Greg Seale: Finding a Place
Greg Seale joined the RSGC faculty for the 2016/17 school year as the Media Arts teacher, taking over the Communications Technology program. He wanted to sit back for his first year, teach his classes and silently observe his surroundings while he found his place at the College. It didn’t take him long to find that place.
In one year, Greg’s job has seen him become the Senior School Arts Department Head, the coach of the first swim team RSGC has seen in decades, an active leader of the tech crew for the Senior School play and a member of the School of Rock, a student-founded band/music jamming club.
“Last year was more of a feeling-out process to try to understand the culture here,” said Greg, who came to the College from the Bishop Strachan School. “Now, as the Department Head, my goals are public display and performance. They are so important – probably the most motivating factors – and I believe they will cause the quality of the boys’ work to go up.”
His first step of public display and performance was the Senior School Arts Night, held at the end of February. The evening featured all facets of the arts: band, dramatic arts, visual arts and media arts. Even a few members of the School of Rock performed.
“It was the perfect opportunity to make arts more visible,” said Greg. “The choir is the most visible thing that the arts does and we have a play once a year. This was a chance for the boys’ works to be out there. We put up 120 pieces – media arts, including some digital, and portraits. There was even a drama video playing in one of the classrooms. From a learning standpoint, this is better than marks. Their work is actually seen.”
Music teacher Emily Johnson, who started at RSGC at the same time as Greg, is thrilled with the direction in which he is taking the arts department.
“I think we’re moving in a good direction in terms of creating more opportunities for the boys to display their arts,” said Emily, who describes Greg as supportive, enthusiastic and approachable. “We already have music performances built into the schedule, but to build on that and tie in the other arts as well is going to be a really big step forward.”
Graydon Benson, Class of 2019, is a big fan of the Media Arts courses and loved the Arts Night. He had a challenging mental health piece on display that was a mixture of photography and custom-cut glass panels.
“Arts Night was a great night,” said Graydon, who considers Greg’s classes some of his favourites because they allow him to think differently than in other courses. “This school needs to do more for the arts, and that was a huge step in the right direction. That night encompassed all of the arts.”
Graydon loves the Media Arts classes because they offer a lot of freedom. In Grade 10, there may be units on photography and graphic design, for example, and by Grade 11, there is flexibility for the students to choose the areas on which they wish to focus. For Greg, he loves that, as a mandatory half credit in Grade 9, he’ll teach every boy in the school.
“They’ll see the full potential of what it looks like if they go through four years of the course,” said Greg, whose background is fine arts and art history. “Grades 9 and 10 are more skill-building, which allows Grades 11 and 12 to be more conceptual so the boys can make more choices. Throughout the whole time, there’s a fine arts focus – slide history, gallery-style art, etc. I want them to think about things like display, what artwork looks like and how you can challenge spectatorship.”
Greg brings a unique perspective to the classroom, having worked in various facets of the arts. He has taught film and photography, and still works as an Adult Education Officer at the Art Gallery of Ontario in his spare time. He also sang in a punk band in his younger days.
Graydon recognizes how lucky he is to be taught by someone with such a breadth of experiences, and loves having Greg as his mentor.
“Mr. Seale offers a different twist to everything,” said Graydon, who, thanks to Greg, is looking into attending the University of Southern California’s Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation when he graduates from RSGC. “He challenges me in so many different ways – more than just arts. He constantly offers new ideas from films to university programs. He’s got a lot of experience.”
But despite Greg’s artistic talent, Graydon was still surprised to see his mentor get up on stage during the Hidden Gems concert and belt out Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” with his colleagues, including Emily, and some students.
“I didn’t know he could sing, too – that was the last box to check!” said Graydon. “I thought it was great and I loved that he did it with students – it was really cool.”
Emily certainly enjoyed the performance.
“It didn’t feel like I was performing with my department head, that’s for sure,” said Emily. “He’s really willing to take risks and try things with the boys. There’s no hesitation with him to try new things musically, and it’s also really fun to be able to connect and perform together as colleagues. We’re usually so focused on our work, preparing our classes and the boys, so it was a really unique experience.”
As for Greg, he has certainly found his niche at the College. But the best part is that before he applied for the job, he had an idea about the culture of the school from his exposure to the boys through his job at BSS. And it has not disappointed.
“The boys are the best brand for the school, so when I would work at the semiformal, it was always the RSGC guys who shook my hand and introduced themselves,” said Greg. “That’s when I got to know the school. The skeptic in me thought it was superficial. But when I got here, I realized that it’s the real thing. I spent last year getting to know that it comes from a pretty genuine place.”
Which makes Greg the perfect fit.
Royal St. George's College
Connect with Us
Search
Royal St. George's College is an independent school for boys located in The Annex neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The school admits boys from Grades 3 through 12. Our mission is to challenge and inspire each of our students to become the best version of himself.