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SCHOOL NEWS

Teacher Feature #7

Wednesday, 09/08/2017 Posted by: Marketing

The Teacher Feature is meant to highlight our current teachers. We have an amazingly diverse staff and we encourage you to get to know them!

Julie Mennie

Julie Mennie

  1. What class or classes do you teach?

I teach Year 6.

  1. How long have you been working at Northpine?

This is my 8th year.

  1. How did you first discover you wanted to be a teacher?

At the age of 5, before even going to school, I was playing schools out in the dirt floored bike shed with my younger brother and sister… I was the teacher.

  1. Where are you originally from?

Christchurch, New Zealand.

  1. What might we be surprised to know about you?

I would like to hold a tarantula.

  1. If you could time travel, where and when would you go?

Would like to go back to Perth, Scotland in the 1400’s and talk to my ancestor, Lady Catherine Douglas, who helped King James I escape his enemies, and had her family name changed to the one that was my maiden name.

  1. What’s one great book or movie you’ve read or seen recently?

Earthquake Town, by Beverly Dunlop, based on the 1931 earthquake in Napier, NZ.

  1. Which person, directly or indirectly, has inspired you the most?

My F1 (Y7) teacher, Mr Blake… a gentle, considerate man who shared his love of learning with me.

  1. What is the most beautiful place you have ever been?

Driving through Central Otago in the middle of winter, through trees dripping with frost and mist on the ground… magic.

  1. What is the best advice that you can give to your students?

Today is only a tiny part of your life, make the most of it…help someone, laugh with someone and be yourself.

Tatiana Green

Tatiana Green

  1. What class or classes do you teach?

Years 7-12 Home Economics and Year 12 Studies of Religion.

  1. How long have you been working at Northpine?

Since 2007.

  1. How did you first discover you wanted to be a teacher?

I never wanted to be a teacher. Upon finishing school I started studying law, but by a series of events resulting from prayer, I ended up doing teaching and business instead.

  1. Where are you originally from?

Sydney.

  1. What might we be surprised to know about you?

My father’s heritage is Ukrainian/Russian, and I lived in Russia as a teenager, and more recently in Ukraine with my family.

  1. If you could time travel, where and when would you go?

I would go back in time to meet my great-grandfather Peter, who was kicked out of home by his strict Orthodox Army General father as a teenager (and never saw his mother or sister again), because of his involvement with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He subsequently instigated the Seventh-day Adventist Church on the opposite side of the Soviet Union, before fleeing the Russian Revolution and moving to China.

  1. What’s one great book or movie you’ve read or seen recently?

Rogue One. I love Star Wars.

  1. Which person, directly or indirectly, has inspired you the most?

I actually have three:

My husband Ben, who instigated my love of history, fuels my desire to follow my dreams and keeps me accountable at being myself;

My daughter Annabella, who has the most incredibly beautiful heart and an enthusiasm and love of life which is contagious; and

My son Lachlann, who loves learning and discovering everything new with such passionate surprise and wonder.

  1. What is the most beautiful place you have ever been?

The Scottish highlands.

  1. What is the best advice that you can give to your students?

Respect yourself and those around you. Try your best at school, but don’t let your identity be lost in the potential stress of school. Always be yourself.