Teacher Miggy?!

Upon reading the title, you might be thinking that you’ll be  reading a lengthy narration of my preparation for my OJT. Think again.

See that image of a red pen? It indicates the one and only preparation I made the day before my OJT. My laziness (mainly because of our really ____ schedule) allowed me to surf the net nearly half the time that I’m awake, but prevented me to prepare myself for the first day of what may be the rest of my life.

Good thing is, I was able to sleep early. I’ve been nocturnal for the past two months, and its starting to take its toll on my body. I hope it doesn’t affect my emerging teaching skills.

I had mixed emotions before I went to sleep. This probably was the reason why I woke up at 3:45am ( 4 hours and 15 minutes early for my wake up call of 7 am, a record). I went online and refreshed my memory with a few tricks of the trade; discipline strategies, first day activities etc.

Technically, I was on time. I arrived at around 9:05 ( I was supposed to be there 9am sharp). Lucky for me, 9-9:30 was creative play time. Still, I was late for my first day. Great.

I was assigned to the Prep class, but because they were only a class of 6 and they didn’t have a regular schedule, I was transferred to the kinder class where I met Teacher Jen, the class adviser.

I was pretty much a goof for the first hour, instead of being approachable to the students, I lost my ability to speak. Teacher Jen even had to prompt me to take my seat before I did :|. Everyday, the class began with circle time, which did make it hard for me to approach the students, but still. During circle time, they sang nursery rhymes, which scared me a bit 8-} *Note to self, find out who your students are before the class, get to know one of them, and ask him to introduce you to his classmates :)

I made some progress after circle time, where the students were separated into two tables. The class had seatworks to answer, and Teacher Jen told me to assist two of the ten students. The two had trouble focusing due to their hyperactivity. I didn’t have too much trouble assisting them, both of them began to lighten up to me. As much as possible, I tried to be strict and pleasant at the same time.

From then on, everything pretty much sailed smoothly. The class ended at 12:00, and I had lunch with Kay and the other teachers of Child’s Home. They were friendly and easy to talk to.

After lunch, I was assigned to a “tutorial class” with Teacher Jeck. There were only three students, but being the first day, I only observed and assisted in any way I possibly could.

Kay and I left at around 3pm. Our schedule was from 9-2AM T-F. We made an extra hour on the first day! :)

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During our lunch break I met Teacher Peaches, and she asked me “So, do you really like teaching?”. Thanks to this great first day, I gladly answered “I think I’m starting to”. I know that I’ll be having tougher days, but thanks to this wonderful first day, things are looking up for my future as a Teacher.

In the middle of the day, I had serious doubts if I was fit to be a preschool teacher. Aside from kuya guard, I was the only guy in the school, and my “co-teachers” were pretty, sophisticated looking young women. It all changed when one my students asked me one of the best questions I ever heard in my life: “Why are you so happy?” I might not look the part, but in my opinion, a happy looking teacher is just as good as a good looking teacher :)