The Adventures Of Industry and Coffee - Part 1: The Call Of The Teacher Aides.

Intro

The pandemic hit us pretty hard. We had just graduated and jobs were scarce, at the same time we were planning to going to go into schools to test out our curriculum. Then, lockdown happened. It was challenging at first since we were mainly about in person learning, but the lockdown and its affects gave us inspiration to take our business in a new direction. It also showed us that we as engineering graduates had very little experience with teaching K-12 children. That’s when the holiday programme and our teacher aide experience began.

Mohammad’s Teacher Aide Experience

I had a one day trial on a Thursday to see whether or not I liked the school and if the staff and students liked me; it went so well that the principal ultimately emailed me the next day asking when I could start - “first thing Monday”. I just finished my 1 year as a teacher aide.

I was so excited to be working with children and to be front and centre, witnessing the amazing work that teachers do every day. It was tough, I’m not going to lie, educating children is no easy task and when you’re working with neurodiverse children it’s even more of a challenge. But every day I learnt something new that made me feel more and more confident, from how to communicate with autistic children, to how to handle and calm an argument between young kids.

The staff were nothing short of incredible, they always shared their experiences and advice. Not only professional advice but personal too. They were always willing to explain things thoroughly and made me feel like I truly belonged there.

Working a teacher aide changed how I approached education. I had the privilege of observing the way teachers interacted with students and how well they handled tough situations. I now have witnessed and understand the work that teachers attend to from creating lessons, to presenting the lessons to different age groups and assessing.

I became interested in child cognition and development as I witnessed how the pandemic affected children and their anxieties. I’ve learnt how to teach children about emotional regulation and even took some of those learnings and applied it to myself. Children have so much going on around them and with all that’s happening, creating healthy emotional development is critical.

I started researching so much and witnessed the educational world like never before. It reminded me of my own education and so I decided to return to my health science studies and pursue cell and molecular bioscience as I aim for a PhD.

Cameron’s Teacher Aide Experience

It was the end of the first lockdown in 2020, I had just finished studying and just moved out of home so I needed a job. It was difficult finding an engineering job due to the pandemic.

One of my former teachers who’s a close family friend knew about my predicament and notified me about a teacher aide position at a school she used to work at. I had the job within a day and it was such a huge shock - I am now a teacher aide!

I started the job halfway through the school year and worked mainly with the younger kids (year 1 - 4). I started off working half days to ease myself into the job as I knew how challenging it would be.

I had never been in education working with children before and I was a bit nervous, but luckily I had the support structure of teachers and more experienced teacher aides around me that guided me especially through those tougher days.

Over the Christmas break I realised how much I was missing the kids and staff and my mindset changed a lot over the next year. I started feeling more confident and woke up excited to see what the day would bring - you never work a day in your life when you do what you love.

Over the course of 2021 I started working more with the year 5-6 and 7-8 classes. This is where I really found my feet.

I don’t think I can really pin down one moment that made me love the job but there was one child that made me realise that this was where I wanted to be.

I worked with this child with another teacher aide had autism and severe anxiety. This was a big challenge; some days I went home feeling great achievement and some day I went home completely deflated. The experience made me realise that I had been given this gift of really helping a child - with the right mindset and intent you can shape a child’s future for the better.

I’ve learnt so much from this job from the meticulous and diligent way teachers work, to taking comfort in the smaller things in life. I’ve realised how much I love teaching and so I’ve decided to pursue a teaching career in 2023.

How did this change Qisma Tech?

Our experiences as teacher aides changed the way we approached our curriculum. We knew, from the inception of Qisma Tech, that education in Aotearoa New Zealand had to change; it had to evolve. But without knowing exactly the how it was very challenging.

Our holiday programmes played a huge role too, but the diversity was limited. Becoming teacher aides helped us interact with all sorts of children and witnessed the beauty of diverse learning and teaching.

We are so inspired and so eager to show you what we have been working on.

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog.