Finding Confidence Through Real-World Learning with Frederick Imadonmwinyi

Please note, this transcript is generated by AI and may include some errors. 

Spencer Payne: Okay, welcome to front of the class: Real Stories from Real Educators. And our real educator is Frederick Imadonmwinyi. Feel free to correct me if I got that not quite right. But thank you for joining us, Frederick. And could you help by just introducing yourself to the audience to start off with? and you could take that however you'd like, but maybe some things like what do you teach? Where do you teach? What country are you currently teaching in? What was your teaching journey, et cetera?

Just some quick facts, and then we'll jump into some fun questions.

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: Sure. Thank you for having me here, Spencer. I'm really delighted to be here today. So my name is Frederick Imadonmwinyi. You can call me Freddie. And my students call me Freddie. And I think it's really cool. I am currently in Guyana. I am a math educator. I have been teaching for the past 11 years. And I currently work with middle and high school students and also, you know, coordinate SET and involving other student activities.

One of the things that really interests me in educational field, especially international, is the opportunity to work with students from different background, culture, language and different learning needs. And it's really interesting because you know I studied engineering, but along the line I found passion in teaching and I think discovering it was really, really important for me because beyond just teaching, even though I know math is my thing, I realized that my real passion is building confidence in students. learning how they approach learning. So I believe confidence is very, very important. And also I'm a graduate of Moreland University. I got I got my teacher's education and my master's degree. And having Moreland bring me back to share my experience is something really meaningful to me today.

Spencer Payne: Yeah, perfect. We we we'd love to hear more. So you're in Guyana right now. Can you help us again paint a little picture of w where did you start teaching?

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: yeah, I started teaching from Nigeria, which is my country. Well I spent like two years teaching before I moved to Liberia. I taught in Liberia for about five to six years before moving to Guyana. This is my second year in Guyana and that has been my teaching experience.

Spencer Payne: And we we definitely will get into masters and math and how you make how you build confidence and all those things in the classroom. But I am curious to explore a little bit first Nigeria to Liberia to Guyana. Can you share a little bit of like how how has that journey happened? Has it been happenstance? Have you specifically tried to go to those places? Like how how have you ended up in these three different places teaching?

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: Well, for me I always like to explore new things. I see myself as a missionary and as a missionary I have to tour the world, I have to move from place to place. And with all that I've learned in Nigeria and impacting students in Nigeria and young teenagers and all, I wanted to try new things and I joined this mission group that virtually moved me to Liberia. And just being there in Liberia, I needed to also impact and transfer some of the skills and some of the things that I knew that I use in Nigeria. I wanted to also impact students in Liberia. So I attempted to teach in this international school, this American school, and of course we got in and it was really exciting. that eventually transferred me from my field of engineering straight into education. So I just gave myself into it more time and it was really, really interesting.

And I met a couple of friends right teaching there who told me about going internationally and expli experiencing new culture, moving to different terrain and and wanted to try new things and then I started exploring to different areas. And guess what? I never knew I was gonna be in Guyana, but when I checked about the terrain, the culture, talking about the Spanish community coming together, the different community coming to Guyana and this school, George International Academy, reached out to me and they really wanted me to be part of their community. And so I saw that it was really interesting because they had like a group of team that really did awesome and amazing things. So I needed to join them and that's why I just jumped in the opportunity.

Spencer Payne: and can you share a little bit for those who might be listening who maybe haven't been to Guyana or Liberia, the last two places where you taught? Can you share a little bit about when you looked out in your classroom? What did you see in terms of the student body makeup? You know, you're teaching at an international school right now. Like, where are these students from? Are they from all over the world? Are they all are they all native to Guyana? So can you can you share a little bit about kind of comparing and contrasting, even just like when you're teaching in your further room, like when you look out at your classroom?

What do you see? Who's there? What's the makeup of your of your class?

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: Well, like if I am to just talk about Guyana about that, when I look at my classroom, I see like a representation of the whole world in one classroom. Like I see everyone from different place coming together. I see people from Venezuela, people from China, people from Brazil. Like in my school we have forty five nationalities and that is pretty huge. And having different culture, different means in my classroom is really...It's really exciting because many times I get to learn from students how to, you know, say certain things in math. I h I learn from their own culture how they got to learn certain things in China, certain things in Brazil. So having them in my class was was something very exciting and I wanted to exploit that, especially having Spanish kids.

