Staff in the Spotlight 

With so many staff joining our team this year, we would like to give our school community the opportunity to get to know our new teachers in a fun way. Each week we will be spotlighting a new staff member and sharing with you all sorts of fun and interesting stories about who they are and most importantly, why they became a teacher and what they love most about teaching! 

This week we are spotlighting the one and only Kevin Hawkins.

Kevin has made a big impact in his short time at Wantirna College, particularly with the senior students.  His rendition of Essay Feedback has become infamous with the Year 12 cohort, and we were lucky enough to have him sing it to all the Year 12s on their last day – a highlight for many of them, I’m sure! If you want to check it out – search Kevin Hawkins on spotify and Essay Feedback is the first song on the playlist. 

Kevin has been a wonderful addition to our English team, bringing with him new ideas, energy and a perfect balance of wit and wisdom. 

How long have you been teaching?

3 years

What school/university or organisation have you come from?

I did my undergrad at Melbourne Uni, and my Masters at ACU. But there were six years in between that, where I worked in the international development sector.

Why did you decide to become a teacher?

In my last job, I spent a lot of time sitting behind a computer screen. While the work was rewarding, I realised that I needed to move to an environment where I could spend more time interacting with people. I specifically feel like I am my best self when working with young people, and I hope that, by becoming a teacher, I am able to help my students become the best versions of themselves.

What do you love most about teaching?

I have incredibly fond memories of being a VCE student, and so I always find that teaching Year 12s is highly rewarding. It's a joy to watch my students mature into young adults over the course of the year, and help them navigate both the stressful challenges and the light-hearted shenanigans of their final year.

What has been one of your best teaching moments?

I had a blast farewelling my two groups of Year 12s this year with some tasteful final-lesson surprises. After a year of hounding them with essays and relentless feedback, it was nice to give them something to laugh about in their final lesson. Want to know what I did? Sign up for VCE Literature and you'll find out...

What are three things you would like your students to know about you?

To be honest, I think my students already know too much about me (stop googling me!). So I'll offer a few mundane tidbits: I own an expansive collection of CDs, I shop almost exclusively at op shops, and I am a proud cat father of twins (Olive and Neville).

Where's your favourite holiday destination?

Cape Town in South Africa. Table Mountain provides the perfect backdrop to any photo you take in the city, and the Cape Peninsula is a wildlife and hiking paradise.

If you could wear Harry's invisibility cloak for one day, where would you go and what would you do?

I'd sit in the Melbourne Demons coache's box on game day, and secretly pass Simon Goodwin my ingenious tactical ideas. If my strategies fail, I'd then move to the opposition coache's box and do the same.

What is the one piece of 'advice' or the one thing that you always say to your students?

If you don't set SMART goals, you concede own goals.