School of the Air educator Kate Murphy relies on human and tech connections to teach her students

Teacher Kate Murphy has revealed how technology has helped her make meaningful connections with students in far-flung corners of Australia — and led to new ways of teaching core subjects.

One student set up with a laptop outside of a camp trailer in Western Australia, another set up in Cambodia, and another on a family sheep station 130km north of Hay, all learning together.

This is the reality of the classroom for Kate Murphy, assistant principal at Hay School of the Air, and teacher from kindergarten to year 2.

Growing up in Hay, Ms Murphy moved away and took up a teaching stint in Sydney, before returning to her hometown as a classroom teacher at School of the Air in 2015.

Ms Murphy said the importance of professional growth in her life influenced her to pursue a career in the remote learning classroom, as well as the opportunity to acquire new skills in a different educational setting.

“School of the Air brings a lot of unique challenges and opportunities and that’s something I enjoy tackling each day,” she said.

“I’ve always been quite passionate about education in rural and remote areas. I believe that every child can grow and improve irrespective of where they live, or the challenges that they face.”

Kate Murphy, assistant principal at the Hay School of the Air with some of her students on screen. Picture: Andrew McLean

Now assistant principal, after moving into a leadership role in 2018, Ms Murphy said she loves many different aspects of her role, and that the opportunity to teach students across different stages of learning development and from remote areas of Australia has been a main one.

“A lot of my experience has been teaching students who have been geographically isolated on stations, but also students who have been travelling internationally or domestically, have different support needs, or high potential and gifted students,” she said.

“You get a really broad and diverse experience, and it’s really nice to be able to positively influence the way that all of these students learn.

“It’s something that I love, it’s a really good variety and I’m always enjoying the challenge that each day brings.”

Kate Murphy enjoys remote teaching. Picture: Andrew McLean

Ms Murphy was recognised for her role as a School of the Air teacher as part of our Australia’s Best Teachers campaign.

We have joined forces with corporate partners Officeworks, Teachers Mutual Bank, and Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools to celebrate the nation’s best educators.

The campaign is part of a concerted push to drive greater respect and recognition for teachers.

Across both the Broken Hill and Hay classrooms, the NSW School of the Air has 135 students currently enrolled, through preschool to Year 6.

With most classes being taught via Microsoft Teams at Hay, Ms Murphy said the remote aspect of teaching and learning can be challenging at times.

“Our main challenge would be establishing and maintaining connection, but it’s not something we shy away from,” Ms Murphy said.

“We organise a lot of face-to-face events, and I’m really intentional in making sure there’s a lot of opportunity for interaction between students.”

As well as organising face-to-face opportunities for her pupils, Ms Murphy organises events where students come together to interact with students at other local small schools across the community.

“It’s a really good opportunity for them to be developing skills in teamwork, collaboration and communication, and we try to organise something that is different from a regular maths or English class,” she said.

Ensuring that these connections extend to online learning, Ms Murphy said a switch from the REACT software program to Microsoft Teams about a year ago had been huge for the school.

“We could only see two kids at once with REACT, and now in the past year or two we can have 50 kids looking at each other which is really nice. REACT was a brilliant program, but it’s now nice we can have more kids interacting at once,” she said.

Kate Murphy, Assistant Principal at the Hay School of the Air. Picture: Andrew McLean

Aside from the teaching element, Ms Murphy said she was inspired to travel to new parts of Australia by her students who are living in or exploring beautiful parts of the country.

“I have a lot of places I would like to go that a lot of students are writing about. I think Western Australia is the place to be, Broome, Exmouth to see the whale sharks. So I definitely have places I would like to go,” she said.

“Normally the job takes us to quite rural and remote locations, which is a really nice experience and a lot of fun.”

Originally published as School of the Air educator Kate Murphy relies on human and tech connections to teach her students