Like if for a fun part, I had like last year I had a lot of Spanish kids and that moved me to really learn Spanish, I wanted to learn Spanish because I wanted to support my kids who speak Spanish and knowing that you learn their their their language really helped them to like connect with you as a teacher. Right. So that was really, really exciting.

Spencer Payne: Yeah. And one other thing that I think many teachers can relate to is as this school from Guyana reached out to you about potentially moving to not just a new school, but a a new country, right? How how did you decide? Like when when you're trying to choose what where do I want to teach next or do I want to move to this other school? Can you share a little bit about what was interesting to you or what were some of the things that were on your list of like for me to go to a new school, I want to make sure that it has this or this or this or that.

I have support from the administrators or they speak Spanish or whatever. Can you share a little bit about going into it? Like what was kind of on your list, if anything existed of, hey, I I really want to do more of this in my next school and this school that reached out has this, this, this. Can you share a little bit about your your process or your thought process behind why did you choose to move to that school?

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: Well, of course, thinking about Guyana, in making my research I noticed that Guyana also speaks English as a country. And family factor, my wife wanted to be in Guyana. You know, she she told me she wanted to leave Africa, she wanted to start from a country where they speak English so she can navigate her way through that. And having to have myself being interviewed with the administrator, the then director of learning.

He presented to me a project that was very, very interesting. And part of the package of the project was you having the opportunity to grow, to learn, to advance in your career. He told me about a team of experts, a team of educators here who who are well skilled and they work together. So he basically told me about teamwork. He told me about, you know, like things about class beyond the classroom, learning beyond the classroom, exploring nature, connecting the society to what you're doing, learning. So the whole project was about you growing as an educator while they announce your skill in the classroom. Of course they exploit it. They wanted me to share my experience with the student. But at the same time, I saw beyond that the opportunity to grow and grow with people who have the same mindset, people who who have different things that they want to share with you. Right. So that really caught my attention and it was more like a family like...and I wasn't really disappointed. When I came in I saw a family willing to receive me. Yeah.

Spencer Payne: Hmm. and since you've been there, any favorite foods, any favorite locations? Are there is there anything near your school that you're like, I love going to this place or this park or whatever? Like can you pa paint us a picture of also outside of just the school? What are some of your favorite aspects about this this new school, new this new life in this new country that you've chosen in Guyana? What do you really appreciate?

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: well, you know, coming to Guyana, I realized that because it's been bordered by countries like Brazil, Jamaica, Barbados, and a lot of countries that have African representatives. We have Africans here also. So I was opportune to eat new food like chicken curry or curry chicken, you know, there's an agreement about that. So that was really, really cool. Then they are other areas like the interior, there is a place called Yes Equibo, there's a place called Babies. They have some kind of if you have heard of the Catwalk Falls, which is the largest, the highest fall in the world, is in Guyana, I'm still trying to get there anyways, it's far. So I'm it's one of the places I would I wish to visit, just explore nature.

So they have a lot of nature parks around this country, and also I love visiting Barbados, you know, and Babidos is very close to Guyana and you know, we have other places, some companies here you can easily take your students to and you know, do some project work, some free trips and all of those things. It's more like learning outside the classroom, which is very, very Guyana is not so big, so you can get to go everywhere at at a short time, yeah.

Spencer Payne: Yep, perfect. and to shift back to the classroom a little bit. So you've got at your current school 45 nationalities represented, some in South America, Spanish, China, Venezuela, kind of all over the world. How how do you attempt at the beginning of a year, at the beginning of a new school year, to kind of get on the same page with the parents of your students of what what do they expect from

You, what do you expect from them? What do you expect from their kids? How are you going to kind of run their class and run their year? And what types of things do you expect their kids to learn that year? How do you go about setting that tone when you have so many different languages, so many different cultures, and maybe so many different expectations of what those parents might have? How do you kind of get on the same page with them at the beginning of a school year? How do you approach

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: Well, starting from the students, I know we ha I have a bunch of kids coming to my classroom for the first time. I know like many educators want to start by saying, Okay, here are my rules, here are the do's and done. But I I don't think that is the right tone to start with, in as much that I want students to know that I have high expectations from all of them. At the same time, I want the students to know that I am here as a support to help them achieve those expectations.

