Unconventional teacher hits the big time
 |
| NATIONAL FINALIST: Budmouth College teacher Mark Cavill with the South West Secondary School Teacher of the Year award |
A MAVERICK Dorset teacher rubbed shoulders with celebrities at the National Teaching Awards last night.
Mark Cavill missed out on a top award but was singled out for his unconventional teaching technique at the televised London Palladium ceremony.
Mr Cavill, from Budmouth Technology College, was one of 11 teachers from the South of England nominated by pupils for a national prize.
He was named Secondary School Teacher of the Year for the region in the summer.
The English teacher - renowned for his lightsaber duels with pupils in the classroom - triumphed over 6,700 nominated teachers nationwide to make the London finals.
His pupils and colleagues saw him join a host of famous names at the ceremony, which was screened on BBC2 last night.
Judges observed Mr Cavill in the classroom and were amazed how many activities he could pack into his lessons - losing count at 12.
He said he tries to keep his relationship with pupils as interactive, positive and humorous as possible.
"I hope I make them comfortable and relaxed and make them feel lessons are worth attending," he said.
Mr Cavill, an Advanced Skills teacher, also crawls under desks and pretends they are trenches when reading First World War poetry.
Budmouth's vice principal Vince Jones praised Mr Cavill for the impact his lessons have on pupils. He said: "In the words of one student, he even makes Macbeth interesting.'"
The show was presented by BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine and co-hosted by Kate Thornton and attended by Dame Kelly Holmes, Moira Stewart, Connie Fisher, Konnie Huq, Nicki Chapman and Elisabeth Sladen.
The ritzy ceremony was the culmination of a weekend of celebration - which included a gala dinner hosted by Lord Puttnam, chair of the Teaching Awards.
Lord Puttnam said: "As ever, our judges have found a group of unique individuals with inspiring minds and outstanding commitment to the nations' schools."
9:06am Monday 22nd October 2007
Print 
Email this 
CommentPosted by: Sammie, Weymouth on 4:57pm Mon 22 Oct 07
My Fave Teacher!!! His lessons were the best!!!! Nice One Mr Cavill
My Fave Teacher!!! His lessons were the best!!!! Nice One Mr Cavill
Posted by: The Count, Sesame Street on 6:48pm Mon 22 Oct 07
[quote]Judges observed Mr Cavill in the classroom and were amazed how many activities he could pack into his lessons - losing count at 12.[/quote]
Hmm, counting not a strong point of the panel then I take it.
Judges observed Mr Cavill in the classroom and were amazed how many activities he could pack into his lessons - losing count at 12.
Hmm, counting not a strong point of the panel then I take it.
Posted by: jesshallett, weymouth on 12:41am Sun 4 Nov 07
Mr Cavill is an amazing teacher! I had him as my teacher during year's 8 and 9 at Budmouth. He encouraged me to expand my writing skills and ended up helping me improve and achieve top marks in my S.A.T exams. He also encouraged my story writing and has inspired me to want to become an author.
His lessons are fun and never boring. He is able to control a class but remain funny at the same time! His classroom is full of posters and action toys stuck to the board corners, much more interesting then the usual hand-written english hints posters dotted about.
If anyone is deserving of an award, then he is!
Mr Cavill is an amazing teacher! I had him as my teacher during year's 8 and 9 at Budmouth. He encouraged me to expand my writing skills and ended up helping me improve and achieve top marks in my S.A.T exams. He also encouraged my story writing and has inspired me to want to become an author.
His lessons are fun and never boring. He is able to control a class but remain funny at the same time! His classroom is full of posters and action toys stuck to the board corners, much more interesting then the usual hand-written english hints posters dotted about.
If anyone is deserving of an award, then he is!
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
