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Saturday 16 June 2018

04:03

How to Succeed as a Teacher-Blogger in Africa

     
African teachers should start blogging, and must get it right blogging.

One of the easiest ways teachers can develop their writing skills as well as make a lasting mark in their world is through blogging.


There are thousands of educational blogs today owned by teachers. Many of them are already a hotspot for academic research and engagement.

Regrettably, most of these blog sites are owned and run by non-Africans. We have few Africans who are blogging in education niche. This means the niche is still very much untapped and open to African teachers to take advantage.

I encourage African teachers to go into blogging, making Africa their primary target of interest.

In this post, I show you 5 ways every African teacher can make it as a blogger-teacher here in Africa.


#1.   Just start

According to the popular saying, ‘the taste of the pudding is in the eating.

I am not yet a guru blogger. But I remember I developed the interest of blogging for a very long time now because of my drive for writing. When I started, it was an entire mess, but at least today, I have improved.

And you will be surprised, I learnt on my own. Like the popular saying goes, ‘Practice makes for perfection’.

If you’ve never done it before, it means you’re starting as a newbie blogger. I have to advise you to take it easy. Never try to swallow an elephant at one shot.

You wouldn’t want to spend unnecessary money starting a blog with a customized domain (something like www.yourname.com), where you would need to pay for a domain name and hosting etc. So, I suggest you start on a free platform.

There are many of them out there, but Word Press (www.wordpress.com) and Blogger (www.blogger.com) remains the best for you, but I will recommend blogger.


(Go how to download afree presentation on how to open a blogger blog and make your first post).



#2. Capture a regional interest

Try to narrow your writing to the African context, with global relevance…

Being a teacher, your chosen niche should at best focus on education and learning. This is important because this is where your readers feel you have expertise and they would readily listen to your expert advice.

But beyond your chosen niche, it would be more relevant to your target audience if you will capture a regional interest in your writing. Of course, your writing must have a global relevance, but capturing a regional interest in your writing makes it more practical and engaging.

It helps readers see your work as something done out of firsthand experience, not as a doctoral dissertation.



#3. Be original

Content rules when it comes to blogging. And one of the enemies of quality content is plagiarism (copying other author’s original work without authorization). And be sure no one wants to authorize you to continually use his original work in your blog.

Of course, you can copy others’ works and give credit to the original source. But the problem is that when you do that, you’ve only succeeded in increasing their page rank with search engines while decreasing yours. Besides, your readers would rather visit the original source than repeating visits on your sites.

Simply put, you need to be original. 

Try to write first by experience and practical knowledge. You can as well get a lot of information from others’ works. After all, no man is an island of knowledge. But the wit here is the ability to tinker and rearrange the items, make relevant additions and subtraction, infusing your own ideas and so on. And you’re already having an original piece.

Mind you, if you’re mentally lazy, you can’t do it!



#4. Join a community

You need to network with others. And the easiest way to do it is by joining an online community of those who are doing what you’ve started doing.

Be socially engaged- relevant Facebook groups/pages, Twitter, Linkedin, forums and other helpful communities where you share ideas as well as ask questions. If you are always having a meaningful contribution in these communities, I bet you that is one of the easiest ways to market yourself.

We have a Facebook Group,AfricanTeachers’ Network where you can collaborate with others for mutual benefit.



#5. Give it all you’ve got

Blogging is not a lazy man’s job. Even if you’re not blogging full time, it is nonetheless expected of you to be passionate with what you’re doing with blogging. This is the only way your effort pays.

Do you know that even search engines such as Google usually watch out to see a blogger’s commitment and consistency to providing useful and original contents over a period of time before pushing up that site to its top search position?

You may not be a 20-post-a-day blogger; but being consistent at posting 2 or 3 times every week is enough testimony that you’re in to do something reasonable, and the world will be ready to patronize you.

The moment you start blogging, you’re a newbie at first. But don’t remain at that newbie state; keep learning on how to improve on blog contents, designs, promotion and all that.

Simply put, give it all that you’ve got, and you will reap good in the long run.



You can download thisfree guide on how to start blogging with blogger as a newbie.


To learn more, join our class at #TeacherTeachTech…



From an original article on our sister blog, The African Teacher
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Tuesday 12 June 2018

23:03

10 Recommended Blogging Ideas for African TEACHERS


10 areas of blogging where teachers can find both convenience and expertise in blogging for global impact and monetary gain.



I have always maintained that teachers should go into blogging. Aside the benefit of creating a second income, blogging benefits the average teacher in more ways than one.


-          Blogging gives teachers a voice in a world where no one gives them a voice.

-          Blogging is one of the best platform to build a brand visibility globally, even if one is operating from the remotest part of Africa.


