My first job.
The first job that one does in life is always fresh in his or her memory. It is mostly during the youthful age, in my case teenage and the level of enthusiasm accompanying the job can't be quantified.
Immediately after my secondary school education, I moved to another town to stay with my sister. After spending about a month at home without doing anything, the house became boring for me. During the weekdays, my sister and her husband would go to work and the children would go to school. I would be left alone at home to be eating, watching movies and sleeping.
When I got tired of the boredom, I told my sister that I would like to look for a job to get busy with. He gave her approval. I photocopied my senior school certificate and checked around to submit it in some primary schools.
Triumphant Primary School invited me for an interview.
I happily dressed up in the morning of the following day and went for the interview. After the written and oral session of the interview, the proprietor, whose wife was the headteacher, hired me immediately.
The proprietor conducted me around the school. The school was just a three room building. The construction work was yet to be completed. Realizing how I was looking at the place, he was quick to tell me that the building was just a temporary site. He said they would move to the permanent site before the most senior class got to primary 5.
I was deployed to primary 3. The headteacher, who earlier introduced herself to me as a graduate of Geography education, was to handle primary 4. I met two other employees who were to handle primary 1 and 2 classes. An elderly woman was there to handle pre-nursery.
My salary was relatively good for a secondary school leaver. The work was hectic because I was teaching all the subjects in my class. I hardly rest each day.
I gained many things from that job that helped me in my undergraduate studies and still helps me today. My stay of one year in the school before leaving to further my education at the University taught me how to devote myself to reading.
I remember spending time each night reading and understanding a topic before going to teach it. My area of strength was Mathematics while my weakness was in humanity subjects.
This habit of reading remained with me till my University education and it helped me to perform well in my undergraduate degree.
I learned about time management. The headteacher was there to guide me on how I would be able to cover my scheme of work in each subject I was teaching. It was also in that school that I learned how to plan a lesson before going to class to teach.
Another important thing that I learned was resource management. I remember when I brought my first salary home, my sister advised me on how to go about spending just a little of it and saving the bulk for my university needs. I worked with her advice and it was awesome.
I left the school after a year to start my degree. I recommended someone, who was my neighbor, for my replacement before leaving. The proprietor asked me if the boy was good and I replied in the affirmative. That was all the interview that he needed to pass before being hired. You could imagine their level of trust in me and my judgment. He lived up to the expectation and performed creditably well before resigning to further his education too.
My relationship with the proprietor and headteacher remained cordial till present.
If I am to go back there, I would gladly do so but I doubt if they can pay me a considerable salary.
Thank you for reading and leaving your comment.
I guess everyone once teach
I teach primary 3 and those kids, damn. All i can say is that there are good and bad memories
You know Nigeria very well. Teaching is one of the most common underemployment around.
yeah, and schools is the most opened firm, can i call it a firm ?
Since they are now profit making organization, they are firms.
I guess as much
Teaching is nice. I recently teach secondary students and I can tell you it has been a good experience. My first job would have been teaching but my dad didn't allow me back then. Nice experience you had.
Teaching is a good job. There is an inner joy when you know that someone is having some behavioural changes as a result of your efforts.
Exactly. You feel fulfilled and filled with joy when your impact reflects.
You have invested your free time in a very good place and you have learned and earned a lot from it. It is very good that you have taken care of your university expenses yourself, you have not become a burden on anyone. You did a great job.
Though it was just a fraction of it that I raised, it went a long way in relieving my parents of such expenses.
It is rightly said that parents are not concerned about your expenses.
Nice so do you still teach now after finishing your university?
I think it's a great first job as it's busy and you also have to kind of organize what you plan on teaching, time management and need the patience for teaching~. you learned a lot from here. Thanks for sharing your story~
Yes. I still teach. It's a work I have passion for. Thank you for stopping by.
hey that's awesome. it's not easy work and not the best paying job either. there really needs to be passion for this type of job to teach the future~ You're welcome!
Its nice to teach, teaching would have been my first job also but, then, it was a no no for me. But life later brought me a bit closer to it.
Very nice, I must agree. Why didn't you take it the first time? The stress?
Yeah, teaching is stressful especially primary school pupils 🤨
Teaching is indeed a rewarding profession! Maybe not always in terms of monetary remuneration, but it rewards in many ways possible!
About the habit of reading, it is difficult to be teaching others, and encourage them to read their lessons if the teacher himself does not read. :) That's why a teacher should always teach by example :)
You summarized everything. Learning is continuous for a good teacher. I heard that they are rewarded at par or even more than other top profession but in Nigeria, they are least remunerated.
That's sad to know, but your teachers are not alone in that predicament. Teachers in my country share the same sentiment.
You really tried I can't teach despite the fact that teaching job is good.
I can't deal with how those kids beat each other or cry for no reason
I don't like talking too much and teaching will definitely make me talk more than much
You are right. Teaching children is not easy. A lot of patience is required and I think that's why primary schools are dominated with female teachers. It requires a lot of talking like you mentioned but I am used to it.
They surely missed and trusted you. It's a good habit to prepare before a lecture and it helped you prepare well against exams. Thank you for sharing