I Wasn’t Trying to Win "Teacher of the Year Award" —Then Technology Changed the Game

I never set out to become the Most Outstanding Teacher of the Year.

And at the time, I certainly wasn't thinking about building a career in technology.

I was simply trying to become a better teacher.

When I joined my school, I was still relatively new to the system. I was learning the expectations, understanding the standards, and finding my own approach to teaching effectively.

My internal assessments placed me around a satisfactory level.

I was doing my job.

But I knew I could do better.

Then technology changed the way I approached my classroom.

I had access to a WOWBii interactive board, and although using technology in lessons was still new to me, I became curious about what I could do with it.

I started asking myself:

How can technology make my lessons more engaging?

How can I get my students to participate more actively?

How can I explain difficult concepts differently?

Those questions became the beginning of something I didn't recognise at the time.

My technology journey.

I started learning.

And I learned the way many beginners learn: by searching, experimenting, failing, trying again and practising.

I spent hours on YouTube looking for tutorials and ideas.

I explored different digital tools.

I experimented with different teaching strategies.

I practised using the interactive board.

I tried incorporating videos, presentations, interactive activities and digital resources into my lessons.

Some things worked.

Some didn't.

So I kept experimenting.

There were days when I became so invested in improving my lessons that I was the last teacher to leave school.

While the school was becoming quiet, I was still in my classroom, practising with the WOWBii board and thinking about what I could do differently in my next lesson.

At the time, I thought I was simply preparing better lessons.

Looking back, I realise I was developing something much bigger:

the mindset of a technologist.

I was identifying a problem.

I was researching possible solutions.

I was testing different tools.

I was evaluating what worked.

I was adapting.

And then I would try again.

That process taught me that technology is not just about knowing how to use a tool.

It is about using technology to solve real problems.

For me, the problem was simple:

How do I create a better learning experience for my students?

And technology became part of my answer.

Then came an assessment I never expected would change how I saw myself.

A group of external assessors from Lagos came to evaluate the teachers. Their assessment was conducted using British standards and included our use of ICT and technology in teaching.

I knew I had worked hard.

But I wasn't expecting anything extraordinary.

After all, I was still relatively new to the system. I was still learning. Technology still felt new to me.

Then the results were announced.

I was named the Most Outstanding Teacher of the Year.

I was genuinely surprised.

The teacher who had been working quietly behind the scenes had been noticed.

The countless YouTube searches.

The extra hours.

The experimentation.

The practising after school.

The effort to understand how technology could make my classroom better.

It had all contributed to something I never set out to achieve.

An award.

But more importantly, a realisation.

Technology had changed my trajectory.

I had entered the classroom as a teacher who was still learning how to integrate technology effectively.

I emerged from that experience with a completely different appreciation for what technology could do.

It could transform a classroom.

It could transform a teacher's practice.

And, eventually, it could transform a career.

That experience is one of the reasons my transition into technology today does not feel completely disconnected from my past.

My tech journey did not begin when I decided to learn technology professionally.

It began in a classroom.

It began with a teacher asking:

"How can I do this better?"

That question led me to YouTube.

YouTube led me to experimentation.

Experimentation led me to confidence.

Confidence led to recognition.

And that recognition helped me realise that I had a genuine curiosity for technology.

Since then, I have continued building on that curiosity.

I have explored programming.

I completed Harvard's CS50.

I built a small agricultural application as part of my learning.

I began exploring cloud computing, Linux, AWS, Git, Terraform, and DevOps.

And now, I am taking that journey further as I explore the intersection of technology, artificial intelligence, and sustainable agriculture.

When I look back, I see a clear thread connecting these experiences.

Agriculture taught me about real-world problems.

Education taught me about people, communication, and learning.

Technology taught me that those problems can be approached differently.

And now, I am bringing those experiences together as I transition into tech.

My story is therefore not about leaving education behind.

It is about carrying the lessons from education into technology.

The teacher who once stayed late experimenting with an interactive board is now the same person staying curious about cloud, DevOps, and AI.

The tools have changed.

The problems I want to solve are evolving.

But the mindset remains the same:

Learn. Experiment. Solve. Improve. Repeat.

I didn't start as a technology expert.

I started as a teacher who wanted to do better.

And perhaps that is the most important lesson from my journey so far:

You don't always discover your next career by planning it. Sometimes, you discover it by following the things that make you curious enough to keep learning.

I thought I was simply trying to become a better teacher.

I didn't know I was taking my first steps into technology.