Right. I want I want to answer a question in the minds of all the students when they come in, because we have students from China and all. I want to answer the question. The question would be, is this class the classroom for me to be? Because every student wants to ask, Is this the class I want to be in? So as a teacher, I want to be the answer to that question. And that many times is helping the student to settle in and making them know that see.

I know it's math. I know some of you work in not so confidently about math, but I wanted to know that you will make mistakes, but you need to understand that mistakes are a part of learning. That you made mistakes just tells me that you actually thinking. It's an evidence that you are thinking of doing something. And it's a part of life. It tells you to fall forward. Like even if you fall, you are falling forward. But I'm here as a support. That's for the kids. Now for the parents, I want it to be our relationship to be partnership.

I don't want the first message coming from me to the parents is your kids did this, your kids didn't do that. I want them to know that see this is partnership. We're gonna be working together to help this kid. No two kids are the same. We have different kids, so I'm gonna try to give different supports. At the end of the day, the the the the basic the goal is the child that the child is gonna grow. That is our focus. But I want to partner with the parents, both in curriculum, in all I do in class, I want it to be part of it. Yeah.

Spencer Payne: And with this this concept of middle school and high school age kids being okay with failure, sometimes at that age, that is not feel natural. It does not feel natural to want to raise your hand and then be wrong in front of 10 kids or 15 kids or 20 kids or whatever it is. It doesn't feel good usually, especially at that age. So I I am curious, like, how do you develop that? Right. You mentioned building confidence at the beginning or making making sure kids don't feel like they're afraid to fail. Like,

Let's say it's day four of a new class, new students, they heard you say that, but but they might be wondering, what does he really mean? Like if a student does try, like genuinely make an effort, but do something wrong, fail, so to speak, how how do you kind of reinforce that? Like what are some what are some ways that you try to make sure that that's okay or that that kid doesn't get made fun of, or that doesn't that kid doesn't shut down and feel like I'm not gonna talk for the next two weeks because I was wrong? Like, how do you actually foster that? How do you think about that?

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: Well, I have a common phrase that all my students know. I tell them I don't know how the how it came about, but it's just a common phrase and I tell them, I said, In everything, be confident. Even though you are wrong, be confidently wrong. And I established that tone in class that even my students when sometimes they raise their hands, want to say anything or say, Mr. Freddie, I know I am confidently wrong, but I'm gonna say. I'll say but go ahead and say.

Like then he's gonna raise his hand and he will say it. and sometimes they're like, Yeah, but you got it. It's like, really? but because I said that tone, it gave them the opportunity, gave them the environment to really express themselves. And many times I model it too. I model the same thing. I tell them I'm like, I'm gonna try to speak this thing in Spanish. I may not know how to say but I'm gonna be confident. Even if I confidently say it wrongly, but I'm gonna be confident.

And sometimes I do it so that students will understand that even though as a teacher I can make mistakes. So if I can model that as a teacher, then I'm giving the students the confidence to raise their hands, even if they get it wrong. That's one another thing that I try to establish in class is everyone is good at something. You may someone may be good at writing, trying to calculate things, another person is good at explaining it, another person is good at typing it out, another person is good at doing some slides and all of those things.

So I tell them if you want to represent your work, your assessment in writing, go ahead. If you think you're gonna explain it to me, why I try to translate, especially these Spanish people who is they're finding it difficult to say in Spanish, but they can write it out. I said however you're gonna express yourself, you just do it. So because everyone is good at something. So that helped them to you know really settle in into my class.

Spencer Payne: Yeah, it's a great example too when you're trying to learn Spanish. that you are you are going to not do that perfectly, right? You're learning something new. And so you were like you being an example of modeling that behavior of like, hey, I'm gonna speak Spanish to you maybe for the next two sentences. Like, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna not try, right? I'm still gonna try. If I say something wrong, please correct me. Like this is about getting better. Deal, deal. Okay.

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: Right. Yeah.

Spencer Payne: so you you being able to model that experience where you're trying to learn something and get better at something too is a great example for them to see, right? Because when they see you, not get sad or get frustrated because you said a word wrong, but just like keep trying and keep trying and then and then be able to say that phrase or that word or be able to speak better the next time. then you can even say, like, see, like a month ago I couldn't say that, and now I can.

