Roma State School's Tim Bateup announced as finalist in Australia’s Best Teachers series

A Roma STEM teacher who was announced as one of Queensland’s top 10 teachers in News Corps Australia’s Best Teachers series says he is using technology to give rural students more opportunities.

A Roma STEM teacher has been awarded one of the countries best in the third year of News Corps Australia’s Best Teachers series.

Before teaching, Roma State Schools Tim Bateup completed an IT degree and after not enjoying his time in the field he pivoted into teaching and hasn’t looked back since.

A teacher for 18 years now, Mr Bateup said he was honoured to receive the accolade.

“It was a bit of a shock - I don't think I deserve it I’m just doing what all the other teachers around Queensland are doing,” he said.

“I’m trying to give these rural and remote kids a bit more of an opportunity that the guys from the metro schools take for granted.

“Opportunities is probably the biggest difference between regional and metro schools, a lot of the city schools get the chance to go on excursions, they have access to a lot of resources at their fingertips like museums and tech companies, whereas the kids out her in the bush are a good six hours from that so the opportunities are limited.

“I love being able to pass on that STEM knowledge to the kids and make it fun which they seem to enjoy.”

Tim bateup said regional students often missed out on opportunities that their metro counterparts received. Photo Lucy Killip / Western Star

Mr Bateup - who has a passion for STEM - said advancements in technology helped bridge the gap between regional and metro school students.

“Last year I was lucky enough to work with the virtual Queensland STEM academy which is using technology to connect experts to those kids in regional and remote schools so I was teaching kids from my base in Roma all over Queensland from Mount Isa to Far north Queensland,” he said.

“I was even able to connect them with experts like Dr Karl and people from universities in South Australia and Sydney.

“I was recently offered a fellowship to work out of the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum in New York for three months looking at ways we can further enhance digital and design technologies in the virtual space.”

Tim Bateup is one of Queensland’s top 10 teachers

Mr Bateup said he loved being a teacher and finding ways to connect with his students.

“I guess every teacher is different, everyone has their own way of winning the kids over, you have to build relationships with the students and once you win them over you can get the content across a lot easier,” he said.

“I like to make my classrooms hands on and I like to build relationships with industry getting them some opportunities from outside the school. I get a lot of guest speakers to show them what the real world is like, my philosophy is hands on teaching related to the real world.

“You’ve also got to make it related to what they are interested in, a big one at the moment is the kids love their video games so we make video games and sneak in a few maths and technology concepts and they don't even realise they are learning STEM because they’re having so much fun.”

The full list of best teachers can be found here