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It is reading time in Primary 4. The teacher calls on Amaka to read the next paragraph aloud. She stands slowly, traces the line with her finger and stumbles over the second word. She guesses the third. By the fourth, some classmates are giggling, and she sits down before she finishes. Yet this is the same Amaka who tells the most vivid stories in class, remembers every detail of last week's science lesson and solves mental sums faster than most of her peers. "She is intelligent," her teacher says, "but she does not take her reading seriously." Perhaps you have said something similar. But what if Amaka is trying harder than anyone in the room, and reading is simply not working the way it does for others? What Dyslexia Is, and What It Is Not Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty that mainly affects accurate and fluent word reading and spelling. It typically stems from a difficulty with the sound structure of language, known as phonological processing, and th...

Picture a Primary 3 classroom on a warm afternoon. Thirty learners are copying notes from the board, and one boy, let us call him Tobi, is out of his seat for the fourth time. He has dropped his pencil, borrowed an eraser he didn't need, and answered a question before the teacher finished asking it. His classwork is half done. His exercise book looks as though it has been through a storm. Yet yesterday, he spent forty minutes building an elaborate model from bottle tops and never looked up once. "He can do it when he wants to," his teacher sighs. "He is just stubborn." Many of us have said something similar. But what if Tobi is not choosing to be difficult? What if he is struggling with something we cannot see? What ADHD Is, and What It Is Not Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental condition. It involves a persistent pattern of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity, or both, that interferes with a child's learning and da...

  Have you ever been in a classroom where the assistant teacher seems to be angrier than everyone else? The class teacher is calm, the learners are trying to get through the lesson, but somehow the assistant teacher appears to be carrying the temperature of the entire room. You begin to wonder: What is really going on? Sometimes, the behaviour we see is only the surface. Something may be happening underneath that we haven't considered. What Does “Assistant Teacher” Mean to You? For some people, the title assistant teacher quietly carries a message: You are not quite ready to be the main teacher;  you are still learning, still being assessed or waiting for someone to decide that you are good enough to take charge of a class. But is that necessarily what the role means? Assistant teachers may have different qualifications, experiences and responsibilities, and schools use the role in different ways. Research has also identified role ambiguity and uncertainty around teaching ass...

A growing business is something to be proud of. Even if you are a teacher, freelancer, coach, or consultant, seeing your client base expand can be encouraging. But as your business grows, it is worth asking yourself a question: Has the way I communicate with the people I serve grown alongside my business? Growth Should Not Change Your Approach to People When you have hundreds or thousands of customers, it can become easy to think in terms of numbers. However, behind every number is a person who has chosen to trust your service, invest their money or seek your help. Having many customers does not make one person's concern less important. This does not mean that every request must be granted or that every customer will be satisfied. Businesses have policies, limitations and boundaries. The question is how we communicate these things. You can say no without being disrespectful. You can correct a misunderstanding without humiliating someone. You can explain your limitations without mak...

An educator says, “I would really love the opportunity to do this.” What do you do next? Do you simply open the door because you recognise their enthusiasm, or do you pause and ask a few questions to understand whether they are actually ready for what lies on the other side? I think this is one of the quieter responsibilities of mentorship. Sometimes, people come to us because they want to grow, take on more responsibility or experience a different side of their profession, and that desire deserves to be encouraged. However, encouragement should not mean handing someone a responsibility without first helping them understand what the responsibility requires. There is a Difference... There is a difference between wanting to perform a role, having some knowledge about the role and being ready to perform the role competently . These things can exist together, but they are not automatically the same thing. Professional competence is broader than what a person knows. Epstein and Hundert (200...

 A teacher once asked a question that many educators may quietly relate to: “How can I help this young learner? He seems uninterested in anything I want to teach him. In fact, it is hard to motivate him with any item. I have tried everything within my power, and it has been frustrating.” It is easy to understand the frustration. When a learner does not respond to the stickers, toys, sweets, praise, privileges or other rewards we introduce, we may begin to conclude that the child is simply not motivated. But perhaps there is another question worth asking before we arrive at that conclusion: What if the learner is not unmotivated, but we have not yet understood what moves them? M otivation Is More Than Getting a Reward For many years, the conversation around motivation has focused heavily on what we can give a learner for doing something. Complete your work and get a sticker. Answer correctly and get a sweet. Finish the task, and you can play. These strategies can sometimes be useful...