I never thought that I would had a lot of struggles, roadblocks, and challenges on this year that I’ve finally decided to pursue a different path and enter the world of teaching.
I though that enrolling on this course would be an all-time light and happy trip on a beautiful field but it seems like it has been a rough time full of road blocks, turbulent winds, and rocky paths. As this is the end of the course, I am relieved yet worried but grateful at the same time. I am relieved that my load would be lessened, worried how did my performance ranked, but grateful because taking up and completing this course is a one step closer to my dream.
I would like to imagine my future wherein I became a fully-pledged educator, teaching young people and touching lives, and building a learning center for underprivileged children in a remote, up-in-the-mountain barangay where my father and I used to do missionary works. That place is where I started opening my eyes for real–truly seeing the reality around me. There are children who are not able to go to school because they are poverty-stricken and there are children who are able to go to school but not getting the quality education that every child deserves. I would definitely incorporate the things I’ve learned in all the modules and will do my best to have a solid knowledge on the learning theories so that I could use it as a strong foundation to my teaching methodologies, understanding a child’s behavior, facilitate deep thinking and learning, and being the most efficient teacher that I could be.
What had deeply attached to my heart is the Social Learning and Constructivism Theory. There was an activity wherein we where asked to indicate the remarkable people who served as our mentors and role models. I was deeply touched with this activity–seeing how words and actions can be powerful tools to shape someone’s life. I said to myself that I will do everything I can to be worthy of being in that same list, written by my future student, looking up to me as his model or mentor. Social Learning served as a wake-up call that if I want to help the people around me to become better, I must become a better version of myself first. Some teachers are being complacent with their jobs and forgetting to be a good model to imitate to. People, especially children, are always watching, so I’ve learned that I must strive to be a good model for the students so that my teaching could transcend beyond the four walls of the classroom and reach their personal lives. With Constructivism, I’ve realized the importance of creating or “constructing” a new knowledge by your own. We must all learn not to be like babies, spoon-fed, as always but to gather all the knowledge and experience we need so that we can construct new knowledge that will help us provide solutions and understand the reality differently.
Lack of time, full of circumstances–these are like the sands or irritants that makes an oyster “cry.” The lessons on this course and all that I will gain from PTC Program are the layers of “nacre” to cover the irritants. As time goes by, when it is finally right, I know that I would be able to produce beautiful pearls that would be the gems of a bright future–my students.
Joy's Learnings and Joys 