Christopher Jones Daniel Avano Dr. Simon Lewis Eleanor Gregory Heather Farish Jo Lee Kennedy Carol Angland Hellen McDonald Monika Khun Neale Taylor Perry Vlahos Rachel Whittle Order Form Teacher Resources Work the Web Meet the Authors FREE Downloads Series Overview Home

ELEANOR GREGORY

Imagine a classroom full of eager year 7 students, in the dark, and all silent. Scary? No, we were all intently retrieving our seedlings from their hidey holes inside cupboards and boxes, and measuring them for growth. We were very careful not to allow any light contamination that may affect our results, having appointed very responsible blind and door monitors. As a young teacher of science I found the students’ engagement on this task to be heartwarming. Mind you, not all my lessons went like this.

I have been a teacher of science for 20 years, sometimes in front of a class of students, sometimes in front of a class of teachers. I am still not quite sure which is easier to manage. I have taught in schools as far afield as Warrnambool, Werribee, Melton and Huntingdale. I left teaching to start a family, and now have three children, all at school. I spent two exciting years at CSIRO Education managing the CREST awards in Victoria, three years at the Science Teachers’ Association of Victoria as their Education Officer and now find myself at Cengage Learning Australia in the position of Publishing Editor for Secondary Maths and Science. I still look back on my teaching years with warm memories and wonder where those students are now, and what they are doing. I would never like to lose my wonder for new things and I hope, at least in part, I have passed this on to my students.