“Dare to dream…” “Believe in your abilities and never give up.”
There are two people who constantly motivate every student in our grade. They are none other than the dynamic duo of Scooby Doo and Shaggy for us freshmen, always here to save us at the end of the day – Mr. Sheldon Dias and Mr. Trafford Gregory.
They both joined Modern 9 years apart, Mr. Sheldon in 2016 and Mr. Trafford all the way back in 2007 (before some of us even came into existence). Since then, the students, staff, and the whole school has been a ‘living, evolving organism’ as described by Mr. Sheldon. What Mr. Trafford thinks about the school is that it aims to be forward-thinking, stimulating and caring – all key factors for the growth and development of students’ futures. The contribution of his whole team has helped in the all-round development of each student here at Modern.
“I saw a boy walking up to me in the Middle School corridor. He shook my hand and said, ‘Good afternoon, Sir. Welcome to Dubai Modern High School.” This was Mr. Trafford’s first memory of Modern. When asked what their favourite memory here was, both responded by reminiscing about their first days at Modern. Their first day also took them back to their own school days; Mr. Sheldon was always the reserved, diligent angel of his school (if you can believe that). On the other hand, Mr. Trafford had his fair share of ‘naughtiness’. He bunked his Bengali class one Friday and then spent the whole weekend studying that subject, missing all his football matches. Clearly, his least favourite subject was Bengali… “I was not motivated to study the subject because my teachers didn’t care (excuses), unlike our amazing teachers at Modern, who will even spend their weekends and evenings helping students (we salute them).”
As for Mr. Sheldon, like most of us, he had his love-hate relationship with Mathematics. Although he was quite reserved, he enjoyed ‘Puchka Wars’ with his friends after school, currently holding a record of 55 puchkas in one sitting! Absolutely fascinating, and dare we say, believable!
Moving on to pet peeves, fellow freshman, fear not, for we have another non-morning person amongst us. Mr. Sheldon absolutely hates getting up early in the morning, but as supervisor he has his duties to fulfill. As for Mr. Trafford, this one’s a shout-out for the teachers… He hates reminding teachers to mark their class attendance every morning or to be in class on time (Alas, I think this applies to the students as well). One thing he wishes to improve in school is to get more parents involved in their child’s learning process. He also hopes to initiate a ‘Come walk in the shoes of a teacher for a day’ programme for us students.
Mr. Trafford has always dreamed of becoming a teacher, impacting students’ lives every day. However, becoming a teacher was not Mr. Sheldon’s first dream. In fact, he began his career as a sports journalist. However, he soon realized that teaching made him happy. He later started teaching students pursuing the NIOS board while he was doing his MA. There was one incident in particular that he will never forget. “I remember that there used to be one particular student who would sleep in class every day. I took this personally at the time and approached the teaching faculty to give me tips on ‘being less boring’. I soon learned that this young man would work at a construction site as a security guard at night and still found the time to come to school in the morning.” This moved him. He realized the importance of a good education and the ‘superpower’ all teachers had was making children realize their true potential.
“It is only through a good education that students will be able to improve their own circumstances and perhaps, dare to dream.”
In the end, they both want to remind us that, ‘Every member of our school belongs to the Modern family. Family values are at the core of everything that we do here at Modern. We must always stay humble and grounded.’
– Ranya Jain, 10D