“A Successful Person”
Today was a great shock for my co-student teacher and I. Something happened that was very unexpected. Both of us were caught off guard as to what was about to happen. We were thinking, “Is this it?” “Are we really doing this? “Is this actually happening?” “Do we have to do it now?” But amidst all that internal and external panic that we have experienced, a good memory came from it, and it was during that day that we had our very first ever, practice teaching.
Yes, I know it should’ve been orientation week but it was something that could not be helped. Our mentor had an urgent meeting about the National Exam for the grade 9 and there was no one that would facilitate their lesson for the grade 7 students. So she asked us to facilitate her lesson for her. I honestly felt very excited and scared as well because I did not feel ready to teach. All she said was, “Let the students follow you when you read, make the text simpler for them then have them read it by line.” It seemed easy enough but the fact that the text was already very simple and the time frame of the discussion was very long, we were in a sort of state of panic. But at least our mentor allowed us to do team teaching since it is still observation day.
We started with class 7A. In this class, we were kind of awkward at first. During the lesson presentation it was somehow bumpy since we only had little preparation. During the comprehension questions portion, we decided to conduct a game so they would not be bored. Thankfully in the middle of class, there were Grade 9 students who helped us translate the material and further explained to them during the times when they failed to understand the topic.
Next, we were task to handle Grade 7C. They were very receptive and participated during the discussion compared to the previous one. This may be because of the fact that during this time, we somehow knew what we wanted to do in class. We had first hand experience already so it is not that difficult for the lesson presentation to flow.
Overall, today was a great learning experience for me. It was not a perfect teaching-learning process but at least we tried our best. I have learned to be ready. A teacher needs to be ready for unexpected things to happen and with this experience; maybe I can use what I have learned in the future.