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NMIT's Best Kept Secret - the Greensborough Campus When I started to put this article together, one of the teachers I spoke to said the above words to me. I immediately thought how true and how appropriate it would be to make them the title of this piece. I enjoy going out to NMIT's Greensborough campus. I usually approach it from the Greensborough by-pass. It rises up before you, perched on top of a hill overlooking the roundabout, the YMCA, Greensborough and even the city skyline itself. The views from the classrooms would be enough to distract or inspire any student.
The campus has a real community feel to it. Students from different courses mingle in the lounge areas and there is always a friendly game of table tennis happening in the canteen. The mix of courses is mostly creative and they appear to bounce off each other. Music drifts down corridor A and can be heard throughout the campus. The landscaped gardens have many nooks and crannies where you can sit and just think. Student artwork hangs in the main foyer. All these inspire the Professional Writing and Editing students to put pen to paper.
The campus was opened in 1993. Initially the campus was full of Commerce students but gradually over time other courses established themselves and today there over 20 different courses including;
Now I would like you to meet some of the Greensborough teachers. I have randomly chosen four teachers from different departments. Coincidently three of them are ex NMIT students, which just goes to show they enjoyed their experience so much as a student they had to come back as a teacher.
Ewan Coffey Ewan decided early on in his career he wanted to teach English to adults and has done so in various settings from university to Pentridge and eventually TAFE. "I like teaching people who are having a second go at education, having mucked it up, for whatever reason, the first time a round". Ewan started at NMIT in 1981, when it was still Preston Technical College, teaching TOP (Tertiary Orientation Program). TOP was eventually phased out and was replaced by VCE and in 1996 NMIT ceased its VCE program. I have a soft spot for the VCE program as I first came to NMIT in 1993 to teach in it and it was here I met Ewan. After the demise of VCE, Ewan taught communication skills across the whole of NMIT in many departments and at most campuses. Over the 90's there had been several unsuccessful attempts to get the Professional Writing and Editing course up and running, but he finally succeeded in 2000 and followed this with the Liberal Arts course in 2002.
Ewan is program co-ordinator of both programs based at the Greensborough campus. Ewan feels the Greensborough campus is an ideal location for the courses as they both feed off and interact with the local community, which itself is known for its creativity and interest in the humanities. Once a month, students and staff read their work at Volumes Bookshop in Eltham. It provides a great opportunity for students to gain confidence in public performance and presentation of their work and it draws an audience from far and wide. It is also a great way of introducing prospective students to the course. Music performances are often included. The March reading in 2006 will be the 50th in the series. The Volumes readings were instituted by Barry Carozzi and Ewan feels his appointment in 2005 was vital to the success of the Professional Writing and Editing program. Barry is well-respected writer, teacher and educational theorist and has published over 50 educational and children's stories. His latest, The 51st Dragon , was illustrated by A.T. Davison, a graduate of the writing course. In order to give the Professional Writing students a real-life experience, which is a key teaching aspect of TAFE education, FlatChat Press was established in 2004. This is the business arm of the course and students gain hands-on experience in the publishing industry from being approached with an idea right through to eventually publishing and marketing the book. So far it has published 21 books, including the very successful Australian Writers Diary 2005 and 2006. A spin-off is Inhouse FlatChat, which publishes student work on a regular basis for distribution within NMIT. The course suits people that have an interest in writing and it has good employment outcomes. Past students have gone onto employment, self-employment and free-lance work in PR, journalism, publishing, editing and a variety of jobs for which writing skills were crucial. Others have gone on to begin, or resume, higher education in the humanities, writing degrees and teaching. Many students have had books, articles, poems and short stories published and quite a few have received awards. Many students, past and present are very active in the community writing events and organisations. Professional Writing Janet MurdochJanet is truly a Greensborough girl. She has lived and worked there all her life, spending the last ten years at NMIT's Greensborough campus in the Commerce faculty. As a child, she used to come with her family to the paddock that is now the campus site to pick the scotch thistles in order to paint them gold for Christmas decorations.
Janet's first career was as a maths/science teacher in schools in the local area. She made the switch from maths/science to commerce when she was at home with a young family. Wanting to do some study she enrolled into an Accounting course at NMIT, choosing this course as it was the only one she could do by correspondence. Janet initially thought the qualification would simple add to the list of subjects she could teach and would increase her ability to undertake emergency teaching. However, the amount of emergency teaching greatly reduced in the 1990s and she needed to find alternative employment. Using her initiative, Janet rang NMIT and got through to the head of Commerce who asked her to come in that day for an interview. She began sessional teaching in 1992 and is now program co-ordinator for the Greensborough and Epping campuses, Flexible Delivery programs and timetable. Janet is obviously very busy. She continues to study in her spare time, and is currently finishing a Certificate IV in TESOL. Janet just loves teaching especially the "wow" moment, that moment for students when all the study and hard work falls into place and they finally get it. Janet enjoys teaching people something they didn't know to the point they can then teach it to someone else. As an added bonus of working at NMIT, Janet has had the opportunity to teach in China. She was the first NMIT commerce teacher to work in China and been most years since 1996. She has taught in three regions, but enjoys going to Kunming the best. It was the place she went to first, so she has a soft spot for it. Janet feels teaching in China has made her a better teacher for all her students. "When you are in China you do your best teaching, because you are entirely focused on what you are doing". Janet is already planning for her next stint in China in 2006, where she is expecting to have a class of 150 students. Andrew GannonAndrews's music tastes have come long way and just as well. When he was eleven he picked up his older brother's bass guitar and, inspired by heavy metal rock bands such as Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, taught himself to play. He changed to guitar but stayed with the same music for a while, and in his later high school years he and his band, "John Smith", had regular gigs playing for motorcycle gangs such as The Dominators and The Coffin Cheaters. He left school after year 12 and gave up music around the same time. The next couple of years became his "misspent youth". Then he heard the "Weather Report" album "Mr Gone" and he was gone, literally, to jazz.
