Teacher's Truth Series 4

Teacher's Truth Series 3

THE TECH TEACHER

BANG! BANG! BANG! The beginning of beginnings was like a big bang on my head. I had sponsored myself to a camp in the United Kingdom just after finishing one in Nigeria. I really wanted to learn more, how to train girls, the camp was a blast. I met women and girls of different professions from several countries, including Singapore. There were so many new things to learn and I told myself that every holiday was going to be a new learning experience. I was full of excitement which was soon cut short by this monstrous thought of mine ‘How much time and money do I have?’

Time and Money stood tall before me like raging demons but as you ought to know, there’s no hindrance to one who is set to achieve, every problem has a solution. I knew I couldn’t spend every dime of my ‘newbie pay status’ to give myself the amount of training and exposure I desired. One day, on my way back from work, I bought a Visafone modem; I believed that the internet could solve the problem.

SO MUCH INFORMATION FOR FREE!!!  I read something everyday, asking questions and getting answers for free. My search was vast, learning how to teach certain subjects, topics and then getting appropriate resources for my lessons. Before this time, I would spend hours creating my slides not knowing some of them were available for free online. Teaching started becoming a lot more fun and nobody needed to tell me I had become a better teacher, I knew it.

In 2013, I had advanced so much that I wanted to share my own resources to other teachers online. I visited some websites and felt so happy that I had become so resourceful. Just recently, a colleague that I respect a lot showed me some platforms where his work had been downloaded more than a hundred times. This is a vital topic I would love to share very soon because it alarms me to know that some teachers would rather keep their resources than share even in their local school community. Such teacher already shows that he /she lacks a very vital 21^st century skill that he /she is supposed to pass to the students he/she teaches.

I joined an online based academy in 2013, European Schoolnet Academy, I learnt new things. I participated in a number of their courses (free) of interest to me and for the first time, I understood what collaboration really meant in practical terms. From that platform, I discovered a website that changed the face of teaching Spelling in my classroom. There’s so much information out there, sitting in the comfort of your classroom and school makes you a very local champion. When you sincerely begin the quest for knowledge and development, you will admit that you don’t know enough.

The skills (critical thinking, problem solving, creativity...)our students need to become outstandimg individuals transcends academic prowess and morals. Do you even know about these skills? Do you know how they can be incorporated into your daily lessons? These skills are not to be recited to the students, the teacher must understand them, own them and then disseminate tactically. There’s so much to say on different things we must do to improve on our present status, we will take them one at a time in upcoming posts.

  

Summary

• Understand your present status
• Admit your weaknesses
• Seek help by researchng online
• Collaborate with your colleagues(you are not limited by the school you work in)
• Learn to share and receive resources, you would be shocked that there are better resources than yours all over
• Join educational communities ( Google has alot)
• You can use Google Drive to preserve your files forever 
• Practise the things you learn, don't just be a recipient
• Learn new trends in technology, you can't run away from it.

Teacher's Truth Series 2

This is a really tough one considering our personal strengths and weaknesses which could even be the product of our backgrounds.

One thing I know is that  being a teacher is a growing process,we should be unwavering in our quest for perfection. I always take a peep back at when I started teaching;it's a long way from where I am right now. The little baby steps have walked a pretty long way.

Remember the popular saying ' It's tiny drops that make a mighty ocean.' However, the journey never ends.

Teacher's Truth Series