to them

Last January 8, 2008, I asked my Grade V pupils to write an article about me, their English teacher. This was the topic because they needed to encircle the adjectives included in their article. I needed to know what I am to them since that time was my first teaching job. My ever brilliant, English-writing pupil wrote the most honest article about me. She graduated this year. For me not to forget her, I opted to publish her article telling what I am to her and probably to all my pupils. They would realize why I did all those things in our classroom when they grow…more.

The English Teacher
He is our English teacher. He teaches every topic of the English language. He is smart and this is his first year in this school. He is not my favorite teacher because, as I said before, I don’t like school, so that means I hate anyone or anything in it.

Some of his activities are fun, some are just simple or plain, and some are just tiresome. He gives us activities almost every day so I get tired of it. Things I appreciate about him are, he can speak English fast, his examples of sentences are not just about the normal, common, simple or plain topics. Sometimes I just can’t really sit down and listen to his discussions, my mind keeps wandering off but I can still answer if he calls me though. One thing I hate about him is when he made us change seats everyday. I had to go to the front row and because of that, teachers could easily fix my hair, my messy hair. Another thing is he joined me into a Division Schools Press Conference that I didn’t even know about.

The most important thing I learned from him is Speech is harder than I thought it was. Activities I hate about him are making us write these compositions that only have negative stuffs in them, making us memorize things in Speech and making me join the games in our Christmas Party.

something of everything

(Even before, I knew that I am not a skilful writer. One of the proofs is the article I wrote for the PAFTE Newsletter that always reminds me of improving more my English language proficiency. A colleague even despised this article for it is ambiguous and has scattered thoughts. Well, he’s right. The article I’m talking about is posted below.)

A teacher must have something of everything.

Today, in this competitive world, the one who emerges best is the one with widespread of skills and talents.

In teaching, it is not enough that one is good in executing lessons. A teacher has many tasks that need not only the mind. Oftentimes, a teacher counsel bully, emotionally-disturbed, and ill-mannered pupils, thus, the teacher makes use of the heart. There are also times that a teacher needs to repair impaired stuffs in the classroom, carry heavy objects, do carpentry, and serve as a cleaner, maximizing the use of the body. If one has the quality of an “intelligent” MIND, HEART, and BODY, and be able to use them in different tasks of a teacher, one will come out best and will be a proud member of the most important profession- TEACHING.

Teaching is not a profession of expertise.

Teaching is different from other professions that focus only in one knowledge or skill. An engineer, for example, should be an expert in planning and constructing buildings, houses, and bridges; a nurse in tending and caring patients; a designer in conceptualizing new designs; a composer in making songs; or a musician in playing musical instruments. A teacher in some little ways could be an engineer, planning the lessons and building good habits of thoughts to pupils; a nurse patiently caring the pupils; a designer making the aesthetic side of the classroom plausible; a composer making songs related to the lessons; a musician playing musical instruments together with the pupils. A teacher could also be a singer, dancer, soldier of God, reporter, trainer, and many more. A teacher can do what other professionals do. That is why the world of teaching is the world of all professions in which teaching is the core where other professions revolve. Absence of a teacher is absence of all professions. These make teaching the most essential, enthusiastic, and challenging venture in the world.

Teaching is a profession of “Jack of All Trades”.

A teacher should deviate from the boxed idea that teaching is merely to teach, unexciting, and castigation. To be able to succeed in gratifying the intellectual, emotional, and physical needs of the pupils, one should possess a little bit of everything. If one can’t sing well, make sure that at least he knows the tune of the song. Id one’s feet are both left, at least he should know the basics of the dance. If these something of everything comes together, it will definitely work bigger than what you expected it to be, like a bundle of broomsticks that works when it is fused. It is the teacher’s tool in making a child – the tool in making the future a better one. So never say just a school teacher. As an author puts it – Be proud you are a member of the most important profession in the world. Face anyone without feeling of inferiority… Look at anybody squarely in their eyes and say, I AM A TEACHER.