Awesome teachers: Cath McCready

Papamoa College teacher Cath McCready wants her maths students to become self-directed learners. Photo/George Novak

The highs and lows of teaching are a "real rollercoaster" but Cath McCready enjoys the ride.

The Papamoa College senior school director and maths teacher was nominated for the Bay of Plenty Times' awesome teachers series by principal Steve Lindsey.

Mrs McCready's Year 9 maths class is full of bubbly young students who are learning the ins and outs of geometry.

At the beginning of the lesson, the students are asked to write their "learning intention" for the day in their books.

Mrs McCready then announces she is holding three workshops, Pythagoras, trigonometry and angles, and tells the class whoever wants to revise these subjects can choose to attend.

The rest carry on with their work and ask Mrs McCready questions when they get stuck.

"My big focus is on them being self-directed learners. They have their learning guides. They know what's coming and what they have to do to get the information. I don't teach in front of the whole class. I break into little workshops so if they don't know something, it's their responsibility to come to the workshop."

Mrs McCready originally fought against becoming a teacher.

"Right from when I was the same age as these kids I had been teaching life saving and swimming and things like that so everyone was saying I would be a great teacher. I was fighting against what everyone wanted. I went to uni and got a degree and realised I did enjoy teaching and thought yeah, actually, this is what I like doing so get on and do it."

She moved from England to New Zealand in 2001, only days after 9/11, and has been at Papamoa College since it opened in 2011.

She enjoys working with senior students as they are developing into their own person and taking responsibility of themselves.

"They still rely on their parents but it's 'this is where I am and this is where I want to go'. The excitement of career paths, the trauma of relationships. It's never a dull moment. It's a real rollercoaster and it's a great ride."

Mrs McCready said she loved teaching now more than she did at the beginning of her career. There were things teachers liked to moan about but having the opportunity to work with fantastic staff and students was what made her get out of bed in the mornings.

"I enjoy being a teacher for the real basics, those little lightbulb moments when you're teaching something and they just get it."