Season 3: Episode 9 - The Benefits of Relational Learning with Melodie Potts

The Learning Future Podcast with Louka Parry

Is there a social contract that teachers work by, and if so what is it and what would we ask to be changed? What is it that really stays with students and makes them remember you and your lessons?

In this episode of The Learning Future Podcast, Melodie Potts shares how she believes we can make teaching memorable. She says the role of a teacher will likely always be an augmenter of the delivery of content and information, but there is more we can do to ignite passion in the content and provide a relational experience of learning.

Melodie Potts is founder and CEO of Teach For Australia. She is a disruptor and a problem-solver, driven by a vision for Australia where education gives every child, regardless of background, greater choice for their future.

Melodie has made it her mission to champion better educational outcomes for our most vulnerable children in Australia. In the past 12 years, the work of TFA has helped more than 350,000 students in 220 schools, while building a community of 1200-plus teachers and leaders who are bringing about change inside and out of the classroom.

Melodie was awarded an Order of Australia for her service to education and teacher development in 2021 and holds a Master of Public Policy from Harvard, and a Bachelor of Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Originally from rural Appalachia, Melodie lives in Melbourne with her husband Sam and young son Harrison, affectionately dubbed ‘Harry the Hurricane’, and their dog, Jack ‘The Ripper’ Russell.