_{Teaching as my profession}

I am a Teacher

Introduction

A teacher is a person who transmits his skills and knowledge with the aim of helping others acquire the knowledge, skill, virtue or competence.

I am a teacher and I teacher students in public schools as shown in the thumbnail picture above, depicting a training session with students of Government Technical College Ewet located in the city of Uyo.

_{A screenshot from Google Carrying a What3Word of location}

I have also taught students in private schools and sometimes I do take up private students. The act of teaching pays most of my bill so I can say I teach for a living, but most especially, I do teach my children at home, a responsibility that is placed on all parents.

The challenges I face as a teacher?

The need to Update
To effectively function as a teacher, there is a need to constantly update and upgrade. This applies to both the knowledge we are giving out and the pedagogic skills we are using to deliver the lessons.
A periodic retraining of teachers to enhance their efficiency is missing, so teachers still use old techniques and will have to personally sponsor any enhancement program they choose to get involved with.

Policies and policy makers
Nigeria is just ending an eight months long strike embarked by the The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) demanding for better condition of service. The problem here is the fact that the policy makers will allow the strike action to go on because their children are not schooling in any of these affected schools.
Even the aggrieved lecturer will rather send their children to private universities while the policy makers will have their children school outside the country. They practically make decisions whose consequence do not affect them.

Irrelevant curriculum
The curriculum used is old and aimed at making products that can read and write so as to communicate and interact with the colonial masters, we are still using that old curriculum when reality needs entrepreneurial skills that can help drive the economy.
So we are still forced to follow the old structure, building people trained to site behind a desk for a white culler job.

Class Size
We run extra large class size, so large that it is difficult to know the individual students. Officially, all arms of a class are made up of 50 students each. Though the reality is different. Each physical classroom contains 4 arms creating a total of 200 students.
For example, In the same physical class where you have Junior Technica 1A (JT1A) we also have 1B, C and D.

Providing individualized tailored attention is not possible. It requires a lot to attract the attention of so many children at the same time. Coupling this number with the fact that children this days do not respond positively to discipline, correction and punishment, it makes teaching very challenging.

Creating a learning environment that is both stimulating and supportive?

I create a learner centered environment where the student are guided to create knowledge while I moderate the learning process. The students learn through exploration and hands-on practice, which creates great impact on their critical thinking ability.

_{Teaching ICT at Bright Stars Secondary school}

I have come to find out that some students learn faster when learning from fellow students.
Students are allowed to use their devices to corroborate the information they are receiving in my lessons, this builds in the student the skill of double-checking the information they received and avoid a complete dependence on me as the source of new knowledge.

Some professional development opportunities to improve my teaching practice?

To improve my skills as a teacher, I had to register with the then Microsoft Educator Network which is now Microsoft Educator Program. Where I was trained how to teach with technology. As an ICT instructor, this knowledge helped me select appropriate tools to manage my large classes.

My opinion regarding higher education

Learning a vocational skill is what I would advice, The labour market in Nigeria is already saturated with graduates who are looking for office work, and those who are currently holding such offices are not willing to let go.
Learn a skill that is relevant and use it to earn a living, it is better compared to the time spent looking for a degree from a higher education which has no assurance that you will get employment.

I use my ICT skills to train people for a fee and I also provide ICT services to Clint's who need my services.

Learning the logic of a Computer Network where student get the theories of Computer Networking which will serve as a foundation for the practical lesson	The hands on practical on Computer Networking giving the student an opportunity to try their hands on real life experience. Giving the student an opportunity to solve a real networking problem

About the Writer

You can read more about me in my achievement one post in the newcomers community

Picture Credit

All pictures were captured by me, and were previously used by me in my achievement 1 post when I was discussing my profession as a teacher.

I will love the following Steemians to participate in this contest
@oasiskp @bela90 @kesybliss

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