North Atlanta’s Most Interesting Man: Mr. Robin Oliver

One man, eight languages, eighty countries

Oliver during instructional time.

Oliver during instructional time.

You usually don’t see a cheesy marker mustache across a teachers face every other week. But in this case Mr. Robin Oliver, French teacher, tops it off with a French beret to keep the look classy for his students during instructional time. Oliver speaks eight languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, and Latin. Oliver has traveled all over the world, but has lost count on how many countries he’s visited. He estimates more than 80. Oliver remarks, “I love languages myself, because of that, I’ve discovered every continent except Antarctica.”

A London native, Oliver attended to the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom for his first Master’s degree. For his second Master’s in Curriculum and Instructions, Oliver attended DePaul University in Chicago. Oliver describes his unorthodox career path prior to becoming a teacher, “Right after college I kind of did weird stuff. I worked in Paris. I made artificial Christmas trees; it was a friend of my grandfathers who owned the business.

Now, however, Oliver has been teaching for over 19 years, and started teaching at North Atlanta in January 2014. His teaching philosophy stems from his desire to make his classes more engaging than his language classes in high school, saying, “It was miserable. In high school, I took French and Latin; I was pretty good at it. I started since the age of 7–it was hard and rigorous. It was never fun.”

Oliver strives to make his classes something for students to look forward to,“I am cray cray! I believe that learning should be fun!”

Oliver starts his classes by playing modern French music, attempting to create an immersive environment for the students. He notes that his students have especially enjoyed “Papaoutai” by Stromae and “On Ira” by ZAZ. Noticing that many of his students have test anxiety, Oliver allows students to re-take tests and quizzes. “It’s a win-win situation. I have a chance to sit down with the student and see what’s going on, but it also allows the chance to improve the student’s grade,” he explains.

This fall, Oliver hosted Madamoiselle Miscallef, a student teacher from Georgia State University. Miscallef noted that she improved her teaching by watching Oliver interact with his classes, commenting, “At the beginning it was definitely terrifying standing in front of 20 students, but eventually it did get better since Mr. Oliver started mentoring me in how he teaches.”

Though new to North Atlanta, Oliver has already established himself as a dedicated teacher willing to work with students. Sophomore Wyatt Williams says, “He is really energetic, and he likes to keep the class engaged. He makes it easier for people to learn and is really funny.”

Students hope Oliver will stay at North Atlanta for many years to come.