Pretty cool how what what happens when we try and we just keep getting better at things, right? And you can model that behavior, which is a really good example because you're not just saying it, you're doing it.

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: Well. Mm-hmm. Right, exactly.

Spencer Payne: nice. At the end of a school year, after you know the year is almost at an end, how do you kind of evaluate or think about for yourself? Like, ooh, was this a good year? Was this a bad year? What do I want to do more of next year? What do I want to do less of next year? Where could I have been better as a teacher or as an educator? How do you kind of evaluate that at the end of a school year for yourself? What are are there any questions that you ask, or how do you think about that?

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: well, for I have learned to be a reflective teacher rather than being a perfect teacher. that I think that has given me some space to really grow. at the end of the school yeah, I check the numbers, I check the assessment, I check my student grades, I check how far they have learned, I check are there gaps that have been covered, I check did they meet standards, I I check did I finish the curriculum, I check other things.

But beyond this, I ask myself vital questions because there are certain things that are not scripted, they're not written in the curriculum that goes beyond just teaching classroom. I ask my students, are they confident? Are they confident enough? Like assessing when they came into the classroom the first day and now it's the end of the school year. Are they confident students? Are they building confidence in how they communicate, how they ask questions?

How they attempt questions that are even difficult but never giving up. They are falling forward, they are making mistakes, but they keep pressing in. So I just want to assess my students to see if they are ready. And another way I assess my students is after my math class, they move to another class. So they come to me to discuss with me. Like if the student eventually comes back to my class to want to have a conversation with me, he tells me that I actually taught something that was way bigger than mathematics, which is connection which is confidence, which is relationship, like building the the ability to interact and relate with other other things and other people. It's one thing I really assess as a teacher.

Spencer Payne: And one thing we had talked about briefly before was this concept of math. And sometimes kids don't enjoy math. It sometimes it can feel too textbook or just too formulaic, or it it's it doesn't feel real, right? And so you had talked about kind of how do you translate making math real and and bringing in real world applications to math. What are some examples of of how how have you done that? How have you made math more real world or more tangible?

And what are the kids' reactions when you do that?

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: you know, Spencer, growing up I really didn't enjoy math myself because it was just too book like. You know you know, so I understood how it is for students to be in the classroom and not enjoying math. So I told myself part of my goal is doing whatever I can and should do.

Spencer Payne: Mm. You didn't enjoy math and now you're a math teacher? We'll dig into that in a second. But yeah, Gary, go ahead. Go ahead.

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: To bring students into enjoying math. And what I do is to make my class very, very fun. I is a fun classroom, a lot of manipulatives. Like I try to connect what they are learning to what they can do, like hands-on. For example, we are teaching something like a projectile, teaching quadratic equation. And what does quadratic equation have to do with basketball? I take all my students to the gym and I have all of them shoot basketball. And they are wondering, what are you doing? And I tell them, you see.

We are talking about angles of pro of elevation, we're talking about angles of depression. This is where it starts from. We're talking about projectile. This is exactly what we're doing. We're talking about capability, the distance from where you are standing to so they who all of the things we are talking about that say, really? So now when they are solving a problem or they see a word problem or something, I tell them, try to relate it to a real world, write a story. So when you write a story about the question, it makes a lot of sense to you.

So I tell my students, for example, we're dealing with ratios. How do you buy things from the supermarket? So I tell them, okay, share your experience when you were buying something, you bought one quantity, how much was that? C calculate with it. So I try to bring real world experience and use use that to explain certain things in the classroom. My my province star students, we we were talking about collection of data, talking about analyzing data. I said, you know what? I think you need to experience this. So we went on a fix trip, we went to this factory and they saw real life data.

They they talk with the engineers there, they talk with the the producers, they saw the data and it was really amazing. So they came back to school with a mindset that data is what they need every day. We all need data. So it was easy for them to analyze data, to start plotting out their own graphs and all of those because they've seen it real world. Yeah.

Spencer Payne: And how in the world did you go from not liking math to being a math teacher? What what like was there maybe once once you got into high school or engineering, was there finally a a teacher or an educator who you thought, wow, I like how they're teaching this. I wish someone had been teaching math like this the whole time. I'm now gonna go do it this way. Like, how how did that happen for you? How did you go from not liking math to to being a math teacher?

