Interview Podcast

In this interview episode of Educate Podcast, Victoria Joseph, a primary school teacher, discusses her career and experiences. She shares that being a teacher requires hard work and care for the children. She teaches multiple subjects each day and manages stubborn children by counseling and giving incentives. When a child performs poorly, she investigates the reasons and involves parents in finding solutions. Victoria also discusses the challenges faced by primary school teachers, such as teaching math. Despite the challenges, she finds being around children fulfilling and enjoyable. However, she acknowledges that teachers are not well-paid in Nigeria and are often looked down upon. She advises those interested in the education sector to embrace teaching as a decent profession and encourages parents to actively participate in their child's education. The podcast host praises Victoria's insights and emphasizes the importance of incorporating technology in teaching. The episode concludes Hello listeners, we welcome you to another exciting interview episode of Educate Podcast. Today we have Victoria Joseph in the studio. She is a staff of Anambre Moriba Business School here in Oweri. She is a graduate teacher, a certified educationist, and has taught in the primary schools for over 15 years. She is a co-owner of Elite Schools. Myself, your humble teacher of teachers and parents, Dominic Issua, will take you through this session today. So please stay to the end of this episode to get valuable teaching career insights and tips to help you cope with your children. So, Victoria, welcome to our studio today. Thank you for having me. Thank you very much. I can see that you are prepared for this particular podcast. You are full of smiles, and I know listeners are eager to learn from you today. So without wasting our time, I will just hit the questions straight away. So tell us, Victoria, what made you choose a career as a teacher? Well, I was brought up by a teacher. My auntie was a decent and educated person. I grew up to love teaching. I wanted to be like her. Wonderful, wonderful. So what is it like to be a primary school teacher? Well, being a primary school teacher requires a lot of work and a lot of care. You have a lot of academic work to do. Care on the part of the children and care on your own part to influence the children right. Teachers are good influencers at this age. Yeah, I quite agree with you that teachers influence children a lot, especially at the primary school level, because children will always look at their teachers as role models. Well, how is your typical day at work like? My day at work starts with the morning assembly. Then class activities, which includes teaching, learning, control, management, marking, scoring, recording scores, corrections, and more. My work day ends by 3 p.m. and I'm left tired. Well, yeah, you should be tired after doing so much in a day. There's a great load of activities and things to do. So what subjects do you teach and how many subjects are you required to teach in a day? I teach all the subjects. Wow. Math, English, Sciences, Social Studies, Religious Knowledge, Computer, Homework, Vacational Studies. I am required to teach up to five subjects a day. Wow, that's quite a lot. You mean you teach all these subjects in a day? Yeah. And you teach up to five subjects? Yeah. That is really, really, really, really so much to cover in a day. In the course of doing this, how do you manage stubborn children? I counsel them a lot. I make them my friends. I also make sure they are given incentives, such as praises, for doing a thing right. You mean you give them incentives? Of course, I do. Well, you can't go wrong with giving children incentives because that will really motivate them. Giving children will go a long way to motivate them to do more good things. So how do you feel when a child performs poorly in your class and how do you remedy this situation? I feel bad. There is a reason why a child performs poorly in class. I always try to find out the reason and remedy it. Sometimes the reason is hard to find. Sometimes the reason is obvious. I invite parents for an interview to know about circumstances and events in the child's life. This normally sheds a lot of light and points me to the next action. Wow, that's a very good strategy. Parents need to understand that they have a role to play in helping the teacher to help their children. When they provide a lot of insight about their children, especially when the child is not doing very well, it helps the teacher to know exactly what to do to help the child. Primary school teachers teach all the subjects, just as we have said. I know that no teacher will major in all these subjects at the same time. This is a great challenge. What are the challenges that come from this and how do you take care of it? Yes, this is a major challenge for primary school teachers. Basically, if you have gone through the teacher training courses, it's easy to interpret content in all subjects and teach them successfully. Teaching math is usually problematic to most teachers, especially the female ones. But if you put effort and learn the basics from other teachers who teach it well, you have no problem at all. Wow, I agree with you. I agree with you. Even in my school, most female teachers shy away from mathematics. I always tell them, look, there's nothing too difficult in teaching mathematics. You can learn it from other teachers who can teach it well. Exactly. And that helps a lot. Okay, teaching in a primary school and being around children all the time is quite an experience. Please tell us how this experience has impacted your life. Being around children all the time in school is an exciting and fulfilling experience. Wow. My life has been sweet for it. I don't take anything too hard. Sometimes I feel myself behaving like them. You can't beat the laughing and smiling because of funny things children do. It puts you in a good mood all the time. I really cherish the experience. Wow, that is really true. But some people will tell you that children can also make you angry. Yes, but most of the time they make you happy. All right, share with us some upsides and downsides of your job. Teaching is a decent job. You learn every day and have colleagues who are cool. On the downside, teachers are not well-paid in Nigeria. And the work is so much. People even look down on teachers because most of them don't have money. Oh, that's quite sad. And I agree with you. In a nation society that people attach so much value to wealth and possessions, when you're a teacher, sometimes they don't really look at what you have to offer. They're looking at what you have. Yes. And it's quite discouraging. That is why many people don't want to go into the teaching profession. Yes. I hope this improves in our own day. So what advice do you have for those looking to work in the education sector, teachers and parents? If you are looking to be a teacher, welcome. It is a very decent job, as I said before. Nowadays, you can teach online and make a lot of money. That is a topic for another day. If you are already a teacher, please, be proud of yourself. Wow. Take every opportunity to learn new technology in the teaching space and use it to better your lives. Parents, please, help your children. By homeschooling them, don't leave the education of your child only in the hands of teachers. You have to do your bit to complement their efforts. It's very, very important. Thank you for listening. I really love this thing you just said. So many things that you talked about right now is very important. You know, I usually tell my colleagues, you know, that teaching is one of the best professions available right now. Even if you Google, you know, the online works of the 21st century, you'll see that teaching is one of them. Yes. Because a lot of people now are teaching online. Online and making money. They think they know how to do best. You know, they even kind of create courses and teach people and they make a lot of money. So days are gone when you say you are a teacher and you just, you know, remain in the classroom. You can learn whatever it takes, you know, the tech part of teaching and join in the ongoing, you know, space of teachers teaching online using some of these tech tools. Thank you so much, Victoria, for coming to our studio today. You have taught us a lot of things from your wealth of knowledge and experience. I'm so happy. Thank you so much, listeners, for being in our podcast today. I hope you learned something from our guest, Victoria Joseph, today. Always tune in to Educate Podcast to get practical tips on how to teach better at school and at home. To watch more of my videos on best ways to teach various topics in math and English in upper primary as well as super materials for teaching and homeschooling your child, check out the links in the description below. See you next week for another exciting edition of Educate Podcast. Bye.