Notable Experiences from One of a Kind Teacher

by. Maria Kate Banayo

As we always say, teachers are the second parents of the students. They can influence us through their words and actions. We encountered a lot of teachers and we will encounter various teachers as we continue our studies. Of all teachers we had, there’s always one teacher that we will never forget and will always remain not only in our mind but also in our heart. And this one has surely a big impact in our life.

In my high school days, there are numerous teachers teach different subject. All of them are good and fair, but I have this Filipino teacher whom I admire the most. She has the most pleasing personality that I have ever come across. Every time she teaches, I feel that she really loves what she’s doing. She’s very passionate in her work. She has a great combination of kindness and strictness. She never showed bias action because she treated all of her students in a fairly manner. She made every discussion interesting so we have no time to find the space for monotony. When she discussed something she assured that all of us will learned something from her. She encouraged me to step out of my comfort zone and try to do different things and discover something new. I still remember how she told me that I can also be a good leader. Before, I don’t have any guts to stand in front of many people and speak out. But she did something to make me face my fear. She chose me to be one of the performers in poetic competition when we had a program in our school. From that day, my confidence was boosted gradually. She is not just a teacher but also a mother, listener, speaker and a friend. She did a lot of things for her students with full of efforts. Her in-depth knowledge, inspiring words, doubtless actions and good manners inspired and motivated me. And by the way, her name is Mrs. Irene Libit

In teaching, the teacher should know the appropriate strategies and tools to be used in her class. Before the classes started, Ma’am Libit prepared a lesson plan so that she can easily manage the discussion in a sequence manner. In curriculum implementing, we have various strategies and method that we can used in order to have a successful learning. Ma’am Libit used different strategies that suited in the topic. Since she is also English teacher, one of the strategies that she used is what we called Read Post Categorizes.  Her main objective why she is using this kind of strategy is to enhance the vocabulary of the students and practice on how to speak in English fluently. In this strategy, each student was given three different words then the teacher let the students to explore and search its meaning, tagalog word, origin and such and then the students will construct their own sentence using those words so they know how to apply it and the use of the certain word. And they will present it in front of the class. Through that, the student will able to share the knowledge that they gathered. Another strategy of Ma’am Libit is Directed Reading Thinking Activity. Here, the teacher will group her class and each group has five members wherein every member has a role like summarizer, leader, evaluator, checker and predictor. This strategy aims to develop the reading skills of the students. Ma’am Libit also let her students to report a certain topic that was assigned to them since the curriculum that we are using is student centered and the teacher is just a facilitator inside the classroom. And in evaluating the used curriculum, Ma’am Libit used several tools in assessing the students. She did not focused in just one type of assessment but rather she used some kind of test that can measure the target outcomes she planned for the students.

As we all know, K-12 curriculum is the new curriculum that we have right now. Wherein the students will explore and construct their own ideas while the teacher is the facilitator and will serve as a guide. The teacher will be the one who will lead the planning, designing, implementing and evaluating curriculum. For me, in order to make these four stages of curriculum successful, the teacher should know the needs of his students.