By Introduction
WELCOME here! On this platform, we will be discussing matters related to education. Let me give a short introduction. I am a teacher. I teach students across all levels of education. I love teaching and I am passionate about it.
You want to know how I got into teaching? The first platform I had was the NYSC. I was posted to a senior secondary school for my youth service. After NYSC, I needed to get a job; there were bills to pay. I got a teaching job and my ordeal began. I got the job so I could pay my bills, but the remuneration was just a paltry sum. I was frustrated.
Along the line, I discovered purpose! Passion was ignited in me. My focus shifted from the pay to my students. I saw lives that I needed to build; I saw destinies that needed to be moulded, rightly; I saw innocent souls I needed to impart.
This priceless discovery has kept me going over the years. And my bills are adequately sorted.
A Self-Appraisal
Titilope Ogundele with some of her pupils
Sometimes ago, I was moved to do a self-appraisal. I wanted to know what my students didn’t like about me. I asked them to write what they liked about me and what they did not like about me. I instructed them not to put their names so they could be free to express their feelings.
I went through all the notes and realised 80 per cent of my students complained about a particular habit they detested: I was fond of slapping them! It was a serious matter; I was always too quick to slap my students!
I could not deny it; they were right. Who knows how many times this attitude had been a hindrance to the teaching-learning process? It was obvious that many of them detested the attitude and I knew I had to stop it.
Did their notes help me? Definitely! The exercise was an eye-opener. I consciously stopped that bad habit. I stopped ‘spraying’ my students with slaps!
EDITOR’S NOTE: Hope you enjoyed the short piece you just read? ‘Diary of a Teacher’ will be coming your way, weekly, on Saturdays. The author, Titilope Ogundele, holds a B.A in Communication and Language Arts and an MA in English Language from the University of Ibadan. She is a young teacher and writer. Titilope is passionate about education and desires to see the educational system in Nigeria sanitised. She, therefore, contributes her symbolic quota to the reformation process. You can reach her on whatsapp: 0810 435 4572.
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