do.
That problem solving component of the job really appealed to me.
I was one of those teachers who was always open
to having students with challenging behaviours, or disabilities, in my class.
I enjoyed having them in my class.
I enjoyed the interactions. I enjoyed the challenge of working with them.
Then I got to a point where I realised that if I was going to progress down this path
I really needed to go and do some training.
So I went back to university
and did my M Ed Psych and, then, eventually did my internship.
I wasn't young when I did that. I was in my forties.
I was an older student but that training, the qualification's opened doors.
Having that educational background and educational theory
is a sound foundation for being an educational psychologist.
You just have that extra knowledge of the curriculum,
understanding the importance of literacy and numeracy.
As a teacher, you know your students very well.
You know how school systems work. You know how teachers work.
You know how the parents work.
And appreciating the different ways that children learn
and just experience with the range of behavioural and learning difficulties that many children have.
I think I have been able to, for specific children,
unlock some of the barriers to learning for those specific children.
School's always been a welcoming place for me.
It's been a place that I've loved so
returning as an educational psychologist, I almost feel like I'm returning to give something back.
I'm returning to upskill.
I'm returning to somewhere I'm safe because I know this is how schools work.
I'm really pleased that I made the shift, or the change, because it's given me so much more variety.
I feel really happy about the change
because I can see how far I've come
as a practitioner, and actually, as a student as well.
I can see that it's useful for the parents. It's useful for the teachers.
What I do is important. And I feel like I add value to society so,
I feel very good about my job.