Teaching about a school of fish

Hi Sea Fans!

I hope the week is treating you all well.  I'm travelling again and having a ball!  I'll post all about that soon but in the mean time, I thought I'd give you some more info on another type of marine job, an Informal Education Manager at an aquarium.  I spoke to Michelle Moodley to find out more:

INFORMAL EDUCATION MANAGER

1.       What is your job? Informal Education Manager. I'm basically in charge of the experience in the aquarium for public guests, this covers the signage and the permanent education staff who work with guests daily.

2.       What did you study/do to get this kind of work? I started working as one of the permanent education staff on the floor, working with the public everyday, then worked overseas as an Education and Events Manager and then returned to South Africa in my current job.

3.       What do you do in a normal day? I manage staff logistics, which means that I do staff training, schedules and assessments.  I also prepare new signage or modify exisiting signage (basic research and design layout).

4.       What is the most interesting thing you've come across/experienced in your job? Working overseas for 2 years and gaining more experience in a newly built facility. 

5.       What is a not-so-nice thing about your job? Having to attend so many meetings!

6.       What do you love about your job? A great moment like today -spending the morning at Umdhloti rock pools training staff.  We even found an octopus!!!

7.       What would you say/recommend to kids who want to do what you do? Be a good example and with signage, learn to think laterally and hang in there, it can get discouraging doing the same thing over and over again, but it's worth it in the end when you see the end product and people enjoy reading what you've written.

8.       Anything else? Learn new languages all the time.  You can take languages with you everywhere you go and you don't need a bag to pack it in! 

Thanks Michelle!  So Sea Fans, I hope you've learnt something interesting today - how exciting to be a 

teacher and you don't need to be in a school, you get to see fish all day long!

Have a great weekend Sea Fans and chat soon.

Cheers

Abby

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