By Francine Black, Staff Reporter
Annah Haughton - CONTRIBUTED
ANNAH HAUGHTON IS a teacher who is committed to her job of shaping the minds of the children for whom she is responsible.
Haughton was drawn to teaching by her love for children and wanted a profession which allowed her to work with them. "I wanted to do something to help to shape these young minds, so I chose teaching," Haughton said.
Her training in the profession started in 1978 with a one-year course in primary education at the then West Indies College in Manchester. This ended in 1981 but Haughton's training did not end there as between 1994 and 1995, she went to the Bethlehem Moravian Teachers' College where she upgraded her training to a diploma in primary education.
Later between 1999- 2001, she went to the Northern Caribbean University where she completed the Bachelor of Arts degree in primary education. Her teaching experience has spanned more than 20 years but this experience came in the first few years, mainly through substituting.
She started out substituting at the Porus Primary School for four months, then went back to Westmoreland, the parish she is from, where she substituted at Mooreland Hill Primary and Chester Castle in Hanover.
She substituted at Porus Primary again in 1982 and 1985 and then in 1987 she was offered a permanent position at the school.
REWARDING JOB
She says she loves teaching children below ten because they are easy to discipline. "They are easier to work with because you can scold them and a little after you and them are friends like nothing happened," she said.
She said while she finds her job rewarding, it can be filled with challenges such as handling indisciplined students. However, she encourages persons considering the profession not to allow the challenges to deter them but to remain focused on what they want to achieve.
"My greatest joy is when I am walking on the street and I see those big men and women and they say 'teach' yuh remember me. I will say your face looks familiar and they'll tell me their names and say I taught them in such and such a class; that makes me feel good," she said.
She said one way of ensuring she reaches her students is by establishing the rules of the class from the beginning and making sure that they understand and obey them. "You have to put down your rules from day one and let them understand and they will break them sometimes but you have to lead them back to them," she said.
Haughton says she knows if she leaves teaching, she will continue in a profession that allows her to interact with children. Her years of dedication to the profession have not gone unnoticed as she has been given a award for more than 15 years of service at Porus High School.
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