Young teacher a surprise star of TV
A young South Auckland teacher less than three years out of university has become an unexpected star of New Zealand’s lockdown educational television.
Monique Cox-Timmer, a top netballer as well as a teacher at decile 2 Papatoetoe West School, is one of nine teachers who have become temporary TV presenters on TVNZ’s Home Learning TV between
9am and 3pm on weekdays.
She was “volunteered” for it by her principal Diana Tregoweth, who was asked by a friend involved in the project to recommend a teacher.
“I had no TV experience,” Cox
Timmer said. “I maybe recorded one or two videos for my kids at school before the lockdown, but nothing like this.
“It’s definitely been something totally out of my comfort zone, but I have loved every second of being part of it.”
Cox-Timmer, 22, presents shows for junior students on the first segment of the TV channel soon after 9am on physical exercise, literacy and “project” — a subject that takes a different theme every week such as Anzac Day or the lockdown itself.
“It’s asking them to do a bit more about what’s happening — talking about the lockdown, giving it a bit more understanding,” she said.
It’s quite different from teaching in a classroom because there is no feedback from the audience.
“You kind of wait for an answer back and you don’t get anything,” Cox-Timmer said. “That was definitely a challenge — just not having some of those big personalities in a class.”
Cox-Timmer is one of those “big personalities” herself. Before TV “kind of absorbed all of my life”, she spent much of her spare time on the netball court.
“My mum is president of the Papatoetoe Rangers Club. I got roped into everything. I have always played,” she said.
“Now I have taken over the junior club, which is how I got recommended for the Volunteer of the Year Award.”
She also worked, through high school and university, for the Life Kidz Trust, which runs after-school and holiday programmes for children with disabilities who come to Pakuranga’s Lloyd Elsmore Park from as far afield as West Auckland and North Shore.
In the longer term, Cox-Timmer worries about the impact of missing so much of this year’s schooling.
“When we go back, I think we’ll be starting from scratch with a lot of kids again, because some kids need the constant repetition every day in class with maybe their alphabet and their numbers,” she said. “I think the biggest thing will be the mental challenge of getting them back into a school routine.”