The Joyful Educator

Her name is Joy and she never wanted to be a teacher , but she is a lover of children. She was born in a large family with twenty one children, it was a typical polygamous family that consists of her father and three wives and twenty one children. They grow up together and lived a communal lifestyle.cooking , eating , playing and sleeping together in the home.

Growing up was so much fun and she loved it when she gets to be the one that is in the middle of circle under the Mango tree in her fathers compound at sunset telling her siblings the moonlight stories . She knows how to captivate them with different interesting folktale stories and her melodious voice is beautiful to listen to when she sang folktale songs in between her stories. Many of her siblings find her style of story telling more interesting and intriguing than that of of others, therefore she gained more audience from her cousins and neighbors too. Everyone loved it when she is the one to tell the story .

Interestingly she was sort after as a teenager by new mums in the community and neighborhood for her to assist them care for their toddlers while they do house chores like cooking dinners and washing dishes and clothes . She has a way with crying babies , she became the magic wand used to calm any crying baby and rock them peacefully to sleep with her melodious lullabies.Mothers always look for her to help with their babies each evening when she comes back from school and during the weekends when she is not going to school.

She was very intelligent and she did very well in school . She love arguing with her siblings and friends over many different topics and issues . She developed her vocabulary and has a wonderful way of presenting her arguments in a way that a lot of people told her that she will make a good Lawyer. She channeled all her energy in studying subjects that will help her gain admission to study law in the university like English language, Literature in English, Government and Religious Study . She credited all of them in her High school education and even in her (WAEC) West African Examination Council .

However, life happened and she did not gain admission in the university to study her desired Course law but a different thing entirely.She studied Political Science in her first degree and finished top of her class and also a post graduate degree in Education few years after by then she have started teaching . How come she became a teacher you may want to know? Oh during her compulsory youth service she was posted to a Health center and she worked directly with midwives and nurses at the pediatric clinic as a front desk officer. Her love for children was rekindled again , She was not a health care professional but she sometimes ask to asssit nurses to weigh the babies in the scale and help record their weight in the their different files and the clinic’s records. She love to play with the babies while at it and also calm the crying babies with her lullabies. She has a different one for every baby and the babies loved her. She knows how to make them smile each time they sees her at the clinic’s reception. She knew she love children, she is always happy each time its immunization clinics because she will get to attend to lots of children and play with them while at it .

She knew she finds happiness working with and around children. Therefore after the end of her service year , she searched for a job in schools and finally got a job in a school . She was ecstatic about her new job not because of the pay but because it gave her the opportunity of handling children though this time around not toodlers but children between the ages of eight and ten years who were in year 5 of a public Primary school in Lagos Nigeria . This was where her career as a teacher began some twelve years ago . Her students loved her so much , she loves to teach them using playway methods , dramatizing and storytelling techniques. The children in her assigned class began to do better in their academics, truancy reduced to the point that she hardly get to mark anyone absent when she is taking her class attendance except for fee times her pupils called in sick ,She dances and sings with them every morning to arouse their interest and put them in the mood to learn . During sports activities in school she run and play other sports with the children and this makes the children to start calling her the Joyful Teacher . Although her middle name is joy but her the name the Joyful Educator was derived from her teaching styles and methods and her happy spirit and ever smiling face . Every child wanted to be in her class , those who are not in her class became envious of her class pupils . She won several awards as the best teacher in that school and several other schools because she was that teacher that was always happy doing her job because she is passionate about her job and the children in her class and not because of the job remuneration because in her part of her of the world teaching is not the best paid jobs rather is it at the bottom as it is regarded by many as the worst paid profession . She would rather do other side hustle to make up her meager salary and remained a Joyful teacher till date . She is still a Joyful Educator.