Cooktown teacher Luke Higgins has been recognised at the QCT TEACHX Awards for his zest for education. Photo: Supplied.
From media to geology and English to humanities, Cooktown State School’s Luke Higgins seems to be a jack-of-all-trades.
In just his second year of teaching, Mr Higgins won the Excellence in Beginning to Teach category at the annual Queensland College of Teachers TEACHX Awards earlier this month, where he was celebrated for his boundless enthusiasm and unwavering commitment to his students.
“It’s awesome, and I think it’s really rewarding to be nominated by peers,” Mr Higgins said of his win.
“I didn’t know I’d been nominated until I got an email saying ‘congratulations, you’ve won’, so that was a nice surprise.”
Holding degrees in film and television and geology, as well as experience working in the mines, the now award-winning teacher said he liked the variety of opportunities working in a remote school gave him.
“I do a bit of everything at the moment; media is my specialty, so I do all the media productions and media classes, and then I also teach English and humanities,” he said.
“Next year, they’re putting me on maths and science for a change of pace, so it’s been good to have the opportunity to try a whole bunch of different subjects and figure out what I’m good at.
“I think being rural has given me the chance to get out of my comfort zone, and that need to adapt has, I think, allowed me to use my creative mind successfully.”
Mr Higgins said his creative mind has helped him to both love the teaching profession, and deal with its challenges.
“I think that ability to put creative thinking and a helpful nature together means that you can be very solution-oriented, and not get bogged down by the day-to-day,” he said.
“I’ve just been in the right place at the right time when somebody needed something that I’m good at, so I think I’m just very lucky.
“Cooktown State School has been a great place to be welcomed into the teaching community and the teaching profession, and you couldn’t ask for a nicer place to live in to build your roots.”
