Teaching Experiences and Evidences

 

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of United States from 1902 to 1932 once said “A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to it’s old dimensions.” I have always thought that I was not capable of touching the lives of my future pupils. I thought that I would be one of those teachers whom learners would hate. The lab school experience was really worth remembering. I was very happy how my learners would easily grasp my teaching or lessons. However the real field scenario was different. I was designated in Patin-ay Central Elementary School knowing that it was a central school learners are expected to be diversed in terms or religion, culture, and lifestyle. I was assigned in the highest level that our major could take which was Grade III. For starters or for people who thought that early childhood was easy, well you got it wrong. In my first week of teaching I was like “Can I go home now?” the learners from the lab school was so different. To the point that you need to simplify your question or explanation to the simplest of all simple form.

But along the way it was worth it. There was an incident where my heart really melted when my pupil said “Teacher, tungod biya sa imo kay nakabalo ko sa spelling sa thousands”. Simple it may sound but that was enough to make a practice teacher like me shed my happy tears. Every day with them was like in war zone in cloud 9, it was never just happy but we also have those struggles wherein we need to make sure that the learner have understood the lesson. Failed summative tests and quizzes. But it was a great experience, at the end of the day I would always say I am less the person I think I was four years ago.

During our stay internship we were rated using PPST or also known as Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers. According to Deped Order 42 series of 2017 PPST is used as basis for all learning and development programs for teachers to ensure that teachers are properly equipped to effectively implement the K to 12 Program. So as soon K-12 teachers our institution have trained us to provide our learners need in accordance to the said rating sheet or indicator.

During our 2 month stay (one grading) in Patin-ay Central Elementary School we are tasked to finish the twenty-one indicators with flying colors. Each item indicates the different needs of our pupils to gain all the knowledge they need to have. Here are the twenty-one indicators:

The practice teacher will first identify which indicator/s he/she likes to be rated by circling the number of the indicator. The cooperating teacher will circle the box which closely describes the performance of the practice teacher on the indicator earlier identified by using the rating scale below and referring to the OBSERVATION TOOL RUBRIC for the description.

1- NOT EVIDENT

2- BUILDING

1- ORGANIZING

2- DEVELOPING

3- APPLYING

1.   Applies knowledge of content within and across curriculum content teaching areas.

2.   Applies a range of teaching strategies to develop critical and creative thinking as well as other high-order thinking skills.

3.   Selects develops, organizes, and uses appropriate teaching and learning resources, including ICT, to address learning goals.

4.   Designs, selects, organizes and uses diagnostics, formative and summative assessment strategies consistent with curriculum requirements.

5.   Uses strategies for providing timely, accurate and constructive feedback to improve learning performance.

6.   Applies a range of successful strategies that maintain learning environments that motivate learners to work productively by assuming responsibility for their own learning.

7.   Manages student behavior constructively by applying positive and nonviolent discipline to ensure learning-focused environments.

8.   Uses differentiated, developmentally appropriate learning experiences to address learners gender, needs, strengths, interest and experiences.

9.   Plans, manages and implements developmentally sequenced teaching and learning process to meet curriculum requirements and varied teaching contexts.

10.  Uses range of strategies that enhance learner achievement in literacy and numeracy skills.

11.  Displays proficient use of mother tongue, Filipino and English to facilitate teaching and learning.

12.  Uses effective verbal and non-verbal classroom communication strategies to support learner understanding, participation, engagement and achievement.

13.  Establishes a learner-centered culture by using teaching strategies that respond to their linguistic, cultural, socio-economic and religious.

14.  Designs, adapts and implements teaching strategies that are responsive to learners with special educational needs that include giftedness, talents and disabilities.

15.  Manages classroom structure to engage learners, individually or in groups, in meaningful exploration, discovery and hands-on activities with a range of physical learning environments.

16.  Ensures the positive use of ICT to facilitate the teaching and learning process.

17.  Maintains supportive learning environments that ensure and inspires learners to participate, cooperate, and collaborate in continued learning.

18.  Plans and delivers teaching strategies that are responsive to the special educational needs of learners in difficult circumstance, including: geographical isolation; chronic illness; displacement due to armed conflict, urban resettlement or disasters; abuse and child labor practices.

19.  Adapts and uses cultural appropriate learning strategies to address the needs of the learners from indigenous groups.

