Teaching Philosophy

I finally met my new cooperating teacher! She’s Ms. Rona Tamayo, and she’s currently handling Grade 10 students. She is also the current adviser of their school’s English club. This year is actually the time where was finally given loads in English, because according to her, when she first started teaching, there were no vacancies in the English department so she was absorbed in the AP department for the mean time. I was actually surprised because it doesn’t seem like she took a break from teaching English for a while.

Ms. Tamayo is an excellent teacher. She’s very articulate, and you can really see how prepared she is for the lessons that she presents in class. She employs different strategies in teaching other than the usual such as lecture method. Ms. Tamayo ensures that every student is involved in the learning process and she makes sure that majority of the flow of the discussion is rooted from the insights of the students. I remember one time when she lost track of time, the topic revolved on establishing solidarity and building relationships, the students were really participating because she knew how to ask questions that would direct the students to a more concrete and relevant answer. As soon as we went out of that class, she told me that sometimes it’s hard to be aware of the time when the students are really engrossed with the lesson because teachers should take advantage of those moments. After all, what we teachers are aiming for is the quality of learning, not the quantity of lessons that we were able to cover. I can say that Ms. Tamayo’s philosophy in teaching lies more on the progressive side.