Coaching for the classrooms - 2018 Lasco Teacher of the Year has big plans to help new teachers with JamaicaTeacch
Published:Thursday | January 3, 2019 | 12:00 AM
An initiative to provide support for teachers is set to be launched by the 2018 Lasco Teacher of the Year, Amorkard Brown.
Dubbed 'JamaicaTeacch', it will target mainly new teachers and expose them to general practices within the classroom setting
"The purpose of the programme is to provide support to beginning and practising teachers to share best practices and to identify areas of mentorship so that these individuals can be filtered into respective mentorship under the Master Class Team as teachers," said Brown of the programme, which is focused on "teaching excellent and commendable classroom habits to teachers," hence the name JamaicaTeacch.
"I am very confident that this programme will have a positive impact on the education sector, because a part of the problem currently is that there is absence of mentorship, and so often we have to call back retired expert teachers who are 70 to 74 year old.
"Why? Because our beginning teachers are not coached and properly supported by the effective teachers," said Brown.
The programme consists of three elements: the JamaicaTeacch one-day conference which is slated for October, a national science expo for first-form science students which will be held in May, and a newspaper column.
Brown said the column is the only element right now for which he is still seeking support and assistance.
"This is where expert teachers will share with other educators about the classroom. We already have written pieces, but it is just the opportunity to meet with specific personnel to take us on board," said Brown.
A former recipient of the Prime Minister's National Youth Award for Excellence, Brown has been teaching for about 12 years. half of that time has been spent at Munro College in St Elizabeth teaching biology and general science.
According to Brown, while growing up in Westmoreland with his parents and siblings, he knew he wanted to become a teacher.
"I was exposed to teaching through community-based teaching from an early age, 16. I'm from a rural community, the first person from there to go to university. I grew up not seeing anybody going to work, like a government job, that is, as most persons went to the market and the others went to their farms.
"When I received my CXC (Caribbean Examinations Council) subjects I became like a notable figure in the community that parents and students relied on for assistance, so I started out helping them at my church evening schools with homework, and also in the summer, and from there I developed the teaching bug and decided that this was my passion," said Brown, who holds a Bachelor of Education in Science Education (Botany and Zoology) from the University of the West Indies.
'I'm happy with my decision to become a teacher. When I talk to some of my colleagues they say, 'boy, you no have no ambition', but it's not like I see it as a stressful job. It's something that I just do effortlessly.
"I'm a boarding schoolteacher. I start my day at six in the mornings as a housemaster, and I go right up until 10 or 11 o'clock in the nights. It's something that I love. if you speak with my students they will tell you I don't have any set time that I cut off from teaching," added Brown.