How fraction taught me...

In my MTAP Class:

 "In division of fraction, you just have to get the reciprocal of the second fraction, then proceed to multiplication. Sa madaling salita, babaligtarin lang natin sya.
So, may tanong ba?"

 Then one student asked, "Sir, bakit kailangang pong baligtarin?" I was actually caught off guard by his question. I dont even know the rationale behind it. Bigla kong naitanong sa sarili ko, paano ko ba ipapaintindi sa kanila kung ako mismo hindi ko alam kung bakit at ang alam ko lang ay kung paano.
I just realized na sa pagtuturo, sobrang importante talaga ng "bakit" at "paano". A how or a why itself is not enough to satisfy our curiosity. It should go both ways.

Nasabi ko na lang sa batang nagtanong,
"Ganyan talaga pag division, parang reverse multiplication lang sya."
At sa totoo lang, hindi ko parin alam hanggang ngayon kung bakit ba kailangang baligtarin pag nagdidivide ng fraction.

This somehow taught me the real essence of teaching.
That sometimes, it not all bout what we teach, but it's more of how and why we teach.

Funny moments inside the class

Being a teacher is both horror and comedy. But today let me emphasized the funny moments that happened in my class.

From left to right. Teacher Anne, Teacher Teds, and Teacher Lani wearing DepEd Uniform.

*DepEd New Uniform
1st Day of August, that means it's our official day to wear our required uniform in school.

Student: Sir, di ba po barong yan sout nyo? (Sir, isn't it your wearing tagalog native dress?)
Me: Yes It is.
Student: 'Di ba Sir pang-patay lang yan? Eh di patay na po kayo? (Isn't it Sir only dead people wears that? Does it mean you're dead already?)
Me: Do I look like one? *insert teacher's look here* (But inside my mind, I'm laughing out loud already because that student of mine has really his point.)
Only teacher will understand me by this one. Lol.


*List all the noisy pupils

I am doing one-on-one reading session with pupils, I am busy on that time to check on my kids so I asked one of my pupils to list on the board all the noisy pupils in my class. (This is one of the best strategy to quiet them, teachers know it.)
After which, I checked the names posted on the board and I was surprised how he categorized their names, it was written as noisy boys, girls, and what did surprised me was when he separated names of the bekis (gays) on the other column. It was funny though... but since we are Gender and Development School, I said to him that it's not good to discriminate other people, so he did erase those names and re-write it on its proper column. :)

That one kid...

I have this one pupil who is so makulet but not that bully type, that made me sometimes to reprimand him. He's the type of pupil who would distract you in the middle of your discussion just to ask you out of the blue questions. The one who will go to you at the teacher's table when they have seat-work just to ask, "Sir, kokopyahin po ba?", "Sir, sagot lang po?" even if you have already given clear instructions. But what made this child especial to me is that he never been become rude to me, his curiosity is purely innocent. 
There's this one time that this kid ask me if I want Spicy Sampaloc because he said his kuya just arrived from province and had this pasalubong with them. The next day, he gave it to me as a promise to what he said the last day. Another was when this kiddo ask me if I want candy, he said he wants to give me some. Due to my curiosity I asked him why, then his reply really touched me. "Sir, kasi po sabi ng ibang teacher, wala daw po magtatagal samin kasi mga pasaway kami pero nagtuturo parin po kayo sa amin." I just give him a warm smile as a reply. Nakakatuwa lang isipin na akala mo wala lang silang paki-alam, but they do. And these things wanna make me love them even more.
‪#‎ThatOneKid‬ ‪#‎ThatOneOfMy49pupils‬ they are all special. They are all that one kid. Indeed, being a teacher is ‪#‎ParaSaBata‬ ‪#‎ParaSaBayan‬.

Teach for the Philippines

I love to learn but I never thought I will love it more now that I am Public School Teacher.

'Cher Ted
Teacher Fellow at Sagad Elementary School