** 2023 Collins | ISN writing competition winner **
Below is one of the winning articles from Mark Beales - Principal at Osaka YMCA International School, Japan. In this article, Mark recalls how two teachers helped him find a voice he never knew he had within him and how that has shaped how he teaches today.
How did your teachers influence and impact the way you teach today?
During one English lesson, my teacher decided to shake things up.
We didn’t really like things being shaken or stirred; we were quite happy with how things were.
But Ms Durant insisted on us all moving seats. We dragged our books, sloth-like, towards our new spaces and begrudgingly took our places.
Ms Durant pointed to one boy, who was moving at a particularly glacial pace, and said: ‘Go and sit next to Mark and see if some of his magic rubs off’.
it made me wonder if Ms Durant had seen something in me that I hadn’t seen myself
I had no idea what ‘magic’ she was talking about and we laughed this off. But later, it made me wonder if Ms Durant had seen something in me that I hadn’t seen myself. At that point, I was a Sixth Form student who didn’t particularly like school. Being overweight and introverted, I was low-hanging fruit for any aspiring bullies. I would give most subjects a go, but report cards tended to suggest I was in second gear and had potential for more. I just couldn’t see the point.
But Ms Durant’s comment stayed with me and made me think. Over the next few months, Ms Durant’s passion for language and literature rubbed off on me.
We crammed into a bus to go and see a production of Hamlet - the first time I’d seen a play - and the magic of being inside a theatre seeing actors recite lines I’d only previously read was mesmerising. We wrote our own short stories and I started to let my imagination take over, moulding fictional characters who had lives of their own. We got to read poems from cultures I knew little about, but wanted to. The more we learned, the more I realised this was no longer just a lesson - it was the first sparks of a passion that would stay with me all my life.
She would talk to us - not down to us - and treat us as individuals
Ms Durant wasn’t your typical teacher. For starters, she wore heavy eye-liner, changed her hair colour every few weeks and had an encyclopaedic-knowledge of 80s pop music. She would talk to us - not down to us - and treat us as individuals with our own opinions and interests.
This gave me the confidence to experiment with my writing and try new things. I realised that writing was something that went beyond tests and grades and gave me a chance to express myself in new ways. I lapped up classic books. I started to write poems. I read an entire dictionary to record new words.
In short, the magic of literature rubbed off on me.
After leaving school, Ms Durant’s influence remained with me. When I became an English teacher, I soon realised that sparking an interest in language was key to engaging students.
If students could see that what we studied had real-life contexts and discussed global issues that affected them, it could have a transformative effect. No longer were we analysing adverts, we were making our own ones that reflected our particular interests. We were not just reading plays, we were acting them out as though their conflicts were our conflicts. And we didn’t just learn how to write newspaper articles, we wrote them, published them and turned them into school newsletters.
Ms Durant rarely gave us the answer. She made us see there were often multiple answers. She would pose questions then let us work out which paths to take to uncover the answers. I also embraced this inquiry-based approach and realised why it worked so well on me. By allowing students the freedom to discuss and debate, they would grow in confidence and learn broader research skills.
Then there was Mr Pennifold.
Bob, as we affectionately knew him, grew up in the slums of Dublin, joined the Royal Navy during World War Two, then became a policeman for 25 years. After that, he decided to go and teach Maths.
We’d sit around and play cards - not realising that we were learning all the time
He would tell jokes and anecdotes, then we’d sit around and play cards - not realising that we were learning all the time. Sometimes about Maths but usually about life. Long after I left his class, he continued teaching until the age of 87 - making him the UK’s oldest teacher.
Mr Pennifold was remarkable. My class was challenging - to use a modern euphemism - but he had them in the palm of his hand. He treated us with respect but also insisted we took his classes seriously as he knew how they would help in the future. He wasn’t bothered about exams - I don’t remember any of the tests he gave us - but he gave us lessons that remained with me long after I left school.
Today, he is in his 90s and still active on Facebook. Students from 40 years ago continue to get in touch to let him know what a powerful effect he had on them. It’s a reminder of the influence we have over students and how we need to not only teach, but inspire. With apologies to Mr Pennifold, I don’t remember much of the Maths. But I do remember his stories, and his advice.
I can only hope to have a fraction of that influence, but I also aim to go beyond the curriculum and text books in order to give students knowledge and skills about the real world. Whenever I’m planning lessons, I try to see things from a students’ perspective and consider how I can make topics relatable, fun and meaningful for them.
Ms Durant and Mr Pennifold both gave me a voice. And it was a voice I never knew I had. It enabled me to forge a career in teaching and pass on that love of language and literature to new audiences.
Over the past 18 years, I’ve been fortunate enough to teach students in Thailand, Vietnam and Japan. Although my own schooling is long in the past, I’m continually drawn back to those moments where there was a spark; a moment that stands out and makes an indelible, powerful impression.
I’m not sure if any of my ‘magic’ rubbed off on the student who was forced to sit next to me, but I know the magic of my teachers certainly rubbed off on me. And I hope that some of my own passion and interest now influences others.
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