Since I was a kid, I know that I love to teach. I remember that I would form a mini classroom in my bedroom and play as a teacher with my stuffed toys as my pupils. As a student, I also love to share my knowledge to my classmates (that's why my friends are lucky to have me as a part of their group, tama ba mga ka-Parokya? hehe). Many people think that I am too nice (again) to share my knowledge with them but the thing is, I can also learn what are the things that I lack when I share my knowledge and correct my misconceptions. So the more I share, the more I gain knowledge. Because of this, I'm even considering of having it as a career in the future - probably after retiring from the corporate world.
Because of this passion in teaching, I volunteered to join the Philippine Embassy's FWRC classes as a teacher in Basic Computing. I really wanted to do this but with my previous job, I wasn't able to do so (I almost joined Hands-On Manila foundation but can't attend their orientation due to schedule conflicts). Fortunately, Nina know some people from the Philippine Embassy and she asked me if I wanted to join her in teaching Computer to our fellow Filipinos so Mars and I joined the league. I am scheduled to teach on 2nd and 4th Sundays every month from 1:00 to 3:00 PM. The duration of the school year is for 10 months (that is loong!). 
Anyway, if I ever I'm going to pursue teaching, I will be teaching in the tertiary level. However, I observed that the atmosphere in the FWRC is similar to a public high school in the (Philippine) province based from its house rules and activities. Anyway, fortunately I have the freedom to do anything with my class.
As expected, I am younger than my students - some of them worked in Malaysia for 10 years. It's just for me that they call me "Ma'am" because I'm not used to it. In return, I always put "po" and "opo" when I teach (ala Sarah Geronimo and Nora Aunor hehe). I find it funny though when my students converse with me in Malaysian english when in fact my medium of instruction is in Filipino. I have a total of 23 students and according to the admin, my class has the most number of students because my schedule is the most convenient for them.
Today, we had our first lesson. I taught them the elements of the computer system, the parts of the computer and minimize, maximize and close buttons in windows. It's a good thing that Mars (a former Computer professor in Mapua and La Salle), who was scheduled to teach earlier, had her notes on the board so I used it is a basis. It was really hard to recall those stuff because I learned it 8 years ago! I am really nervous that my students would get confused when I discussed about the megabytes, storage devices, etc. Fortunately, they were satisfied with our lesson today =)
I just hope that I would be able to retain this enthusiasm that I have for the next couple of months. Also, I hope that I would have the patience to deal with them as well and for me to motivate them. It is really my first time to teach formally and there are a lot of things that I still need to learn as a teacher and as a person =)
|
