The National Teachers College

629 J. Nepomuceno St., Quiapo Manila Metro Manila

Submitted by: Triskal C. Buenaflor Date Submitted: November 20, 2013

Submitted to: Mrs. Aida Monterozo Subject: Teaching Profession

1. Why do I teach?
Almost all teachers may or will come to a point in which they ask themselves the question not of how to teach but why. A question that must be answered by a teacher, in some measure alone. And as of the moment, I teach to instill modes of thinking, to create intellectual passions, to promote forms of tolerance and understanding and most of all to increase the learners knowledge. Because its been said that each of us has a unique note that only we can play and that the whole orchestra is waiting for us to play our note. My deepest hope is that my students come away or ahead of my time with confidence and equipped to play their note boldly and proudly as humanly as possible.

2. What should I teach?

Students respond positively to a well-organized course. Therefore, it is important to be mindful of the fact that how you structure the course and the teaching methodologies you use can greatly affect your students motivation to learn. By providing students with a basic framework of expectations and guidelines, students often remark that they feel empowered and are better able to shape their academic year. The following are some of the things I considered in teaching a subject: A. As early as possible, clearly state to the students the learning objectives and course goals of the subject matter. B. Aside from the traditional lecture, incorporate academic activities that get students to actively participate in the class. C. Create assignments that are appropriately challenging. D. Make the lessons relevant. Students display greater enthusiasm and interest for a subject if they can relate the content and course activities to their daily lives.

3. How should I teach?

Having an expertise in reading, writing, math or science is necessary, but the ability to transfer that knowledge into another person is what makes an effective teacher. What good is it if a teacher has all the facts, but cannot communicate them in a way that others can comprehend? Aside from comprehending the curriculum content, teachers should have a basic understanding of how people acquire and absorb knowledge. The following are some of the things I learned as I teach: A. As a teacher you must know that students learn differently in order to arrange the lessons in such a way that all senses are activated. B. Information is only stored permanently when it relates to day-to-day living. So as a teacher you must use information as relevantly and effectively as it can. C. Guide the students in understanding the art of learning, the techniques of learning and the different styles of learning. D. Help the students to formulate their own study habits. Study habits can become regular with guided encouragement.

4. What is the nature of the learner?

The nature of the learner can not be pinpointed to a single description. All learners are unique in their ability to study, read, write and be progressive in their work, under many conditions. Identifying individual differences among learners can help us to better understand and guide the learning process. People can be seen as possessing a number of intelligences beyond the linguistic and logical-mathematical abilities typically emphasized in schools. Learners also possess inter- and intrapersonal intelligences, musical, kinesthetic, and spatial abilities. We also know that individual learners process information differently while they are reading or making mathematical calculations, for example. Learners have processing differences that influence how they handle visual, aural, or kinesthetic information. Information that is available through learning modalities or pathways that are better developed will be easier to understand and use.

5. How do we learn?
The mind is set up to process the outside stimuli, to make sense of it, and to draw connections. We know that while there are critical periods for motor and sensory development, the development of the brain is lifelong and not predetermined at birth or within in the first three years. Learning changes the physical structure of the brain through the process of continuous interactions between the learner and the external environment. People learn by making sense of the environment and of the stimuli around them. Greater perceptual development and learning occur in environments that are rich with stimuli and provide useful feedback in response to a learners efforts to act upon the environment.

Learning is a process of drawing connections between what is already known or understood and new information. Thus, prior knowledge is important to the learning process. People make connections and draw conclusions based on a sense of what they already know and have experienced. Learning can be viewed, in part, as a matter of encoding and storing information in memory, processing, categorizing and clustering material, and later retrieving this information to be applied at the appropriate times and situations. For learning to occur, facts, concepts and ideas must also be stored, connected to other facts, concepts, and ideas, and built upon. Knowing in advance what the big ideas are and how they relate to each other conceptually helps learners to make sense of information and to remember and use it more flexibly. The associations people make and understandings they develop are dependent upon and influenced by what is valued and what is experienced at home, in the community, and within the classroom learning environment. Culture influences the knowledge and experiences people bring to the classroom, the ways in which they communicate, the expectations that have for how learning will occur, and the ideas they have about what is worth learning.