How I Made a Difference as a Teacher?

by: Charlie P. Cruz

 

“Ladies and gentlemen, the champion in the Panagbenga 2003 Street Dancing competition for the open category is Lorma Colleges!” My heart jumped for delight as I heard the hosts proclaim our team as the Champion with thousands of local and foreign spectators thunderously applauding. It was the first attempt of our school to participate and win in one of the world-renowned festivals in the Philippines.


As the mentor and organizer of our team, I suppose that we had engraved a dignified image of our school in the history of the Baguio Flower Festival. This simple yet extraordinary feat enhanced my capability not only as an organizer but more significantly as a teacher because I was able to inspire my talented students to perform excellently and win.

Being a teacher, I believe that mentors play this very crucial role of molding the young minds of our motherland’s future generation. We have been given this very noble obligation of imparting to their receptive and keen minds relevant and useful information. However, I am more dedicated in making a remarkable difference in this vocation. I only do not want to perform my responsibility of sharing the knowledge my students need but most importantly, I desire to be an effective and genuine inspiration to them. It is my pride to always share to them where I came from and how I came to be. Coming from an underprivileged family, I for myself learned to value my education so much. To those who seem to be unmindful of their luck to gain knowledge, I remind them how fortunate they are to be given this chance. To those who are experiencing the ordeal I have been through on the other hand, I constantly remind them that poverty is neither a hindrance to pursuing education nor an obstacle to anything they want to achieve later in their lives. These humble lessons in life greatly motivated me to strive hard and finish my schooling, graduate from college and finally earn a degree in medical technology. I worked even harder to pass the Licensure Examination with flying colors, something I could not have done without constant prayer and perseverance. Thus, I felt that my yearning to educate is stronger than my eagerness to practice in my line of work. It was then that I decided to acquire my Master’s degree in Science Education and further pursue my post Graduate studies to fit in my newly chosen career which I think will be of better service to humanity and the nation.

Being with young groups also makes me feel young at heart always. Meeting them for classes five to six days a week, eight to twelve hours a day, engraves many significant and wonderful memories that make me an older brother and friend to my students. Integrated in my class discussions, I give my students advice on how to develop a healthy habit of reading and effective time management. In this way, I can help them to become more productive. Also, being president of Lorma Toastmasters Club, I enthusiastically encourage students to join so as to discover and learn a proven and enjoyable way to practice and hone communication and leadership skills. I also advocate to them the valuable application and significance of online education. As Red Cross Youth Council adviser, I engage them to take part in the blood letting activities of the club to support the blood services program of the Philippine National Red Cross. My passion to organize and to mobilize leaders as the Lorma Pep Squad adviser brought honors to our institution when we won as the champion in the Panagbenga 2008 Cheerdance competition held in Baguio City. Being an adviser to clubs and organizations, I tell these young men and women to achieve holistic growth, not only mentally but also physically and socially. I was also elected as three-time faculty and staff club president of the school. In my stint as president, I motivated my colleagues that we can all together be successful in realizing our common vision and mission: to produce lifetime learners and thinkers by means of innovative teaching strategies.

I firmly respect the truth that it is also very vital for me as a teacher to serve as a role model to my students. I want them to see how I involve myself with public concerns as what we do in some of the outreach programs I coordinate. Similarly, I share with my students how I sacrificed to serve the youth as a Sangguniang Kabataan Chairman for six years. In this way, they will eventually develop and nurture their sense of social responsibility and servant leadership. To strengthen their desire for knowledge and cultivate their dedication to help others even more, I have adopted methods of teaching where I encourage them to apply community-based research and learning by exposure approach. I expose them to issues of health, waste management, sanitation and alternative medicine. Through this, I believe that they will appreciate learning better because they gain deeper insights from their and other people's experiences. I want them to obtain the wisdom which is not only confined in the four walls of their classrooms but that which extends far beyond the corners of this nation.

Finally, let me share one of my memorable learning experiences as a teacher. It was a thrilling day the summer of 2004. I can still vividly recall how excited my third year medical technology college students were about our trip to Barangay Pudoc in the town of Tagudin, Ilocos Sur. We were to visit this small barangay where the parasite Capillaria philippinensis originated. In preparation for their parasitology class, I found it fit for them to go there and have the chance to obtain first-hand information from the villagers who were once affected by the Capillariasis disease during its outbreak in 1967. I believe in the paramount importance of having my students learn from the survivors’ experiences.

As we were leaving Barangay Pudoc, I had an authentic feeling of fulfillment because the smiles and the gestures in my students’ faces manifested their absolute satisfaction about the explorative learning experiences they had acquired through their interaction with the survivors of the said disease. My former students who were with me in that remarkable trip now work as successful Registered Medical Technologists in various hospitals’ clinical laboratories in and out of the country serving people with sufficient competence in the field of clinical laboratory science.

Now, I am elated to see my former students being successful in their careers. I’m so grateful to know how I played a part in shaping them to become lifetime learners and thinkers I had envisioned them to be. Moreover, I am joyous that they were able to realize the lessons I had taught them that education is a great step to fulfillment, an excellent key to success and an upright way towards helping others. With humility, I could proclaim that I had made a difference in their lives.

Featured Educator of the Month of May 2011