-          With blogging, you can be globally-connected for mutual benefit.


-          Blogging helps teachers develop a writing skill.


-          The joy of solving problem is enough motivation for teachers (who are already in the business of solving the greatest human problem, illiteracy) to go into blogging.

And the truth is that when you dedicate yourself as a teacher and blog well, you end up creating a lifetime wealth base for yourself.

Hence, African teachers should be encouraged to go into blogging.

But one question of many teachers about blogging has always been, ‘what should I blog about’?

The simple answer to that question is: many things.


Teachers are wealthy with contents that they are not in lack of what to blog about. I have just helped you by selecting these 10 areas where I am sure teachers have comparative advantage of experience and expertise to carve out niche in blogging.


#1. Classroom tips

With years of experience in the classroom, the average teacher can easily blog about topics that discuss how to succeed in the classroom. Such topics can be of great help to upcoming teachers.


#2. School management

The average teacher with say, five years or more experience in the school system, if observant enough, can easily blog on topics related to school management. Bet me, this is a very hot topic that can stand a teacher out.


#3. English Language classroom

English Language is the one of the most-used language in global communications today. In fact, it has come to be a Lingua Franca for many nations who are not the original speakers. It is widely used in politics, business, education and other major fields of human interactions. Hence, a lot of people are in search of quality work on the fundamentals of English Language, both in spoken and written format.

This is a great opportunity for English teachers who believe they have what it takes to teach it, to blog about it.


#4. Child Psychology and Parenting

No man does the job of parenting better than teachers. Teachers are great child psychologists. Teachers are already transforming hitherto wayward kids into responsible teachers, employing tactics that surpasses conventional parenting.

Turning this experience and expertise into blogging is the best way to help parents and young children out there.


#5. Math tutorial

Math as a subject is one area both parents and school children are always seeking solution for. And this is a global challenge.

Blogging about Math-related topics at whatever level is a big fish that profits both the blogger and the world at large.


#6. Native language

Blogging about native languages is one of the less-explored blogging niches, but with great potentials.

You might be shocked to know that a lot of people are searching the net each passing day on how to learn a new language, even those seemingly unimportant languages.

One great benefits of blogging in this niche is that you can easily earn big on it because many people are not into it.

Think of the joy of touching lives as well as making a buck out of it over what appeared at first as an inferior subject.


#7. Technology education

With the surge in the quest for a technology-driven education across the globe due to the current digital revolution, schools and individual educators are on hot search to learn one thing or the other to help their e-learning advancement need.

So, if you’re already grounded in this area, you should blog about it. By so doing, you will be solving problem for others, and possibly money problem for yourself.


#8. Career development

Teachers are career people, and over the years have mastered the painstaking path of career development. Hence, it will be easy for the average teacher to blog about this hot topic.

A lot of people out there need direction in their career advancement journey. Going into this blogging niche is another way to solve problems for others and also make a buck out of it.


#9. General sciences

General science is a blogging niche worth mentioning here. This is because of the high demand of expert science teachers across the globe.

You can decide to choose only one aspect of science, where you’re an authority and write expertly on it.

I urge teachers of science-related subjects to blog on this niche.


#10. Other academic topics

Another thing you can possibly do as a teacher is to blog about many academic subjects related to a particular academic stage or more.

For instance, you might choose to blog about all the major subjects taken in any special examination. You may also choose to blog about all KS-2 subjects etc. in this case, your interest is to serve a particular category.

In fact this might be the best bet for most Primary School teachers who handle virtually all the classroom subjects for their classes.

The point here is this: if you can teach your local ks-2 children all those subjects expertly, you can as well blog about them at the same time, thereby profiting other school children at the same stage across the globe.

While this post serves the interest of teachers all over the world, I primarily wrote this to challenge African teachers, many of who have always been scared of going into blogging for want of blogging contents.

From this post, you can see that as a teacher, you have so much to write about beyond what you’ve always limited yourself to.

You can begin today and make it happen. We are here to support you.


Recommended: Click to download this free guide on how to design yourfirst blog…

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15:18

The Challenge of Technology-driven Education in Africa: 'The Ministry is our Problem'


The major factor hindering the development of technology-driven education in Africa is the conventional approach of government. The Ministry is our problem


‘The Ministry is our problem’

By the time Papa Mmesoma finished talking, over 80% of the participants were already applauding. I looked around and gazed at my school director- she was not really in that ecstatic mood.

Guess what? Those who applauded were mainly classroom teachers, who shared same plight and opinion with Papa Mmesoma.

Does it mean the school owners around did not buy into that opinion? Not really…

One of them came up to support the idea and even went as far as informing the house how she was doing it in her school… but she added what eventually became a popular clause, ‘the ministry is our problem’.

