Role Model of Character

Teachers as life changers have the power to either break or make a better future for their students and for them to be successful in this one, they have to make their students improve holistically. They need to impart knowledge in order for lifelong learning to happen, they have to hone their skills for preparation in life and most importantly, they have to inculcate values to their students, because only in this way they can make a better future, if competency is equal with character. One way for the teachers to do it, is by being a role model to them. And it’s an effective way, because values are caught not taught, if students can observe it through their teachers they can imitate and apply it. And that’s how my cooperating teacher inculcate values to his students. He has modeled it himself. One time, he told me that it is not wise to spend time yelling and making sermon to your students for them to behave well. You should be an example to them for them to realize things, especially students now, they hate teachers who always yell and consume time in disciplining. The hidden curriculum will do its part. Also, since my cooperating teacher handles literature classes he also integrate values and highlight the moral of the story to the students or sometimes he contextualized it in order for the students to relate on it and make the learning memorable and meaningful to them, that when they encounter problem same with the conflict they can apply what they have learned from the discussion. Learning this from him, is very useful for me as future English teacher. I can also apply his strategy to my future students I this way I made my learning useful and effective for me, and who knows one of my future students will also apply it in the near future.

Teachers as Artists

Being a teacher entails a lot of responsibilities and one of these, is for teachers to be creative inside their class. Creative, in a sense of using different strategies, methodologies and techniques in a different class, because a creative teacher acknowledges the diversity of his students, which is why he uses varieties of approaches in teaching. And this is very evident in the different classes of my cooperating teacher. Since he teaches grade 12 and grade 8 students I was able to witness his creativity. The way he changes and level his approach to the students. For example, when he teaches in his grade 8 class, he is more cheerful, he cracks jokes and the tone of his voice is friendly, which makes the class less threatening for the students and make them actively participate in the class. While in his grade 12 classes, I notice that, although he is still friendly and cheerful I can observe in his voice and movements his authority, which is good. Since the age gap is not that far, he makes sure that there is still boundary or professional line between him and his students. Another thing, is the way he manages his classroom, I was very lucky to observe his advisory class. I was able to see and appreciate the aesthetic of his homeroom. He is a fan of the movie The Greatest Showman, which is why the design of his homeroom is inspired by the movie. When you enter his room you can somehow sense his personalities, my cooperating teacher is very friendly, bubbly and funny, which can be seen the way he designed his room. With his creativity, they won an award for the Best Bulletin Board in Chevalier School this month. One more artistic thing about my cooperating teacher, is the way he speaks. I know that he is an English teacher and it’s just right that he speaks that way, but the way he pronounces words, he stressed syllables he is very good very, very artistic. One time, while they are talking about a Kapampangan play in his literature class, he read a dialogue there and I caught myself staring at him because he did very well, that time, I realize that as a future English teacher I should practice more in terms of speaking so that in the future I can also inspire my students.

21st Century Educator

Change is the only permanent in this world. This quotation applies in all areas of life, even in teaching. The way teachers teach in today’s time is different from the past, from being a traditional teacher to a 21^st century educator. Teachers adapt to changes in order to cope with their students, since everything changes, their needs, their environment and even their learning styles or the way they learn things. Teachers must take these things into consideration while preparing for the teaching-learning process. Since they are the one who direct the learning of the students. Now, how will teachers produce lifelong learners if they still do the traditional way of teaching? How will students experience authentic learning if teachers still do lecture method all the time? Therefore, in order to be an effective teacher in today’s time you have to be a 21^st century educator. To give you a concrete example, I will share my experiences during my observation at Chevalier School (CS). Every time I observe my cooperating teacher classes, I am amazed on how he manages his class and teaches his lesson. For your information, my cooperating teacher is teaching both junior and senior high school.

In his class, he is a facilitator of learning. He helps and guides his students for them to learn the lesson, he doesn’t spoon feed everything to them. Even with his grade 8 students, he guides them to direct their learning like. Like when they discussed the different type of speeches, instead of lecturing the lesson, he let them watch different videos and write their observations per group. From then, he helps the students to realize that a certain speech is like this, because... and etc. In this way, collaborative learning happens too, students help one another to a have better understanding about the videos.It is also a good way to give opportunities for the students to be actively engaged in the discussion rather than being passive listeners. This also made the learning more meaningful and relevant to them. Aside from this, he also promotes lifelong learning in his research classes. Instead of allowing students to take information from any websites he challenges his students to not to settle with outdated and unreliable sites and to read more updated books.  With these observations, I can say he is an example of a 21^st century educator, because based from The McNiel Educational Foundation a 21^st century educator has the following traits; student-centered, forward thinking, actively engaged, flipped, relevant, and collaborative, which I believe can be observed in my cooperating teacher class.