Episode 4 - Matthew Blake

On this episode of BluesCast, join our host Jim Bradshaw as he interviews Matthew Blake, an Exchange Teacher from Australia, to discuss his time visiting America and his experience with Asheville School.

Transcript

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Welcome back everyone to our next episode of the Blues Cast. I'm here with our first guest from Down Under, Matthew Blake. Welcome in. Thank you for joining us, Mr. Blake. Hi, Shim. Good to be here, buddy. Yeah. So you so just a little bit of context here. Mr. Blake is a one-year exchange teacher. Um, he's from Perth, Australia, and he's just been soaking up American life for the last year. So just I want to kind of start off like, what were your first thoughts coming into this position before you got here? And like, what was what was your mindset? Just talk about that a little bit. Yeah, good question. So I would say a lot of Australians have a very linear view of America, and they have sort of a couple of things that they focus on. So there was um, yeah, it was an interesting response from a lot of my friends and family when I said I'm gonna spend a year in the US. But um yeah, I think I was always a little bit more open-minded in terms of the diversity of you know each state and each city having a bit of a distinct personality, and Asheville certainly has that. Um, and yeah, even Asheville School, I would say, is kind of its own world within Asheville, which has been a lot of fun to get involved in. Um, but then yeah, having the opportunity to travel and tick off a few states and a few different cities has been great fun as well. Yeah, I've that's actually perfect segue into my next question. Like just talk about you've been you've been soaking up America. Like you've been doing everything, you've been going, traveling to places. Just talk about talk about everything you've been doing to try and embrace this experience. Yeah, so I've been very lucky. Astra School's been very supportive of that. Obviously, it's a long way to get back to the United States, so I kind of figured this is my one year, let's tick off as many things as possible because um, as I'm about to find out, it's over 24 hours on a plane to get home, so it's not like I can keep coming back and forth that regularly. So yeah, I've tried to use this year to see as much as I can. So I've got up north and done Boston and New York and across to Chicago and Minnesota, have gone west to Denver, seen Austin and Dallas and a few other places in between. So yeah, and each has kind of got its own unique identity, which I've really enjoyed. Um, yeah, being able to get into the the history and um yeah, what's different about those regions. So yeah, it's been a really eye opening experience and I've enjoyed it. Yeah, that's awesome. What's yeah, well, if you could put your finger on like two or three things would say, like these are things that I needed to do, these are things that if I didn't do these, it my time here would have been for nothing. Like, yeah, what would those be? Interesting. I I think the one thing that stands out just because it was so different to anything I have been able to do at home was getting up to Minneapolis and staying with a mate who's been punting for the college football team up there. So shout out Mark Crawford, four-year punter at the Golden Gophers. So I was able to watch their big rivalry game with Wisconsin from the sidelines. So had the the coaches pass, and yeah, was able to see them during the game. Just a random Aussie standing on the side. Yeah, I felt very privileged. So it was snowing that had to keep um like raking down the field every every play because the snow was covering lines, and coming from a city that hasn't seen one drop of snow ever, um, that was a pretty pretty crazy experience. So yeah, very privileged to have to have experienced that. That's awesome. I'm gonna put you in a little scenario here. Just tell us what a day in the life of Mr. Blake at Ashcroft School has been looking like. Yeah, well, no two days are exactly the same, as you know, Jim. But yeah, essentially, um depending on what the season was with swimming, I was pretty involved on pool deck there um before school, and then yeah, I'd be teaching two or three history sets, um, which again, no two look exactly the same. So it's been nice having smaller class sizes than what I'm used to at home. So I feel like I've got a really good rapport with all the kids that I've taught. So having 10 or 12 students as opposed to like 25 that I'm used to has been great. So yeah, a couple of history sets, and then yeah, more recently been been getting out on the baseball field in the afternoon, which has been a new experience for me, but definitely a learning experience for you because you're a big cricket fan of, right? I am, so I'm used to hitting and catching balls, but in totally different ways to baseball. So yeah, coaching is probably big generous. I've certainly been there for moral support and enjoyed uh the experience, but in terms in terms of coaching expertise, I'm