-Teacher on a mission to educate the nation in a fun way

A BORING class is never favourable for students, especially those who are going through emotional and physical changes during their teenage years. Keeping their attention is mostly difficult but Mathematics teacher, Giddel Thompson, has a way of doing so by inculcating his subject in a fun way.

Having an attentive class of students is every teacher’s dream and while some teachers use a strict approach to achieve that dream, Thompson tries to have a balanced class by promoting smiles and laughter during his teaching sessions.

“I am trying to build a legacy of fun teaching,” said the owner of Giddel’s All Momentous Intellectuals (GIDAMI) during a recent interview with the Pepperpot magazine.
The fun and learning happen in a fairly spacious and comfortable environment at Lot 35 Gordon Street, Kitty. This is expected to grow and expand in the coming years but it was not always where it is today.

Thompson, who grew up in Sophia, was never influenced by the negative attention that the community received back in those days.
“I had my fair time of trials. I was never spoon-fed and I certainly never allowed the community to influence who I wanted to become,” said the teacher, adding that he started teaching right after school, at the age of 17 years old.

Thompson had his first student during his Fifth Form days at Apex Education. Ironically, his first student was his high school sweetheart who influenced the name of the lesson. Her name was Amanda and his, Giddel so their colleagues merged their names and called them GIDAMI.

Although the relationship didn’t last after high school, the name lived on and was later given new meaning. His ability to help Amanda get a Grade Two at the then Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) exam, gave him the motivation to go on and become a teacher.
“If I could make Amanda pass I should start teaching; after-school work was hard to get, so I started the lessons right in Sophia where my mother lives,” he said, noting that his mother took on the expense of concreting the place, putting in a shed, building benches, desks and installing a blackboard.

Her efforts never went in vain, since the classes were well received and attended by students of the Cummings Lodge Secondary. On the first day, he had close to 24 students but like every good thing, there were always challenges.
The challenges were not caused by the students but by his neighbours in Sophia. On several occasions, they called the police because of the noise level and also because of dust that blew up when he would sweep the yard.

“Learning is fun, so at times we would crack jokes and so but the residents would complain and call the police; the continuous trend brought me out of Sophia and into David Street, Kitty; at that time the lesson took a name change to MarDel because my friend joined in but that only lasted for a year and the name was reverted,” Thompson said.
After-school lessons are hard to build, since the teachers would usually have to build a name for themselves but a lot of times people give up because they would have to wait a while to actually see progress.

Parents would obviously look at the lesson’s pass rate before they send their child, so aside from having a fun class Thompson has been working on producing quality students who perform well at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC).
Apart from Mathematics, Thompson has hired other teachers to teach subjects like Social Studies, English, Accounts and so forth.

Unlike teachers in the public and sometimes private system, they are tasked with ensuring that children pass because the parents rarely blame the main institution for their child’s failure at an exam.

This is his eighth year of teaching and he believes that he has come a far way, but there is still more room for improvement and growth. The classes currently have 34 students.
“We have very good pass rates here; I want the lesson to be known as a place where you would want to send your child when the school says they cannot pass…there have been instances where parents come to me and say their child cannot pass but we took them in and made them pass,” he said.

Over the next five years, he hopes to increase the capacity of the venture and be among the well-known tutors like Morgan, Leon and Sir Lee.
His words of advice to people is to keep trying, even if they do not get it right or achieve their goal, they will find comfort in trying to achieve it.