Star teacher of the week
Our star teacher for the week is Emily Nakapela, a teacher with a love for cooking. Emily is currently a teacher at Tamariskia Primary School, where she carries the hearts of many grade one learners."Meeting former learners once they are older warms my heart. I’ll meet them working somewhere or studying, and they will run up to me and refer to me as 'my juffrou." Emily Nakapela.
1. Introduce yourself
My name is Emily Nakapela. I am a lower primary teacher at Tamariskia Primary School in Swakopmund. I started teaching at a very young age, it started off as a job but now I really like what I do. Apart from being a grade one teacher, I am an English teacher as well. I used to teach English at NamCol for the grade 10 students and grade four learners before moving to teaching a full grade one class.
2. When did your journey as a teacher start?
My journey as a teacher started in 2010, after I graduated from the Ongwediva College of Education, now better known as the Hifikepunye Pohamba Campus. I completed three years of my studies there, and during that time, teachers were in high demand, so I started teaching immediately in Walvis Bay, despite living in Swakopmund. I used to commute every day until I eventually moved to the school where I am currently teaching in 2011.
3. Was teaching always something you wanted to do?
No. Initially, my interest was not in teaching. I just wanted to travel and be part of the hospitality field. I always wanted to cook and be a chef on a plane, on a cruise ship, or work in a lodge. However, due to the fact that I lost my mom so early, there wasn’t an opportunity for me to choose what I wanted to do. At the time, teaching was the only option I had, so I went for it because it was where I could get a job ASAP. But now I have grown into teaching, and it has become a passion, and I really love children. Kids are like sponges – they can take so much in; there’s no limits with them and they are so much like clay; we mould them into who they end up becoming.
4. What is the most challenging thing about being a teacher?
As the years are going by, younger parents feel that they are parenting their kids by buying them phones and gadgets, forgetting that when they grew up, they didn’t have all these things and there’s a lot more to parenting than buying materialistic items. So, the parental guidance is definitely faulty. The kids lack small things like kind words, saying please and thank you, respecting people’s boundaries, asking for permission. It brings a challenge in the classroom because now you have to pause teaching and become a parent to address the kid’s behaviour.
5. What would you have done if you had not become a teacher?
I would definitely have been a chef. I would probably be working in a lodge or on a cruise ship, but I like the way my career turned out. Being a teacher humbled me in a certain way; it helped me see kids from different backgrounds, it helped me socially because I learned that everybody doesn’t have the same character, and even socially, it gave me a lot of patience. As you can already imagine, working with kids requires a lot of patience.
6. What keeps you motivated and inspired to keep on teaching?
Meeting former learners once they are older – I'll meet them working somewhere or while they are studying, and they will run up to me and refer to me as 'my juffrou'. They feel young again when they see me, so it's like they are young again, and that really motivates and inspires me.
7. What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I currently have a business where I cook. I basically cook all the time: I do catering, platters, and lunches. I have a traditional restaurant in Mondesa, so most of my free time I spend in the kitchen operating my business and preparing meals for my clients. It calms me down.
8. Do you have any advice for prospective teachers?
You should really have a heart for children and not just do it for the money but for the children. Children come from home and they all come from different backgrounds. A child may be coming from a difficult or tough background, and as the teacher, you are even more difficult on them or you add to their difficulties. This child literally gives up on life because at home it's horrible; at school it's horrible. Why not make the one environment you have control over more pleasant for the child?