in junior year in hs, i managed to persuade my math 4A classmates to join me in a prank against our teacher, prof. gapud. we all turned our chairs facing the back wall of the room, our backs to the blackboard. it was funny the first 10 minutes, but when i heard that our teacher cried and when i was asked to talk to my adviser, prof. umali, i felt really terrible. i apologized to my professor -- in all sincerity. that was a shameful thing to do.
fast forward to 2007, first week of school and i find myself mulling over the fact that i've been teaching for a decade. dang! how the heck did that happen?
i thought i was going to be a kick ass lawyer. send bad people to jail. be a hero.
instead, a month before my college graduation i was offered a job to teach in my high school alma mater.
it was a big joke really. what can a 21 year old foul-mouthed blabbering fool teach a bunch of wide-eyed 14 year olds? what do i know about african and asian literature? apparently, with numerous hours of cramming, a lot of bs, plenty of guts, puta red lipstick and lots of silver jewelry, i was able to do a pretty good job.
seriously, i was as ignorant as my kids. i did not know squat about classroom management. i did not write any lesson plans. i was the US educational system's nightmare. i would give surprise quizzes when i did not have time to study for my lesson or when our band had a gig the night before. my final tests were riddled with stupid irrelevant bonus questions such as "who is more supreme, voltes V or voltron?" or "who is your favorite superfriend and why?" i was disorganized, irritable, impatient and wickedly sarcastic. being that my school was independent of the national dept. of ed, we prided ourselves with "academic freedom" i taught whatever i wanted. asian lit? here, let's read a chapter from the kama sutra. emergent lit? here, let's learn about philippine gay literature. but you know what? bless my two former prinicipals and bless prof. uri for giving me complete control of my classes.
my first homeroom class - katmon
senior class final presentation - no final exams, a skit and song and dance number which i thoroughly enjoyed watching - how often does a teacher get to see her students dance?
the general music club - escape from the boring music class, we jam and goof off on fridays, yey!
the sophomore batch of 1997 is my first batch of students, and they will forever remain special in my heart. they were my "training wheels" of sorts. sometimes i feel that i have short changed them being that i was only 21, a fresh grad. but it worked out pretty well, a few of them can still quote my bs verbatim. i make it a point to see a bunch of them everytime i come home for a visit. i still talk to a few of them on ym. heck i even call overseas just to chat with them.
when i migrated here in jersey, i was up for anything. i even went to beauty school but then i quit when i got pissed at my teacher for expecting me to have hair cutting skills. i thought my little adventure here in the states would pretty much open my mind if teaching really is for me.
well whoopy do. it seems god is bent on making me a teacher because all the little jobs that i got were related to education. teacher assistant, pre-school teacher, substitute teacher, and finally, an english teacher. i guess i got that question answered loud and clear.
man, 10 years into teaching, and i feel very fortunate indeed to be in a profession that i love. most of the time i don't feel like i'm working. it's always play time for me.
next month, i will take a brief ( i hope) reprieve from teaching. but i do intend to get myself back in the classroom. i'm just taking a time out. i'll be back.
from the instigator of classroom pranks to being the teacher, i'd say karma bit me back big time, but this is good karma for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment