The recipe for “the best teacher”, according to Brian Woolcock, is someone whose teaching styles, methods and interactions are based on their personality.
It’s something the former Hauraki Plains College English and media studies teacher incorporated across his 42-year career.
One of his specialty teaching tools was humour, which he said he used often. Even though Brian’s sense of vocation to become a teacher wasn’t there to begin with, it soon caught up to him when he was on his first teaching practice and found out “I wasn’t that bad at it” and he enjoyed it, he said.
But in October, the 74-year-old teacher turned in his lesson plans for the last time and retired after spending decades in the classroom, driven by his love for teaching.
Brian, who grew up in Christchurch on the boundary suburbs of Waltham and Sydenham, told The Profile the thing that inspired him to become a teacher was his interest in “learning stuff”.
He came from a family of “great readers”, he said, and learnt to read before he went to primary school.
“My father would read to his children every night and I made the association between the written word and its sound.”
When Brian got to primary school, he was surprised to find other five year olds couldn’t read, which “piqued my interest in the reading process” that continued to this day, he said.
Brian studied for an arts degree at Canterbury University in 1968 to 1971, and then went on to study at Teacher’s College in 1972.
His career kicked off a year later at South Otago High School in Balclutha, where he taught remedial reading, social studies and geography, before finding his way to Hauraki Plains College in 1978.
Brian taught at Hauraki for 10 years, before he left to pursue other interests, he said, but returned in 1997 for a “one year stint” as cover for the head of languages.
But what started as a one year stint carried Brian through to October, 2024.
Over the years, Brian managed to take on several roles within the school, wearing a selection of different hats such as: dean of international students, learning support coordinator, Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme organiser, teacher in charge of Te Kura Correspondence students, member of the head of department committee that introduced the Diploma of Learning, humanities and mathematics teacher and also producer of several school musicals.
The thing that helped Brian maintain his passion for teaching throughout the years came down to the fact “I enjoyed it”.
“I liked facing challenges and overcoming them or doing my best to overcome them.”
One of the most rewarding things in the classroom for Brian was when he could make a difference, he said, whether it was helping students to advance their skills and knowledge, getting them through exams, or seeing them grow in confidence or maturity.
One major challenge for Brian was adjusting to technology.
“When I was cleaning out my office, the last thing I did was to take down a list of notes I had on the wall with little lists of how to do techie things.”
His teaching methods adapted over the years with each different technological advancement.
For example, Brian said when he started teaching the most advanced piece of tech was coloured chalk.
The common teaching method at the time was chalk and talk where there would be a discussion with the class while the teacher wrote notes on the blackboard, and students would write down notes, he said.
Other advancements went from reels on film projector to whiteboards, and then to overhead projectors followed by “the next big thing” which was computers, he said.
But the final major technology advancement was Google Classroom, he said, where teaching content could be displayed and the teacher could see students’ work in real time on the teacher’s computer.
But Brian said challenges were what made teaching and anything else interesting.
“I love problem solving. That might involve deep thought on my part,” he said, and included things like asking for advice or to simply “google it”.
The reason he stayed in the career was because he was “always finding new things to do” and also “how to do old things better”.
And his reasons “never did change”, he said.
Principal Sharon Moller said Brian was her English teacher and she loved being in his class.
“He was so passionate about the books, plays, and literature we studied. Brian is the reason I gained a scholarship in Bursary English,” she said.
“I am sure that hundreds, and likely thousands of other people have been influenced and inspired by Brian in a multitude of ways.
“Brian has dedicated 35 years of his life to us, and Hauraki Plains College is forever grateful for his generous contributions.”.
