Faculty Spotlight~ Dr. Michael Wiles

Grace Hung ('29) and Andrew Huang (’29) Mar. 13, 2023

Dr. Wiles is AST’s performing arts teacher. He has been teaching in AST for 19 years already! He first worked at Taipei American School but he didn’t really enjoy the weather in Taipei very much. An opportunity came up here to be the music teacher at AST so he came here in 2004.

When the school asked him if he wanted to be the drama teacher, he said “yeah, sure”. Previously, he had worked with other AST drama teachers, and they used to produce musicals together with the students. Dr. Wiles would train up the music side and the drama teacher would deal with the acting side. Dr. Wiles thinks drama is unique because it’s a kind of performing art that gives students a chance to express themselves on stage and communicate using their voices and body language.

Dr. Wiles also worked in symphony orchestras. When Dr. Wiles was very small, his neighbor was a professional violinist, and the violin just kind of stuck in Dr. Wiles’ head. His mom took him to a local piano teacher. However, one day, he got the opportunity to learn the violin. He learned violin with a teacher who came to visit the school. After a while he got involved in the local Youth Orchestra and then went on to study at the Royal College of Music in London. Later on, Dr. Wiles got his doctorate degree in education from the University of Durham UK.

Dr. Wiles AST 是AST的表演藝術老師，他已經在 AST 任教 19 年了。他最初在台北美國學校工作，但Dr. Wiles 並不是很喜歡台北的天氣。 後來他有機會成為 AST 的音樂老師，所以他於 2004 年來到這裡。

當校方問Dr. Wiles是否想當戲劇老師時，他回答: 「當然!」 在此之前，他曾與其他AST的戲劇老師合作，與學生一起製作音樂劇。，Dr. Wiles負責培訓音樂方面，而戲劇老師負責表演方面。 Dr. Wiles認為戲劇是獨一無二的，因為它是一種表演藝術，讓學生有機會在舞台上表達自己，並用聲音和肢體語言進行交流。

Dr. Wiles還曾在交響樂團工作。 在Dr. Wiles很小的時候，他的鄰居是一位專業的小提琴手，小提琴就好像烙印在Dr. Wiles的腦海裡了。 他的母親會帶他去當地的一位鋼琴老師學鋼琴。 然而，他有了學小提琴的機會，就跟著一位前來參觀學校的老師學習小提琴。 一段時間後，他加入了當地的青年管弦樂團，然後繼續在倫敦皇家音樂學院學習。 後來，Dr. Wiles在英國杜倫大學獲得了教育學博士學位。