Funny, exciting and annoying moments

Being a teacher is a beautiful experience. Teaching or caring for children is just a mixture of joyful, fun, exciting, annoying and beautiful experience. For almost 10 years now, I've been with children.

The first time I found myself in a school, I was an assistant teacher, a minder as they are usually called. I was a graduate, but that didn't bother me anyway. I just wanted to leave the house, I wanted to earn money to keep me going. It was a school for "rich kids, " so to say. I enjoyed every moment with the kids, though there were days they made me feel awful. I can still remember the many promises they made to me.

• David said, " Miss, I'll take you to America, and I'll buy you a house and a golden ball." Again he said, "...you always make me smile because I am not always happy at home. My parents are always frowning, we read our books all the time, with no time to gist. But you always talk to me and make me smile."*

• Salvation said, "I'll take you to Germany."

• Chidiebere said, "teacher, I'll buy you a car."

• Anieakan said, "My daddy will buy a car for you."

• Francisca said," "I love to be at school every day because I want to see you smile with me."

In all the promises, I'll nod my head smiling. Deep inside me, I'd be thinking, if I got all these things, I'd be extremely rich.

Today, I am no longer an assistant teacher or a middle school teacher, but I teach in high school. Being in the school system and teaching teenagers can be funny and exiting, then sometimes very annoying.

I am a class teacher for junior secondary 1 (JSS1). Being new to secondary school, I pet and handle them like babies because they just transferred from their basic school to secondary.

There are times my students will make me laugh so much that I'll be leaping. It could be that they are telling stories, sharing their experiences or thoughts on some matters or mimicking me.

It's usually all fun, sharing jokes, making fun of some of the things around us, and we'll all laugh and, if possible, take some selfies with some wild smiles.

There are times I'll get so serious, at times, I'll just be at a minimum, (no laughing, no frowning). That's to maintain a normal class atmosphere as a professional. That's because I don't just want to get too familiar with them to avoid abuse of privilege.

And then there are days when the students will get me angry because the same 'storytelling me' will forget that they usually make me laugh. Most of the annoying moments are usually when there is no correct answer to the questions I ask them, or maybe they didn't do well in their tests/examinations. Or maybe they don't adhere to certain instructions. Or that they have made a lot of noise, and sometimes, these people go against my orders, leaving the class without permission.

Being a teacher is a mixture of funny, exciting and annoying moments. Sometimes, I can't just help but smile because the students make me happy. We count our happy and funny moments rather than the annoying moments.

It hasn't been easy, but we get smiling through!

I invite
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