A Heart of a Teacher

“To see is to Believe” usual words you hear from people. But Sabrina Ongkiko has a different version for that. “We have to believe in order to see”. Sabrina Ongkiko was the speaker of TedEx ADMU which is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. There she shared her experience and passion to teaching to other people. And as she shared how hard and tough her life was as a teacher, I saw her dedication to work which inspires me to be like her. How she encourages and lifts her students. Even her pursuit on guiding the class to pass on their subject, and I like how she tries to keep the equality in all of the sections of the grade level. She encourages each class everyday that they could and they would pass the subject. She does this by letting them recite and tell themselves everyday that “Papasa Ako” ("I Will Pass") along with their classmates. The happiness and fulfillment you get as a teacher when all of the students pass the quiz cant be paid. Even the students joy when all of them passed the quiz makes you really happy because they were not just thinking about themselves, they were doing it together. It made me realize that one thing that makes passing very important, is to see to it that all of you had passed the subject together. 

As a future educator, the way that Sabrina motivates and inspires her students inspired me to be a good teacher. As I saw how she helps her students in learning and molding their character, I realized that I should do more as a teacher. Not just a teacher that teach the subject but a mother, a friend and someone who my students can count on. I should be really optimistic, as someone has told me before “life is easy in the eyes of the optimist”. And yes, it’s true. The way Sabrina sees the world and how she believes that we should “Believe first in order to See”, tells how optimistic she is and how she looks into the world. I want to be like her, optimist with a great passion in teaching. it is really important that we are Passionate with our work, because we cannot work without our heart. And as per science, we will die if we don’t have our heart. It is the same with teaching and with everything else. Our passion and dedication in our work will surely bear a good fruit, and as a teacher i need those good attitudes that Sabrina has.

It’s right, that we should encourage and motivate the students, and be optimistic and passionate with our work. But as a teacher we should also make ourselves better inside, and in order for us to do that is to shape our Habits. Dr. Harry K. Wong Ed.D, has presented what he had learned in his lifetime of teaching and shared to us the things that we could do to become a better teacher we are meant to be. In the video, Dr. Wong had focused on the habits that the teacher must posses. He thinks that habits are the key to success and our habits define our future. And as a teacher, one good habit that we should possess is the thirst for knowledge. It doesn’t mean that we already graduated into our Baccalaureate Course, or on our Masters or Doctoral is that we should stop learning. Being a teacher, we should do a lifetime of learning. He mentioned that we should attend seminars, as they were made to enhance your capacity as a teacher and keep the fire in your heart burning. He thinks that “We are what we repeatedly do”. And Dr. Wong is right. It means that your habits define you, and you can choose your habit. Habit into making yourself more knowledgeable, and continue learning for your students. “Knowledge is weightless, it is something that you could carry very time”, said Dr. Wong that really inspires me to do better. To learn more, I know that I have to be a knowledgeable teacher first to become more effective. And as by the inspiring message of Dr. Wong, it made me realize that that habit is a choice, and I have a choice, to choose that habit and do my best a future educator.

Sabrina Ongkiko and Dr. Wong was a great combination. Their stories combined in order for us to realize that teaching is both giving our hearts to our students and sharing our knowledge to them. Both video had taught me how hard it is to be a teacher but very fulfilling. And I realize how thankful I am to my teachers, who taught me not just about the subject but taught me about life, and became a part of who I am today. And I am very happy that they were my teachers that they decided to be a teacher to teach me. I am happy that they are still teaching and preparing the music inside each student’s heart to be played. And as a future educator, i would help my students play the music inside them that were just waiting to be played.