KEY POINTS:
Alison McPike used to photograph brides and crime scenes.
Now, she draws on her diverse life experience to capture young imaginations.
The 45-year-old graduates from Waikato University's School of Education this month and is spending her first year on the job at Tauranga's Otumoetai Intermediate.
"I've got a Year 7 class which is just a delight," she says.
Ms McPike is one of 449 students graduating from the School of Education, at a time when principals claim they are facing the worst teacher shortage in 15 years.
Many schools have been reluctant to hire new graduates because of their lack of experience, and up to 40 per cent have been unable to find jobs.
But Ms McPike bucks the trend, having worked as a police officer, self-defence instructor and wedding photographer.
She spent 16 years in the police, the first eight as a front-line officer in Rotorua and the second as a forensic photographer covering the whole Bay of Plenty.
She went to all the major crime scenes in the region but quit in 2001 when "all the sadness" took a toll.
She then became a wedding photographer before retraining as a self-defence instructor with the women's self-defence network Wahine Toa.
She taught girls' self-defence to intermediate school students until the end of last year, and said this was part of the reason she decided to do her teaching degree.
"I felt really comfortable teaching and working with young children," she said.
"I love being a classroom teacher. You're shaping these young minds."
Ms McPike said her experiences, particularly in the police, meant she did not judge her pupils.
"If anyone is sitting in front of me, you don't know what's gone on in their life five minutes earlier.
"You just don't judge families, you don't judge kids, you just get on and deal with what's in front of you.
"You really do realise that we're from all different backgrounds, all different walks of life, and that's OK."
She saw "every horror" while working as a forensic photographer, which helped when teaching the Erebus disaster to her 30 pupils.
Ms McPike did her three-year degree at Waikato University's Tauranga campus and said her age worked to her advantage.
"I noticed being a more mature student how seriously I took it."
She won several awards and scholarships, funding much of her study, and said the lecturers were flexible about outside commitments.
At the end of last year, she was allowed to hand in work early to go to Tanzania to volunteer at an orphanage - an experience she found "extremely rewarding".
Ms McPike is open to the path teaching will now take her, and recommends the career to others.
"It does have its stresses and it's extremely hard work, but at the end of the day when you're working with children and you're helping them to become really good citizens and supporting them in their learning, those are the rewards."
