Backing Up Your Backup Plan

How’s it going? Hope everyone is having a great school-week so far. It’s almost Friday and I  can’t wait! Gosh, I am so super teacher-tired!

This week has gone well really and there’s nothing much to report except that my laptop almost did the unthinkable on Tuesday morning, sending me into a state of panic because I had no back-up plan!

In fairness to my faithful, soon-to-be 5 years old Samsung laptop, it has been showing signs of tiredness but I’ve been coaxing and urging it to take one more step because I’m not ready for a new one yet. But on Tuesday morning when I got to school and tried to turn it on in preparation for my four back to back lessons which I had from first till 4th period, it just didn’t come on. Instead, I got an error message that the system was “scanning and repairing Drive C” and this was about 25 minutes before the start of class. After what seemed like forever, it finally rebooted just about 5 minutes before class time. Phew!

At that moment, I was reminded of the importance of having a plan B. I mean, technology is great and often 99.999% reliable but you never can tell when the 0.0001% error will show up. It goes without saying that you should always have a backup plan as a teacher.

To be honest with you, I haven’t learned my lesson yet. I still haven’t created back-ups since Tuesday because the laptop has been working perfectly after that episode LOL but maybe next week I will! So, my plan is to upload my slides and materials for each week on Google drive so I can access them from anywhere if something goes wrong. I could also back up my back-up plan by printing out hard copies of slides and materials but that would mean having a lot of paper to throw away after a while. Anyways we’ll see.

Do you use technology in your classroom? If you do, how do you back up your plans for the times when technology acts up?   

This has got to be the most boring post ever but I’m glad you made it up to this point.

Thanks for stopping by, see you next post!

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A Girl Has No Name, But Your Students Do!

This has got to be the corniest blog post title of all times but hey, I’ll go with it. If you don’t watch Game of Thrones then you probably don’t know that this title is GoT-themed and inspired by my favourite character Arya Stark, whom I consider the most rounded and consistent character from the beginning till the end of the epic TV series.  Oh no, I digress.

What’s in a name, you say?

Some teachers go through the school year never learning their students’ names or worse, calling them by a different name. This wouldn’t matter if they were Arya Stark the girl who has no name. What’s a major teaching faux pas is just pointing randomly at a student and saying “you”. The unwilling student goes “who, me?” and turns around to look at, or point at someone else. Imagine the minutes you lose going “No, you, I mean you behind him.” Participation would be more effective if only you’ll simply say their name. Needless to say that calling your students by their names shows that they’re important, that they matter and are not just a face in the crowd.
Learning the names of your students may be tasking if you’ve got so many. And, if you’re like me having just one lesson period every two weeks’ contact with each class, then you’ll have a problem memorising the names and most especially putting faces to the names. So, here are some things that I’ve been doing to try to learn the names of about 700 students that I meet only once every week at different times, in the two schools that I’m assigned to.

First thing I did was to request for the seating chart and rewrite the students’ names from Japanese characters to romaji, then I went about using this seating chart like a boss LOL.  So, I would put the chart out of sight, look at a student and their name on the chart, go close to them and say something like "How about you, (student’s name)".  The smiles and surprise on their faces when I called their names were nice and heart-warming. One cheeky boy who tried to cover his name badge with his hand, thinking I was reading off the name badges, almost jumped out of his skin when I addressed him by his name. If you’re familiar with how Japanese people react dramatically when something surprises them I’m sure you can picture this very cute scenario.  Also, when a student participates, I say “well done (student’s name)” to boost their confidence. One time I went to a class and wasn’t aware that the seats had been reshuffled and the JTE forgot to tell me. The first few minutes were hilarious as I looked at one student and called them by another’s name. They gave me this puzzled look, glancing at the real owner of the name while the other students erupted in laughter. Uh oh, boss moves busted.

Of course, using the seating chart doesn’t mean that I always manage to match the students’ faces with their names afterwards. Ah, bless the cheeky ones; I learn their names faster for very obvious reasons. So now, I take advantage of my lunchtime engagements (I have lunch with a different class each day) to learn a few names, making a mental note of the faces at the same time. Each class is broken into lunch groups and I can only sit and talk with one lunch group of about 8 students at a time so, let’s say in a week I manage to memorize about 72 names and faces out of 400. I’m slowly making progress and soon when I meet a student in the hallway and they enthusiastically say “Hello Lola” I’ll be able to say hello and call their name too. If you have any ideas about how I can learn names faster please drop a note in the comment section.

Names are important. Learning the names of your students is a very big deal. I cannot reiterate this enough.

Dear teacher, how many names and faces of your learners can you remember off the top of your head right now?

Thanks for stopping by.  See you next post!

Photo Credit: Photo found on Google photos.

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Genius In Nigeria, Stupid In Japan- My Japanese Intensive Course Experience

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid."This is a quote attributed to Albert Einstein and is very popular in Education circles and what it simply means is that "Ëverybody is a genius depending on the context in which they find themselves."
The truth of the above statement truly hit me when I arrived in Japan in September 2017 to commence my teacher training program sponsored by the Government of Japan, I was a complete idiot in the Japanese language; could neither speak, read or write. I was so eager to begin the Language course so I could enjoy living in the Japanese society. And then the course began and for at least the first month I couldn't understand what was happening. I, who was so "educated" in the English language became an utter fool when it came to the Japanese language and so a huge wave of panic hit me. If you checked my browser history during that month you would see a lot of google search on "Is it possible to be dyslexic in one language and not in another?" To make matters worse, I had learners from China and Korea in my class and except for just minor pronunciation issues that they had, they made the Japanese language look too easy and further heightened my feelings of stupidity! 

