{"id":698,"date":"2011-02-09T12:50:54","date_gmt":"2011-02-09T01:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stumblingpast.wordpress.com\/?p=698"},"modified":"2022-08-04T00:33:45","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T00:33:45","slug":"an-unforgettable-inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stumblingpast.com\/2011\/02\/09\/an-unforgettable-inspiration\/","title":{"rendered":"“An Unforgettable Inspiration”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mural<\/a>
Mural created by a student in Mr Mulley's classroom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“You are an unforgettable inspiration” wrote a year 12 student on the wall of Mr Mulley’s classroom in 2008.<\/p>\n

At the end of last year Mr Mulley retired after teaching history at Killarney Heights High School for 32 years.\u00a0 Mr Mulley is a standout teacher.\u00a0 He is passionate about history, expects high standards of himself as well as of his students and, most importantly, he cares deeply about his students.<\/p>\n

The walls of Mr Mulley’s classroom are testament to the effect that Mr Mulley had on his students.\u00a0 One year some students wanted to record their appreciation for his teaching and painted some murals in his classroom.\u00a0 The photo above shows what you see when you first open his classroom door.\u00a0 Surrounding the murals are messages scrawled on the wall by his year 12 students upon leaving school.\u00a0 A student in year ten commented recently, “the paintings and writings on the wall proved how much other students loved him and thought greatly of him as a teacher.”\u00a0 She added that they “gave the room a really warm, homey [feel] and sense of community within the classroom.”\u00a0 I am not sure whether these paintings and comments will be retained so just in case I took a copious number of photos of the classroom at the end of last year.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

What made Mr Mulley’s teaching so special to his students? His lessons were different and the students knew this from the moment they were greeted by him at the door before the start of every lesson.\u00a0 They then sat down at their desks – but these desks were not arranged in conventional rows as in most classrooms.\u00a0 Mr.\u00a0 Mulley arranged the desks in a circle to encourage classroom discussion.\u00a0 Mr Mulley sat in this circle with his students – he was part of the class.<\/p>\n

\"Classroom<\/a>
The circle of desks in Mr Mulley's classroom.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mr<\/a>
Mr Mulley's desk - sitting amongst his students.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mr Mulley is a great communicator and shared his passion for history with his students.\u00a0 “Thanks for the love of history you have given me,” wrote a year 12 student in 2009.\u00a0 In 2002 a student wrote, “[t]hanks for giving my sisters such a love of history which they passed onto me.’\u00a0 Many students echoed the same sentiments.<\/p>\n

\"Fluffy<\/a>
One of the fluffy pink pens that used to grace Mr Mulley's classroom. In the foreground is an example of work completed for Mr Mulley - written in pink ink.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n


\n“Pink Pink Pink Pink Pink…” wrote a year 12 student in 2002. \u00a0 This is one of several messages on the walls which refer to this colour.\u00a0 Mr Mulley has a strong aversion to pink.\u00a0 He also has a great sense of humour and allowed students to have fun at his expense.\u00a0 When shopping at the beginning of each year for stationery with my daughter we would find a pink pen for use in history classes.\u00a0 We saw some fluffy pink pens recently when shopping for school stationery which reminded us of him.\u00a0 Shopping for school stationery is not so much fun any more.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet for all the humour Mr Mulley’s classes were disciplined and much work was done.\u00a0 “He had the best control of his class… because he kept it interesting and was tough on people talking or being rude,” commented a student recently.\u00a0 A year 12 student in 2006 wrote, “I have learnt never to push in at canteen lines now!!”\u00a0 Mr Mulley worked hard for his students and this was reciprocated.\u00a0 A year 12 student in 2002 thanked him for the extra work he did and wrote, “I’ll learn more back for you.”<\/p>\n

I don’t have a photo of Mr Mulley, but one of the students drew a picture of him and placed it between pictures of ancient historians under the blackboard.<\/p>\n

\"Drawing<\/a>
Mr Mulley keeping good company.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“… [W]e attempted to nominate you as teacher of the year,” wrote a student at the end of last year,\u00a0 “But the rules said you had to accept, and we knew you wouldn’t.”\u00a0 Mr Mulley did not seek accolades, he sought the best for his students.\u00a0 He did not want a big farewell – in fact he didn’t let many people know that he was leaving so we didn’t have an opportunity to show our appreciation.<\/p>\n

I’ll leave the final word to a student who left school in 2006:<\/p>\n

Dear Mulley!\u00a0 Thank you for your love, kindness, passion, and humour… Thankyou!!\u00a0 You have the biggest heart and when times get hard remember that!<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

More Photos<\/h2>\n
\"Murals<\/a>
Murals on the back wall and under the windows.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mural<\/a>
Mural under the window.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Map<\/a>
Another mural under the window.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Murals<\/a>
Murals around the blackboard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Grafitti<\/a>
Student comments and a mural on another wall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Murals<\/a>
Murals and student comments along the back wall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Handwriting<\/a>
Remember this Mr Mulley!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mr Mulley was a great history teacher and his classroom was a special place. He has retired after teaching history at Killarney Heights High School for 32 years. At the end of last year I took photos of the murals and messages from students on his walls to record the legacy of this wonderful teacher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[43,106,181],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Yvonne Perkins","author_link":"https:\/\/stumblingpast.com\/author\/yvonne\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingpast.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingpast.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingpast.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingpast.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingpast.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingpast.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7271,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingpast.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions\/7271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingpast.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingpast.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingpast.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}