Jillian August from Secunda likes working with robots and people
Teacher has high expectations of her learners’ future.
SECUNDA – Jillian August’s teaching career began in 2013 when she got a job as a Grade 3 teacher at a primary school in Eersterivier in the Cape.
She grew up in Cape Town and studied at the University of the Western Cape towards a BA degree. She majored in Tourism and Linguistics.
Before she began living out her passion as a teacher, she worked at a doctor’s office. August met her husband, Victor, in university and he moved to Secunda when he found a job at Sasol.
She joined him in Secunda after they got engaged in 2013. She began teaching as a substitute teacher at Oranjegloed Primary School in 2014 for a year before she exchanged Oranjegloed for Curro Secunda where she worked for a year and a half.
August then decided it was time to follow her heart, which was to help children who battled with mathematics, English and Afrikaans and she opened Robokids, a dual learning centre focussing on tutoring and robotics in 2017.
She learnt about robotics at one of the schools she worked and loved it because it involved technology and the building of robots.
“It is a new way of teaching,” said August.
“I did some research on Lego education and a few courses and I loved it so much, I decided not to go back to mainstream schools.”
Victor, a mechanical engineer by trade, also did the courses and he teaches the more advanced children during weekends while August teaches the younger children to first-year students.
When she just opened the learning centre, robotics was not such a well-known subject. The tutoring part of the centre thrived faster than the robotics, but nowadays, Robokids is more of a robotics club than a tutoring centre.
“It is interesting to see how the kids have developed over the years. Some of the kids are so quiet and shy when they first come here, but the psychology behind building a robot helps them to develop into strong, and confident learners.
“Robotics improves a child’s maths, science and reading skills. They express themselves through playing and by the time they go to school, they can already do many of the things that they will be taught at school.”
At the intermediate levels, the children even learn how to read a compass and directions while they are building a robot.
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At the more advanced level, the older children learn about software and how to do programming and coding.
“Victor is my biggest supporter and I appreciate him so much.”
The Robokids Robotics Club was recently awarded at the national robotics championship as the best robotics club in South Africa. This club’s teams also excelled.
August entered seven teams for the national robotics championship of which two won their categories while one team finished fourth and another 10th in the Robo-mission big leagues. August’s aim for next year is for her teams to finish among the top three. She believes in using different techniques or ways of teaching children.
“As a teacher, you need to be versatile. Some children learn through visual ways, for example, you would have to cut an orange right in front of the child to show him or her, because that is the way they learn new things.”
August also noted that jobs in the robotic engineering industry are on the increase.
“Robotics engineering has become a niché.”
She and Victor are continuously upgrading their skills and going for courses in robotics. August is an outdoor person and in her free time, she enjoys cooking, shopping, walking and being active. She is also a mother to a three-year-old toddler.
