Joel Lleva Ebora / Dongyuan Elementary School

《ABSTRACT》

Trends and challenges in teaching-learning situation are regarded as a never-ending process. But with enough experience, suitable approaches and teaching techniques, learning goals will be met. As a teacher who is committed to provide quality education, this is an article of enlightenment which simply discusses some of the hardships and fallbacks in teaching.

“I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”
-Excerpt from the poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley

I always dream of becoming a person who imparts knowledge and inspires other through my own ability. Along the way, I thought I could never achieve this due to the external factors that most people see as a great hindrance in attaining one’s dream. Eventually, I have endured them all and who would have thought that I already reached a decade of practicing this noble job. Truly that we were born with destined life ahead of us but how we mold or modify this, will define who we are and not what the society wants us to be.

Taking the First Steps: My Teaching Experience in the Philippines

The tough years while completing college was a precious gem for me for I believe that the world outside will never be that easy. Right after marching in a black dress, I secured a position in a town 2 hours away from ours. I was excited with the new environment and opportunities waiting to a newbie like me.

Fast forward, my first school in the Philippines has undeniably played an important role to me as an educator. Expectedly, I experienced most of the firsts in my teaching career there. Some of those were when I’ve got to know myself better in terms of the personality I have. It was reflected on how I performed with the duties given to me. Some instances were very challenging to handle especially that we have learners with different behavior, learning techniques, and learning problems.

For some reason, I have told myself that I should rest for a while, quit the job because I was overwhelmed with the school works and pressured from the students. Until then when I realized that I chose this profession, therefore I should extend extra patience and understanding towards everything.

During that time, it was a great training ground for me especially that I was exposed with different activities which I really enjoyed and participated actively. My immediate supervisors allowed me to materialize events regarding extra-curricular activities for our learners. I owe them about this because I felt my excitement about my job has restored and felt I wanted to do even more. Although it took and required me extra effort and time, I felt beyond happy for this was the craft I enjoy to do. I was given the chance to become the adviser of the School Paper and Student Council. Maybe because during my time, I excelled in the school publication and was once a school paper writer and a student leader too. It was a great feeling during that moment when my learners look up to me as their role model and knowledge provider.

One thing that is most rewarding feeling to me as a teacher was when I brought some of students to different competitions particularly about writing. Seeing the joy on their faces every time I told them that I have chosen them for this craft is beyond fulfilling. This gave me flashback from the past when I really wanted to be part of the team. In my own point of view, being selected is already a reward and winning this is a plus.

On the other hand, supervising the student council helped understand students’ way of thinking especially when it comes to leadership. I was proud to produce student-leaders whom I know would be great leaders on their own someday.

This experience honed the inner teacher in me. This explains that a teacher like me does not stop outside the four corners of the classroom, but continues even you walk on the road until you reach your house when your learners confide to you as if you are their parents, tell you their feelings which they cannot tell anyone even their parents or family, and share their achievements even they are no longer in the premise of the school with high respect and regards to you. This I think is the pride of the educators like me around the globe.

As I worked in 2 private schools within a span of 6 years with colorful experiences, I would say that my ups and downs here made me better and ready for the bigger world. I was equipped with bounty of meaningful involvement and able to capture the heart and the soul of my learners.

Taking new heights overseas: The Teacher Explores Thailand

New challenges excite me though sometimes it causes me anxiety. Before, I was console with the comfort zone that I have and was very hesitant to try something new. Not until opportunity knocked and I have to respond to it because not everyone is given the chance to have that.

Working and living away from home was never new to me. Since college, I had this experience which I think a great advantage for me being a total independent person. After taking so many considerations and thinking greater possibilities, I decided to move to Thailand with hopes that it would help me financially and allow me to have professional growth.

Thailand is a very welcoming country despite the fact that it is not actually an English-speaking nation. It was also one of the biggest challenges for me when I started to teach primary class. Teaching kids at this age was not new to me since I had this experience way back in the Philippines. What’s more challenging was to teach the language they do not always use everyday. The first month was very tough. For several years that I used to teach secondary students in the Philippines, what I really wanted to find out was the best practice and approach for them to love English lesson. Hard work, patience, creativity, and commitment were some of the key points I invested with the situation. Eventually, although not all the kids performed very well, but I see how they improved and showed interest to learn more.

Months after, the head of the English Program department decided to assign me to the special class. This class is composed of learners who are well up to fluent speakers of the English language. Somehow, I felt eased because teaching English lessons would not be that challenging between me and the students. What was even more complicated was to handle Primary 2 students. They were the youngest learners I’ve ever handled. The adjustments were taken into light until serious matters. This included their manner of interactions, span of attentions and retention, approach in learning, and behavioral differences. Meanwhile, it was another joyful experience to have them as shown from their jolly, sweet, and genuine gestures. I will never forget the feeling of being appreciated and loved by these young and innocent children. The reward from teaching them behind the fact that it was really challenging made me realize so many things in life.

In addition, collaborating with teachers from different nations was another big thing from this experience. The cultures, norms, and interactions were some of the highlights of this endeavor. I’ve got to understand how inter-cultural teaching and collaboration work and how it affects one’s principles in teaching.

Teaching Thai students brought another milestone to my teaching career. Given that the difference in acquiring the English mastery between them and the Filipino learners is relevantly seen. I was thankful that I chose to never give up on them and believe that someday, they would also be thankful that once in their lives, there was a teacher who pushed them to be better.

A Torch for Teaching Principles: The Teaching Ideology

Having acquired enough experience both local and international, I know that the trends and challenges are still awaiting. It will never be a smooth sailing but definitely greater heights and opportunities will pave the way. The yesteryears have made a great impact to me as an educator. Flexibility and adaptability are some of the best outcomes I have obtained which I can say helped me to get through some hardships.