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: yeah. yeah, though I didn't like man, but I had when as a student I had some teachers who were like mentors. I had my biology teacher, my chemistry teacher, they were mentors to me. I from time to time I realized that they would call us and have some talks with us, tell us about career, tell us about future. They were so real and shared their experiences with me. And because though they were taking biology, many times they were helping me with some problems and all of those.

And because of the inspiration, I wanted to do something great. So they inspired me to keep pushing, like keep pushing. Even if you make mistakes, mixes do not define you. You have to keep going. So that pushed me to want to excel. So I eventually started putting myself into it, trying to learn one thing. Say, don't learn a whole book, learn one thing one day. So you learn one day, the next day you learn another new thing, keep learning new things. And I made some friends in school who who were also passionate about math. And I don't know, I think

It tells me that it is not I didn't fail because I didn't know how to do math, but because I didn't see people to inspire me. So when I found the right teachers and friends in school who inspired me that you see, Freddie, you can do it. Try one problem per day. And you know, it just like light bulb. And it started when I got to my grade twelve, I was already doing excellently in math and I knew I was gonna do engineering. So when I entered school it just there was a total revolution about that. So I wanted to be a mentor to students, beyond just teaching math. I wanted to be a mentor. I wanted to build confidence in students. That even if you are fifty percent, you know, in your mouth but just keep pushing every day, you get to seventy percent and that's how you just keep going.

Spencer Payne: Yeah. you mentioned a couple of times kind of going out to field trips, even going to the to the gym during math class to go kind of like basketball, see the arc, like on I was as it comes to relating that to quadratic equations. I don't know that I ever went on a field trip for a math class. so can you share like what what are some other examples of field trips where you have taken your students for math class and what are some of the things that that they've learned or people they've met along the way for those who might be again, teaching a math class right now and they're thinking, Huh, I'd like to get out of the class every once in a while and take a field trip. Where have you taken them and and what what have they really enjoyed?

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: Okay, so I'm gonna tell you two fun facts, then I'll tell you some other features. Like, for example, like I started the problem starts class in my school, and the school wanted me to take it. So the first set of students that came and we were just you know trying to find a way and navigate through the curriculum, they went to the gym, so we eventually went to this feature and they came back really, really excited and they told other students, and guess what? Students started signing up for the next year that they want to be in my class.

And I know for sure that one of the reasons is because of the feature. Because I know that there are certain things they may be able to forget the topic, but they can't forget the experience. And that will help them. So you know, that's one form for the other form for I was teaching my grade six students and we're dealing with ratios, for example, and dealing with rate of change. I I made them do like you go home and do like lemonade and a teaspoon, or you know, water and do some kind of mysterious and record yourself and come show it in the classroom. So they were really, really interested in it. Everybody wanted to show what they can do.

And I watching the video, taking all of the videos to class and seeing their classmates watch their videos and it really motivated them. And the other class got to hear about it and they wanted to be in the class too for next year. So it's something students were always looking forward to and I thought I could grow in that area. I thought I could improve in that area. So this year, for example, students are already coming to me or like, they have suggestions on where we're gonna go. So we have plans to go to the supermarket, to go to the e-tree. For example, we want to do the confidence interval of people who go to buy fast food and they want to interview them. What do you think? Why do you prefer this fast food more than the other fast food?

So its a based on collecting evidence and interpreting it and trying to see what can be improved upon. you know, that worked. And lastly before I move on, we had a project in school. The students wanted to have student voice, they wanted to contribute to the launch time at school. And I told them, you say, you know what, you don't just we don't work by assumption, you have to work by facts. So go about and ask other students what they think. And they went on and started...so me that is a field trip though it was done within the school, but they went and got real world data and the names of the student and they put it that in a document and they sent it to the school. That this is what the my colleagues, this is what the students are talking about. So they are they're already into the pattern of using data and interacting. To me, that is math outside the classroom, you know.

Spencer Payne: and with those field trips or that example where the students are going out and basically being polls and asking their fellow students maybe some questions about lunchtime and should it be longer or shorter or move back or what well, I don't know what the questions, but I'm sure it was something along those lines. how do you approach kind of being on the same page maybe with your administration or your principal or or whatever the that that level of person is at your school to make sure that these things are okay?

