ratkillah: Classes

I taught Educ 212 to a group of math and special education majors for 18 days. Educ 212’s course title is “The Teaching Profession.” I was quite excited when I was asked to handle the merged class. I was, however, surprised with their number. All 72 of them! It was my first time to handle such a big class but it’s a good thing I was given the merged classroom. The first day we had our class in the well-equipped classroom, I told my students that we’re using an ideal classroom for college students. After all, it’s spacious, air-conditioned, multimedia-ready, and there’s a microphone! Everyday before we start our class, I’d play inspiring music videos. They would usually sing along. It was a really nice way to start our class which would start at 7:30 in the morning.

Since it was a three hour class, I would give a 10-minute break after an hour and a half. Most of the students were attentive that after mid-term, most of them got a grade of 2.0 and up. Two students even got a flat 1.0.

When my co-teacher lent me the book for the class, she said, “Good luck! It’s a boring subject.” When I looked at the content of the book, I immediately thought of ways to make the class more interesting. Who wouldn’t be bored with the laws, the theories, and the philosophies? My sophomore students definitely would. During the final period, I invited speakers for 4 sessions. I invited a lawyer who especially talked about the laws. I also asked my sister to share her public school teaching experiences. It was good to see my students interacting and asking questions with the speakers. According to their journals (I required them to keep one), they were thankful for the speakers’ presence.

I think 18 days was too short for me to share everything that I’ve learned about teaching. But then again, I always tell them that what I teach will be just 50% useful when they’re already in the classroom. The rest of the 50% they’ll just have to learn from actual teaching.
I’ll never forget this summer. After all, it was my first time to handle “The Teaching Profession” and it definitely wasn’t boring!