Q: Name of the program you are enrolled in at UniSC

Master of Teaching (Secondary)

Q: Name of the town you went to primary school?

Rose Park Primary, South Australia

Q: How would you describe yourself when you were in Primary school Years 4 – 6?

I was pretty quiet at school. I enjoyed science, and had a fantastic year 4 teacher – Mr. Weber – who let us try out all sorts of experiments in science, and in art. After school my bike was my ticket to freedom. I’d roam the neighbourhood (limited by my parents to the back-streets), meeting up with my friends at the school oval where we’d wear out our bike tires doing skids.

Q: Name of the town you went to high school?

Kensington Park, South Australia.

Q: Which were your favourite subjects in high school?

English, Science & Languages

Q: How would you describe yourself when you were in High school?

Again, a pretty quiet teenager – introverted (yeah, I’ve changed). My favourite subject was French – probably because I got to go on a school trip to France. I learnt more in that 6 weeks of travel – actively speaking French immersed in the culture – than the rest of my 6 years of high school. I really enjoyed subjects where the teachers enabled us to _do_ things. In the 80’s when I was at school, teachers lecturing to us was still a thing, and I quickly lost interest. Outside of school my favourite things to do were mountain biking and sailing. We’d spend all day on the beach waiting for the seabreeze to kick in so we could go windsurfing. These are things I still love to do, so some things don’t change (although these days I have to read the captions when watching a French movie).

What do you like about being a MindSET-do presenter?

It’s fun! We can have a play with technologies that are interactive and challenging, and we (teachers and students) might learn something from it almost by accident.

If you could offer students in primary school and high school one piece of advice, what would it be?

Be yourself, be a nerd, be a weirdo, be <whatever> … and use your curiosity to find things that interest you in all sorts of places.

“Be yourself, be a nerd, be a weirdo, be <whatever> … and use your curiosity to find things that interest you in all sorts of places..”

Duncan Sayers