Written by Charlee Lean
Hi!
My name is Charlee!
I’m a second-year education student at the Port Macquarie campus, and I live on campus too. My specialisation is Modern History, and studying has been one of the greatest privileges I’ve ever had.
In my spare time I love skateboarding, spending time with my friends, listening to music (huge Swiftie here!), and swimming at Port Macquarie’s beautiful beaches and creeks.
I moved to Port Macquarie from Dungog, a small town in the Hunter Valley, in February 2023.
I immediately loved getting to live near the ocean for the first time in my life and making friends from all walks of life in all different degrees.
My best friend is a paramedicine student, and she and I will often compare classwork and teach each other what we have been learning.
In my first year, I learned so incredibly much about myself and about teaching as a whole, and I think it only fair to pass that advice on to first year education students.
My advice for first year education students can be split into, well, abcs.
A: Accelerate – it is a little scary how quickly school work can get ahead of you, if you can, keep on top of or in front of your lecture notes, your assignments, your quizzes, all of it.
B: By hand – my personal preference is to write my notes by hand, in well-organised notebooks, I find it to be the most effective way to memorise and understand what I am learning. It takes more time, but it is well and truly worth it.
C: Creativity – Be creative in your assignments, markers have to read a lot of short answer questions, and many of them will be teachers too, if you make your assignments stand out, you’ll be more likely to get marks and genuinely helpful feedback.
Have the best time in your first year and in your degree, take every opportunity to learn and grow and expand your horizons, you never know where it could lead to, and how exciting is that.
