“AN INFINITE LOVE OF A HERO”

by. Arlene Tamayo

“A teacher takes a hand, opens a mind, and touches a heart.”

            Teaching is the one profession that creates and teaches all other professions. Being a teacher is a profession with the biggest responsibility in touching and changing the lives of the people. The goals of the teacher are to give knowledge to the students and to mold students with their skills and abilities for better future.

            “To teach is to touch the lives of the students and make a difference.” This is a very inspirational quote from my teacher way back in high school that inspired me so much. She is the teacher who really had a heart in teaching and a very dedicated person when it comes to her career. She is the reason why I chose to be one of those people who will feed information and transmit knowledge to the students and the reason why I chose being a teacher someday and keep on studying hard to follow her path. I want to be like her and be a good reflection for my students.

            Way back in high school, Mrs. Jennelyn Aranguren Samsaman, is one of the best teacher in Mathematics for me. When I was in my freshmen days, I’ve experienced the difficulty in Mathematics in a way that I can’t even solve a problem independently and it made me confused every time I am solving a particular problem in Mathematics. I don’t appreciate Mathematics that time but when she became our teacher in our Algebra, I am amazed on the way she teaches and deliver the topics. She ensures that her students will understand her lesson and she made every session productive and meaningful even though she made the class silent and all you can hear is her voice. Other says that she is strict but she is actually not. You can see the serious and strict face when she entered the classroom but eventually she will joke around. She was once our adviser and all I can say is she is very approachable and also a good leader. She is not only a teacher for us but also a second mother and a friend. She is not only a good teacher in Mathematics but she is also good in dancing and she is good in everything. She is the best teacher for her students, the best mother for her two daughters and the best wife for her husband. She is a very talented teacher indeed.

When it comes in planning the lessons to be discussed in every session, she prepares lesson plan where she plans and organize her lessons weekly or a week before the session. She uses different methods and strategies in teaching Mathematics which is according to her, it depends on the use of the teacher of which is the most effective strategy for the students to learn. In implementing these strategies into classroom setting, she always considered the time bound of the strategy being used in every session and the appropriateness of these strategies with regards to the topic being discussed. When it comes to evaluation, she also used different style in assessing the students. She prepared activities after every session to test if the students understand what she taught and at the end of the quarter she made every student to create a mathfolio which contains the compilation of outputs and activities of the student.

Her way of teaching now is different compared to how she taught us way back to the year 2012. Even though it is teacher-dominated when she taught us, there are parts where she let her students to think outside the box. As the curriculum change, her way of instruction is also changing like for example in the use of different strategies in teaching specifically the cooperative learning strategy. She also used    different styles in assessing the student like paper and pencil exams, performance-based assessment and recitations. There is no difference in her way of planning her lessons which is also based on the curriculum guide given by the Department of Education.

  “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”, as it was stated by Aristotle. Great teachers teach with all their hearts and all their best. They teach with all their efforts not only to give knowledge and mold student’s ability but also teach them good manners. They teach not only because of salaries or promotions but they teach with all their hearts and fight for their students’ future and success. To the world, they may be just a teacher but to the students, they are a HERO.