She’s not the typical teacher. Her past years of experience and never-ending insight pass far beyond her Instagram account and outfits that most of us students adore. But perhaps, it’s the very fact that she so wonderfully combines all the education and experience, in an exciting and entertaining way, that I believe she whole-heartedly deserves to be called the Educator of the Year.
Miss Suiyen Smith became my register teacher in my first year of high school and has remained with us until our present third year. She teaches English, and quite brilliantly too seeing that I had her for my first year, but Ms Smith has always been known as the ‘drama teacher’. So as grade 10 began so did our insight into just how busy, bizarre and beautiful her life is - and how ours was yet to become.
Educator is a title that undermines Miss Suiyen by far. Providing her students with an education is a mere speck in the seemingly endless spectrum of all the tasks and duties scheduled in her diary. Teaching us the syallabus is done effortlessly, however being a drama teacher, there’s another entire aspect that requires time, patience and more time: practical work. For exam preparations she give us the immense opportunity of working through our pieces with her whenever we book a time – this often amounts to 3 or 5 sessions, about 4 hours, for every student, in every drama class in the school. These rehearsals have often drawn into the evenings, into weekends - with no benefit for her and all the benefit for us.
What sets her apart from all the other experienced and extensively trained educators is that beyond her sometimes supposed death looks she shoots from across the class or the temporary fear we possess before asking her something, is that she can just as easily be seen as a mentor, a role model, an actual human being with puffy eyes after no sleep and who asks for our opinion when debating on whether or not to buy shoes on sale. On camps for instance, in those moments of free time when my friends and I gather in our tent pigging out on our secret stash of snacks, Miss Smith comes in, plonks down on our sleeping bag, and begins a conversation that could easily look like that of an older friend to any onlooker. On possibly the most amazing tour a high school student could ever experience, a week’s trip to the beautiful city of Cape Town, Miss Suiyen was of course one of the teachers accompanying us. Needless to say, the week of adventures we experienced were undeniably the handiwork of our creative teachers; an amazing race throughout the city, finding a local market dubbed a jewel that few people get to experience and the most colourful and cosy back packers as our accommodation instead of tenting on a farm. When we returned from a train ride to the pouring rain even then our teachers were prepared - fully armed with black rubbish bags and an encouragement to run through the streets in our five minute crafted rain coats.
Being head of drama department, to many people’s disbelief, is much more complex than it may seem. Organising auditions, acting competitions, working on characterization, costumes, transport, accommodation, encouragement for each and every student – and that’s just the duties one sees on the surface. Beyond that, she creates a musical, which having the privilege to participate in gave me a slight glimpse into her sleepless nights and stress filled days. If a musical doesn’t take place, a talent showcase does which may require less input but still consists out of us shy, forgetful, sometimes rude and downright immature students – which is an enormous challenge on its own. Not to mention a budget, advertising, converting the back of a classroom to a theatre for a night, complete with lighting, a backdrop– all costing money, all costing time, all tasks that our drama teacher somehow so wonderfully manages to complete.
For our annual drama camp she managed to pull a lot more than a few strings so that we could receive lectures and workshops from the best drama department in South Africa. We got to experience a university in all of its glory, receive exciting tours and insightful lectures from industry professionals and workshops from a professional theatre company – a camp that I know must’ve taken oh so many hours and logistics to make possible.
Above all that Miss Suiyen does for the students and school, she is unintentionally inspiring every aspiring student with what she does outside of school too. Not only can she act, but also dance as well as sing. Among her trophies and titles, one of which is coming 2nd in the world for acting at the World Championships of Performing Arts, she also received a scholarship to study in New York. Each class we receive from her truly is filled with the knowledge that can only come from experience and success. All our rehearsals, all the tips and advice and criticism we receive are all from, I would say an expert herself, and we have the privilege to call her our teacher.
Therefore, some may credit her experience in the industry as her driving passion for teaching us. I may believe that it’s her unfading faith and heart that makes her eligible to be called the ‘Educator of the Year’, but no matter what anyone believes about her teaching skills, she is undeniably a hardworking, inescapably inspiring and ever-imparting woman, role-model and educator that I am proud to call my teacher.
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