Principles of Teaching

Why Teach?

In this very competitive world competitiveness is the game of life who will be the
survivor and the non-survivor, in order to survive education is the most powerful
weapon in surviving this world. At an early age we are being educate by our parents
about good values, like being courteous, being polite, how to act decently in front of many
people and etc. But most of all is being faithful to God. There is a principle of teaching
said “Why Teach?” Based on my own understanding in that principle of teaching; we
teach because of so many reasons, like it is our own will to teach, and most of all because
of our passion in teaching these pupils. There’s a saying that learning is a lifelong process,
meaning even you are already graduated in college and having a bachelor degree; still
we cannot say that we already knew everything because not all is being taught in school.
We don’t only learn from our school but also through our experiences that made us
strong, competitive, and become knowledgeable in so many aspects in life. There are two
kinds of learning; Formal and In-Formal learning. The informal learning is a learning that
we learned from the outside world of the school while the formal learning is the kind of
learning that we’ve learned inside the school which the teacher is in charge in facilitating
his/her learners inside the classroom. Of course I believe that anybody can be a teacher
in different way but the kind of teacher that I am referring is the teacher that undergone
trainings, seminars and most all the teacher that has a licensed who passed the LET exam.
I have so many options during my high school life if what course that I wanted take when
I am already in college.

But for so many choices in my mind, I choose Education course as my final decision. I
teach because this is my passion in life and this is where I am happy. I don’t teach only
because I am aiming for the good salary and to secure my life in the future but I teach
because I really wanted to share my knowledge to the less fortunate ones especially to
the pupils in public school who cannot support their needs in school because of so many
reasons like poverty and jobless parents. I teach because my passion and my love in
teaching children is limitless even how diverse kind of students they are. According to
Confucius “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day of your life.
What to Teach?

Learning is a lifelong process that all of us learn in our daily life; whoever you are and
wherever you go. For me the most patient profession that I’ve ever known is the Teacher’s
Profession. Why? Because once you ask a Teacher what to teach he/she will say it depends
on the lesson that we had already tackled and it is prepared with lesson plan on the day
we teach on that specific lesson coupled with so many type of pupils/students and
encountering different attitudes. In the principles of teaching “What to teach” is a bit
wide question. But for me as an educator I teach based on the Budget of Work (BOW) as
the same basis of everyday lesson in the public schools. The teacher teach based on what
the Department of Education provides as the bases of the teachers to teach in every level
whether in elementary or high school. For me I teach based on the capacity of the pupils,
I tried to know my students well; like their behaviour, their family background, their
strength and weaknesses. When you know you students well; there you can perform well
as an educator on what to teach to your pupils. We all know that pupils are diverse type
of learners some of them are academically competitive, and some are very artistic. Know
your student well and you will know what to teach them.

How to Teach?

Having perfect lesson plan and being an efficient teacher is not a guarantee that he/she is
an effective teacher; why? It is because sometimes there are some teacher who are very
knowledgeable and intelligent yet they don’t know how to transfer the information they
wanted to inculcate to the minds of the students. I remembered what my teacher said
when I was in college that when you make lesson plan try to check your Subject matter if
it is congruence to the Objectives you made. When a teacher is still a neophyte teacher
he/she will prepare a detailed lesson plan so that she/he will master his/her lesson.
Besides from the lesson plan prepared by the teacher he/she must also prepare the visual
aids to be more effective for the pupils because there some pupils learned not only
through the discussion of the teacher but also through pictures and film showing. In
teaching our class we don’t immediately jump to the proper lesson but we do a
motivation first like singing, asking question based on the lesson to be teach on that day;
beside from that we do a lot of activities to catch up more the attention of the pupils. We
also give consideration to the slow type of learners especially in giving daily quizzes; we
make our exam heterogeneous type of test like using multiple choice, matching type,
modified true or false and etc. In the Principle of Teaching “How to Teach” I think we
should prepare a daily lesson plan so we can have the basis on the lesson to be teach,
know the topic that you have tackled already and most all; know whether the objectives
on the lesson you prepared was reach the mastery level. Having a well prepared lesson
plan with a good visual aids that can measure the diverse type of learners inside the
classroom is the thing that I can considered that you teach well.