Staff Spotlight: Madeline Woodbridge
Madeline Woodbridge is a Prep Homeroom Teacher at our Elsternwick Campus. Madeline’s passion for teaching and her ability to connect with her students is inspiring. Of course all of her students know what a great teacher she is, but we decided to ask Madeline a few questions to help the community get to know her better!
My own teachers were influential in my decision to become a teacher. As I went through school, I began to realise that my teachers were one of the main reasons why I enjoyed school so much. It was my teachers that made me want to be a teacher, but teaching was also something I was born to do. My dad was a teacher and I always looked up to him. Teaching often runs in families and my case is no exception.
What I love most about teaching is that each day is different. Every day there is something new to discover. I teach because I care and each day, I want to make a difference. I teach because one day, I hope one of my students will look back and remember me making them feel special as a person and a learner.
One of my favourite things about Wesley is listening to my students walking around campus singing school songs like ‘Wesley Now And Always’, they have such a powerful feeling of belonging. It is a wonderful place to be! Walking around campus you see lots of smiling children who always stop and say hello or good morning.
The majority of my teaching career has been spent in the early years of primary. This is where I thrive. I greatly enjoy providing students with the necessary care and guidance as they develop their core learning skills and their social and emotional awareness. My strength at building relationships with my students ensures I can get the best out of them because they trust me. I invest heavily in getting to know my students by making sure I take the time to listen to them, allowing them to feel heard and understood. Not only getting to know my students but also their families develops a strong culture within my class where students feel valued and included.
Teaching student wellbeing is one of my great passions. I strongly believe that student wellbeing underpins every aspect of a student’s schooling - from their ability to learn in class - to their ability to build respectful relationships. Some of the ways that I foster student wellbeing in my classroom include:
- Knowing my students as a person and how they learn
- Listening to my students
- Listening to parents about their child and taking on board what they say
- Teaching about emotions and regulation
- Teaching gratitude and empathy
- Providing students with voice and choice
- Teaching a positive, ‘I can’ mindset
Teaching phonics is another passion of mine. I have dedicated a lot of my career to widening my knowledge of teaching phonological awareness to primary aged students. This core skill is not only crucial for students to learn but it supports their growing independence to inquire into areas of interest going forward. It brings me so much joy to watch children learn the skills of segmenting and blending to help them read and write.
I am a great believer in teaching maths through hands-on activities and open-ended learning engagements. Allowing students to see how much fun maths can be through games, building, creating, manipulating and investigating open-ended questions helps students to more readily understand concepts and boosts their self- confidence.
Wesley provides me with all the resources a teacher needs to successfully teach, if I need something to help a child I only need ask and it is provided - what more could a teacher ask for.
Madeline Woodbridge is a Prep Homeroom Teacher at the Elsternwick Campus
