Journal Entry One

         By: Celine Gonzales

        Patience. This is what I’ve learned from our guest speaker last Friday. I think there are several characteristics that all good teachers have in common. They are patience; concern for their students; willingness to adapt, and knowledge of the subject being taught. If these characteristics are lacking, a teacher cannot be an effective educator. Patience may be the most important characteristic of all. I remembered the story that Mr. Warren shared with us. There was a time that one of his students disrespect him but he still needs to have a lot of patience. He even told us that it is normal for the first day of a fresh graduate education student to commit a lot of error. We should not be afraid of that. Instead make it as a motivation for you to become a better teacher. And as a teacher, you should have a lot of patience in teaching. Without patience, a first year teacher especially won’t survive. You can’t let a student see your frustration level or else you loose their confidence not only in themselves but you as a teacher.

            I realized that as a future educator, I should ready myself with all the possible problems and hard situations that I will encounter throughout my journey as a teacher. A good teacher must remain patient with his or her students at all times. However, that doesn't mean the teacher should let the students get away with whatever they want to. Discipline and fairness must be used as well. A teacher with these qualities is able to understand his or her students and know how to help them succeed. A teacher with little or no patience can easily give up on a troublesome student as a way to avoid the problem. However, in doing this, the main goal of the teacher is lost. If the teacher cannot help his or her students, or cannot present the class material in a way that the students are able to understand, then that person is not well qualified to be a teacher.

            During the talk, I also knew the importance of having a review. The retention of knowledge will takes place if it is repeated over time. I usually do my review at home on Sunday night. By this time, I am usually refreshed and have some perspective. I also like doing it at home because I eliminate most of the distractions that keep me from truly getting my head above the fray at work. And I personally believe that it is a good strategy for the students to easily remember what have been discussed from the previous meeting. "We remember what we understand; we understand only what we pay attention to; we pay attention to what we want." - Edward Bolles. I saw this quotation in the internet, and I interpret it in a way that when we know how we learn best in terms of our learning style and preferences and are able to apply appropriate study techniques, we are better able to attend to, take in, and process information in various learning situations. Remembering what you have heard in lectures is even more difficult to recall because you are not able to slow down, pause, reflect, or to reread unless you take excellent notes! In a study on recall after listening to a seminar, students forgot more than 90% of the points from the lecture after 14 days! So I think Mr. Panaligan is true that review is a very good strategy to remember concepts.