About the Author
Mr Mac’s Philosophy
It’s simple. Happy kids learn. That’s been the driving force of over ten years of successful teaching by Mr Mac. If the kids are laughing, safe and surrounded by learning opportunities, they will learn.
Kids are often smarter than they are given credit for. If a child can tell you what a Tyrannosaurus Rex is, they can say and understand big words. Too often, people try to simplify learning for their students instead of using the proper, more difficult words.
With a bit of belief, kids will amaze you!
Who is Mr Mac?
Andrew Macdonald grew up in Alexandra, Central Otago. He is a proud dad, teacher, sport lover (rugby union and touch rugby), musician, beard enthusiast, and is now a published author.
He has always wanted to be a teacher. From a very young age he has been extremely lucky to have incredible teachers. Mr Laughlin, Mr Bridgeman , Mr Hamilton and Mrs McKenzie are some standouts. They stood out because they all showed how incredible the job of teaching was. Whether it was through sport, humour or cultural achievements, they all had one thing in common. They taught their students with aroha. These teachers had a huge impact on the teacher Andrew is today.
Andrew now resides in the beautiful Mount Maunganui with his wife, Laura, his sons, Frank and Angus, his cat, Bill, and his dog, Millhouse. He loves his job, enjoys learning new songs on the guitar or ukulele, and heads to the beach any chance he gets.
Writing these books has been a huge body of work and has involved a lot of learning. Ironically, there have been many setbacks in the production of the book, and alien secret number one, ‘Never give up! Never surrender!’ really did help him carry on. He kept reminding himself, that you can’t expect kids to use the secret if you aren’t going to use it yourself! Amazing things happen when you persevere.