Generally, teaching learners with different age scheme, from primary until collegiate level, was one of the highlights of my teaching career. It provided me a bountiful experience allowing me to practice and apply variety of approaches and techniques in teaching. This also made me realize that you don’t need to be teacher who’s very particular with the theories, technicalities, and details from the intended lesson you ought to teach. But moreover, you have to be a teacher who has the ability to realize the basic needs of each of one your learners. Sometimes, you have to go through your job and try to understand deeper until you realize where and how you are going to start shaping them.

To elaborate, these were some of the important points I have learned from my experiences.

(1)The wisdom from college students: It was the thing I obtained from them. They are goal oriented and they are particular with the outcome more than the process. The drive that they are using in order to achieve their goals is stronger that is why they are risk takers. This perhaps is relatable to me in terms of formulating and planning my lesson. The goals and objectives must be properly attained. However, the process is still very important thus flexible techniques should be considered too.

(2)The creativity and passion of the Junior and Senior High school: This I think the best part of my teaching days. I have to admit that the creativity they have shown was being reflected on how I also exerted same manner. The energy that they have shown during the teaching-learning process was immeasurable that is why, I needed to portray the same level as they did. Everything that came up to my mind which I really wanted to happen was made possible with them. Their transitional age of becoming teenager was I think a factor why they exert efforts and passion about everything that they do. This helped me to realize that teaching becomes effective if you put yourself on their shoes. You have to think as they do so you can understand their needs and the way they think.

(3)The innocence and readiness of the primary learners: It’s always fulfilling to impart knowledge to someone who is willing to learn. This probably because a learner is excited to explore and discover everything which is evidently shown from the youngest learners I have handled. Though behavior and classroom management are seemed to be a challenge, everything became normal to me when I learned to find numerous solutions. Yes, a variety of techniques which may or may not effective on a particular day but surely will help a teacher like me to formulate more. This is because most of the class I handled were heterogenous type of class. Hence, activities that suit for the readiness and ability of the learners should be the top priority. This helped me to become flexible and adaptive to every situation. A single approach may not be effective to one but could be more appropriate to some. There would always be what ifs and how abouts. The creativity also in teaching is a big thing. Their attention and interests are most important things to consider. The use of trends in technology to acquire learning is way helpful and life changing in this scenario. Truly that I found joy and challenge at this point of my career.

Best Approaches, Techniques, and Future Challenges

With the current trends, teaching has become more challenging to the part of the teachers. However, the way the learners learn is still the top priority of every educational institution. The continuous modification of the curriculum is a mere proof that educational experts are taking this as a crucial consideration and factor to deliver quality learning.

Technology also plays a vital role for the teaching-learning process. The use of the teaching materials and resources with the aid of technology becomes the mainstream globally. As a result, teachers respond to this transition and became more equipped, adaptive, resourceful, and flexible. One must learn to get along so that the learning objectives would be attainable and learning outcomes would be achieved.

With my experience, the aforementioned situation attested on how I learned to immersed myself with different trends nowadays and the modification of technology. But with realization that we don’t need to solely depend on it is still an important note.

Learning by doing is one of the most used approaches in my teaching methods. I always engage my learners to the lesson where they should interact, participate and actually do the intended tasks actively. English class covers the macro skills where the learners should learn and apply in the real-world situation. This could only be measured when the students actually do and execute the learning outcomes. There would always be lags but with proper reinforcement, practice and especially motivation, students will realize that the learning process is fun.

Not all will like and love English and that is a fact. This perhaps the reason why some of us failed to meet our objectives and hold back to our goal, to carry on our priority. Reinforcement is a key factor to this when we try to break the dilemma of having the lack of interest to learn English among our learners. Also, giving them a sense of responsibility could elevate their interest to do their best. In this case, students would realize that they are given also the trust and conviction that they would excel at a certain point of time.

The five macro skills namely listening, reading, speaking, writing, and viewing have been used to measure the fluency of the learners in terms of leaning the English language. To achieve this, I always believe that the three laws of learning formulated by Thorndike which are the law of effect, law of practice and law of readiness are of some of the best techniques.

No matter how good and advanced your approach is, if the learners themselves are not yet ready for this, there is a greater chance that you would attain your goal. Same as the thing that no matter how efficient your teaching tools and resources are, when you don’t have the background of your learners, you could not anticipate its effect to your learning plan.

The world of teaching is broad and unpredictable. So is the creativity and methods that we can have and adapt. Resources are everywhere, we just need to use them properly and accurately. The challenge still lies on our hands but how we manage and deal with them matters the most.

Unlocking New Opportunities: Moving to Taiwan (Dong-Yuan Elementary School)

They say, a person is naturally bombarded with bunch of struggles. In response, you just need to choose your battle wisely. This perhaps helped me to decide to explore something new. The bigger opportunities that await outside the comfort zone that I had been enjoying for quite long was clear enough to take risk.

On July, I bid my good bye to the place which sheltered me for four years and pursued another teaching job in Taiwan. Honestly, I have to admit that the environment waiting for me will be totally different. Not to mention the teaching- learning set up of the school I applied to. But with courage, I assure them that I am more willing to take greater heights which I believe will contribute to my professional growth. I am ready to explore and try something new. Of course, the goal of providing quality education with meaningful learning experience to the learners is on the top of the list.

With the things and lessons I have gained from all the experiences I had, I am now committed to be a part of the wonderful change. This transition would be a remarkable one because it marks another milestone in my teaching career and surely will be one of the books.