Krystie Smoothy
Bachelor of Learning Management (Primary Education)
CU79
On campus
Undergraduate
Gladstone
2007
Yes
I first studied a Bachelor of Creative Industries, majoring in Visual Arts, at Queensland University of Technology before venturing back home to be closer to family to study a Bachelor of Learning Management at CQUniversity. I was keen to explore education as a space to initially teach Visual Art. But during my study, I really enjoyed the primary school practicums and internship. Both were passion projects for me, so I was keen to explore both pathways throughout my career. Graduating with distinction, I was driven to continue to excel. Being awarded the QCU Staff Prize for the student with the highest GPA has also made me proud and driven to succeed.
I especially feel the study of individual Key Learning Areas such as English-Functional Grammar, literacy studies, Science, Mathematics, The Arts, and Futures Studies all set me up with comprehensive knowledge of each learning area. It gave us a really great foundation to learn from on the ground.Â
Our degree also had us observing in classrooms in our first year. I think that was incredibly important, because you might want to be a teacher by the books, but unless that passion transfers for yourself into the classroom it isn't worth the journey to attain the degree if you aren't going to love your career. Knowing this early on is helpful for students at university. It helps them make the decision early. My degree also asked me to collaborate on many assignments. This has been so important to my career. Whether it's teaching on teaching teams, planning collaboratively, running the classroom environment as a collaborative environment, working with administration staff, or running the whole staff curriculum as a leader- all require collaboration. I'm so grateful my degree asked me to do this on many occasions.
Some professional highlights have been taking on more mentoring roles in the school sector, mentoring beginning teachers in their profession, navigating their first years and establishing a strong foundation of pedagogical practices. I have led professional learning teams in projects around Mathematics pedagogy, The Arts pedagogy, and recently, Teaching of Reading in V9.0 Australian Curriculum. I have initiated a new literacy approach to the whole school staff body, including new decodable reading schemes, introducing a systematic synthetic approach to teaching spelling and phonics with Sound Waves.Â
I stepped into the Head of Curriculum role when I transferred to Flagstone State School in 2022, and part of this role included a Transition Navigation role for pre-prep students transitioning to formal schooling in Prep the following year. I have thoroughly enjoyed this role, and a testament to the strong work I've done in this space is obvious when walking through current prep and Year 1 cohorts where I can greet all students by name, and they in turn can give a resounding "Hello, Miss Smoothy!". They reflect on times they were in my "class" which were transition sessions hosted by myself and the prep teachers during their kindergarten year.
Before transferring to my current school, I taught in a beautiful, quaint small school in the Scenic Rim at Mount Alford State School. At most, we had 60+ students and taught across three multi-age class bands. I taught years 2/3/4 and 4/5/6 mostly in that time. There is nothing quite like the support of a colleague network in a small school, and I valued my time there so much.