My madam came alive and concurred, others joined the chorus: The Ministry is our problem!

Which Ministry?, you may ask. The answer, ‘The Nigeria Ministry of education- so conventional that they are resistant to any novel idea…

This is the replica of what you are likely to hear from every other teacher from any African country.

What is the issue here?

That was at a training program I attended last year- a Teachers Network Conference at Lagos, Nigeria, with the theme: Technology-driven Classroom.

In attendance were teachers from different schools, education consultants, private school owners as well as reps from companies who sponsored the program.

In fact I came all the way from Port Harcourt with my colleagues alongside our Proprietress (23 of us).  What a risk and cost? You would say!

But then, at the end, the program was worth such huge risk and cost.

It was during the panel discussion before the breakout session that the anchor person, Rhoda Odigboh with her team of great minds, took time to challenge everybody in the house on why Nigerian teachers must embrace technology fully both in our administrative and classroom activities.

Applause! Applause!! Applause!!!

Everyone in the house was now charged and all that.

But there is a problem!

Embracing a technology-driven classroom in African is as daring as going to cut a lion’s tail just to prepare a meal for lunch. You’re sure to meet a brick wall from the Ministry.

How?

For sure, embracing a technology-driven classroom will eliminate most of our paper works- but the Ministry cannot tolerate this.

Embracing a technology-driven classroom means that most of our school children’s work and activities will be in soft copies and media forms- but the conventional Ministry wants to see the hard copy.

This was the concern of Mr Juventus Ifediata (aka Papa Mmesoma).

Should teachers keep writing lesson notes every term, while still embracing technology in the classroom with its rigorous manipulations?

Why not have notes written for once and saved as soft copies, only to be reviewed when necessary?

These and many other probing questions stirred the house.

Teachers were applauding like a prisoner who was told his prison term is completed.

You think that school administrators are averse to this?

Not really! They’re only afraid of the rod of the Ministry. By the time one of them (school owners) spoke and pointed at the constraints, the chorus had changed:

It’s now, “the Ministry is our problem”!

And that’s Africa for you.

  • *    Even the governments (Ministry of education) in many African countries are still operating manually.

  • *    School children are still copying notes from the black board(Imagine how the slow writers drag the class behind each day)

  • *    Our Education ministry still insists that teachers must produce a fresh hard copy of lesson note each session(written on a weekly basis)

  • *    Recommended textbooks are outdated and out of sync with current global educational realities, yet the Ministry insists schools must abide by these recommendations

  • *    Our educational curriculum design is so disjointed and confusing that it is at best irrelevant.


You can see that change is knocking on our door, and the African teachers are ready to embrace that needed change.

Unfortunately, the Ministry is our problem!

Africa is blessed with huge human and natural resources, but regrettably cursed with bad and visionless leadership.

We need a holistic change of mindset in the way we do things.

I have to say that the greatest problem Africa has in developing (primarily in Education) is rooted in the lack innovativeness among the men and women in charge.

It’s like we take interest to frustrate teachers and learners. While technology is making learning easier and more thrilling, Africa has resisted it.

Someone has rightly opined, that ‘they seem to gain, when we are in pain’- referring to African leaders.

So be sure only teachers can change the system for good. We shall not act as rebellious children, but we must fight and fight and fight.

Things must be done right here in Africa.

Today, ‘The Ministry is our problem’; tomorrow, let it be said, ‘African teachers have brought solution’

But this can only happen when teachers embrace the change itself, and go all the way to acquire the needed change that would make it happen.

Technology-driven education is the key to our collective goodness as a continent. Let’s embrace it.

Join the TeacherTeachTech Campaign and acquire the needed skills to bring about that change we all desire.





Culled from the original article from our sister blog, The African teacher.

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Saturday 9 June 2018

23:51

The 5 Ultimate Need of the 21st Century African teacher


     





Being a 21st century educator is a big challenge on its own; being a 21st century African teacher is a challenge too big that if left unattended to, could lead to a catastrophe.

The education of the 21st century and the years ahead is so challenging because of its drastic shift from the conventional educational system. What used to work before is no more working- a lot of things have changed…

-         Our tutees
-         Our techniques
-         Our learning tools
-         Our technology developmental level
-         Our target audience
-         Our reporting time frame and all that.

A lot has really changed! And changed, so quickly!

Today’s educators are now running against time to meet up with the phenomenal changes in order to remain relevant.

Where are the African teachers in the scheme of things as regards these changes?

Africa as a continent is bedeviled with a lot of poor policy framework, being the result of non-visionary and corrupt leadership (no apology to this). This scenario consequently affects every aspect of the socio-economic, educational and political interactions of the people.

