By AS a teacher, I have had the privilege of teaching across all levels of education. I have taught children in nursery classes; in fact, at present, I teach pupils in pre-nursery.
I started as a secondary school teacher, but a few years into the profession, I have taught nursery pupils and university students. As of 2022, I was teaching across all levels.
I have realised that teaching different levels of learners requires different skills and different levels of expertise.
When I teach nursery and pre-nursery pupils, I often have to jump, clap, dance, sing, and play with them.
Yes, as a Phonics teacher, I had to devise different methods of teaching letter names and letter sounds to these little ones.
These learners learn faster when teaching is interesting to them; you have to play with them to win their loyalty.
Sometimes, we even watch cartoons together; when you are teaching babies, you become a baby too. Yes, now.
University students are interesting sets of people to teach too; they come in different categories, some are sweet, some can be rebellious, some can be naughty, some can be crafty and some are just funny.
My best approach to teaching university students is to relate with them as friends; I try as much as possible to come down to their level. This works for me.
Many times, when I meet my students for the first time, they are often surprised. At times, I just slip in among them and sit; they only get to know my identity when I stand to address them, and then I watch their varied reactions.
Although relating with my students as friends has been quite rewarding, there are instances when some students take my simplicity for granted; they just want to be rude.
I have had instances in which I had a special interest in some students, but when they became rude I just stepped back and let them be; I crawled back to lecturer and student mode!
