In this edition of 'Meet the Teacher' we speak with Ms. Robin Panousieris, a member of our Secondary Teaching Team and Technology Domain Coordinator.
Name: Robin Panousieris – Secondary Teacher – robin.panousieris@marymede.vic.edu.au
What is your role at the College?
I am a Year 6 to VCE 'Product Design and Technology: Wood' teacher. I know how fortunate I am to be teaching at Marymede Catholic College because few teachers statewide could boast that they have the opportunity to teach from Year 6 through to Year 12. I am the Technology Coordinator and oversee Digital Technology, Food Technology, Design and Technologies: Wood and Textiles which is a diverse range of subjects that are all linked by the fact that the design process is used. This encourages students to be creative and problem solve.
Tell us about an interesting project or topic that you are currently working on with one of your classes?
The Year 10 Design and Technologies: Wood class are making a small piece of furniture. The range of ideas is impressive as one student is making a blanket chest, another a small set of drawers. Then there is a TV Unit but not to forget a well-designed shelving unit that is a box within a box the list goes on. I never know what design ideas the students will come up with hence teaching in this area is always challenging because no two students make the same product.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your job?
I left teaching for 3 years to become an Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) Consultant and I realized how boring any other job is compared to teaching. Students make me laugh and sometimes their jokes are better than mine! Every year I am impressed by the quality of many of the products they make. When the standard is set high at least one student will achieve the impossible, last year it was Tinotenda Mubayiwa who was the first Marymede Catholic College student to exhibit in Top Designs. He is now completing a Bachelor of Design at Swinburne University.
Fast Five:
Favourite Food: Anything someone else cooks - as I can't cook very well!
Favourite Movie/TV Show: ‘Baby Driver” at the moment because the music and car chases are great.
Hidden Talent or Something We May Not Know About You: I was a lecturer in charge of furniture design at the University of Melbourne for 4 years. It was the first time that a woman held that position at a Tertiary level.
Favourite Sporting Team: Australian Test Cricket Team because they show the depth of skill needed to play Cricket for 5 days.
If You Could Pick Any 3 People as Dinner Guests, Who Would They Be and Why?:
Edith Lyons - The first woman elected into the House of Representatives and she had 12 children which shows that women can do it all;
Brian Cox (Musician and Physicist) - He makes sense of the world from snowflakes to galaxies and he was in 1980s band that had a top hit “Things Can Only Get Better”;
Tetsuya Wakuda - One of Australia’s best chefs who isn’t afraid to experiment and think differently to other chefs.