Cause I can imagine some administrators might be like, no, I don't want them doing that. So like d how how much free reign do you have or autonomy and how do you make sure that you're on the same page with your administrators or principals to to make sure that they're okay with these things and your kids going out and learning some of these real world practical skills.

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: You know, that's one beautiful thing about where I work. we are really being supported by the administration. for example, my principal was a math teacher and many times we talk and I see that he really enjoyed it and learning new stuff from him. So one of the ways I get them to buy into the idea is when I'm having this conversation in the classroom like a project or discussion, I invite my principal to come in. So he comes into that conversation and he hears the student out. So because it's a school where they listen, they want you to talk, they want to listen to you. He hears them out and he contributes.

So many a times when the student are having conversation and is there, you know, where he needs to correct, he corrects it, where he needs to add, he adds to it, at the end of the day there's a consensus. Everybody there everyone is on the same page.  And they are not scared here for us to try new things. They always encourage us to go ahead, try new things. Because it's a growing community. it's a growing school. When I came here, we were about 200 students, now we are almost 500 students. So we're having new students trooping into this school. And so the school wants us to build a community where every student from every country, every continent can fit into new stuff.

They don't want them to just come and say, this is what we'll be doing at our school. But when they come, we're like, really, this is really cool. We want to be part of this. So the school really encourages us to go in that direction. And many times they just allow us go. Sometimes we have the students walking the hallways and they know because we already sent a mail out, these students are walking around, they are collecting data. So when they see that they don't bother, like they are learning because there is a particular group where a student who wasn't really interested in math.

They saw the student moving around, taking his phone, taking photos of st other students interacting and taking data. So you like so students can really enjoy this. So, I mean, what what about it? They can go ahead and try it.

Spencer Payne: Yep. over these years of teaching across multiple different countries, any proudest moments, any proudest moments rise to the top that you're able to share of something that maybe happened in classroom, or maybe a very shy, not confident student was able to build confidence and do something at the end of the year they never thought possible, or whatever it may be, but any any proudest moments over the years that you're able to share of your time in the classroom?

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: Course, like you already started talking about what I was gonna say. Like, yeah, we had like I had students. For me, my reflection is always on my students. Like when I'm having a reflection at the end of the school year, I check my students and they become like the mirror where I reflect on how the school year went. I have I've had a student, I taught this student in 11th grade, and he was in my probability class. And one of these days he came and said,

Mr. Freddie, I he has he has never had interest in math. Not like to him, he like, I don't think I know math. I don't think I'll ever do math. And he walked up to me one day and he said, for 11 years, this is the first time I think I am doing math. And I was very emotional. I was, you know, very I was tearing. I was like, you can't imagine that. And before he graduated last year, he was so interested in participating in all of these activities that we are having. It tells me that there are students who may not be able to solve math or solve that equation, but they are good in other ways. And we as teachers have to learn to channel their energy, channel their attention to some other things. You know, so that was a a proud moment to me. I had another student who was in sixth grade. She's in seventh grade now. Throughout sixth grade, she didn't want to communicate.

She didn't want to apparently because maybe she felt they would laugh at her and all of those. So she wants to communicate. She comes to me personally and tells me the answer. So she wasn't really confident. But coming to this school year, she's the leader of a group. Right? She leads the group. She she she talks in the classroom. She collaborates. Any group you put her, she's there too. You hear a voice when they are working, you know, collaboratively, having conversations. I I just watch her like...I told myself I'm going to give a shout out to this student one of these days because school year just started and I'm watching her she's doing very, very well. She raised her hand and communicates and you know, say things and she says, Mr. Freddie, I don't know if this is correct or wrong, but I am confident whether completely wrong or not, I am confident and that is really, really it's really, really cool to me.

Spencer Payne: And any wild, crazy, funny stories over the years of being an educator, especially in this world where maybe you have multiple languages, sometimes there's some things that, you know, people might learn Spanish, sp Spain Spanish, but then it's completely different when you're actually speaking some Argentinian Spanish sometimes or people learn British English, which is different than US English. so any I'm just curious, anything that's...Sometimes it could be translation, it could be anything, like any any wild, crazy, funny stories that have stood out over the over the test of time that you're you're able or willing to share.

