From School Teacher To Business Owner Using Knowledge Gained At School

Monette Govender
Completing BEd, Unisa, TEFL
Co-owner Beachals

What I learned, and researched, taught, and assessed I used to open and grow my own business.

Beachals is steadily growing. It is now a registered brand in the clothing industry, we have an online shop. We have been approved by Takealot.

The business which started out as ‘just for the locals who love to walk barefoot on the beach and love their beautiful feet’ has reached the international market. It seems people the world over are like us. They also love to walk barefoot on the beach and look feminine and elegant.

The Beachal brand is instantly recognisable. What I learned about being consistent with the fundamentals like colours, fonts, look and style of photos, graphics, and how instructions and ideas are worded is turning into measurable results. During training events, this was drummed into us from preschool to Grade 07 lessons.

I believe I have Knowledge Network’s Progressive Learning Programme, the learning methodology ILAMM for technology integration in teaching and learning, the approach to completing school projects and general interaction in learning to thank for where my business is at this moment.

The first step of establishing Beachals had to do with trademark registration and copyright. I taught Grade 04 to Grade 07 learners about trademarks and copyright when researching web sites for school projects. They learned about trademarks and copyright and what the different symbols mean, the purpose of a registered trademark and the value it brings to a product be it National Geographic, or my business. 

While all these topics are highly complicated at the legal level, at Grade 04 level, learners know they must check the copyright before using a photo, their research summaries need to be carefully completed, plagiarism is not allowed. Works used must be cited.

Learners learn there are research sites that are easy to understand and sites that cannot be used because the wording is beyond what a Grade 04 learner is expected to understand.

They learn photos are products. People make money from their artwork be it photos, graphics, writing or other types of copyrighted work. They learn too that if someone quotes a line from one of their Grade 04 poems, they must be cited too. The value of their work is instilled in them even at that early age.

One of the Knowledge Network iconic projects is the design of the front cover of a Time Magazine where learners learn about the design elements, the type of headlines and articles that make Time Magazine and Time Magazine for Kids in print and online so successful. Learners usually love it, and their production work is stunning.

It amazes me how such a small thing such as designing the front cover for Time Magazine in class can become so important later in life. The font, the colours, the style of writing, the types of pictures for the cover, the headlines for articles and of course the price and how to buy it. Top companies always let you know quickly how to buy their products, how to easily get their products into your space.

It is quite a profound thought: what teachers teach to Grade 04 learners is the starting point for varsity and opening a business like mine.

Our next step in the Beachals establishment story was the creation of an ecommerce enabled website and promotion via social media Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

The Knowledge Network Progressive Learning Programme includes what an online image is, that it is important and needs to be looked after carefully from an early age. What goes onto the Internet is there forever. This enables awareness of the Internet as a public space even though one is generally completely alone when entering the worldwide web.

We put together a website using WordPress and Elementor. My daughter helped me. We needed the site to be ecommerce enabled. My daughter’s knowledge started at a primary school that had also partnered with Knowledge Network. 

I have received excellent feedback about the graphics on the website and on social media. People want to know which app I use. They are astounded when I tell them “No app, just good old faithful PowerPoint!”

Most schools don’t have Adobe, Apple, or Corel products for production of illustrations for projects. They have PowerPoint. During the Knowledge Network lessons, I taught learners how to illustrate their projects for all the different learning areas using vector graphics, bitmaps, and multimedia. I used what I taught the kids in the production of all the Beachal visuals.

My message to teachers is it is so important to do your prep and understand what you are teaching. We think we are imparting knowledge to our students, but through doing all of that, everything I ever taught in the classroom has helped me to achieve my goals in opening an online shop and having a social media presence.

Yes, I was the teacher, but through using the learning methodology Knowledge Network uses, I was the student too.

As a teacher, if you apply the principles that Knowledge Network has taught you, you will surprise yourself with what you can do.

I can honestly say our entire business is run using the skill set I learned through Knowledge Network, from pictures and memes to invoicing and stock control, website development and ecommerce integration.

Imagine where our kids will be when they leave school with all this knowledge including what is covered in coding and robotics, their own creative skills, confidence and understanding of their own self-worth.

These are all the ingredients of Knowledge Network which my principal identified when she chose the programme for the school in which I taught, which empowered me as a teacher and has now empowered me in my own business.