About the blog Author
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| Educator, researcher, motivational speaker, mentor |
I have a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Computer Science and have been in education for the past 15 years of my life, mainly teaching Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Information Technology. I appreciate the variety of skills and tremendous experience that I have gained in my time as an educator and wish to use these to be of further use to society in many other ways. I also want to find out more about myself and use my life story, skills and talents to fulfill my purpose on this earth and to inspire others.
"If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher's job." ― Donald D. Quinn
I often think of my teachers, coaches and mentors, not just in school, but in all the experiences and circumstances I've had in my life. Some of them were the weirdest and most inspirational people in my life. One that comes to mind just at this particular moment, because it was not a 'normal' teaching situation, is a time where I had just joined a group of Cub Scouts in my junior school days. Very soon after my joining the group we participated in a snare hunt in the surrounding, mountainous areas of my hometown. Our task was to walk through the bush and find snares that were set to trap animals by poachers. We would then set the traps off and remove them to save the wildlife in our environment.
As we walked through the bush some fellow Cub Scouts ahead of me walked over a snake which was on our path but disguised by the leaves and foliage on the ground. Luckily they did not step on the snake otherwise we would have had a real disaster on our hands, being in the bush, far way from any medical help. And if they had stepped on it the people behind would have been the ones to get bitten.
As I got to the snake I stopped in mid-stride as I noticed the snake. If I remember well, it was a puff adder and it was very still. I notified the Cub Scout Leader and he made sure that the rest of the group negotiated this very venomous snake without any incident. The Leader later told me that he thought that I was very aware of my surroundings and that was why I had noticed the puff adder and the others had been unaware of its presence. Whether I've still got that sort of character or not is something for another article, but the reason I mention it here is that he gave me a reason to start to discover the other qualities about myself that are unique. Up until that moment I did not appreciate that there might be gifts in me which are unique. I always had this impression that I was nothing special. It seems funny to say this, but up until that moment I was not aware that I was aware.
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| A group of Cub Scouts very similar to our bunch. |
I can't remember whether it was on the same snare hunt or on a different occasion, but another lesson comes to mind. While crossing a small river, during our escapades, another group disturbed a swarm of bees. The group behind them walked right into an angry 'cloud' of bees. I managed to stop a few moments before I got into danger and retreated. Maybe that was something to do with my awareness again but I am grateful that I did not walk into that melee.
As the group ahead tried everything they could to extricate themselves from their predicament, running, wriggling and crying out, the Leader once again stepped in to calm the situation down. He told them to stop making so much noise and to lower themselves into the water. As they obeyed his instructions their cries died down and the bees calmed down and eventually flew away. We were then able to step into the water and help our fellow cub scouts. We helped them back to base camp and the next few hours were spent removing bee stings with the few tweezers that we could find in the first-aid kits. We were glad to tweeze our fellow cub scouts and glad that we were not the ones that the bees had chosen to express their anger on and we ended up laughing about the whole scenario. The lesson was twofold: to keep calm in a crisis and to lower ourselves into the water if ever attacked by bees somewhere near water. Thankfully this incident happened in a river.
My own parents were both teachers. In fact there are more teachers or former teachers in the rest of my extended family than I can remember. I'll own up and say that I used to say that I would never become a teacher and I guess many look down upon teaching because of what's mentioned by Donald D. Quinn in the quote at the beginning of this article. I would sometimes help my mother, who was an infants teacher, to do some menial tasks such as covering books for her students. I would look at this and think to myself, "I don’t want to be doing such things for the rest of my life." I would watch her spend many hours doing schemes of work and lesson plans over weekends and holidays and this totally put me off teaching. As I grew older and learned about wages and salaries in other careers, it further increased my 'loathing' of teaching as a career. I couldn't understand why teacher's salaries were so low, and yet they seemed to spend so many hours of their lives preparing to deliver the ultimate lesson, never mind shaping the future of so many young lives and minds.
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| A group of mesmerized students that could become future surgeons, but it wasn't to be for me. |
During the break between Cambridge O Level and A Level we were given the opportunity to visit places of employment as part of career guidance. I chose to go to a hospital to observe an actual operation because I was considering a career in the medical field (and precisely NOT teaching). The operation we were to observe was a simple one on an elderly gentleman. It was the removal of the prostate gland, a chestnut-shaped male organ located next to the bladder and surrounding the urethra (the tube that carries urine from the bladder to the penis). The surgeon on call explained to our small group that the gland has become swollen and thus the elderly gentleman was having difficulty in urinating. He said that this was quite a common occurence in elderly gentlemen and that it was quite a simple operation to remove it and that it's use was not essential at his age. For those that don't know their biology, the prostate gland produces a fluid called prostate fluid that carries sperm cells. I guess that is why the surgeon said it was not essential in the elderly.