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: Yeah. you know, there's this time where I I was so excited about this lesson. I c you know, planned this lesson for a while and I was really confident that the lesson was gonna go the way I wanted it to go. And five minutes into the lesson, I was in a different direction. Like because of a question asked by a student, I saw my lesson taking a different role. And you know, it didn't go the way I expected it. It didn't go the way I wanted it to go because imagine you are teaching a topic and the student is asking a question that relates to politics. But you know, it is politics and at the same time there's a connection between what you are teaching, like for example you are teaching using coins and you're using American dollar and someone is asking you about someone that is on the door on the on the dollar and you have to talk about that and that starts a different conversation.

And at the end of the day, though he did not achieve the lesson the way you planned it, but he realized that it was really a great time in the classroom. It was really a great class. It just tells me that many times the best moments of teaching are the ones you didn't plan for. And it just happened like me.

Spencer Payne: Yeah. And sometimes that could lead to interesting, like you know, you you mentioned, you know, who whose face is on this coin? Why did they choose that person? What did this person do? Why why did why did they choose this person to be on this dollar bill or on this coin? Right. that natural curiosity, even though it's not in your lesson plan, can actually be really interesting because they're showing interest, right? Like when they're showing interest, it's like, well, hey, let's lean into this, let's figure out where this goes sometimes.

No, not every day, right? You can't get derailed every single day, but sometimes it's like the best course of action because if they're curious, like that's that's an interesting conversation, right? You can't, you can't you can't teach the curiosity. So sometimes when it's there, it's like, let's just go all in and and embrace this for the next 15 minutes or the rest of this day. couple other more quick hitter, quicker questions as we get closer to to wrapping up here. now that you've been in this world for a few years, if you could

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: Yeah. Right. Exactly.

Spencer Payne: give some advice to a teacher who is just starting their first year? What's the number one piece of advice you might give to that teacher who's wondering how they're going to manage all this and might have self-doubts and all that kind of stuff? How how would you help that teacher? What advice would you give?

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: Stop trying to be a perfect teacher. Don't try to be a perfect teacher. Just be a reflective teacher. Starting my career, many times I put a lot of energy trying to be perfect. But realize that it doesn't really work out. so just try to be a reflective teacher where at the end of the school year or at the end of the unit, ask yourself questions. You know, the lesson they go where what what are things that I did well? What are the things I need to add?

What do I want the student to learn? The focus is the students should be learning. So after every class you ask yourself, you have a self-reflection. Did I do well? What did I do? What can I improve upon? what should I try tomorrow? So I think adding new things, one step at a time, helps you to get to that point. Like I always tell people, there is no perfect teacher. Right? Because the day you say you were perfect, then you stop growing. Because we as teachers we have to keep growing.

And that's one thing that more learners taught me. You know, we have to be learning, lifelong learners. Keep learning. So don't try to be perfect. You know, okay, you will make mistakes. Some lessons will not go the way you plan it. But just know that it's okay, it happens. That you you had a bad lesson doesn't mean you're bad teacher. And also that you had a good lesson doesn't mean you're an excellent teacher. I just take it one step.

Spencer Payne: Yep. and you did mention getting your master's degree through Moreland. Can you share a little bit more about before you got it? what was your thought process of like, why should you get your master's? You know, do I get this? Do I not get this? Here's why I think I should. Can you share a little bit about why you decided to get your master's? And then after you got it, what what doors did that unlock for you? Or what were the critical things that you learned or what what was most impactful about what you were able to do after getting your master's?

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: well, before I got my masters, like I I got my my teacher's education and I realized how that helped me in terms of differentiation. transitioning from the traditional way of teaching into the twenty-first century way into the curriculum, the right way of approaching lesson, how to differentiate, how to relate and communicate, collaborate with students and plan lesson. I learned that from the teacher's education and then I told myself, if I could learn this at this point, just imagine what masters would teach me. All right.

So it was gonna, you know, make me know new things. And that was one. Another thing, because we are in an international world, you have to keep evolving. You have to keep building a status. You need to you need to be up there, prepare yourself and be ready for more opportunities because in international school there are always opportunities coming up. So I needed to prepare myself for those opportunities and when I eventually entered Moreland to do my masters, I realized that there were many things I was doing that I didn't even know why. But Moreland gave me the reason, taught me why I was doing the things I was doing. So the the masters showed me the pathway to really string together some of these things I was doing separately, how to do it in a different way. And it also made me to be a curious learner, just remain in the state of curiosity.