To cut a long story short, last week I completed the course in flying colours and became certified in Japanese language. Right now I can read, write and speak the Japanese language at the basic level. There are still many more levels to attain but at least for now I am no longer illiterate. So how did I cross the hurdle? I immersed myself fully into the language, reading ahead of lessons, watching Japanese animes and practicing whatever Japanese I learnt in class with native Japanese speakers. The most important factor that helped speed up my progress was the せんせいたち(pronounced senseitachi-meaning teachers). No matter how much I studied on my own, the concept only became clearer when I got to class and the teachers explained it using several interesting teaching methods. Every time we struggled, Yamashita Sensei would encourage us by saying "Don't worry, you still have 16weeks to go!" The place of a good teacher is indispensable in Education and more than ever before, I am proud to be a teacher.

Now in a few weeks, I will be commencing my teacher training program and I will be surprised to find out that I am a complete fool when it comes to teaching. I am sure I will learn a lot of new things but that I will be completely illiterate will be out of the question. This brings me to my main point. Genius is relative but it should be global. Language studies aside, if a child is a genius in science, maths, or Arts in Nigeria he should be a genius in America, Japan or Europe in the same field otherwise there is something wrong with the Educational system. So while we are waving the Albert Einstein quote around and working hard to help our children find their strengths and build their own niche we should ensure that we school them well using global teaching methods to ensure that they fit in any part of the world. They cannot be gurus in ICT in Nigeria and be stupid in Japan. 

But then, how can you give what you do not have? Start by exploring how teachers in other parts of the world are teaching your subject and incorporate these methods into your lessons as much as possible; you owe humanity that little. Remember, a lot of parents have no clue what quality education is like but they trust us-teachers to give the best to their kids.

Cheers to global teachers raising global geniuses!

じゃまたね‼

Image: Google Image tweaked by Teacher Lola.

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Understand and Plan Your Professional Development The British Council Way

 Dear teacher, professional development is good but not every training is for you at the moment. The teaching profession offers so much to learn, so much to explore and so many exciting challenges and growth opportunities that can become overwhelming if there is no clear path to follow to professional development.

  

In my first four years of teaching or thereabouts, I used to get so frustrated because I was aware I had so much to learn and I just wanted to know everything all at once. I was a knowledge junkie, going zigzag and just amassing knowledge haphazardly. Though I knew a bit of everything, I was not as deep as I wanted to be. I was worried and angry about the many materials I downloaded and photocopied but never got around to putting to use. As I grew professionally, I began to streamline knowledge after I learnt to identify the hungriest part of my teaching career then I went all the way to feed it.  A few months ago, I found an even better way to do it-The British Council way.

The British Council’s Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Framework is a great tool that allows teachers to evaluate, understand and plan their own professional development. The framework introduces 4 stages of development and 12 professional practices for great teaching and learning. Each professional practice has elements describing them and you can use the framework to identify whether you are at the Awareness, Understanding, Integration or Engagement level. Thus, the teacher can identify specific areas for development and chart a plan for growth. Download the booklet which contains the CPD framework here. There is also an online assessment tool which gives you the opportunity to assess your skills and choose the right training that fit your CPD path. Several courses for development and fantastic resources for each professional practice abound on the British Council’s website. 

CPD is good but only effective if it is properly planned and organised. Spend time to map your CPD path this summer holiday so you can slay like a #bossteacher next school year. 

Grow, teacher, grow.

CIAO,

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Child Advocacy Nigerian Initiative Set to Organize Schools Motivational Tour in Kaduna

Child Advocacy partners with CLEDA AFRICA towards the ongoing Continental Educational Tour.

"Continental Schools Motivational Tour" in 20 African countries, was launched in Zaria, Kaduna State Nigeria on the 22nd of June, 2016 at CTC Academy, initiated by CLEDA AFRICA. 

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Free Teacher Training Alert: "What is the real 21st Century Teaching?"

Good news for Primary and Secondary School teachers in Abuja!
Serviced OfficeHub Solutions (A Service of MaxSecure Technologies) is pleased to bring to you the first One Day Free Teacher Training as a way of contributing to the growth of the Nigerian education system, even as we celebrate Nigeria at 56, bearing in mind that “No education system can rise above the quality of its teachers".

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The Trendy Teacher

This a shout out post to all the Nigerian teachers out there who are current, trendy and keeping abreast of what is happening in the education world in order to create a worthwhile learning experience. If that is you, "oya dab!"

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Two Weeks and half in the Life of Teacher Lola

Hey there! It's a holiday tomorrow and today I mark two and half weeks since I met my new students. It has been lesson plans, teaching, marking students' notes, correcting assignment, checking lesson plans as Head of Faculty.... and the cycle goes round and round. Thankfully I have this moment to fill you guys in on how it has been so far.

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The First day

To succeed in any sphere of life, a plan is needed. Actors and actresses have a script they follow, a good chef needs a recipe to come up with a mouth-watering delicacy, a wedding planner needs a plan and no coach takes his players to the field without proper planning and preparations.   In the same vein, your success in the coming school year leans heavily on your success on the very first day of school.  

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Hey There! Welcome to my blog.

"Education has taken a downward spiral, the Nigerian educational system is plunging like a low neckline; we have low quality teachers; schools don't pay well; the government is starving the educational sector" bla bla bla, yada, yada yada! Phew!
Playing the blame game, all talk and no action will lead us nowhere. How does that saying go again? " Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country" Right? Or something like that. It may be a cliche but rings true no doubt.

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