Galileo Interview: Matt & Ester
Written By Aadya Ranjan
Howdy to all you legendary readers of ubique. We thought it would be a good idea to give you some insight into the Galileo program, which all Year 9s do for a term in their sub-schools, with this issue, so we decided to interview the amazing teachers who teach it. This week we have Matt and Ester with us. Enjoy!
How has teaching Galileo changed for you over the past two years, during COVID-19?
Matt: It has changed a lot. We went from having daily excursions and a camp every term to going totally online and trying to run our program virtually - which was super challenging. But, the core elements of what we do in Galileo - inquiry based learning and project based learning - have stayed the same throughout.
If you could have any superpower what would it be and why?
Ester: I would love to be able to speak every language and for no one to know that it’s a superpower and for everyone to just think that I’m really intelligent.
Matt: I would like to fly. Simple answer, but I think it would be fun.
What is your favourite part of teaching Galileo?
Ester: Getting to teach the same class the whole term and getting to know everyone really well.
Matt: I like that students like it, and that it’s somewhere they want to be.
If you had to switch lives with one of the other three Galileo teachers, who would it be?
Ester: Matt. Because he has a beach house in Torquay.
Matt: I would switch with Ester, because she is a culinary giant and you’d just be eating gourmet food every meal.
What is it like to team teach with 3 other people, and do you prefer it to teaching by yourself?
Ester: It’s so good. It’s so much better than teaching by yourself. Mostly because no one laughs at my jokes except the other Galileo staff members, and it’s really good for my self-confidence.
Matt: Yeah, it’s really good.
What is something you can’t live without?
Ester: Matt.
Matt: Ester.
What random obsession did you gain over lockdown?
Ester: I spent a lot of time in lockdown mastering the chicken sandwich. If anyone would like my recipe for a chicken sandwich, let me know. It involves frying the bread in oil before putting the sandwich together. Forget toasting, in lockdown it was all about frying bread. It takes a lot longer, it uses more dishes, and it’s significantly more delicious.
Matt: I got really into gaming - playing an old game called Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition, and I was just trying to build up my Elo, day after day.
What made you decide to become a teacher?
Matt: I used to be a geologist, before I was a teacher, and I was really bad at that so this was a backup plan.
Ester: I can’t really think of anything to say that’s cool. Everything sounds really cliche and embarrassing, but I guess I really love spending time with young people.
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Matt: Maybe at my beach house in Torquay.
Ester: I’d love to spend some time living in Japan.
Who would be the first to die and who would be the winner in Squid Game out of all four of you?
Ester: I haven’t seen it, but I would probably fail.
Matt: I think Ester might lose as well. I have a feeling Sam would probably win. He would be willing to go to depths that no one else would go to.
Ester: If you had to kill all of us in order to win, I think that he would.
Do you enjoy Galileo being very mysterious to year 7s and 8s?
Ester: Is it?
Matt: Look, it’s probably something for us to work on in the future - to get our brand out there more. But, it is kind of nice being so mysterious, having said that.
Ester: I think a level of mystery is good, but you don’t want people to feel unprepared.
Matt: Yeah, keep them on their toes.
What did you want to be when you were younger?
Ester: A chef.
Matt: I wanted to go to the Olympics. I would have taken any event. I was just obsessed with the Olympics and I used to write lists of all the Olympic events and cross off what I definitely couldn’t do.
Do you get annoyed by seeing the same students almost all day for a whole term?
Matt: No. It’s really nice because we can only remember so many names and once they go we’ll forget everyone’s names. But the students who have Galileo, it’s nice to be with them every day.
Were you involved in coming up with the idea of Galileo, and why did UniHigh originally decide to start the program?
Ester: Galileo is in its twelfth year, and Matt and I haven’t been alive that long, so we weren’t involved in the creation of the program. But, I think that it was started because year 9 is a great opportunity for students to spend some more time thinking about how they can become more independent learners and go on a camp and do something a little bit different.
What Hogwarts house would you be in?
Matt: I think I can speak for both of us: Hufflepuff.
If you had to teach any other subject, what would it be and why?
Matt: I would actually love to teach P.E because it looks like fun, and you get to go outside a lot.
Ester: I have heaps, but I would love to teach Renaissance.
If you could either change the past or see into the future, which one would you choose?
Matt: I think seeing into the future, because metaphysically changing the past doesn’t compute. I would be worried about the possibilities of changing the past and what that means for our present moment. Would you be the same person? What if you caused a butterfly effect? You change one little thing in the past and it totally alters the future.
Ester: We could dedicate a whole article to this question.
Were there any positives out of the experience of remote learning for you?
Ester: Yeah, definitely. It was really challenging, but I think that it helped us use technology better and make sure that we had lots of resources that students could use if they’re ever going to be away. And it gave us time to think about what was most important in the program and what things weren’t as important. And it made us realise how much we love going on school excursions and camp. And it also made us realise how much we love our jobs and being here every day.
Did the chicken or the egg come first?
Matt: Look, the egg came first. It’s just a matter of evolution. There would have been a genetic mutation that would have happened for the first chicken in the reproduction of the pre-chicken and so the egg would have borne the new weird chicken. So it’s emphatically the egg. But that’s a bit boring.
Ester: I agree with everything Matt just said, and I find him to be an incredibly inspiring educator.
And there it is, folks: our eye-opening interview with Galileo staff members Matt and Ester - thank you so much to the teachers for letting us interview them. Stay tuned for the next issue, where we’ll be back for part 2 with an absolutely staggering interview with the remaining teachers, Sam and Trent!
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