An Aussie teacher started a podcast to help 5 students. It ended up reaching thousands.

The power of digital learning resources was unlocked early for high school teacher Louise Hobbs, who started her first full-time job in 2021 — right when the state was plunged into lockdowns. 

In the Wimmera region of rural Victoria, Louise was placed at Goroke P-12 College, a small government school of 80 students, and assigned to teach several senior secondary subjects, including VCE Agricultural and Horticultural Studies. 

Four years after Louise took the helm of 'Ag' (as that subject was affectionately known), the school has become renowned for its award-winning program, thanks in large part to Louise's creation – from scratch – of two innovative digital learning resources; a free podcast and an affordable online textbook. 

These resources were originally designed to assist her own class of five Ag students – but when the podcast took off, it wound up reaching thousands of young listeners. 

It's these innovative tools that undoubtedly caught the judges' attention when Louise was recently recognised at the 2024 Commonwealth Bank Teaching Awards, presented by Schools Plus.

These prestigious national Awards acknowledge 22 remarkable teachers from around Australia who are making a transformative impact on children, young people and school communities — and this year, Louise was named as one of the 10 winners in the Early Career Teaching Award category.  

An elated Louise spoke to Mamamia shortly after her win, sharing it was "humbling to be recognised" for her work. "I'm only in my fourth year of teaching, but it is a real honour to be recognised as a winner," Louise said.

The Awards particularly look to recognise educators in communities facing disadvantage, including those in rural, regional and remote areas, and in First Nations communities. Having grown up in the Wimmera area, Louise knew firsthand what it felt like attending a regional school – and it's impacted on her own approach as an educator.

Image: Supplied.

"One of the big struggles students in country education systems can face is feeling like you're not as good as your city counterparts," Louise explains. "It’s important that students understand they can receive a good education at their local country school. I've made it a real priority."

Louise also wanted to be the type of educator who makes "learning fun and engaging" – while also being open to "online learning tools and trying different things". A true necessity for teaching through lockdowns, she found.

One of the ways Louise's approach to education has played out, was through the creation of her Miss Hobbs Talks All Things VCE podcast.

Initially devised as a study revision tool for her Year 12 students, Louise dreamt up the idea of "sitting down on my phone and recording some voice memos" and then sharing them to Spotify for podcasters, so her students could revise at a time and place convenient to them. 

"The sound quality was not good at all on those first episodes and there was no post-production," Louise admits. But the student feedback was positive, and Louise said it showed in their results. 

So that’s when she decided to step things up by investing in a microphone and "watching a few YouTube tutorials on how to make and edit a podcast".

Louise believes the reason the Ag podcast specifically took off was because it’s a subject with limited resources.

"In other subjects, you can buy a textbook and you can even buy tasks. Or there's cool, free YouTube videos you can watch. But there wasn’t any of that available for Ag," Louise explains.

"When it came to recording the podcast, I didn’t write a script but just spent each episode talking to those slides, just like I would be giving a lesson in the classroom." The zhooshed-up podcasts quickly became a must-listen among Louise's students.

"I had some of them say: 'We listen to it on the way to netball' or 'My whole family listened to it as we were driving in the car!' It’s an easy way to study without it taking up a lot of time."

One student playfully pointed out that she could audibly "hear Miss Hobbs’ cat meowing in the background" in one episode! "So now I always make sure to put the cat in the garage before recording," Louise laughs.

Image: Sarah Goode.

After uploading and sharing the podcasts online, Louise checked to see if anyone was actually listening.

"I was expecting to see five unique listeners — and I saw 35. That's when I realised there's a few more people listening than just my class," Louise said. "Today, some episodes have over 500 unique listeners."

On the back of that, Louise started to receive feedback from other high school Ag teachers, not only thanking her for the useful podcast resource, but also asking if she had an accompanying transcript.

It was then that Louise was struck by her next digital resource brainwave.

"I realised Ag teachers were all in the same boat, because we didn't have a textbook. So, I put together my resources and wrote an online textbook for VCE Ag.

"When I uploaded the first block of chapters to the website, I had multiple purchases right away," recalls Louise. "That’s when I knew this was bigger than my class." 

Image: Sarah Goode.

This impact beyond her own school yard is a major reason why Louise was recognised at this year’s Awards presented by Australian Schools Plus, a non-profit organisation which aims to provide every child with the same opportunities so they can thrive in school and beyond.

"Winning this award gives you that motivation to know what you’re doing does matter and means something."

Although she’s too humble to say it herself, Louise’s innovative digital tools fulfil her own self-proclaimed goal as an educator to provide "every student with access to high quality education" – regardless of their physical location.

"Being a teacher means every day you have the opportunity to make a difference in a young person's life and inspire them to develop a passion," Louise adds. "It's such a privilege to be that person in someone’s life."

Read about the 12 Teaching Fellows and 10 Early Career Teachers of the 2024 Commonwealth Bank Teaching Awards, presented by Schools Plus.

Feature Image: Supplied.