20.  Establishes safe and secure learning environments to enhance learning through the consistent implementation of policies, guidelines and procedures.

21.  Maintains learning environments that promote fairness, respect and care to encourage learning.

Indicator No. 1

Applies knowledge of content within and across curriculum content teaching areas.

Reflection:

Everything that revolves around us is relevant to one another. Integration of subjects together has been practiced since the old curriculum, it helps pupils keep posted or on tract on the different subjects at the same time. This also provides familiarity of the different ideas or concepts merged into one. With our booming system and with just short amount of time to relay knowledge or concepts to our pupils, integration is really important. Like how teaching math with history. Example in the subject matter Comparing values of the different denominations of coins and bills thru Php. 1000. I have integrated two subjects in just one lesson which was arts and history. I have discussed what color does the paper bills and coins have and who are the people drawn on our money and what vital role have they played on our history. Like how Cory C. Aquino in the 500 bill was the first woman president of the Philippines.

Rating: 4

Indicator No. 2

Applies a range of teaching strategies to develop critical and creative thinking as well as other high-order thinking skills.

Reflection:

Given that we have different learners, automatically that they learn in different pace. That’s why your activities should be varied as possible. Never stick always with formative and summative as the only form of assessment. We can always apply activities in a form of games, or decoding. I remember I had this activity where they need to decode the numbers into letters (e.x. 13, 9, 3, 5 = mice) the activity also have practice the teamwork of the pupils since it was a group activity.

Rating: 4

Indicator No. 3

Selects develops, organizes, and uses appropriate teaching and learning resources, including ICT, to address learning goals.

Reflection:

With the many evolving sources of knowledge teaching has never been so efficient and fun. So as teachers it is our role to make out of the most from the resources that we have. We now have youtube and google to provide us enough information of the world with just one article or video. Thus involvement of ICT or technology is a great help to make our lesson very fun and interactive. I remember teaching Science with the subject matter Describing the properties of liquids where I decided to use the MQA us a method of teaching hence I divided the class into groups for different corresponding sections where in the computer station they were required to watch a video and answer questions after like: Among the liquids which went down first? Why do you think it went down first? Because of the moving media the pupils was really interested to learn they even had fun naming the liquids in the video youtube provided.

Rating: 5

Indicator No. 4

Designs, selects, organizes and uses diagnostics, formative and summative assessment strategies consistent with curriculum requirements.

Reflection:

Making test or quizzes are easy but choosing the right and apt formative or summative assessment for a lesson is quiet hard. Always remember that in every lesson there will always be an appropriate form of assessment to examine better understanding. Just like subject matter telling sentence and asking sentence, the form of assessment I used was enumeration where they need to change telling sentence into asking sentence and asking sentence into telling sentence. With that kind of assessment your learners would really think critically in coming up new apt sentences basing the given sentence.

Rating: 5

Indicator No. 5  

Uses strategies for providing timely, accurate and constructive feedback to improve learning performance.

Reflection:

Just like us adults, children would like to be appreciated and given positive feedback by us teachers. So that’s why we must always remember even in our small ways we must and always provide feedback for our learners to be motivated to perform better or good in the next activity. Feedback are not just only for your good performing pupils but also for our least performing students. They need this the most. To let them know that we appreciate their maximum effort throughout the discussion, even thou they don’t perform like others with our feedback they will strive hard just like everyone else in the class.

Rating: 4

Indicator No. 6

Applies a range of successful strategies that maintain learning environments that motivate learners to work productively by assuming responsibility for their own learning.

Reflection:

One thing that motivates the pupil on lessons is when we present activities that are easy but mind-blowing at the same time. I remember our lesson on Araling Panlipunan (Mga Wasto at Di-Wastong Pangangasiwa ng Likas na Yaman) wherein pupils were supposed to segregate the pictures into two groups the Wasto at Di-Wasto. Everyone was so attentive with the discussion because of the pictures of the board. Also we must always remember as an Earl Childhood Educator we must provide instructional materials that is pleasing to our learners’ eyes and also give something that is familiar to them that they can see every day (best example for the lesson would be the proper waste management disposal pictures that is practiced by the school) to provide familiarity.

Rating: 5

Indicator No. 7

Manages student behavior constructively by applying positive and nonviolent discipline to ensure learning-focused environments.

