chaze’s CRIB

Being enrolled in a Clinical Teaching class just to be a better and effective teacher, we usually talk about our experiences both as a student (before) and as a clinical instructor (now). It’s nice to look back and reflect what you were and you’ve become.

In a student/ teacher’s lives, they say (and I agree) that there are only two types of people who will stuck in your head and heart forever.I agree…. I strongly agree. A word will describe these types of people – EXTREMES. For a student to remember his or her teacher, the teacher must either be the super cool one or the super strict one. For a teacher to remember a student, he or she must be the most plus positive adjective or most plus negative adjective.

True enough, that’s how things fare regarding memory game.Can you blame me, I’ve had a lot of mentors – tough cookies, spongy mamons, a not so good tasting iced tea, a sour peach – name it, I almost encountered them all. The teachers that stick to my head and whose voices still continue to reverberate even in the middle of my sleep and in the innermost being are those strict (super strict in fact)teachers I had. The terrorist kind of stuff.

The terrorist type of teacher is your worst nightmare. The person who will bombard you with a lot of paperworks and series of exams and a lot of grilling time in class. Terrorists teachers are those mentors who will terrify you and make you work hard for every breathing second of your period. They will make surethat you will study hard every night in order for you to survive their class.

The super cool teachers are those who you will make an instant connection with. They are those who are considered effective teachers but they don’t do it by terrorizing their students. They will make you feelyou are capable of excelling and able to reach greater heights. They just keep on pushing the right buttons.

But frankly speaking, these two types of mentors are the most effective ones. Realizing that the terrorist ones are just simply preparing you to be more responsible in life which is… likened to a battle. The sad part is that we only acknowledge their effectiveness after the whole session with them is over. Something like, “Ah this is what Professor Terorista was saying… Thank God for Him/her”. The super cool ones are doing just that, but the thing is that they appear more effective simply because we enjoy their style and we acknowledge their effectiveness as soon as they touch our lives.

I just realized it when our professor started naming names and then realized that her beloved teachers were the strict ones. I can’t help but smile… we have the same type of teachers who are so exceptionally special.

Dr. Elisea Dela Cruz or popularly known as Ma’am DC had that unconventional teaching style and yet super effective (for me). She looked like she was sleeping but she is wide awake. I was seated near her, at the back…. And I always wonder why she grills her students with their research. Luckily, she just made me a better student. I have to stay late at night just to study her no nonsense topics … and mind you, it’s just research! The walking encyclopedia Randelle Ian Sasa. He was, the usual nerd professor – wearing those thick eyeglasses and sporting the checkered polo. He just turns me upside down and after 3 non-stop hours of lectures regarding Medical-Surgical Nursing, my head just bleeds continuously. I’ll die of hemorrhage. But he was one professor who told me that I am (was) excellent both in co- curricular and in the class. He just…. Well… simply amazes me. The diminutive but strong lady Prof. Melanie Tapnio. One of the best in terms of cool and discussion. Hmmm…. Maternal and Child health will never be the same without her. I just realized….” Sayang, Labor and delivery lang ang topic niya sa amin. Astig sana kung buong MCH ay sa kanya…”.

Who else? Of course I have to attribute my college success to my foundation years mentors.

When you talk about highschool, one name will equate to it. Mrs. Divina Dimal. Wow. That hardvoiced and hard nosed kind of coordinator. She made my knees buckle during the first few days. But she was… one heck and a good one. “ Science and Math are just the same. It can’t be possible that you are good in science and not in math. Learn to love math.” She said that. I realized she’s right. The only difference between Math and Science is that Science has more terminologies and more definitions than Math. But they both deal with logical reasoning. Question? Did I do good in my Math Subjects after that? Well, I survived Trigonometry and Math III. I survived Math IV (don’t know if it was Calculus or some sort. I don’t know) and Physics. So, maybe I did well.

Elementary … these are the primary years of life. The formative years. The ever great my ever favorite teacher: Ms. Corazon de Guzman. She’s the reason why I learned to speak and write English. It was a sweaty and a bloody school year with her. But don’t get me wrong. She just pulled a thinking human in me. She’s the first one who took time to inculcate in my head to love English and how to live life.

Actually, they all taught me how to live life and not merely encapsulate me in the world of theories, of books, and of experiments. Life is a battlefield and it takes a courageous and a well-defined person to make it through. I’ll never ever forget and I’ll always be thankful not only to the mentors mentioned but to everyone who made me who I am now. Again, not perfect (not even close to perfection) but a better person than before.

What’s the best teaching style or strategy? There’s no specific best style. Just make sure that you balance everything and meet halfway. Who knows? Mixing it up would be the best style. Anyway, what matters is the end result.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 at 6:47 am and is filed under misfit mischief. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.