C. Malcolm's Corner

About Me

Heritage

My Mothers side Benporath is quite hard to find much info on, we believe they were sent to Australia convicted of privateering, and then migrated to South Africa, but there is very little written records of this. They were most likely Sephardim (Jews from the Iberian Peninsula, Spain and/or Portugal. My Fathers side Malcolm, should be easier to find, and the Scottish Clan Malcolm is easy enough to research, but one of my ancestors was adopted, and illiterate so kept spelling her name differently making it very difficuly to trace lineage on this side.

History

I was born in Durban, South Africa, I moved here when I was five for a safer lifestyle, and grew up in Pakuranga. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to participate in sports here and played soccer, then hockey, then lacrosse, then rugby, I also did swimming and karate both fairly competively.

Education

I did all my schooling here, I completed a Bachelor of Science, Majoring in Computer Science and specialising in Japanese at the University of Waikato, I then did a Postgraduate Certificate in Computer Information Science at the Auckland University of Technology, before finally completing my Masters of Teaching at the University of Auckland.

Teaching Philosophy

I want my students to be able to think independently, in particular I want my year 13s to be prepared to push themselves at Uni, where noone else will hold them accountable. I personally dislike AI and what it does, I still use it, and I will still teach my students how to use it effectively, as I don't want any of you to be at a disadvantage, but I want to make sure my students are aware of the damage it does too.

Hobbies

Video Games

In 1999 as I was leaving South Africa, my Grandmother gave me a Gameboy, and Pokemon Blue, this is back when it was in black and white, but I have loved video games since then, especially RPG games. When I got my first PC, which was almost certainly less powerful than your phone, my uncle had installed 3 games on it, freelancer, unreal tournament, and age of empires II, I played age of empires quite a bit, but Freelancer was my favourite and got me into spacesims, when I started working I bought myself a HOTAS, and Elite Dangerous, and eventually a VR headset, for Elite, but also for upcoming games, like Star Citizen and Iron Rebellion, currently in a bit of a Mech phase, Armored Core, Battletech, and Mech Warrior were all in pretty recent rotations.

Tabletop Games

I enjoy Trading Card Games, Board Games and Tabletop RPGs, my favourites are X-Wing TMG, Digimon TCG, and Battletech I've also played and run some Dungeon and Dragons, but I prefer the Sci-Fi to Fantasy personally.

Sports

I mentioned sports being important to me earlier, I think they have a lot of value in terms of building teamwork, showing resilience and working towards goals. I am proud to have represented New Zealand in Lacrosse multiple times, and am excited to represent New Zealand in Roller Derby later this year.