LIFE OF A 21st CENTURY STUDENT-TEACHER

The world is changing and developing in today's modern culture. Things are becoming more interconnected and technology continually changing everything. As a 21st-century teacher in the future, it is a must to adjust and adapt to any changes that would help me to live in a diverse and multinational civilization. 

Life of a 21st-century student teacher is not easy as we expect, there are a lot of sacrifices and changes that would utterly develop my teaching capabilities. However, things started to change. As we are preparing for ourselves in the teaching field, I always ask myself; Yes, given that we are future teachers, but how can we say that we are great teachers? only if we are sustaining the quality of being a pre-service teacher. We should be guided by the teaching philosophies and principles that make us experiential in creating and building a safe learning environment. We are 21st-century future teachers; we should adapt and adjust to all the advancements happening in our surroundings. We should familiarize ourselves with DepEd's core values; we must clarify our teaching philosophies. 

    With this statement, I assess myself: will I be a good teacher in the future? I don't think I am capable of answering this question; only my students can evaluate how I can transform their minds and hearts from nothing to anything that they want to be in the future. As a 21st-century teacher, there are a lot of things that I need to possess in order to be considered a great teacher. From experiences in my observation and practice teaching, I noticed that I still have a long journey to be a great teacher. It needs great encouragement to pursue my career and let my students become my inspiration and hone them to become better citizens in society. 

  

       Indeed that experience is a great tool in becoming what you want in the near future. This was my student, he was in grade 7 at New Era National High School. He was having a hard time reading the textbook and my resource teacher asked me to assist the student. As I approached him, he was shy; he said that "Ma'am nahihiya po ako" and I told him that everything is under control. With this encounter, I have gained a lot of lessons in teaching.  This student proved to me that we are not just teachers, but we can be also their support friends; to help them to overcome their fears. 

    As a 21st-century teacher in the future, it's not only my job to teach; but to touch the hearts of my students. I always tell myself that teaching is not just teaching, teaching is a great way to build and create strong relationships with my students. I am teaching because I want to develop the unseen aspects that every learner should explore.  I figure out that students can be the best version of themselves as long we can allow them to explore and learn new things on their own. I have witnessed a lot of teachers who let their students figure out what they want to be in the future, we teachers are just facilitating them but we are also encouraging them to ace their fears and start fighting for their dreams.

Always remember that we are not just teaching academic matters, but we are also shaping and molding the minds of the students to become better citizens.