Reflection:

As living the school’s advocacy which is child-friendly/student friendly school, it’s important for us teachers to maintain the positive and non-violent discipline, because of the Deped Memorandum No. 297 series of 2006  “Banning Corporal Punishment in Schools” Because as what Cesar Chavez have said “There is no such thing as defeat in non-violence” So we don’t need to be violent to our learners because shouting at them will just teach them to yell back at you.

Rating: 5

Indicator No. 8

Uses differentiated, developmentally appropriate learning experiences to address learners gender, needs, strengths, interest and experiences.

Reflection:

As what I have mentioned; varied learners mean varied learning pace. Thus it is significant to find right activities without leaving anyone behind. In order to make this we have to plan our teaching thoroughly, step by step process, and of course lessons should always be related to real life scenarios that a pupil can experience as his/her student life goes by so that he/she can share to the class what she/he have experienced regarding to that matter. Just like discussing the lesson Wastong gawi/kilos para sa Kalusugan the class was asked what are the things they do every day to maintain a healthy lifestyle. What are the different activities that girls and boys do to maintain being healthy, with those questions I believed you will be stormed with hands up in the class.

Rating: 5

Indicator No. 9

Plans, manages and implements developmentally sequenced teaching and learning process to meet curriculum requirements and varied teaching contexts.

Reflection:

As a practice teacher part of our everyday role was to always come prepared with or without heads up on what we will teach we should always be a step or two step advance on what our learner has, to cater the needs regarding to the lesson discussed. We must plan ahead of time to see what part needs improvement and what materials to use arouse the learners’ attention to listen and engrossed in class. Also planning ahead is a must to touch all the topics you need to touch on that day to achieve what’s in the guide and to attain the skill or competency for that certain day. We must also remember that our lessons should have a continuation so we must relate the previous topic to the new topic vice-versa to create more depth of understanding towards the learner.

Rating: 4

Indicator No. 10

Uses range of strategies that enhance learner achievement in literacy and numeracy skills.

Reflection:

In every discussion or lessons we take up we always use the competencies such as writing and reading thus is it relevant that every lesson we can enhance the literacy and numeracy skills. Because in our everyday encounter their will always be letters to read and numbers to count. In order to enhance these skills we can use varied strategies such as peer teaching, where you will require your student to find a partner to read with and share their thoughts about what they have read before answering the questions you have given.

Rating: 4

Indicator No. 11

Displays proficient use of mother tongue, Filipino and English to facilitate teaching and learning.

Reflection:

With our new curriculum today wherein the curriculum has put an emphasis on using the mother tongue as the medium of instruction, as teachers we must know what language or dialect they use at home. Because not everyone uses Cebuano at their respective homes. Razul again is the best example because his mother tongue at home is Maguidanaon because originally they came from North Cotabato, another example would be Jester because he is a Manobo his mother tongue is Higaonon. Even though they know Cebuano given that their mother tongue is different from the others, surely they would learn efficiently if we use their mother tongue at the same time with Cebuano. Minimal translation of common words would hype the class.

Rating: 4

Indicator No. 12

Uses effective verbal and non-verbal classroom communication strategies to support learner understanding, participation, engagement and achievement.

Reflection:

So that we won’t disrupt class discussion using non-verbal classroom discipline is always a big help. Like proximity distance, where in you will go near to the pupil who is making an interruption in the class. But if non-verbal is not effective your last option would be the verbal to catch the attention of the student. My pupils would be noisy after snack time which is during math time. I would always command “most behave table” so that everybody will keep the unnecessary things on the table and they sit up straight show me that they are behave, after that I would call according to order the table that is behave, and the table that is not called will gain a minus point on the activities that we will be doing on the assigned subject.

Rating: 4

Indicator No. 13

Establishes a learner-centered culture by using teaching strategies that respond to their linguistic, cultural, socio-economic and religious.

Reflection:

Since we have varied learners, it is given that they have different culture, and beliefs. So to establish a learner-centered culture environment. We should motivate our pupils to speak up in behalf of his tribe or group. Learning a new culture is always fun, it’s like reading a book. It can take you o places without spending a lavish amount of money.

Rating: 4

Indicator No. 14

Designs, adapts and implements teaching strategies that are responsive to learners with special educational needs that include giftedness, talents and disabilities.

