Who are you?
I’m Michael Randal, an Assistant Principal and English teacher. I’m also a dad who has very witty jokes and who isn’t at all embarrassing to his children.
What do you love about working at Rangitoto College?
One thing that I love about working at Rangitoto College is that I spend my days with a whole bunch of colleagues who love what they do and who are genuinely passionate and driven to improve themselves. Having worked in a few different jobs and sectors before I became a teacher, I know that it’s quite rare and is a real privilege to work with other people who love what they do and who are also determined over time to get better at it in big and small ways. I like how enthusiastic so many of the teachers at Rangitoto College are about getting better at teaching, and it plays a part in challenging me to continue to try to lift my own game.
What’s a book that’s changed your life/mind?
Looking back, there’s one book that probably really influenced the direction of my life: 1984 by George Orwell. I first read it when I was about 14 or 15 and it totally changed my perception of what novels could be like, of what books can be, of what storytelling is. It’s such a grim story and the first time I read it I kind of hated it. But, as the years went by, I kept thinking back to it, and when I finally read it again, I was able to appreciate how masterful Orwell’s storytelling is, and how creatively and subtly he uses language to tell the story. 1984 really opened my eyes to the beauty and power of storytelling and language and played a big part in setting me on the path to (eventually) becoming an English teacher.
What are you currently reading?
I’m currently reading Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. I’m not really a big fan of crime or detective fiction, but Agatha Christie is so famous and was so prolific that I wanted to see what her books were like, and I also like to read classics from time to time. I’m enjoying it more than I expected to: the pacing of the story is good, and I’m trying to keep one step ahead of the detective protagonist, Hercule Poirot, as he figures out the crime. I can see why her books were so popular.
What do you love reading to your kids?
I like reading anything with my kids that expands their minds and, along the way, helps to grow their vocabulary. It means that we then sometimes end up talking about ideas and words. I’m currently reading The Hobbit with my daughter. It’s a good story and it’s great to be able to expose her to some archaic (old-fashioned) language. I’m reading Sheila K McCullagh’s Buccaneers series with my son and he loves it. The books are out of print these days and I’m so pleased that I kept my battered old copies from when I was a kid. Both of my children have particularly loved Roald Dahl’s first autobiography, Boy, about his experiences growing up in (a quite brutal) boarding school. It makes them realise that school in 2022 is pretty cushy.
Who’s your favourite author?
My two favourite authors are David Mitchell and Neil Gaiman. Even though they have very different styles, they’re both excellent storytellers. Neil Gaiman nails magic realism/Southern Gothic: his stories are both dark and creepy yet also have moments of humour and whimsy. David Mitchell’s work is diverse and, as you read his books, you start to see that he’s created this complex world that slowly knits together in subtle and interesting ways. Probably my all-out favourite book is Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. It’s a book within a book within a book within a book within a book within a book within a book within a book. Read it; you’ll see what I mean.
Describe your perfect Saturday.
My perfect Saturday is a cooked breakfast then—after that’s fully settled!—doing some exercise: either in my garage gym, going for a run in the bush with my dog, or doing some speed rope work (badly; I’m still learning). After that, it’s playing with my kids: trampoline, swim at the beach, or board game. The perfect Saturday ends with an evening with my wife, ideally going to the theatre or stand-up comedy.
What advice do you have for teenagers today?
It’s so easy to throw out some glib advice—advice that sounds good but doesn’t have much substance to it—so I’ll try to avoid that. I don’t know if this is ‘advice’ as such, but I want to remind teenagers that the phrase ‘practice makes permanent’ is just as relevant to personality and character as it is to sports, musical, and academic performance. By that, I mean that how you choose to behave – the high standards that you set for yourself and that you choose to live up to—become ‘habits’ of how you behave. In other words, choosing to practise living with integrity, courage, and respect towards others becomes, over time, permanent. If you ‘practise’ being this way, it becomes who you are. It becomes permanent. No one told me that when I was a teenager and it took me a long time to come to that realisation myself.
BACK
