The Marker: A Teacher’s Simple but Powerful Tool

Work tools are very essential for the speedy delivery of our job, and it's always great to have them so we can do the job well, on time, and accurately. Every single job has its own tool, be it a physical external tool or an internal one, just like a musician's number one tool is their voice, or external tools such as a hoe or cutlass for farmers, an oven for a baker, a screwdriver for an engineer, a sewing machine for a tailor, and several others, to name but a few. Just like everyone else, as a teacher I have several tools that play a vital role in my job delivery, and below I'll be talking about one of them.

Like I said above, I'm a teacher by profession, and that's what I'll be talking about today. As teachers we've got lots of tools or equipment that go on to aid our job as educators, some of which are the mark book, the marker, the various instructional materials, the board, and several others. But for today I'd be talking about one of the most vital tools in my profession and one I believe is essential to my service delivery, whose absence might affect the effective delivery of my job as a teacher. Although I understand some modern schools make us use a light pen or stylus, while local ones might use chalk to do the same job the marker does for me.

The maker, which I said performs the same function as the light pen, stylus, and chalk but through different mediums, is what I want to talk about, and like I said, as a teacher, this tool plays a vital role in my job as a teacher. We all know when it comes to teaching, everything isn't all about explaining; there must come a time when we write something down, which will then serve as material or a resource the students can go back to to read for better understanding and to prepare themselves for the various assessments that would most likely follow the teaching, assessments such as classwork, assignments, tests, or examinations.

I understand people in universities might not think it's very essential, especially when most lectures hardly have much to write down but mostly talk to explain and share handbooks, but secondary school isn't the same as higher institutions. And one can't dictate for students to write down notes, knowing fully well that not all of them are good at spelling and that some might be slow when it comes to writing. That's exactly where the marker comes in handy, because it helps me as a teacher write the note on the board, and it also helps me during explanation, as I can easily draw a diagram of what I'm explaining for better understanding whenever I don't have the actual object for the students to see.

As stated earlier, in the absence of the marker I use for writing, that means I'll have to resolve to dictating, and like I said below, it's not the best option because it'll take more time, and students might spell something else while you're saying something entirely different. So even though I might get something down without it, we've come to the understanding that my job delivery won't be smooth given how not all the students can spell and how some can be very slow when it comes to comprehending what has been dictated and writing it down.

All photos are mine.