Tag Archives: High School Teacher

Drawing on My Guyanese Work Experience

13 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by in Brazil, Guyana, Working Life

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Georgetown - GuyanaGeorgetown – Capital and Chief Port of Guyana
Photo by John Greene from MeGuyana.com

My fifteen-year work experience in Guyana played an important role in my success as an international trade professional in Brazil. This was especially the case in the tough work environment at Italbras Leather Producer & Exporter Ltd.*

In Guyana, I had worked in both the public and private sectors: high school teacher (geography and art), university assistant librarian trainee, and executive secretary (equivalent to today’s executive administrative assistant) at local Head Office branches of a multinational oil company and bank.

My teaching skills at simplifying difficult concepts in a step-by-step process came into play in identifying bottlenecks in work processes. At the end of my ill-fated, three-month probationary period at Italbras, my proposed flow chart for a more effective and time-saving control and record of foreign payments and export finance contracts saved the day.

Working in the private sector, I had observed that knowledge was power to guard for one’s own personal advancement within a company. This appeared counterintuitive. My inclination to share know-how appeared ingenuous to some of my colleagues. But my teacher-mentality and training skills paved the way for my professional growth.

The five years I had worked as an executive secretary to top-tier managers—four Guyanese and one Jamaican—prepared me for anticipating the needs of clients worldwide. In viewing a company as interconnected units working together for a common goal, I could appreciate the importance of each person’s role, including my own. Aware of the company’s plan for expansion, I knew that the export department would need restructuring for optimizing the control and flow of information.

Over the years in the workforce, we also pick up people skills. We learn how to work with others, to be part of a team, and to relate with demanding bosses and clients. With each conflict, with each mistake, we learn. We grow. Sometimes, our bosses throw us in the deep end, expecting us to know how to stay afloat.

My first experience of this kind occurred during the year I worked at the government secondary school in Guyana’s hinterland region. After the first term on the job, the headmaster announced his transfer to another school district, leaving me in charge as the acting headmistress. No time for understudy. The Ministry of Education showed no concern for my predicament. His replacement never materialized.

Criticism, opposition, and obstruction came from several fronts. I floundered. I was not up to the task.

The lessons learned during those months of struggle and eventual failure prepared me for rising above Italbras’ company politics and co-worker schemes to undermine my work. When our performance stands out, we can become a threat to our supervisors and co-workers, insecure about losing their promotion or their jobs.

Problem-solving and people skills don’t develop overnight. They are born of risk-taking and putting ourselves out there, of innumerable gaffes and mistakes, of ridicule and failure. It’s what gives the edge to older workers who often lack the high technological skills of our younger colleagues.

* Fictitious name

Guyana National Service: Sacrifices for Nation Building

30 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by in About Me, Guyana

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Rosaliene in Guyana National Service Uniform, 1976

When Guyana’s first Executive President created the Guyana National Service (GNS) in October 1973, he had a vision for “a new Guyana Man and Woman, oriented towards their role in nation building.” He had envisaged a nation working together, with respect for each other, to develop our hinterland regions and defend our territory (1973 State Paper of the GNS, www.guyanapnc.org).

Over the next twenty six years of the paramilitary organization’s existence, thousands of Guyanese youth spent a year or more at GNS hinterland centers cultivating and processing cotton, black-eye beans, peanuts, and other cash crops. For young men and women without job prospects, the GNS provided an opportunity to learn and develop new skills.

When the first GNS hinterland center began operations, I was a second-year undergraduate at the University of Guyana. In my final year, completion of one year of national service became a requirement for obtaining a university degree. Caught in the change, graduates 1976 were required to complete only three months of national service.

With reservations about my safety, I resisted the requirement of spending three months in an isolated location in Guyana’s jungle interior. Moreover, I was a high school teacher, already doing my part in preparing our young people for their place in our young nation. Even though I had sacrificed a lot to attend university classes in the evening while teaching during the day, I was prepared to forfeit it all to avoid placing myself in harm’s way. I was not ready for such a sacrifice. Then the good news came. We would be serving in Georgetown, the capital.

The first weekend that we assembled at the GNS Center in Sophia, we formed a unified mass in our parrot-green uniforms issued by the GNS. My name badge bore only my family name: Fung. Divided into four units, each under the command of a GNS Officer, we spent our weekends studying cooperative socialist policies for nation-building; doing marching drills and physical training; and engaged in agricultural activities.

Mondays to Fridays, we served at various government agencies. I worked with six other graduates at the Guyana National Service Printing Center, setting up a staff library and executing other duties.

Under the tutelage of army sergeants from the Guyana Defense Force, we had to conform to military modes of conduct. I was relieved that we did not have to train with rifles. Our platoon had a tough, buxom, female sergeant with a booming voice.

“Fung, fall in line!”

Within three months, from July to October, she transformed our platoon into a marching unit for a top-notch performance at our Passing out Parade – held in October at the University of Guyana Turkeyen Campus.

Completing those three months of national service was an achievement for me. I had survived the marching drills, physical training, and agricultural work under the merciless Sun. Later that October, when we assembled in the auditorium of the Guyana National Cultural Centre for our graduation ceremony, we were no longer strangers.

“Fung, to the front!”

Rosaliene receiving Chancellor’s Medal – University of Guyana 1976

 

On Being a High School Teacher

06 Sunday Nov 2011

Posted by in Human Behavior, United States, Working Life

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , ,

High School Classroom in California

Source: Downey’s Warren High School (www.wattway.org)

A nation without good public education, easily accessible to all of its citizens, is a nation built on sand. With the globalization of the world’s economy and technological advances in every professional field, our children have to compete with the best across the planet. Our high school curriculum must be geared to meeting existing as well as projected needs of our society. To successfully prepare our children to take their place in society, our teachers must have a sound knowledge base in their fields and continually upgrade their knowledge and skills. Teachers must have the support of the school administration and government educational authority in exercising their function. Classrooms must be equipped for and conducive to learning and study.

For seven years as a young woman, I served my native land – the young independent nation of Guyana – as a high school geography and art teacher. My role as a teacher went way beyond imparting knowledge and working towards high grades. Our children would much rather do something else than sit around in a classroom. As a high school teacher, I had the task of motivating and engaging my students (from 11 to 18 years) in the learning process; creating interest in the material taught and making it relevant to their lives; stimulating critical thinking and analytical skills; and developing their potential as individuals with unique talents and skills.

I could not be a school teacher today. During my four-year working experience in a retail store in Los Angeles, I witnessed on several occasions the difficulties young parents face in controlling their kids. On one occasion, I was horrified (culture shock?) by a parent’s reaction when I told her eight-year-old to stop removing the price labels from the product display. Before stopping her child, she glared at me with a look that said: Who are you to discipline my child? Left unchecked, this lack or absence of discipline only worsens over time.

Teachers are not miracle workers. When discipline is lapse or non-existent in the school or classroom, teachers cannot perform their duties. Moreover, without the input and participation of parents or guardians in the learning process, the lazy, disinterested, underachiever or disruptive student will be left behind. With adolescents now wired to portable electronic devices, our teachers also face new challenges in engaging students in the learning process. To evaluate a teacher’s performance solely on the grades of his or her students can be likened to preparing baked turkey for our Thanksgiving lunch without an oven.

When teachers and parents cannot work together to prepare our children to take their place in the world, our children are ill-equipped for adult life; our businesses and industries cannot find qualified workers and professionals; and our nation slips behind.

Our dedicated high school teachers are not mere data entry professionals who input data into our children’s brain cells. As we prepare for Thanksgiving Day on November 24, let us give thanks for the teachers who have changed the course of our lives.