Reflection:

“If a child cannot learn in the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn” that is according to Ignacio Estrada. Supporting that statement would be the Multiple Intelligences theory of Howard Gardner. Wherein he put an emphasis that a child can have different intelligences, not just in the intellectual aspect but also we also have intelligences that involves our body, such as bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. We also have our senses, which is the musical intelligence, and also our social skill it can be interpersonal intelligence or intrapersonal intelligence. That’s why as a teacher it is very important to know our learners in our to see how we will teach them, because not all of them can excel in just the same field.

Rating: 5

Indicator No. 15

Manages classroom structure to engage learners, individually or in groups, in meaningful exploration, discovery and hands-on activities with a range of physical learning environments.

Reflection:

The environment of the learner plays a vital role in learning. As a teacher you have to make sure that you can cater the needs of your learners individually or by group. Since a school is an avenue to develop the wholesome of a person. We have to ensure that are activities also just focuses on the individual growth of a person but also his/her development in the social aspect. We must provide activities that can practice their teamwork.

Rating: 4

Indicator No. 16

Ensures the positive use of ICT to facilitate the teaching and learning process.

Reflection:

Using technology to have a fun and efficient class is time saving and interesting. However we must remember that the ICT displays positive outcome on the pupil. Misconceptions on using technology should be addressed. Technology is a tool where makes our work less stressful or less hard for us but, too much of it is bad. So we must always remind our pupils that minimizing of technology usage must be practiced.

Rating: 5

Indicator No. 17

Maintains supportive learning environments that ensure and inspires learners to participate, cooperate, and collaborate in continued learning.

Reflection:

As the teacher it is our role to motivate students in participating our varied activities, also it is our role to ensure that not getting the right answer makes them dumb/stupid we should always encourage these pupils and tell to them that there will be a next time and it was a good thing that they tried. Because trying is better than doing nothing.

Rating: 4

Indicator No. 18

Plans and delivers teaching strategies that are responsive to the special educational needs of learners in difficult circumstance, including: geographical isolation; chronic illness; displacement due to armed conflict, urban resettlement or disasters; abuse and child labor practices.

Reflection:

In every discussion or lessons we take up we always use the competencies such as writing and reading thus is it relevant that every lesson we can enhance the literacy and numeracy skills. Because in our everyday encounter their will always be letters to read and numbers to count. In order to enhance these skills we can use varied strategies such as peer teaching, where you will require your student to find a partner to read with and share their thoughts about what they have read before answering the questions you have given.

Rating: 4

Indicator No. 19

Adapts and uses cultural appropriate learning strategies to address the needs of the learners from indigenous groups.

Reflection:

With our growing diversity it is important that we must show value or respect of the different culture that our pupils have. Just like how we have discussed the different beliefs of the Christians and Muslims but still be friends. Because friendship does not require you to have the same tradition/beliefs. Since I have a Muslim pupil, when we were having our class in symbols of map I asked him the translations of the symbols that we have used so that his classmates would know that Razul has a different mother tongue because he came from a different culture. Majority of my class were Christians, I had only two pupils who came from a Muslim family. But between the two Razul’s family has practiced the different tradition of the Muslim. So while we were having our class I asked him what are the things that made Muslim different from the Christians. Knowing that this information was new to class his classmates gladly listened to him.

Rating: 4

Indicator No. 20

Establishes safe and secure learning environments to enhance learning through the consistent implementation of policies, guidelines and procedures.

Reflection:

Policies and guidelines are made to be follow. It says in the Deped Mission that students will learn in a child-friendly, gender-sensitive, safe and motivating environment. Because we are part of system it is our duty to fulfill the mission of the department that we should provide an environment where the pupils are safe to learn.

Rating: 4

Indicator No. 21

Maintains learning environments that promote fairness, respect and care to encourage learning.

Reflection:

As the teacher it is our role to ensure the wholesome of learning and practice the “no child left behind” policy thus we must ensure that the learning is fair as possible. No favoritism and maintain the healthy competition towards the learners. In terms Like when I let my pupils spell, when the pupil that was chosen was not capable of giving the correct spelling. I would say “Would you like to call a friend to help you?” then they would call their friend to help them spell the word correctly and as the teacher it is my duty to ensure that majority is given the chance to participate in performance tasks in every subject.

Rating: 4

Evidences: