Teaching Over Again

How do I un-teach you?

Never in my wildest dream did I see myself as a teacher. I always wanted to become a Doctor of Medicine. But with four years of teaching, I am more likely to become a Doctor of Business Administration or Doctor of Philosophy. At least, I still get to be called Doctor. As Jezz Bezos, Amazon of CEO says, ‘One of the huge mistakes is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don’t choose your passions; your passions choose you”.

For two years, I taught at Computer Communication Development Institute. After that, I also taught for two years at Bicol University – College of Business Economics and Management, then had my practice teaching at Bicol University College of Education Integrated Laboratory School High School Department.

I began teaching Business subjects without first-hand experience on running a business but I read books, newspapers, watched television, surfed the internet, talked to friends who are business owners and observed my parents managed a apartment/boarding house rental and direct selling.

I had my practice teaching in English even though I did not graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education Major in English. I never had any formal training when it comes to teaching English methodologies but I passed the Board Licensure examination of Professional Teacher with field of Specialization in English with a grade of 80.80.

A few days after my practice teaching ended, a job interviewer asked me What is the best and worst thing about teaching? The first thought that came into my mind when I heard the words “The best thing about teaching" was my students. My students have a unique identity. Most of my students came from public schools. Some are scholars of different private and government institutions.

I always knew the impression I will have on my students. A lot of times, students would say “Wow!” every time I tell them that I graduated in San Beda College.  One student said to me as he was about to start his report: “Sir, kinakabahan ako.” Another student told me that “Sir iba talaga aura mo”. Despite my happy classroom personality, I am still intimidating to a lot of students. But they learn to like me at the end of the semester.

I too have a unique identity as a teacher. I teach with passion and with these ideas:

To laugh often and love much;

To win the respect of intelligent person and the affection of children;

To earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty;

To find the best in others;

To give of one’s self;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

To have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation;

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived 

… this is to have succeeded.

~attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson

As a Teacher, I hope to touch more than one life. In some way, I hope to touch every student, maybe not everyone profoundly, but I hope that I have touched each student by letting him or her know that I care… this is to have succeeded.

My strongest feeling about teaching is that you must begin with the student.

As a teacher, you do not begin to teach thinking of your own ego and what you know… The moments of the class must belong to the student --- not the students, but to the very undivided student. You do not teach a class. You teach a student.

~Paul Baker

“Never be hung up on technique.  Technique cannot be learned from a book. Technique cannot be learned from a seminar. Technique cannot be learned from a person. Technique is always personality-bound. Techniques must always be spontaneous and original. When a technique is borrowed, it will not work.”

~Tony Perez

Your student may finally understand and benefit from a lesson not within the semester but many years after”.

~Tony Perez

     

  In your pursuit for greatness, embrace first the ordinary for one can only be extra-ordinary if he first understands what it means to be ordinary. As you soar higher and higher, the ordinary and the everyday will paradoxically keep your feet firmly on the ground.

                For at the end of the day, being ordinary allows you to constellate yourself with the other stars so that together you light the horizon.

         Being ordinary is important because it enables you to relate better to other people. Being rdinary is different from being mediocre or to encourage a culture of mediocrity.   it means speaking the language of your students. The teachers whom I looked up to share one common characteristic: they knew how to talk to students. In my pursuit to become a great teacher.

~Migoy Lizada

       
As the sister of Steve Jobs said in her eulogy to the icon: “We all live and die in medias res. In the middle of a story. Of many stories.” And so this is precisely how I am going to deliver my last lecture to you guys: with the passion, noise, and bravado I seem to carry with me in every lecture and with the idea that I will inevitably leave something unsaid, untouched. For as any teacher would know, teaching is never about giving something whole but coherently offering something incomplete for there will always be that thing left unsaid – a missing word, an incoherent sentence that will somehow be pieced together by the student.

~Migoy Lizada

You can only teach something that you know inside out.

~Danton Remoto

But between four classes and planning a wedding, my plate was full. Still I know our students are in good hands. And even though I'll never teach again professionally, I've realized that I don't need a blackboard or a classroom to set an example.

~Cameron Diaz, bad Teacher

I wonder if I make any difference to anyone sitting in my classroom?

~Teacher Mercedes Julia Roberts Larry Crowne

        
 Learn for the sake of learning

                                                            ~Admission

           

I also got to know Randy Pausch while I was doing a research. When I began teaching, I told myself that I would be like him where my English or Business classes will run out of slots almost immediately after Enrollment Week. Like him, I too wanted to be a part of the childhood dream of my students. I always meet my students on the first day of class where I asked them to write on a sheet of paper their expectations, their childhood dream and their ideal job. Randy Pausch said that “It is not about how to achieve your dreams. It’s about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.”

While in the middle of reviewing for the Board Examination, I took a “What is your philosophy of education quiz” from Salandandan textbook. The result was I am Progressivist, existentialist and behaviorist. True enough.

       
 As their teacher, I always make it to a point that I get to see my students’ skills, knowledge or at least their potential, their passion.  I make sure that I will be amazed at the gifts and talents that my students have and will have. I want them to be many great things.

       
With my four years of teaching experience in Legazpi City, I got the best introduction to the academe. The best important lesson I learned is that being considered is much more important than being chosen.

       
  I was considered many times for an Instructor 1 position at Bicol University. I was also considered at Aquinas University of Legazpi. But I was never chosen. I was also not chosen by some students to finish the semester with them. What matters is that I have a good sense of what I am teaching and what I am doing to become the best teacher. As a quotation goes, the best part of teaching is that it matters. The hardest part of teaching is that very moment matters every day.

        So, how did I answer the question of the job interviewer: What is the best and worst thing about teaching?

            I answered, The best thing about teaching are the students. I like it when students get into my world, and I also get into their world too. We learn from each other. The worst thing about teaching is the heat. I have to make paypay from time to time and drink water. It is maybe because of climate change. No pun intended.