Am I a substitute teacher?

January 21-22, 2010


Few days after the start of my observation, I have been in front of the students handling the class. Yes, sometimes it appeared to be an impromptu teaching. What I am worrying is how it feels to teach the class without even preparing for lesson plan or visual aids. Just for a moment, you will be called to handle the class. The teacher would give you the book and told you where they have been.

It sounds so awful in my part. Some teachers were surprised when they saw me already teaching the class where in fact this week must be allotted for observation. In my case, perhaps, it would be an advantage. I was trained to be teacher in just a click of time, without any preparation. Of course, I can cope up. I can think of the appropriate activity to do for a particular subject matter. Yet, I can not teach effectively without preparation.

If teachers make fallacies that my cooperating teacher was taking advantage of her student teacher, I don’t care. I enjoyed it. Anyway, it’s a matter of review lesson.

Since I have been in an impromptu teaching, I decided to ask for a subject for the next day. So that, even though we only have to teach one subject or two subjects per day, I can teach with prepared visual materials.

The following week, I was supposed to teach only two subjects per day. However, it was always a straight teaching. Ma’am Phine felt a pain in her wrist. She told me that she felt it after washing the clothes last Christmas while their maid was not around. So, I taught the class for the day’s lesson. The next day, her wrist has a Salon-Pass, a pain reliever. So, I taught that day again. Then, the Salon Pass had gone and it was changed into a band-aid (brown). The next, next day, it turned to a new band-aid (white). Hence, I am always in front of the class to teach the student. Just relax Ma’am Phine, I’m an Ncean student teacher. (Palaban!)

The next week, the band-aid and the pain have gone. When she taught the class, I found out that she was really a good teacher. Even though, a fresh graduate or a student teachers may perceived that she was a traditional teacher, she was full of wisdom and ideals in teaching which I admired on her. I learned a lot from her thoughts which is actually needed for a new curriculum graduates. It is not because we will be a product of the New Curriculum for teacher education, we have to shall away from traditional and old thinking regarding education, and it’s not that easy. There are still things needed to be retained and other things to be refined and modified.

Why impromptu teachings happen? First, a cooperating teacher has an emergency meeting or off-school appointment. We can not avoid this circumstance. A student teacher must be flexible on how to handle a class of his/her own. Second, a teacher has unintentional health-related problems which may affect his/her effectiveness like pain in the hand which may affect the way s/he write. Lastly, if none of the above choices mentioned, perhaps, the cooperating is pretty much challenging you to teach that day and s/he have to give you the responsibility to handle the class.

Because of this experience, I was ready to be a teacher.