The Practice Teaching Experience As a child when people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grow up I would say “I want to be a doctor”. Never in my wildest imagination did I ever envision myself of becoming a teacher. It was not that I loathed the teaching profession, it was just I never considered teaching as a career that I would pursue in the future. Which is ironic because I have been studying for the past 5 years to become a teacher. After I graduated from high school, it was that time where I was given options in choosing what course I would take up in this university (Ateneo de Zamboanga University). My first option was BS Psychology and my second choice was AB English. When I talked about this with my father he told me that I should not pursue Psychology because I would not have a future as a Psychology graduate in Zamboanga. So I said “Okay so what about AB English?” He said it would be better to take Education because most graduates who take this course end up being English teachers anyway. So, I thought about it and said Okay, I’ll take up Education. When it was time to finalize everything I decided to take Bachelor of Elementary Education (BEEd) instead because, if I will major in English I would teach high school students. I did not want to teach teenagers because I was more comfortable around children. During my first until fourth year as a BEEd student, the idea of becoming a future teacher still hadn’t “sink in”. However, during my 5th year when I finally had the opportunity to take my practicum that was the beginning of my journey to appreciate and even love teaching. My experience as a student teacher in Sangali Elementary School was indeed something that would forever be engraved in my mind, heart, and soul. During my first day of actual teaching I was both excited and anxious, a day before I had already prepared all the materials that I would use in the three subject areas I taught which were Mother Tongue, Filipino, and Araling Panlipunan (ARPAN). I had a lot of expectations before that day, unfortunately my expectations were not met. My 1st grade pupils were not participative and were still a little anxious. However, as time passed they started to engage themselves more and got used to me as their teacher. The most memorable experience that I had in my practicum was when I spent a whole night preparing the lesson plan, materials, and visual aids for my lesson in Mother Tongue which was “Mga nombre de gente, animal, lugar, y las cosas.” I had a really difficult time in printing out all of the materials because of bad timing, lack of sufficient money, and a bitter fight with my old man. But in the end, I was still able to print everything out. When I got home I realized that I had so little time to prepare all of the visual aids and materials so I decided to work overnight without any sleep. I started at around 9:30 in the evening and finished at 3:30 I morning. I dozed off a couple of minutes and woke up to get ready. When I was on the bus going to Sangali I was so tired and drowsy. However, at the end of that day all of my hard work paid off. My pupils enjoyed learning the lesson and my teacher praised me for doing a great job. I realized from that experience that hard work and determination is eventually rewarded with something great in the end. My pupils and cooperating teacher, Mrs.Maribel Balan, have played a very important role in my life and I am thankful that they became part of my experience as a student teacher. They made me realize so many things and I learned a lot from them. My pupils made me realized that I really love teaching children and that being a part of a child’s learning experience is something that is quite fulfilling. They also taught me how to be patient, because majority of them really struggled in reading, so I had to have great patience and I had to teach them step by step over and over again until they would improve. Even though they were very “salawayun” and a lot of them were really struggling learners I am still thankful and proud that they were my pupils. Maam Beng helped me realize that the teaching profession is a very noble vocation. Whenever she would tell me about her experiences throughout her years as teacher I would gain a lot of insights from her stories. She also contributed in the development of my pedagogy; she gave me a lot of efficient advice about how to improve my teaching strategies. My knowledge about teaching strategies that I learned from my PED teachers in the past combined with her tips truly made a difference in the way I taught my pupils. She truly made my experience memorable with her kindness and never ending guidance. Teaching is a difficult but fulfilling profession. Even though it is quite stressful, tiring, and does not pay that much, the experience that a teacher has in this field of profession is without a doubt remarkable. Now that I have had a taste of what it would be like to be a teacher, I want to pursue this profession until my dying breath.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 05:33:54 +0000
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