“I don’t teach classes. I teach students,“ says teacher David Hanna

David Hanna, mathematics teacher at Warwick Christian College

By Juliano Oliveira

David Hanna’s eyes fill with tears when he speaks about his passion for teaching and his duty as an educator.

“Have you ever seen the look on a kid’s face when something suddenly makes sense? If you’ve ever seen that look, you wouldn’t have to ask why I became a teacher because it’s that look. It’s the kid who stops you years later in a supermarket to say thank you,” he says.

The mathematics teacher at Warwick Christian College began his career in 1988. He would never expect such an uncanny year as 2020, where schools were closed and thousands of professionals had to teach from home.

In the beginning, Mr Hanna was concerned about the challenges and all problems around Covid-19. But then, things fell into a routine and became behaving quite smoothly.

“Not always easy, but I knew what happened. And it taught me a lot about teaching because I learned new ways to communicate with the students,” he says.

“We are not face-to-face. I can’t see them [the students] doing the maths or not doing the maths. So how do I check out what they’re actually understanding? How do I get them to ask questions?”

Mr Hanna, like his colleagues, had to learn ways of using emails and online tools for class development. The shocking surprise was that for some students, this system was brilliant.

“They flourished because they were particularly shy kids who would hate to be the centre of attention and put their hand out in class anyway. So, they got to ask private questions.

“We have learned that it suits some kids. And so we’ll continue doing it for those kids. We’re flexible. If you like doing it that way, I’ll work with you that way. Your friend doesn’t like it, well, I can work this other way. I don’t teach classes. I teach students.”

The relations between students and teachers in the country was the theme of a national study conducted by the Monash University School of Education, Culture and Society School of Education – 72 percent of respondents trusted that educators’ work served the best interests of students.

The same report also found that 76 per cent of respondents agreed that teachers in Australia cared for the well-being of their students. In addition, 58 per cent admitted that they also prepare pupils well for life after school.

“The big challenge for kids is that it’s hard to dream about stuff they don’t know. So here we are in a small country, and we don’t know what’s happening. What life in Brisbane is like and what the challenges are there. We don’t know the opportunities,” Mr Hanna explains.

“And so your counsellor said you can’t dream about what you don’t know. So part of my job is to let them know [students] that there’s more to their world than they see on a day-to-day basis. There’s more to their world, and lead them all to find those little things that will spark interest and excitement.”