Meet Sam Lеivers, English teacher, IB Coordinator and MYP Coordinator at Discover International School. A valued member of our team for 10 years, Sam brings together a strong sense of principle, humour and curiosity, while encouraging every student to challenge themselves and reach their full potential. We asked him a few unexpected questions to discover the person behind the teacher.
What book character would you most like to have as your teaching assistant?
I would choose the cat from The Master and Margarita. With his talent for quietly altering reality, he would keep students firmly on track, while his mischievous presence would add just enough unpredictability to keep everyone alert.
What’s your favourite “secret lesson” you’ve taught that’s not in the curriculum?
A quiet but powerful lesson I teach is that honesty is the best policy. I encourage students to take accountability for their actions, even when they know they were in the wrong, and we unpack what real integrity looks like in those moments. It was framed as a simple class discussion, but I still hear them referring back to it and talking about it long after the lesson ended.
Which literary genre would make the best theme park ride, and how would the ride work?
I would choose surreal humour, with a nod to old‑school slapstick. The ride would appear perfectly ordinary, but inside nothing behaves as it should: doors open onto the wrong scenes, seats gently slide away, and corridors loop back in quietly ridiculous ways.
What’s the funniest creative writing prompt you’ve ever given (or received)?
Recently I set the prompt: “What would happen if you could hear your homeroom teacher’s thoughts?” The students found it challenging but their writing veered somewhere between mildly terrifying and unexpectedly heartwarming.