Building Moments Inside Your Classroom

Even though I resigned as a teacher months ago, hindi ko pa rin maitatangging nami-miss kong magturo. ‘Yung turo lang ha? Hindi kasama ‘yung other things na nakakabit sa work na ito, *cough* paperworks, *cough* lab manuals. There were moments na bigla ko na lang maiisip na, “Ay, ito, magandang pa-activity ito sa mga students ko next time,” when I know I shouldn’t even stress myself about it dahil iba na rin naman ang sakop ng new work ko. Madalas ay nanghihinayang ako kung bakit hindi ko nagawa ang ilan sa mga iyon. Kaya kung teacher ka at nagkataong naghahanap ka rin ng way para gawing masigla ang inyong klase, I may have some valuable information for you.

Admit it, boring ang pure lecture lang. No one wants to hear a teacher drone on and on about a subject topic. Well sure, I can’t blame you for doing that dahil papa’no mo nga naman maipapasa ang information sa klase kung hindi ka magsasalita sa harap? But please naman, do it in a fun way! Let your students be engaged, let them share something.

Looking back on my college days, ang tanging naaalala ko na lang ay ‘yung mga peak moments. Mga fun activities and events na siyang talaga namang tumatak sa isipan ko. Number one dito ay ‘yung pa-film showing sa Multimedia subject namin, kung saan inaabot pa kami ng ilang linggong shoot na madalas inuumaga na sa pag-uwi. Naalala ko rin ‘yung sandamakmak na pag-present ng mga pinaghirapan naming project, mga computerized systems, mga pagpapailaw ng LED, ‘yung pagkalas ng PC tapos tangina, hindi na alam kung paano ibalik.

With that, I guess it would be nice to share some activities na magandang i-incorporate during class. Ang ilan dito’y nagawa ko na before, ‘yung iba’y kaiisip ko lang.

1. Tell me something we don’t know / trivia sharing

It’s something na matagal ko nang gustong gawin sa mga handle ko dati, hindi ko lang nagawa kasi busy na o too late na masyado para simulan. Mas magandang i-introduce ito sa first day, then continue doing it every day. Ganito ang get up: each day, bago mag-start ang actual lesson, you will pick three random students and ask them to share something na may kinalaman sa subject. Silang bahala kung anong klaseng information. Kung medyo silly joke ba ito, or factual, or a tip on doing a task more easily. This trivia sharing activity may not have a bearing sa grade, but at least, it motivates your students to research on their own. And if they do found something worth shareable sa class, promise, they will look forward to come to your class dahil mafi-feel nila na they do matter, na kahit papaano’y may naitutulong sila para sa growth and learning nila.

2. Introduce your seatmate

Ito ‘yung nagawa ko na before. It’s first day of class at tinatamad pa kasi akong magturo so nag-isip ako ng way to stall time, and ang cliché naman din kasi ng introduce yourself lang, so I made a little twist: need nilang i-introduce ang seatmate nila in class. May magandang benefit ito lalo na sa mga first years dahil it solves their problem of not having an acquiantance sa section na kinabibilangan nila. At least, after this activity, maybe pag-uwi nila ng bahay, matuwa sila at maikwento nila sa mga magulang nila na may naging kaibigan agad sila unang araw pa lang ng klase.

3. Recitation Games

Natutuwa ako kapag pino-project ko na sa board ‘yung mga bilog-bilog na iyan. Para kasi kaming biglang napunta sa isang television game show at ako ang host. What I do in this case is to collect 35 questions at itago sila randomly sa mga numberized circles na iyan. One by one, mamimili sila ng number, kung saan may nakatagong question, either madali or mahirap. What makes this a fun activity on my side is providing 5 bonus items. Wala na agad tanong-tanong, matic na plus 5 agad sa recitation grade!

4. Stand-up Meetings

This pertains naman sa mga subjects na may project output at the final term, like thesis or system analysis and design, or feasibs, etc. This is inspired on what we do everyday sa work ko, we do stand-up meetings para aware ang isa’t isa kung saang part na kami ng task namin, kung anu-ano na ba ang mga done na namin, ganern. How is it effective in team management? Well, mahihiya ka kasi kapag wala kang masabing progress tuwing meeting, e this is everyday ginagawa, so it forces you talaga na may gawin ka.

Now applying this in academe side, it eliminates the problem on those na binansagang mga “butaw” sa mga groups. Dahil aminin natin, may mga kapal-mukha talaga riyan na pa-photocopy lang talaga ang ambag, o pa-pancit canton lang, minsan nga wala talagang naitutulong eh. If this is done at least once a week during class, aba’y for sure, mahihiya ‘yang mga butaw na iyan at kusang-loob nang tutulong may masabi lang na contribution.

5. Peer-to-peer Project Assessments

When we’re creating a project, especially if it is a computerized system, necessary lagi ang feedback ng mga users para malaman natin kung alin ang pangit sa gawa natin o kung pangit ba talaga overall. Madalas kasi, tingin ng mga leader, tama ang ginagawa nila, when in fact hindi naman lagi. So hearing feedback from others is necessary. E ang kaso lang, from my experience, kulang ang 3-5 hours every week sa pag-check ng project. Ngayon ang naisip ko, why not let other groups test their product? Have them conduct peer-to-peer project assessments! Of course, need pa rin ni teacher i-check isa-isa, pero at least, while busy si teacher sa pag-check sa isang group, may ginagawa ang klase. Hindi sila lahat nakatanga.

So far, hanggang lima muna. Siguro kung makaisip uli ako ng another five, baka mag-post uli ako ng follow-up about this blog. But you get my point naman right? School experiences, though ang main goal natin is matuto, it’s supposed to be fun. And we, educators, it’s our role to inspire them and motivate them to learn. Dahil pag-graduate hindi naman talaga nila matatandaan ‘yang mga tatlong chapters ng librong pinapa-memorize mo eh, what they will remember is how you made them feel. And we can achieve that by focusing on building the right moments, for these moments, no matter how simple or complicated, as long as you instilled the right emotion for them, they will be forever grateful. And we should focus on that.