And no sector has suffered this backlash more than the educational sector.
Simply put, African teachers are cultivating on a rocky soil.


Read: The 6 Reasons Why Teaching in Africa is a Hard Nut to Crack.

What then should be the response?

Quit the profession?

No!

Only 5 things are needed to turn things around, not just for ourselves, but for our dear continent and her children.


African teachers of today need personal and professional development to be their best in their career path.

It must sink deep into our sub-conscious minds as teachers here in Africa that gone are days when our efforts as teachers are measured only within that geographical African setting. Every African teacher today should see himself as a global teacher.

Then if you are, really, you need continuous personal and professional development.

The best investment a teacher can make is an investment of self-improvement. 

This is because, when you improve, your status improve, your opportunities increase, your network enlarges…

And your income and ‘wealth-being’ will definitely improve.

…Read books on personal and professional development
…Attend conferences and workshops
…Learn skills relevant to your professional calling, and even beyond.

            Just do everything within your legitimate reach to develop yourself.



African teachers of today should collaborate with other teachers around the world for profitable networking.

One of the greatest gains 21st century handed to us is the breaking of the inter- racial and inter-cultural barriers that once existed.

Today, it’s very easy and common to see professional collaborating with colleagues from different part of the world. Social media, technology and the digital space have all contributed immensely to make this achievable.

African teachers must leverage this to fly higher. There are no more excuses on the indifference of African political leaders. We now have more and better resources than the continent can afford us through collaboration and profitable networking with our peers from the other parts of the world.

All we need to do is join an online community of educators- interact, share ideas, ask questions. Just be an active member of such community and you will definitely find answers to your questions for professional success.

In my next post, I will be sharing some online communities that profit African teachers.



African Teachers have a lot of message for the world; they should go out there and trade their knowledge for money.

One of the greatest challenges of the average African teacher is poor remuneration. And the second is a place low societal relevance. Teachers have no voice in Africa.

But the good news is that they can manufacture a voice for themselves, and even make much money doing so.

I have always challenged African teachers to create a platform that help them reach out to their world.

The most talented set of people on earth are teachers, but how many of them remain voiceless, hiding at the background is both shocking and ridiculous.

With the wealth of classroom experience, teachers over the years have mastered and can as well teach confidently on management, child psychology, mentoring, career development, success strategy, academic subjects and all that.

Coincidentally, the world out there are in need of these experience. Teachers should find a way to communicate these message to their world.

I charge every African teacher to go into blogging.

Blogging would be so good for teachers, as it remains the best platform to find a voice to speak to their worlds and at the same time create a lifetime wealth.

With blogging, every teacher can find a voice to correct the ills of the society.



African teachers of today should create a brand visibility for themselves.

There are many expert and committed teachers across Africa and other parts of the world whose works are unknown, unrecognized and unrewarded. And it is bound to remain so for the rest of their lifetime.

But just a simple tweak- and all of that is changed.

How?

Teachers should create a brand visibility for themselves.

Thank goodness, to do this is no more a rocket science. The emergence of the Social Media has made it very easy for teachers to create an engaging brand for themselves.

Think of these powerful Social Media tools and platforms:

                        … Facebook Fan Page
                        … Twitter Handle
                        … LinkedIn Professional profile
                        … Instagram Page
                        … Google Plus
                        … Pinterest etc.

Fellow professional are already creating personal brands to make themselves visible and relevant to their world. Every teacher should do just that.

Let the world know that there is an expert tutor in that back side of the desert, whose works can profit the world.



The African teachers of today should embrace technology.

This is no more optional; it is now mandatory.

In the next couple of years, it would be a lost cause for a 21st century educator to be tech-novice.

Technology is now the in-thing.


Read: 3 Reasons Why 21st CenturyEducators without a Tech Knowledge are in a Big Mess


The only way to position oneself as a 21st century educator is to be tech savvy. 

Every teacher must train on and master various 21st century skills, especially ones that have to do with education.

I will have to say here that embracing technology as a tool for education is the most ultimate need for 21st century educators; hence, being indifferent to it is at best, colossal.

It’s only unfortunate many teachers, especially here in Africa, are still in the dark. And our learners, who are of digital natives, are just enduring us.


Our utmost interest is to see African teachers arise to resuscitate the dwindling fortunes of African education, in order to create a desirably bright future for our children.

We run the #EduTEaCHAfrica and #TeacherTeachTech campaigns to help sensitize as well as train African teachers on the use of these basic tech educational tools for maximum impact.

You can always contact us for training whether as individual teacher or a school.
Feel free to share your thought on the comment box.






Friend you can join the #TeacherTeachTech challenge by filling this form... and get every tech education skill you need to stand out... 

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