The operation proceeded with the patient under anesthetic and we watched as the assisting nurses uncovered the gentleman's nether region to begin the operation and prepped the patient in all sorts of embarrassing ways. We giggled of course, mostly because our group consisted of both girls and boys but also because we wondered how these nurses could do what they were doing almost nonchalantly. That was the funny part of the procedure, but soon things got rather more serious as to grab our undivided attention. The surgeon grabbed the scalpel and started to make an incision into the crotch area. As he proceed he used laser to burn the ends of the nerves to prevent excessive bleeding. That was the part that all things went asunder for me. The smell of burning flesh was too strong for me. I passed out and was prevented from hitting the hard, cold floor by a fellow student. I only regained consciousness when I was taken outside for a breath of fresh air. Nevertheless, I was able to go back into the operating theater for some post op analysis.
That incident put me off pursuing such a career, at least for then as I didn't think I would be able to stand the sights and smells associated with it. I thought that maybe a career closely related to medicine, such as physiotherapy, would be more apt. Since that day I've not really looked in that direction again.
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| That's me in the centre at the back during my gap year, being introduced to teaching |
As it happened, when I completed high school I decided to take a gap year. A year later I went back to my high school to work as a "general dogs body", a stooge as we called it. I was assigned as an assistant teacher to my Cambridge A Level Mathematics teacher, during her junior Maths classes. I was given the opportuinity to do some teaching during those classes and I actually enjoyed the experience. One weird thing that I remember was having to call my former teachers and mentors by their first names. I remember one incident when my dear Maths teacher for the whole of my high school career, Mrs. Carroll, said to me, "Call me Jean-Anne." My reply was a rather perplexed, "Yes Mrs Carroll."
My other duties included coaching sport (I didn't need to be an assistant here as I managed my own teams), doing duties in the school hostel, as well as accompanying students to different types of outings and activities. I enjoyed and learned a lot during my one year stint as a "general dogs body" within a schooling environment. During that time I applied for and was accepted for a teaching bursary, in which all my university fees would be paid for, for four years and all I had to do was complete four years of teaching afterwards. I accepted and thought to myself that if teaching was not for me then I would move into a different career when my four years of teaching were up. As it happens I have spent 15 years in the profession, and although I have given up teaching in the classroom for a while, I have a feeling that my teaching days are far from over.
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| A teacher has to be both a teacher and a student |
“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” ― Gautama Buddha
This quote has always intrigued me and being an educator I find that it applies to me as well. We do not stop learning throughout our lives if we're open to learning and are mindful. I've always thought that being an educator only meant teaching in the 'traditional' sense, but I've discovered that one can teach in many OUTRAGEOUS ways. Many careers involve teaching and one cannot limit themselves to using red pens, being a so called chalk-master or even standing in front of a visible audience with the kind of technology available today. With the variety of tools and technology, the possibilities become BOUNDLESS! Whatever I find myself doing there's one thing that I've learned and it is that I am a teacher today and always will be.
I will always also be forever a student. Right now I am taking the opportunity to learn as much as I can about business. It's not very usual to think of education as a business and a saying that has been around for a very long time is that teaching is a noble profession. This has been because teachers in the normal sense are not paid very much throughout the whole world. Some people, especially in developing countries, opt for this career because there's a high demand for teachers and it is one of the easier careers to consider especially when one needs to start earning and suppoting a family. On the other hand some teachers do so because it is purely a passion and they do not mind dedicating their entire lives to the nourishment of minds for very little financial reward. But I have always wondered why this is so, because teachers are responsible for nurturing the minds of those that are in the so called more important careers where the financial benefits are greater. If other people can be in careers where they are fulfilled both in what they do and their financial rewards, why can't educators be in the same situation as well? Why can't those who are passionate about their teaching have both the vocational and financial rewards. In my opinion we as educators have got to start to think of our vocations as business. We have got to redefine our careers and the possibilities of how and what we can teach in order to bring about more fulfillment both in terms of what we achieve with our students and the rewards we get. The art of teaching is being revolutionized throughout the world by teachers who have realised that they can be fulfilled by their effect, not just in classrooms or lecture theatres but of the world at large, whilst being rewarded financially for their efforts. (Click here to download a QuickStart Guide to start getting rewarded as you learn about business.)
I believe that the route to success and happiness in our lives is:
- GRATITUDE for the people, places, events and things we have in our lives: what we have, how we got there.
- ACTION ― “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” ― Lao Tzu
- DISCIPLINE in taking action even when we do not feel like it or when we don't see our dreams as possible.
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