Like how will it look like the next lesson? it also told me and taught me to always be open minded. Like stop don't stop learning because any teacher who stops learning, then you're not growing, you're not involved, you're not gonna achieve anything. So Mola master's degree just gave me an opportunity to grow.

Spencer Payne: Yep. what to you is the single best thing about this profession, education?

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: Impact and make impact. Like the greatest thing you can ever achieve as a teacher is make an impact. Like I'm trying to look for any other field where you make impact as much as education. It's difficult to find. Education is the best because you get to interact with kids. Thousands of kids go through you every year and you have opportunity to impact them. Like, okay, just like last week I had a student who graduated from here sent me a message and said, Mr. Freddy, they must

That you teach at GIA is much more difficult at than the one I learned in college. Why is it like that? And I told you and say it's not true. We have actually prepared you here at GIA for you to see that as easy math. So you did the half stuff here and now it's easy for you. So impact is very important. And many times the impact is not just the assessment, the grades, sometimes the confidence that they build, sometimes the relationship that they build, because the gr the grade tells you about the assessment.

But the confidence tells you about how their future and their career is gonna go.

Spencer Payne: And what is the single toughest or hardest thing about this profession? Or if you could wave a magic wand at something and fix it overnight, where would you wave that wand?

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: It is

Because as a caring teacher, you want to show care, you want to care for the kids, you want to go extra mile. But I realize that there are limits that you cannot cross. There are things that you cannot control beyond the classroom. You have a great lesson, you have a great support, great collaboration, you have everything all planned out, but you realize that beyond school, beyond the classroom, there are certain things going on in the life of the student that you cannot there's nothing you can do about it.

You talk with the parents, you talk with counsellors, but you there's nothing you can do. And we are really limited. So knowing your limit as a teacher is tough.

Spencer Payne: Yeah. if and if there was maybe one thing that you wish parents or the public at large knew about what it's like to be an educator, if they've never actually been in front of a classroom trying to teach kids, right? Like if if if you could help people walk a mile in your shoes of just like if I wish everyone knew this one thing about education or what it's like if they've never actually been a teacher, what what would you hope to convey or share with folks about what this education profession is like to those who have never actually spend time in..

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: three things guide me. For example, I want them to know that teachers are learners. we keep learning, we don't know it all. you have to keep learning. the more you teach should be the more you learn. So your learning should reflect more in your teaching. That's one. Secondly, those two students are the same. So when you get to classroom, you see two students listening to a lesson. They might listen to the same lesson, but they have they need different support.

So the support you give to student A. might be the support you give different support you give to students B. So you should be ready for that, that you be prepared to give different support for students. And lastly, teachers don't just teach content. We teach behavior. We teach manners. We teach we teach we teach curiosity. We we build confidence in students. So it's beyond just teaching math. There are a lot of things that you teach that are added to your your your teaching.

Spencer Payne: Yep. and anything that else that you were hoping to share that as last words of wisdom that we just didn't have a chance to get to or anything that you did share, but it's so important that you just need to say it one more time. So any any new or repeated final words of wisdom.

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: well, I for me I wanted to just share with my colleagues and everyone watching out there that if you're watching this, just know that you are doing great. Because to watch this, you'll see that Morland is doing a great thing bringing together educators to share their experience. And I learned this. Before coming to this podcast, I've actually watched a lot of podcasts from Moreland and I say it's really great and because we're learning a lot from ourselves. And these things should translate into the classroom.

Don't be scared of making mistakes. Don't don't be scared of crying. Crying is okay. After one lesson, you can go home and cry about it, but when you cry, you pick yourself up and you keep going because we keep learning. And lastly, build connection, build networking, build friends who will impact you, who will learn. For me, I love friends, I have friends in administration, I have friends among my colleagues, and all and I learn from them every time I ask questions. So if you want to go far, interact with people, network with teachers and build relationships.

Spencer Payne: Thank you so much from Guyana. definitely some real stories from a real educator. Appreciate you sitting down with us. yeah. Thank you. Appreciate you.

Frederick Imadonmwinyi: Thank you so much, friends. I'm happy to be here.