To become a teacher is not really my dream when I was a child. It was my aspiration to become a doctor. Belonging to a poor family, I cannot help but follow my parents’ advice to take up education despite of being a consistent honor student.
But that decision I took is the best decision I made in my entire life. I believe this is really my calling and my mission on earth, which is to be like Jesus who touch and inspire people’s lives through teaching and modeling.
Unlike any other professions, teaching is an arduous occupation filled with multiple roles. To become a teacher means to become a parent, an adviser, a trainer-coach, an examiner, a manager, a gardener, a speaker, a project coordinator, a counselor, a facilitator, a performer and even a friend to your students. Despite these myriad tasks, teachers have more reasons to find joy in teaching.
In my 8th productive year in service, I perceived school year 2013- 2014 as another epoch of beginning, another rewarding and momentous chronicles of learning, teaching, mentoring, and the like.
“All that starts well ends well.” A famous line that plays a very significant and meaningful portion in my teaching career as I welcome this school year equipped with up-to-date educational tools and resources directly from the high caliber pool of trainers from the Krause Center for Innovation (KCI) Foothill College, Silicon Valley, California led by Sir Rushton Hurley, Sir John Sowash, Ms. Kim Randall and Ms. Leslie Fisher. It was indeed a great privilege on my part to be chosen as one of the Foothill Scholars in the entire Division of Pangasinan I after passing the rigid screening headed Dr. Shiela Marie A. Primicias, Assistant Schools Division Superintendent. The experience was astonishing despite the fact that I’ve missed most of my summer vacation! The better part was when we were given the opportunity to share all our learning to brilliant educators o four province during the Division Training on Educational Technology Enhancement Program at Pangasinan National High School, Lingayen, Pangasinan last May 23-June 1 for Batches 1, 2, and 3 and June 8-22, 2013 for Batch 4.
As I grow a bit older in service, I come to realized that my greatest role is to equip my learners the tools with which to enrich their own gardens of knowledge. That was the mere reason why I loved being their facilitator rather than acting as the main source of information. I confidently believed that children learn best when they discover for themselves the answers they are searching and when they practice skills through hands-on activities (learning by doing by John Dewey) and that education should be fun rather than forced – that force and punishment play no part in a good education.
For me, I gave more emphasis on inculcating right values, in addition to feeding their minds and equipping them lifelong skills. A true educated person is a righteous person, one who uses his/her knowledge, skills, and values for the common good rather than for himself/herself.
Students have taught me so many lessons I’ve forever cherished in my whole life. They’ve taught me to open my mind and my heart to the gladness and myriad ideas in the world, that in simply giving myself to them, I come to transform their lives incessantly.
Teaching is more than a profession, it is a calling. Jesus Christ Himself became our greatest teacher who taught us through His parables. Teaching is fun when we only knew how to discover and appreciate the joy in teaching.