Every soldier undergoes field training. It prepares them for the real life scenarios and combat outside the training field. In anything that we do whether it is for job or performance a good preparation is vital.  It will determine if you will have a good start that might result in a better finish. This principle applies to all, not only real life soldiers. We are all soldiers in our own way, life itself is the battlefield here you get killed if you are weak and lacks essential skills.

 

                For me as a pre-service teacher my ultimate training ground is the practice teaching. It gives me little taste of how bitter-sweet teaching in the real world is. From that point everything about teaching basically is learned by doing. I am not sure if this applies to others but definitely applies to me. I admit that I still have a lot to learn and honestly I am not a good teacher, at least not yet. Practice teaching helped me to fill in some pieces of the puzzle to eventually become an “Educator”.

 

                As harsh that it might sound the learning environment and the educational landscape in the Philippines is not pleasant both to the teacher and the students. As for the experience that had, I was trained to make to make technology based educational materials and also favour modern than the traditional medium of teaching. However, unfortunate situations and lack of proper resources in the school that I was assigned to deviates me from what I am trained to do. Whether I like it or not, I had to improvise which is a good thing because it enhances my flexibility as a facilitator of learning.

 

               

               The things that I experienced in practice teaching are totally different from the things that I learned in the college classroom. I learned that teaching is sometimes nice but most of the time cruel. It is not always sunny and vivid. Sometimes we have to endure a thunderstorm. Before I get too poetic about all this, all I am saying is that the concept of black and white and two sides of the coin does not apply to teaching. There are many considerations, I mean there are too many other sides to consider. I believe that teaching is not just encased in the question of what went wrong and what went right. I believe the more appropriate question is how do we straighten things and make them right? To be brutally honest this thing called teaching is hard and stressful. Weaker beings might give up and snap if they decide to take this job. The only consolation that this profession gives us is that it gives us the power to mold the future of the students. It is a power to make or break them. To be a part of a student’s journey and make an impact to their lives is more than enough of a prize.