My teaching experience in the 8th grade

This blog post is about my teaching practice.

PROCEDURES OF TEACHING

Ma'am Diba handles all five 8th grade classes in Athirah Campus I, but I was only assigned to three of them because the two others were handled by a co-participant of the SEATeacher Program also. I taught in these classes for only two weeks given that one month was a very short time to get to know my students because of the many interruptions that were not foreseen. Nevertheless, my final teaching demonstration in the 8.1 class is an experience that I will never forget.

I was assigned by Ma'am Diba to teach the simple past tense in reading. She gave me the freedom to design my lesson including the format that I would use, so I opted to use the Philippine format. Since I was to teach reading, I divided my lesson into three parts: the pre-reading, while reading, and post-reading phases. The learning material I prepared was a selection about two Indonesian students participating in an exchange program in London.

In the pre-reading phase, I asked my students if they had any plans or dreams of studying abroad through an activity called speed conversation. They were asked to share their plans to a partner for only 30 seconds, and they would have to look for another one to talk to after the time was up.

The while reading phase came in next. This was when I asked the class to read and reread the selection where some parts of it used the simple past tenses. I also asked my students some comprehension questions to check whether they understood the text well or not.

For the post-reading phase, instead of asking the students to plainly look for the verbs in the simple past tense, I asked them to complete a crossword puzzle. The puzzle included clues which led to the verbs that were in the simple past tense found in the text that they have read. The students were a little bit challenge by it, but I was glad that most of them perfected the items that were asked for.

TIME MANAGEMENT, ORGANIZING ACTIVITIES, and PROBLEM-SOLVING

I was expected to teach on the first period, 7:20 to 8:40 of February 12, a Monday. Unfortunately, our van driver already came at 7:30 to pick us up for school. The trip from our dorm to Athirah was usually 20 to 30 minutes long, so I arrived in class at around 8:00 already. Ma'am Diba was very understanding and accommodating that she turned over the floor to me as soon as I walked into the room. The lesson I prepared was good for an hour and 20 minutes got reduced to 40 minutes, but it did not matter to me because there will always be external occurrences that I will never get control of, and this could happen anytime, anywhere. I acknowledged that this is normal and I did not let it make me nervous or rattled. I remained composed and started the session as if I did not have a late start. Because of the change in schedule, I devoted the first 20 minutes for the pre-reading and while reading phases while the other remaining 20 minutes was devoted to the post-reading phase to give my students more time to answer the crossword puzzle. However, even if 20 minutes seemed like enough time to answer a 10-itemed puzzle, the students went a little overtime just to finish the task.

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

During the delivery of my lesson, I was thankful enough for my students being cooperative and participative in class. When I introduced to them the pre-reading activity, they did the speed conversation with much enthusiasm and honesty as they shared their dreams of studying abroad to their classmates. When it was time to read the selection, I asked them to read altogether and they did. However, during the comprehension check, some boys at the back started to have their own discussion and so I called their attention by asking them to answer some of the questions. This method settled them down especially when I told the whole class that even if I am still a student teacher, I take teaching seriously and I meant business. Anyway, the class became more interested when I propped up the visual aid for the crossword puzzle. Most of them were engrossed in solving the piece, but the same set of boys I called on earlier were too distracted to answer as they would rather chat with one another. So what I did was put them in separate desks and watched over them as they answered. Thankfully enough, they were able to submit their work even if there were some items that were left unanswered.

OTHERS

Before I started teaching in any of my classes, I held a simple getting-to-know-you activity so that my students and I would at least get familiar with each other. I asked them to put personal details on a sheet of paper like their name, nickname, likes, dislikes, etc. At the last part, I wanted them to ask me a good random question which I would answer to the class if their papers got picked. One time, I got the paper of Dafar who was one of my very good students. The scenario went like this:

I: So Dafar asks, What do you think about Muslims?

*class looks expectantly at me, especially him*

I: Why do you ask this question? I think you're like the rest of the people in the world, there is nothing wrong with you. In fact, I find Muslims to be the most admirable people because you are loyal to your God because you religiously pray everyday and familiarize yourselves with your religion, you are loyal to your people and to your culture. So far I am enjoying my time here with my Muslim friends, the people here are nice and courteous, so I don't see any reason why the world should think of you as the opposite.

And they were all smiling in (what seemed to me) relief, some were even nodding in approval. I felt that Dafar's question was the representation of the curiosity of every Muslim student (or citizen, even) on what other peoples thought about them and their religion. They might have felt that way because of the many terrorist attacks made by the extremists in the Middle East, and they fear that these terrorists might have tainted their image as Muslims. I was bothered and saddened by the question, but as a teacher I seized it as a perfect teaching moment for them by telling them what I honestly thought about them. The world is full of stigmas, but for my students to be victimized this early by this kind of discrimination, I felt very protective and responsible for the well-being of my children. Equating Muslims with terrorists has to stop.