He started music lessons, to his surprise kept improving and found himself moving more and more towards developing a career around music. Then in 1982 he saw an ad in the paper for a music course at NMIT and decided he wanted to formalise his skills. Unfortunately, he needed grade 4 AMB theory as a pre-requisite for the course. With an incentive and highly motivated, he completed all 4 levels in 5 weeks. He was accepted into NMIT's course and thoroughly enjoyed it. In 1986 he auditioned for the VCA and was accepted into its Bachelor Of Music Performance. The next three years were a very happy time for Andrew. As well as studying he was doing a lot of function work with a trio called "Brazil Nuts" and a seven piece group called "Turn Around Jackson". During his time at the VCA he developed an interest in music technology including guitar synthesis. This was reflected in a band called "Wuruwuru", which was named after a New Guinea bird. This band playing an eclectic range of repertoire had some success, one of the highlights was playing at The Pinnacle Festival in Brisbane. Another time, he accompanied Janet Geri at the Melbourne Concert Hall. After he graduated he continued to play at functions and teach guitar from home. In order to gain further experience he played a wide variety of music including Folk (Port Fairy Festival), Indie Rock (Winston's Eyeball), Big band Jazz (Cotton Club Orchestra) and as freelance session musician. Then in 1992, out of the blue, he was rung up by the then head of Music at NMIT to come in and do some sessional teaching. In 1996 he completed a Dip Ed in Adult Education. Andrew has been at the Greensborough campus since 2000 and is now program co-ordinator of music programs at the campus.
Andrew likes the Greensborough campus. The natural lighting and views make for a very pleasant environment. The facilities are good and Andrew is impressed by the quality of the students. Andrew likes the fact that, because it is a small campus, you can get around quickly and the students are always nearby. They can leave class, return a book to the library, pick up lunch at the canteen and be back in the classroom in 10 minutes. You develop really good friendships with the students because wherever you go you run into them. Another enjoyable aspect of the campus is the fellow staff members he gets to work with. He feels he is privileged to work with such talented and industry respected musicians such as Nick Haywood, Michael Rochford, Fiona Blair and David Wayman. Between them they have expertise in a wide range of music styles and industry experience including Joe Camaleri, Deborah Conway, Black Taxi, Mark Levine, Joe Chindamo and Alison Wedding. Fortunately, Andrews's music tastes have broadened from his early heavy metal days, his major influences now been the ECM label artist, Jim Hall school of Jazz guitar, Bill Frazel, John Abercrombie, John Scofield and even Bobby McFerrin. Andrew enjoys some 20th Century classical music, some electronic music, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Fifty Cent and Outkast. Now we just have to work on his band naming ability! Maureen Doherty In many ways Maureen is the typical NMIT student. She is currently onto her fourth career and has been studying off and on for the past eight years. Maureen first career was as a division one nurse, specialising in aged care. However after 20 years in the industry she felt she needed a break and perhaps unwisely moved into Footwear and Textiles industry as it was an industry in decline and eventually she was made redundant. This turned out to be one of the best things that had happened to Maureen, she decided to do something for herself . Always a keen gardener Maureen decide to do some formal study in the area and in 1997 Maureen commenced a Certificate of Horticulture at NMIT. She went onto complete a Certificate of Natural Resource Management and a Diploma in Horticulture. Since then she has completed a Certificate III in Outdoor Works and modules on forklift and earthworks operations. As you can see Maureen is not frightened to get her hands dirty and do the hard physical work. With her qualifications in hand Maureen established her own garden maintenance and design business. She ran the business for 6 years and in 2002 was approached by NMIT to do some sessional teaching. This was the start of Maureen's forth career as a teacher of horticulture. Maureen's passion is heritage parks and garden restoration and conservation. I can vouch for this as when I first met Maureen she was at a careers expo. She had set up her lap top and was showing photos from a recent trip she had done to England to visit the grand gardens and estates. I spent most of the time looking at the photos and talking to her about them. Maureen's teaching at NMIT is not limited to just these areas. This year she supervised Certificate II students landscaping property which was eventually auctioned for the Rotary Bone Marrow Charity. As you can see from the photo Maureen got involved in the work herself. Maureen sees horticulture as making a positive contribution to the environment and society. Situated at the Greensborough campus she feels they are ideally placed to make their mark on the growing urban fringe in the northern suburbs. New estates mean new houses which mean new gardens. She hope to teach the students the importance of appropriate and sustainable gardens that suit Melbourne's climate.
And finally a Podcast with Greensborough student Matt Potter. He is student ambassador and is enrolled in the Advanced Diploma of Computer Systems Engineering. Previously he completed a Diploma of Information Technology also at the Greensborough campus. Apart from his love of computers Matt has recently bought a 1970 Valiant and is in the process of restoring it.
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