Introduction

Memories they say bring back memories. Seeing the theme of this contest brought to mind some memories I was getting close to forgetting. The one I want to share with you guys is something that most of us had as our first job experience,teaching.
Let me briefly tell you about my first job experience teaching in a private school in my town.

A dream come true

I graduated from secondary school in April 2018. After my waec,I decided to get a job,in my town then,the most easy job to get after secondary school was teaching in private schools which were much in my area then so I didn't have much difficulty getting one.

I was thrilled when I succeeded in getting one, however,the job wasnt the most thrilling part to me initially,the money was. I was offered 7000 naira,which was quite a whopping sum of money for a girl like me just out of secondary School and still living with my parents.

my head was full,I kept thinking of things I could get with the money,I actually thought of myself as a mini millionaire.
It was a huge win for me for sure,I became a salary earner. My dad would sometimes tease me that since I was now earning money I should stop eating his food. I remembered the joyful feeling I got when I got my first pay,I looked at the money in my hands and beamed brightly,that was the first money I had literally earned myself.

The main work

However,I soon came to realize that the money I earned and the job I had to do were far from equal. Handling kids weren't really an easy stuff,from dealing with pre-nursery kids who would deliberately poke a finger into another's eye to primary six students who thinks they are the boss and bullies other students even in the presence of teachers to junior high school students who thinks school na scam as the saying goes and prefers to go hustling on school days,I was at the end of my wits many times.

They were both amazing and terrible moments and it made me feel more appreciation for my teachers. Let me tell you a little about the good and bad experiences I had.

The good times

I want to agree I had more good times than bad. I was young, inexperienced and with absolutely no idea on how to handle kids,but as I continued I found my balance.

The first class I taught was pre-nursery one(1),I had kids ranging form 15 months to 2 years in my class and one time I had up to 18 of them.
Although taking care of 18 under 5 children weren't exactly easy,we had good times,lots of them. One that particularly stood out was the last hour we had before school closed(school ends at 3).

It was called play time,we sang,danced and clapped together,it was Damm fun. I had to go learn many nursery rhymes like "point to the window","rain rain go away","my mother" and many more. Also we sang a lot during normal lessons because to pass a message to them songs normally do the magic. So in learning the alphabets,numbers and even phonetics we used sings,it was fun even though my singing was terrific.

Seeing those kids with their cute smiles,seeing them master a topic, watching then struggling to learn how to hold a pencil and succeeding,it was amazing.
Another milestone was when I was asked to conduct holiday lesson for primary six students,mehn,
those guys were rough. However,when their results came out, they passed very well,I felt really proud to have contributed to their success.

Another good time was when I received a gift from the mother of one of my basic 3 student then,a big sized cake,she was so happy telling me how her daughter's academics had improved and thanking me for it,see me see smiling that day,my head almost burst. The feeling was unfathomable.

The bad times

The bad times were really bad. As I said earlier, handling kids from 8 to 3 for five days a week was exhausting. Those little ones in nursery School had to be taught at least 4 subjects every day including writing. If you think it's easy to teach kids how to write then you have to teach me the secret,cause it was really hard for me. I had to spend about 5 minutes with each of them teaching then how to hold the pencil properly and write the letter A among others and at the same time trying to keep the others from killing themselves.

Then the break time, making sure each of them eats properly and during enough water for the day. I had the help of some senior students an it was really helpful.

I thought it would get better when I was moved to a higher class,but no,it didn't. There I met intelligent stubborn kids who feel they know everything and don't bother with your teaching an parents who refuses to agree ever child needs discipline when necessary.

I remember one parent telling one of my colleagues that her only duty was to teach her child and she doesn't have any right to in any way discipline the child,you know wat happens after that,the kids get bolder and more stubborn.

Lessons learnt

My experiences taught me a lot of things. I developed some qualities that have been useful for me today in dealing with adults with different personalities. Some of those qualities are patience and self control,if you are a teacher or parent,you will agree with me that it takes lots of patience and self control to keep yourself from wanting to strangle those kids sometimes.

I went back to visit earlier this year. I resigned when got admission and while I was happy to leave,I also did miss those vibrant amazing kids. They were now in higher classes and were really happy to see me, giving me hugs happily. My heart felt sweet.

Conclusion

Experience they say is the best teacher. If I had to do the same things over again,I know where to improve. I grew from a naive inexperienced kid to an experienced adult that is still learning.