The Genesis of My Teaching Career | Kenya

THE GENESIS OF MY TEACHING CAREER Am Dr. Jedidah Muturi I have taught English and Literature for the past 23years in secondary school. For me, teaching is not just a job but a calling. It all started when I was looking after my father's sheep. I would imagine the leavy plants around were my students and I would imitate my teachers in teaching and disciplining them when necessary. In all my life I have lived to adore teachers. The fact that most of my teachers used to carry themselves with a lot of dignity and respect made me love them more. My head teacher in primary school Mr Simon Gitonga used to treat my Mum with a lot of concern and care whenever she came to work in the school farm as our family was extremely poor. I cherished him for that. His presence in the school used to make me very secure. His wise counsel drawn from the Bible and experience really shaped the life of many children. His tenure as a headteacher was a hall mark of what success is in a school.

My desire to become a teacher was cemented by Mr Kariuki my mathematics teacher in primary school may the Lord rest his soul in eternal peace. Mr Kariuki taught mathematics very well. What I found amazing is that he could explain concepts and we would understand. Then, I told myself I would like to be a teacher so that when I explain something students will understand, become knowledgeable and succeed in life. The same teacher would use role play as a teaching method in Chistian Religious Education (CRE). These lessons were very interesting, engaging and very intriguing. When I want students to enjoy my lessons to the fullest, I employ role play.

 Mrs Kimundia my Teacher of English in high school teacher turned my life around. She solidified and cemented my dream of becoming a teacher of English. Her achievement as a degree holder from Kenyatta university, one of the renown universities in Kenya. Her gait, her stature, her beauty, her dressing, her hairstyles all made her become my role model as far as teaching of English is concerned. Surprisingly, her teaching did not inspire me in my career as much as her personality did. When I saw her and heard her brief introduction, I decided to work hard join the university she studied in and become a teacher of English. I also told myself when I become that teacher I will dress like her, style my hair like her and adopt her walking style.  

When I qualified to join the university, I went to a different university but I had the ease of choosing a course. I was discouraged that studying English and Literature at the university level was very difficult and I stood the risk of taking retakes. I did not mind as far as I was training to become a teacher of English. I finally qualified and my dream came true. Surely if Miss Kimundia sees me today, she will see herself in me.

My teaching has always been shaped by revisiting my training notes, feeding on the experiences of my teachers and continuous learning. The aspect of putting myself in my students shoes and trying to imagine how my lesson could have been if I was a student has always made me work on my teaching methods continuously. I always remember the teachers whose subjects I would score highly and then remind myself of what they used to do to make us pass. My history teacher who was not even trained used to be very friendly and rarely got angry with us even if we annoyed him. To reciprocate for  his kindness we used to do very well in his subject. He carefully used to give us notes write them on the wall himself. He used to be very systematic. His explanations were very simplified and even the dumb of us all would get 60% and above. The same happened with my Geography teacher Mrs Mwaniki and Agriculture teacher  Mr Kiruhi, Physics and Maths Mr Gitonga. For these teachers I longed for their lesson and their absence would make me very bored. I keep asking myself whether my absence affect my students negatively. If it doesn't then I haven't been a good teacher to them.  When I reflect on those good teachers it helps me improve on my own teaching methods as well as my personality.

I have learnt with time that a teacher who is professional, has a pleasant personality and is very committed to his or her job the students secretly admire such teachers. They hold no grudge against them. For teachers who are the opposite and lazy and a darling to the students in the sense that they do not even discipline the students, secretly the students loathe such a teacher and even wish them away. For the Lazy and irresponsible students those teachers are their favourite.

The naming of teachers reflects a lot about the perception of the students towards the teacher. This is normally drawn from the teacher's personality, their behaviour in class or what they repeatedly do or say. The name given may be out of liking or loathing. In one school, one lady teacher was called the 'Principal(useless)'. This is because she was a bossy, had the stature of a principal but very lazy. She either missed classes or attended them while late. Another one was called 'reporter' as he would always report them to the principal if they did a mistake. Yet another was called 'summary' as she would encourage students to write short note while they are revising.

The behavior of students in class tells us a lot about our teaching style and personality. If the students are bored, yawning and others sleepy it could be an indicator the lesson is boring. If the students are not doing well in our subjects as per the potential of a student it means our methods of teaching and evaluation are not working well for us and need to be changed or improved. When we teach student and they understand but when we give them a test they cannot perform well in it means there are gaps in continuous revision and evaluation methods and frequency of testing.