Teacher Stories: Grace - Northeast Nigeria

This story was collected as part of Teachers in Crisis Contexts (TiCC) Event Series to ensure that the voices and experiences of teachers working in crisis and displacement permeate all aspects of the event. For more stories, click here.

'They will just forget everything and concentrate on me'

Name: Grace

Role: Teacher

Location: Northeast Nigeria

Video Transcript:

I like my students because they are very friendly to me. I used to play with them, work with them in the class, so I love them. [The] majority of them are IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons). I'm so passionate about them because if I'm teaching them, they are responding to me. And they like me, I like them. So that's what makes me to be passionate in their class. I face some challenges because the little ones, they are... They are not fast in learning. But the big ones used to learn faster than the small one, so this is the challenges that we are facing. 

If I will get another training, I will like it. I will like another training. 

On how to continue teaching the learners because these learners are non-formal education. They are from different places. 

It's not easy for me to, to do things with them because they have different behaviors. So we are just managing it. But if we get another training, at least it will help us know how to, to stay with them. 

I want to teach continuously because I love children. I love children very much. So I want to see me with children. I'm teaching them, I'm helping them in the class. We are playing together with them. I will teach them, they will respond to me. I like that, so I like to continue teaching. 

The teaching, I used to put it in a song. So even they can, with their body, if I put it to song, play together with them, they will just forget everything and concentrate on me. 

I hope that some of them will become doctors, lawyers, and even the Nigerian President. I pray so.

The views expressed in this blog are the author's own.