still ironing those out. Yeah. So I actually kind of want to go back a little bit and ask a final question about your experience here teaching. Like what's yeah, what's been the differences you've noticed about teaching in Australia because teaching in America? Yeah, so different, but I would say the good thing is that what both schools value has been similar. So for me, history is more about the skills and the way that um kids are able to engage with content rather than necessarily what the specifics of that content is. So it's been a little bit different in terms of the scope of what I've taught, but um, as I say, both Hale and Asheville really value um students' ability to read well, to read critically, to be able to express their thoughts, you know, on paper or orally, um, to have small group discussions and think about history in, I guess, a way that I'm conscious of. The way I would interpret a source is not necessarily the way the kids need to look at it, but it's my job to open them up to a few different perspectives, and then when they've kind of examined the content in enough detail, they can come up with their own takeaways and their own perspectives. So I see myself as like a conduit between the content and and where they need to get um from it. So so for me, the content itself is interchangeable, and I've been able to apply, you know, a different course, but with the same key learnings at the end of it, which is their ability to analyse and read and write well. So yeah, I think I think it's really cool how Asheville School has given not only you the opportunity, but also given a bunch of students an opportunity to learn from a new teacher, a different kind of teacher from a different place, give them exposure. I think that's that's really cool. Yeah. Yeah, it's been fun. So obviously, Asheville School is probably gonna be different from a lot of other places that you've been at. Just talk about if you were if someone on the outside of Asheville School came up to you and said describe this place as quickly as you can, as concisely as you can, in the best way possible. How do you do it? I would say what stands out about this place and what makes it special is partially that you've got so many of your students on site and living in the community, and that there's not so many of them that you get lost within, you know, a cohort of a couple of hundred. Like you've only got that amount of students spread across four years. So it feels like there's some really authentic relationships between kids because they kind of grow up around each other and they know each other so well through small classes and you know not having you know hundreds and hundreds of kids to get lost within. So I feel like that gives everyone a platform to really be themselves and connect. Um, and it's a really diverse environment. You've got students from all over the world, all over the country, which is brilliant. And lastly, I think because of that smaller community, you're you're able to give particularly your senior students a lot of leadership and a lot of autonomy. So when I first came into the boarding setup, I was kind of surprised by how much responsibility the prefects had and found that a little bit um different to what I was used to. But I see now how the students are able to grow into that responsibility and they're able to show ownership over what the culture of the school is, which I think is great. So you're coming, you're coming to the end of your time here. If if you could see one one thing, one lesson that everything you've done here has taught you, what would it be? What are you gonna take back with you? I think the one takeaway from this experience would be that people from all over the world really uh are way more similar than they are alike. So, you know, this the the United States as a concept to me was obviously very foreign before I got here. But now having spent a year, you know, the things that the kids value, the way they interact with each other, um, the things that they find funny are really very similar. And whether you're teaching Australian kids or American kids or students from anywhere around the world, it feels like for the most part, people just want to feel valued, they want to feel known, um, and they want to be a part of a community. And I've felt very lucky and privileged to be a part of this one. Yeah, I completely agree with you. I think Asheville School has exposed me to so many cultures that I would never have known about, especially at this young age. Like, and that's I think the biggest thing about it. Well, Mr. Blake, thank you for joining us for this episode of the Bluescast. It's been it's been a lot of fun. Oh damn, you got me right at the last hero. I got you. Well played. Thanks, Jim. Been a pleasure until then. Hey, real for real though. Thanks for it. It's been great. Good onion. Appreciate it. Thank you guys for watching this episode of the Blues Cast. If you want to watch any of our other episodes, you can find them wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jim Bradshaw signing off.