What I did on the First Week of Classes

This school year, I am assigned to teach two subjects: Araling Asyano and Kasaysayan ng Daigdig, for grades seven and eight respectively. It’s challenging because it’s not easy to prepare lessons for these two subjects. Plus, I have to work mid-shift from 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM. Another thing, I was assigned as class adviser of grade seven section LUKE.

One of the disadvantages of being an AP teacher is that, there are a lot of topics but there are only three days to conduct lessons in a week. Pagkakasyahin mo talaga. Although there is what we call “budget of work”, still, for some AP teachers, it’s not enough. And sometimes, your classes have irregular schedules, like what happened for the last two years. Parang sinisingit lang talaga ang AP sa mga classes na four days lang. I’m lucky that this year, each class has a fixed schedule. For example: 12:10-1:00 Monday, Wednesday, Friday. It’s better kasi may regular pattern para hindi na rin malito ang mga bata with regards to when to do their homeworks, when to bring their books, etc. Yun nga lang, hindi pare-pareho ang schedules ng bawat section so pwedeng ang lesson 1 ngayon ng isang section, bukas pa or sa susunod na bukas gagawin ng isa pang section.

The first day of classes usually begins with orientation. Para saan ang subject na ‘yan. Sinasali ko talaga ‘yan, para naman hindi malito ang mga estudyante at para malaman nila na importante ang AP dahil magagamit ito sa buhay. I also asked them their expectations: the things they wanted to learn, the teaching style that they wanted, etc. I also discussed how they will be graded, their requirements, their upcoming activities, the requirements to pass the subject, including do’s and don’ts. To make things flow smoother and faster, I asked who among them have already experienced being a class leader and I appointed them as presidents of each class. I allowed them to elect class officers too. Funny (and awkward) thing was, I have a lot of grade eight students who were already my students last school year. Same old faces. Mga hindi na nagsawa sa akin :D

The next day, I administered diagnostic test to measure what they already knew about the subject and have it checked right away. The test is composed of fifty items from first quarter to fourth quarter. I recorded the results and got the frequency of correct responses to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the class.

The third day will be the start of the discussion to be posted later J

I can say that this school year is another challenging one for us, especially those who are assigned to teach in Senior High School. In my case, I’m assigned to teach Junior High School. Okay na ako dito, pansamantala.