“Then having gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, if prophecy, according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, in the ministry; or HE WHO TEACHES, in the TEACHING;”

- Apostle Paul
(Romans 12:6-7 Modern King James Version)

In the account of the Bible, teaching indeed can’t just be downplayed by serious teachers. I believe in my heart that the epitome of teaching as a profession is carefully spelled out through the life of our Lord Jesus Christ as the sole model for those people whose craft is in educating. In my observation, teaching becomes somewhat an ordinary commodity – a profession instead of a vocation. I say a vocation because there is more to it than the word “teaching” itself that it denotes. They say that teaching is the “noblest” profession. But one does not become noble by simply becoming a teacher. The noble thing of being a teacher is the hard toil a teacher undergoes in the daily humdrum of life. Jesus Christ himself presented a blueprint of what it takes to be a dedicated and committed teacher. I believe He wants us to discern the importance of parting wisdom, values and valuable life’s lesson that He spent His earthly ministry devoted to teaching. His passion for teaching went beyond the boundaries of human needs. He did not just cater to the human physical existence but to the very core of an individual. A teacher can only say proudly to himself that he has measured to Jesus’ standard if he has somehow emulated His examples. He has given so much of Himself – His time, resources and above all, His dear life. I know, as a teacher, I have so much to give. After all you can not give what you don’t have. I believe that teaching is not earned by a person’s will nor given by even the most respectable university. It’s a mission in the form of a gift which is only given to worthy individuals. If someone could say that “Filipinos are worth dying for.” because he believed he had a mission to his countrymen, I could proudly say, “Teaching is worth dying for”, for this is a mission to mankind, at the same time the reason of my existence.

With God’s help and mercy, in my 7 years of teaching Physics, I found that teaching is not that difficult as long as you understand the basic concepts. Basically, the results of my student’s performance will show there is a missing link between my teaching and “catch up” of my students. I figured it out that most of my students understand the lesson during the discussion but that understanding only lasts when I am standing in front of them. Whenever I give them a test and judging from the looks of their eyes, I could discern that they want to ask for a hanky because they are already “nose bleeding”! One time I asked my students if they understood the lesson and a student barked out his reply saying, “I could not visualize our lesson!”. At that time our lesson was about light and its properties both wave and particle. I didn’t take me much of their protests to understand what my students were trying to insinuate because I for once couldn’t also “visualize” the molecular geometry of s, p, d, and f orbitals! It was at this time I remembered what Sigmund Freud had said that one learning factor of understanding is visualization. Most learners easily grasp stimuli, which can be seen. Through that incident I learned that in order for my students would fully grasp the lesson being taught I should use videos. I realized that not all lessons in Physics can be learned easily in teacher-student interaction and doing laboratory activities listed in their manuals. After having employed audio-visual method in teaching my students, their academic performance dramatically improved. They are now more enthusiastic and the videos they watch seems to catch to their curiosity and I observe that deeper understanding of the lesson is manifested through their performance.

The videos I first used were from the Constel’s Physics Made Easy (A Telecourse for Physics High School Teachers). However we only have limited number of CDs because some were already corrupted. Last October 2008 in Pearl of the Orient Tower in Ermita, Manila, I attended a two-day seminar on using these CDs and how the video can be edited using Windows Movie Maker. Although I couldn’t remember every detail of it but there is one detail that persists my memory and that is speaker’s presentation on using the CDs and how are you going to “cut” and delete the videos which are not important. Participants were very interested because they were already oriented with Microsoft PowerPoint but they were not knowledgeable enough in such video editing software. And guess what? After learning how to edit videos, some started to make their own MTVs of their weddings, birthdays and other memorable events in their lives! Perhaps this was one learning factor stated by another psychologist-educator named Jean Piaget that learners learned easily if they find “new things” useful or important to them.

Before the end of the first day we were grouped and given an assignment – to make our own presentation applying what we had learned that day. I got mix emotions that day when I was assigned in our group to make the editing. I accepted it because I really wanted to try it. I spend the whole night editing because I wanted to make our presentation amazing! And it really did! Thanks be to God! The speaker and other groups gave their own comments for improvements and we were all happy for we went out the room equipped with new knowledge!

I know it’s still a long way ahead and there is really lot of space for new learning. But I’m glad that there are people who lend their expertise and resources in enriching this gift of teaching. As what the Bible says in Romans 12:4, “For even as we have many members in one body, and all members do not have the same function,”, we couldn’t be all teachers but each of us can lend his hand to achieve His purpose to us, with God’s help and mercy. God bless to all of us and more power to FUSE (Foundation for Upgrading the Standard Education) and hoping more gift-teaching individuals will be “FUSED”!

Reneboy G. Payong
171 Alcantara St., Banalt Rd., Tandang Sora, Q.C.
09162726947
Ernesto Rondon High School
Road 3, Proj. 6, Q.C.
Tel. 453-1616

Founded by Dr. Lucio C. Tan on December 1, 1994, FUSE seeks to improve the skills in English, Science and Mathematics teachers. Its programs include regular teacher training workshops; a post-graduate scholarship program for Science and Engineering teachers; production and distribution of telecourses in English, Elementary Science, Chemistry, Physics and Math; and a host of other educational programs in partnership with government and private learning institutions.