Interview

By Clareko andMira

In Wellington, we have loads of amazing teachers who help, support, and inspire us every day, so we decided to find out what inspired them, and why they are so passionate about their subject We interviewed a selection of teachers, and here are some of the responses we got:

1. What is your favorite thing about being a teacher?

Ms. Demezhan: Being able to inspire the students I love it My favorite thing about being a teacher is when students get inspired, have goals, achieve great things, and especially when they get admitted into their dream universities and get A stars; I love being a part of that process of students achieving their dreams

Ms De Pablos: The moment when you see that a student has discovered something new, and there’s a special feeling in their eyes, and it’s like something just clicks.

Miss Norwell: Just being in the classroom and being able to inspire a student I love it when you make a student excited about English and just being able to make them enthusiastic and passionate

Mrs Nunes: My favorite thing is being in lessons with the students, however my least favorite part by far is doing emails and admin

Mr Walton: My favorite part is the students.

Mr. Holliday: The positive effect you can have on someone ’ s life.

Kru Bee: Every part, I love to see students making progress, and especially from early years, I love to see them grow up

Mr Hamilton: The fact that every day is different, and I can see students achieve something

Mr Findlay: The fact that every lesson is different There are different benefits, there is variety that teaching allows you, makes it exciting and interesting

2 What made you become so interested in your subject?

Ms De Pablos: At first, I studied history instead of geography But then, after revisiting geography, I realized that it was my passion It held answers to all the things I never had the answers for, and it was so much more than just mountains –it was where everything connected

Miss Norwell: When you teach English you are teaching people what it means to be human, unlike in other subjects, you can step into other people’s shoes and experience things that you wouldn’t otherwise experience. In English, you can teach empathy English has always been my favorite subject, and I have always been a big reader, ever since I was really young

Mrs Nunes: I really enjoyed IGCSE chemistry and biology, and I had a really good chemistry teacher I also wanted to look at drug research and cures for cancer

Mr. Walton: I’ve always enjoyed maths, and I did my degree in engineering, and then became a motorcycle engineer. I then converted my degree from engineering to maths.

Kru Bee: I taught every subject in Thai schools before, but I really liked teaching social studies

Mr Holliday: It was something that felt like a fresh start during A levels, and also business and economics was something that I was good at

Mr Hamilton: I liked technology and new technology and learning about how it works and what it does, and how it can make my life better.

Mr. Findlay: There was one teacher I had at school who was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable, which got me interested and made me want to find something that I really enjoyed, to find something that was a passion of mine

3 Did you always want to become a teacher? If not, what did you want to be?

Ms Demezhan: maths was my passion in school, but I didn’t want to be a teacher at first, and I was advised to choose IT as a career My dream was to be a software engineer at Google, but after working in the IT field, I found it a rough environment and the people there cared more about money. I am a person that really cares about other people, and I realized I wanted to work with people and students.

Ms De Pablos: Yes, I have always wanted to be a teacher since I was a child, and I remember teaching my teddy bears in front of a whiteboard when I was really young I loved my teacher, and I was inspired to be a teacher The teacher was the person who knew the answers to all the questions, and I wanted to be that person

Miss Norwell: Absolutely not, I never used to want to be a teacher. I eventually chose to be an English teacher after I taught really young children; I decided I wanted to teach, but an older year group who I could have proper conversations with

Mr Walton: I decided to change from engineering to maths I used to teach students at the motorcycle shop, and I realized I actually enjoyed teaching them more than engineering

Kru Bee: I wanted to learn about history and find ancient things like an archeologist, but my father didn’t accept it because of the salary, so I decided to be a teacher instead.

Mr. Findlay: I wanted to do history at university but I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do as a career When I was really young, I wanted to work in finance Later on, I wanted to work with people, though not necessarily as a teacher