Anna James and Nicole Jones
Stepping into Nicole Jones and Anna James’ classroom is a little different from the norm. Victorian clothing hangs in a free-standing wooden wardrobe, typewriters sit on the desks and pens are replaced with quills.
Nicole and Anna are educators at MOTAT – The Museum of Transport and Technology in Auckland.
About two and a half years ago, the colleagues - who both studied teaching at the Faculty of Education and Social Work - chose a career outside of the school environment and haven’t looked back.
As educators, Nicole and Anna create programmes and manage school visits, which include teaching students about transport and technology in the ‘olden days’ in their themed classrooms and providing educational tours of the museum. They also help prepare resource kits for teachers to use in their own classrooms. On any given day, the educators can work with up to 300 students ranging from primary to high school age.
Nicole completed a Bachelor of Arts and went on to complete a Graduate Diploma in Teaching (Secondary) in 2010 with the intention of teaching outside of a school environment. She was already working at MOTAT in the events team while studying and considers herself “lucky” to have been promoted to educator where she combines the skills and knowledge of her two qualifications every day.
“I knew I didn’t really want to be solely in a classroom environment but I knew I was good with kids so the GradDip was the next logical step after my Arts degree,” Nicole says.
Anna, on the other hand, spent four years teaching at a primary school in Auckland before moving to MOTAT. Although she enjoyed her previous role, she felt like a change of environment. Anna says she didn’t realise there was the potential for teachers to branch out beyond the school environment until she stumbled across the educator position advertised on the internet.
She says the skills and knowledge she gained as a teacher has helped tremendously in her current role.
“If I hadn’t been a teacher I don’t think I’d be good at my job now. Having been a teacher, I know what the teachers want, and I try to make the day as easy for them as I can. Plus I understand the curriculum,” Anna says.
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