31 day reset - Day 26

Make a new friend

The person should be in your community of support, someone who is like-minded and can hel you achieve your goals.

Funny how this friend "came to me" she keeps saying, "you're amazing and I was drawn to you" which can be creepy but somehow I get it. She is someone I work with, much older than I am but I already see her as a friend, a mentor and someone I will learn a lot from the upcoming months.

She and I have talked about everything from self development (especially that) to relationships to character building all the way down to clean eating. since we started having our DMCs (Deep meaningful conversations) I've been saying a prayer for here everyday, thanking God for bringing her into my life. It was truly like magic.

Here's a Toast to my new friend!

Cheers!

Love always,
Sabirah.

Dream Jobs, contests and more dreams

Hi!

Wow! Overwhelming response on my last post, I was pleasantly surprised and had no idea it would touch so many people. I'm truly grateful for everyone who read it, thought it was good enough to share and passed it on. Thank you, It means a lot.

So today's business! I saw this amazing contest on Modcloth and I just had to enter, I'm not really big on contests but this one looked like so much fun, and I already have and love Pinterest so I thought why not?

So I set about creating a board that reflected my dream job... Only problem was, I don't really have one, I was only stuck for a few moments and while thinking about it I tweeted this- "Still don't know what my dream job is or if it exists, but I know the random mish mash of things that make me happy and that's OK :)” This comforted me while I tried to figure out what to put up.

I know that I'm highly creative, I know that I'm a helper, I love to learn and I love the study of the human mind. I know that I'd like to make a difference where it matters. Under these broad descriptions I could do a variety of things and I'm sure I have so much more to explore. I also know that it's important you do something you enjoy and are good at. While the idea of not having a box to place myself in scares me a bit, it also greatly excites me.

For the competition I narrowed it down to teaching and being the creative director for my brand Natural Saturdays. It was so much fun creating the board just as I expected. What I didn't expect was all the reflection it made me do. I'm glad. I keep getting inspired by the oddest things!

Here's a snapshot of my entry

If you'd like to see the pictures in higher quality and read my reflections (blurbs) on my "dream job" you can view the full entry here

So do you have a job/career suggestion for me?

How about you? Do you have a dream job?

Tell me in the comments even if it's "silly"

Love,

Sabirah.

This teaching thing (part 2)

I've talked about me teaching here before so if you haven't read that post I encourage you to.

My experience with teaching has been bitter-sweet. If you follow my tweets you probably noticed that during the school term I tweeted about my students a lot. They made me happy, angry, frustrated excited and on two separate occasions they made me cry.  I love giving them hugs (finally got used to it) and their constant washing  compliments "Miss Sabirah you are so beautiful, we love your earrings".

Unfortunately teaching isn't just about the students, it's about the organization, bureaucracy, politics and power struggles, and a heavy dose of ass kissing. Now a lot of people know the school I worked at but please this is not a direct jab at them, I'm thankful for the opportunity they gave me. I have had the experience of teaching at other schools so I'm being honest about the system in general.

Among the very many reasons I decided I wanted to teach was that I'm a creative person, I love trying new things, working on fresh ideas and putting a spin on old things, it reflects in almost all the things I do in my life. My belief was that teaching would be another outlet for my creative energy since I was beginning to feel stifled in Lagos. Unfortunately that wasn't the case, before I got hired, I was asked what I could change and what kind of ideas I would bring to the school. I gave a few examples in the interview and got really excited, when the time came to implement them it was just obstacle upon obstacle. It quickly became frustrating.

Then there was this communication gap between the administration and the teaching staff, we (they) were overworked (this left me being a substitute teacher for classes I wasn't prepared for) and their ideas or recommendations didn't seem attended to or even valued. It was weird in my position because since I was new I had good relations with the admin but then I felt like I had to pick a side. A school is an organization where everybody HAS to be working together. When communication is strained things start to fall apart, dissatisfaction seeps in and productivity diminishes no?

Of course all of this going on makes it difficult to work, some days it just became a drag on others a power struggle. Let me say though that the students got excellent grades and won competitions constantly. So maybe all this was just a means to an end. I don't know. I just wish it was different. A lot of things I ran away from in the corporate work place just came to meet me here. Teaching at the public school was different because since I was volunteering my time I had a lot of freedom. and ohh the things I accomplished. Truly thankful for that experience and for this one too. Everything is a learning experience and i'm grateful for that.

Quite a bit has changed and I will give updates at my own pace of course.

Till then,
Happy Holidays.
Sabirah.

This Teaching thing...

Happy Sunday everyone!

Hope you've had a great weekend! I had a really fun time this weekend, I went to a live recording of Nigerian Idol to support my friend Diwari, PLS SEND 526 to 33680 if you're in Nigeria, she's really good! voting closes on Wednesday. Thank you :)

I also went to a birthday party my sister-friend/better half/best-friend threw for her boyfriend, spent most of the day helping her in the kitchen and getting ready (i'll probably do a post if I can get the photos) met some amazing people and had a great time. The partner and I have the perfect "we came together but we can mingle too" thing going on. It was such a big success! Well done Khaf!

So now to the actual post, Lots of people have asked how I got into teaching, what it's been like etc so hopefully I can answer all those questions here.

I've kinda always known that at some point in my life I would teach, at first, when I was on my PhD track, it was higher education that I was interested in teaching but I didn't know it would be so soon. When I made the decision to come back to Nigeria after college I knew that I didn't want to work in a bank or anything like that. I thought about my experiences, my strengths and how I could give back and of course teaching came up again. Being a teacher is such a creative environment which is exactly the type I thrive in.

I remember the first month of my arrival in Lagos I told everyone upon meeting them "Hey I want to be a teacher, if you know someone hiring let me know" It was my opening sentence to every interaction. Sure enough it paid off, about three different people contacted me about different opportunities. Since I
 hadn't started my NYSC, I decided it would be best if I just volunteered for a bit. At least to see if I would enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

Thankful for my friend Ore who told me about Maroko high school and how they desperately needed some help with their SS3 class who were very far behind. Their exams were coming up and their teachers were over worked and spread thin. I really didn't understand the gravity of the situation till I took my first set of essays. I was almost discouraged, but I graded slowly and carefully leaving half a page worth of comments for each one.

It was worth it! My students are very eager to learn, sometimes restless and rowdy like teenagers can be but still eager to learn, show off their knowledge and then acquire some more. I haven't really had any disciplinary issues save for the boys in the back, all I had to do was split them up and then have a one-on-one meeting with them later. Maybe because my students are in SS3 they are more mature or maybe they just appreciate my being there but they are generally well behaved.

I haven't had any drama with the other teachers since i'm not full on staff, apart from an awkward moment when there was a teacher in the class during my period. Teaching is exhausting, physically and mentally. From preparing my lesson plan, to speaking loudly to a class of 75 students, to standing for hours in a room without a fan. But it is oh-so-rewarding, I really can't explain the feeling, when my students correct their own mistakes and see their improvement. It's all the payment I need.

Unfortunately my student's pride in themselves won't pay the bills so I had to start looking for a more permanent teaching job that actually pays. By word of mouth again I got called (thanks Khaf!). I had an interview at a private school last week Thursday, it went great and on Tuesday I'm going to sit in on a couple of classes. I'm excited! Wish me luck.

If you're interested in teaching in Nigeria, and you have time to volunteer I'll suggest going to a public school in your area and talking to the principal, they would be more than happy to have you! So that's it on my teaching experience so far, my long term goal is to go into education policy, but I need to know the system before I can fix it. I can't wait to see where this will take me.

Have a great week ahead!
Love, Sab.