Travel To Learn

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday May 24, 2008

Kristie Kellahan

Taking long-service leave can enhance a teacher's skills, writes Kristie Kellahan.

Surely one of the most popular perks available to NSW teachers is long-service leave. Seven years of dedicated teaching is rewarded with an entitlement to paid leave (in addition to holiday leave), which continues to accumulate year after year.

Some teachers save up their long-service leave in order to "cash it in" when they retire, others enjoy taking a paid break from the classroom. They use the time to travel, study, learn a new hobby or indulge in some well-deserved leisure time.

Kaye Higgins teaches business, legal and retail studies to senior high school students. After working at a senior college for 14 years, she had accumulated enough long-service leave to take three terms off at half-pay.

The passionate traveller planned an unforgettable trip around the world: during her break she attended all four of the Grand Slam tennis tournaments, taking her to Melbourne, France, Wimbledon and the United States. Higgins also rented an apartment in New York and ate pasta in Italy. She toured eastern Europe and took tea in London. In short, she had an absolute ball.

"I have a 'no regrets' policy in life," she says. "I figured I should make it an amazing trip and do all the things I'd always wanted to do."

In addition to having a memorable holiday, Higgins says she brought back valuable teaching material. "I use examples from overseas now in my teaching. I brought back so many magazines and newspapers and catalogues for the kids."

Now back at work Higgins says it was easy to slot back into the routine of class time. "You're back a week and you're back in the flow," she says. "But now I'm constantly thinking about what I'll do with my next leave."

Hayley Emmerton doesn't have to ponder that question: she knows what she wants to do next time she has accumulated leave. The head teacher of computing at a senior high school on the northern beaches recently spent time helping impoverished communities in Tanzania and she's itching to get back there.

With a team of colleagues and the fundraising efforts of students and the wider community, Emmerton travelled to Dar es Salaam to deliver and install donated laptop computers to a vocational school that lacked the 21st-century technology Australian students take for granted.

"We sent ahead a tower to enable a two-way satellite connection and when we arrived we saw the carpentry students had fitted out a classroom and made computer desks," she says. "As we were installing the computers and the tower we encountered a lot of technical problems and we had literally 140 Tanzanian monks praying for our internet connection to work."

The prayers must have worked because the school now enjoys reliable access to the wonders of the internet. "We had monks sending emails for the first time and local doctors now use that room to train and learn about medical procedures," she says.

Emmerton says her students in Australia benefited from being involved with the fundraising and planning of the mission. "I think it really taught them the value of money and how lucky we are," she says. "The plan eventually is for our computing students to provide the remote assistance from over here."

Emmerton says the experience of being part of a Tanzanian community was unforgettable. "We got to know real people and we came back feeling as if we'd done something really worthwhile," she says. "I felt I had made a little bit of difference to the vast poverty in Africa."

Grahame Morgan, a principal, had a similar experience in Nepal. He first travelled to the country in 1997 and was immediately taken with the welcoming and kindhearted Nepali people.

After a teacher friend went to teach in the Kathmandu Valley, Morgan got in contact with the school's principal.

"I really wanted to do something for the country, not just trek and take advantage of it," he says.

"A lot of the schools there are just stone huts with dirt floors yet the kids are still so excited about their education."

In 2003 Morgan went back with a small group of like-minded travellers and was able to assist in building school buildings and with the purchase of science equipment and a computer lab. He has since travelled several times to Nepal. He says the warm welcome received there impressed upon him the importance of community spirit, an observation he was able to share with his students on his return.

They now contribute to fundraising and exchange letters with their Nepali counterparts.

"A lot of teachers accumulate their long-service leave and then cash it in in one go when they retire," he says.

"I would recommend they consider using some of it each year to pursue their interests, travel and gain perspective."

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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