Knowing what to do

Knowing what to do in and out of your classroom

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How Knowledgeable are you?

Teachers are very busy people. Everyone knows that teachers work with knowledge, but does that make them knowledgeable? For some yes, for many no. Otherwise, how could teachers who work with knowledge be poorer than their colleagues from most professions? How can they keep waiting for government or employers to give them a higher income because they think it will make their lives better? How could they believe that they do not need to develop themselves because it benefits the school only? Truly, it’s one thing to be knowledgeable and another, to be presumptuous. As teachers, we also need to be resourceful.

Resourcefulness

Resourcefulness is not necessarily about how much you know. It is from how well you can apply even the smallest degree of knowledge, information or good old common sense. Resourcefulness is how a woman with no basic education, sets up a stall in a corner of the street and sells fruits and other items like corn, switching them according to season or demand. It is how she knows when to open and close her business and manage this fund enough to train her children to university level, without having a school certificate. There are many resourceful Nigerians, many of them can be found on the streets and market places creating a future for themselves and their children.

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What is resourcefulness?

Resourcefulness has been defined as ‘the ability to find quick and clever ways to overcome difficulties’. I have seen many resourceful teachers. They teach lessons by creating their own teaching aids even if they are sticks and stones. However, teachers are not resourceful when they continue to do so in the age of technology, where students and pupil continue to know how to use technology more than most of their teachers. Many teachers think their problem is money (or the lack of it). But it isn’t. It is indeed, not knowing what to do. This is the reason why you can give two people N100,000 and one finds a way of making a profit from it and one spends it all without knowing what to do to make a profit.

In your classroom

How resourceful are you in your classroom? have you created rules and posted them on a visible part of your classroom wall or bulletin board as a technique for managing behaviour? Have you decorated your classroom with cardboards and markers to help beautify the environment and also remind students of learning? Have you given duties to your students to involve them in the classroom so they can have a sense of belonging? Can you solve problems, or identify alternatives for things you do not have available for use?

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Resourceful teachers do not wait

Resourceful teachers do not depend on their certificates to make them exceptional teachers, they depend on the development of their minds and practice. They take risks, study new teaching techniques, read, research and try out ideas in the classroom. They do not wait for their schools to develop them professionally. Resourceful teachers do not depend only on their salaries.

As teachers, we are custodians of knowledge but not knowing what to do with it, is inexcusable. As a teacher, I promised myself that I would never complain about my salary, because I had accepted it myself, knowing full well that teachers are not often well paid. While others grumbled about the need for pay rises, I found more practical ways to earn more income outside of my work hours. Many of my colleagues did some extra lessons and still grumbled. I chose another way and would not grumble because grumbling only makes you more blindsided. Giving extra lessons is good, grumbling is not!

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Be a SMART teacher

Just in case you cannot yet afford a computer but are still saving money for other things, buy yourself a smart phone with some internet. Yes, it costs some money but you can make your life and work a lot easier with it - it’s a mini computer, plus you can also earn some money with it, if you know how to apply your knowledge. How? You can teach or train with it using WhatsApp or any other suitable app, sell materials from it, create power point presentations for school, record videos for teaching, upload videos to you online classroom or school YouTube channel, you can find free courses online with it, etc.

If we do not apply ourselves against all odds, we stand the risk of being stagnated. I learned long ago that the absence of what I needed was in fact an advantage, because it created new opportunities for me to be more resourceful. Because I work remotely, I have probably delivered more online training in the last three years than in the previous 10 years, when I did face to face training. I started teacher groups on WhatsApp to keep in touch with, and grow my network. If you are reading this, it is because I want to reach out to you, from a distance of over 5,000 kilometres. We can do a lot with very little. I know, because it has also been my experience.

One last word…

Develop yourself, plan, think ahead, invest in yourself, believe in yourself, stop waiting for someone to do it for you!