I was introduced to Teach2030 in 2022 through the Gordon’s-Dewey mentorship programme in which I was exposed to the Teach2030 online courses. When I did the first course ‘Growth Mindset for Teachers and Learners’, I became motivated and super excited, which made me take over 8 courses, then I used the other weeks to try all the new strategies I had learned. The feedback I got from my learners, colleagues, and learning partners in my Teach2030 community revolutionised my teaching practice and professional career. I had to practice making action plans after each lesson – something I learnt from the ‘Growth Mindset For Teachers and Learners’ course; I made adjustments in most of my lesson plans, precisely the entry behaviour or starters, to meet the needs of all my learners. The courses were very practical, low bite size, low data and I did all the courses at my own pace and at my convenience using my mobile phone.
I wanted to be a Teach2030 Ambassador because I always believe in teamwork, but I had always worked alone in the past. Through Teach2030, I created a community of teachers in which we share our classroom experience, improving on our teaching practice, reflecting on areas of strength and those that needed to be developed. In my learning community, we do a lot of peer learning and teaching, encouraging and keeping everyone informed about the current developments and new practices in education by attending the different workshops, question and answer sessions proposed by Teach2030.
As an ambassador of Teach2030, I work in close collaboration with my learning community as a team leader, encouraging each teacher to take the online courses, try to practice new strategies in their classroom, get feedback from their learners and learning partner to achieve their goals and understand why we may be unable to accomplish things on our own; the journey is more sustainable and fulfilling when we work with others.
The Teach2030 digital courses addresses these by asking each teacher taking the course to have a learning partner.
Getting feedback, sharing success stories and challenges has given every teacher an opportunity to develop problem solving skills at the classroom level. I’m aiming at achieving a community of teachers who are well grounded with most of the strategies and teaching methods proposed by Teach2030, as reflected in a change in their teaching practices, getting better behavioural and academic results from our learners.
As an ambassador, I would like to help other teachers to improve on their classroom practices by taking the Teach2030 online courses. I would like the teachers in my community to feel the impact of professional development and its needs in the educational sector – for a teacher stops teaching when learning stops. Updating my community with teaching tips of the week, trying new practices and getting the feedback on how this has helped improve learners’ understanding of different concepts, changes attitudes towards learning.
My students and colleagues are all talking about my professional development and its impact on my learners’ performance. Thank you so much Teach2030! I’m now able to be recognized by the British Council because of my professional development impact.
If you want to go quickly, go alone but if you want to go far, go together and experience the impact.
NJILEFAC ATEM is Cameroonian, holder of a Bachelor’s Degree in Curriculum Studies and Teaching in Biology from the University of Buea, Cameroon. She started teaching 9 years ago as a part time Biology teacher in a national school in Buea, Cameroon. Presently, she teaches at DEWEY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF APPLIED SCIENCES DOUALA, CAMEROON, holding the post of Head of Science, also teaching Year 6,7, 8 (Science) and 12, 13 (Biology). Dewey is an inclusive school, in which many students come from French backgrounds. Learners at the kinder level are exposed to the Montessori prepared environment. Primary pupils take the Cambridge Primary Checkpoint exams at the end of a six-year programme. The Cambridge Secondary Checkpoint exams are taken in Year 9, marking the end of lower secondary. IGCSE is done by the upper secondary students (a 2-year programme). Those in Year 11 and 12 take AS and AL exams. the high school students write the AS and AL exams that is year 12 and 13 respectively. Njilefac says: ‘At my school, professional development is stipulated in the teacher’s hand book. Each teacher is required to complete at least 5 TPD courses each academic year.‘
