I am really new in the teaching profession. I never thought teaching would require much practice, or it would require practice before the formal class itself. My knowledge about teaching was shallow. I thought that teachers will just prepare lesson plans, materials, and execute it everyday. I thought wrong. Teachers have a tedious job in preparing all the things necessary in teaching, even the way he/she will interact with students, and how he/she can make the class fruitful for everyone (noting that each student is different from the others). There is something about teachers that make their teaching looks so natural and flows smoothly. This I guess I have to discover myself as I walk through my journey in Education.

My group has had a couple of practices prior to micro-teaching. I find it quite funny, and incomparable to micro-teaching and extremely far from the actual demo teaching. During our group practice, we take turns in becoming the teacher and the student. However, it seemed like watching a theater play because almost everything is scripted, the answers and reactions. There's nothing else we can think of as answers and reactions. We were limited by our knowledge of what our students will do.

Our class micro-teaching was more realistic, as expected, and, will really help you show your hidden teaching skills. For me, the experience was fun and really helpful. All the materials you prepared were used. Your classmates were your students. There were expected and unexpected answers and reactions from them. The part that was assigned to me was a bit challenging because I will have to think fast, on the spot where questions and answers will be thrown at me. With the presence of my classmates-students, I got to hear more answers and questions that my real students will probably give. The micro-teaching helped me prepare for my act

This is a sequel to my previous post entitled, "The Challenge," but in a different grade level and different subject. Indeed, this experience made me see teaching as even more challenging. Our class was tasked to observe Grade 6 - Diamond, specifically during their English class under Teach Emmanuel.

I came to the class early enough to see students come in class, one-by-one, since they were out for some activities before their English class. I got to compare and contrast, anticipate the attitudes of the students, and reminisce the class I had when I was once a Grade 6 student. As far as I can remember, in general, my Grade 6 life was fun and I loved my classmates and teachers. Well, that's in my point of view, but what about the teachers'. So now, I can see it.

The Grade 6-DIamond class was a bit far from what I expected. Maybe because I expected too much on them given the school they are in. But after all, they are comparable to other high schools. Or should I say, because children are children (some can still be naughty, easily get bored at that age, or children are really like that).

Before the class started, during the class, and after the class, the students were noisy and seemed so unmanageable. It was like if the 30+ students want to say something or ask their teacher, they will talk simultaneously. As for the teacher, he had to change his managing techniques quite often depending on whatever is effective for the class at the given moment. He would tell the class to keep quiet; if he's being ignored, he would be silent and somehow the class will feel the need to be quiet as well.

Nevertheless, during the class, the students were cooperative and responsive to their teacher. Amazingly, students were able to unlock difficult words (I assume are difficult for their level) like uncoiled and thrashing, based on their prior knowledge or how they understand the words given its use in the sentence. Not all gave the right answers immediately, but later figured it out. For the teacher, all through out the pre-reading part, he mentioned a number of "comments" (can't think of a better word for it) like "gather your thoughts first" if the student is taking too long to give his answer, "say it in English" since it is an English class, "settle down" or "I know [pertaining to the class] you're excited to share your thoughts, but settle down first" if the class gets unmanageable. And if the class gets noisy, he would change his tone voice to loud to caught his class' attention, or just be silent.

It was only when the class started the reading part that the class became silent. And that is for seven minutes. Although there were some students who are still reading aloud,  but not so disturbingly loud. After reading, a video clip was shown. The class was familiar to it and they seemed to be interested with it because I can see them with their full attention to it. I think it was a good effort for the teacher to choose and prepare the lessons that is not only educational but also interesting for the students.

Lastly, for the group activities, I observed that some members of the groups were not participating. Some members were talking about other stuffs not related to the activity, while some students were dependent on their other members. On the teacher's part, making the students busy is not the time for him to rest because, like teacher Emmanuel, he roamed around the different groups and checked on their progress.

For me, it was a tiring one hour and a half class. Imagine doing it for a whole day and countless days in a year. It was exhausting. It made me thinking if I still want to teach elementary level or high school level or kinder level (at least their cuteness will motivate me :)) or college level (hopefully, they will act more maturely). Kudos to teachers out there!

As tasked to research on the problems in reading education in the Philippines, I found and chose these three problems, namely: 1) Philippines is a nation of non readers, 2) insufficient structural supports like reading materials and teachers, and 3) malnourished students. These problems were said to be contributing factors, in the long run, to Filipinos in being incompetent workers, locally or globally, and majority of Filipinos to remain below or in the poverty line.

A nation of non readers. I stumbled upon an article about Filipinos, marked by its history, as being storytellers as opposed to being readers. Based on the article "A nation of non readers by Juan Luz" (2007), Filipinos' culture was mainly passed on through word of mouth and not through written works. A survey conducted in 2003 by the Philippine government said that the two main sources of information for Filipinos were from television (62 percent) and radio (57 percent); while a low percentage read newspaper and magazines. Although Filipinos have been regarded as highly literate people, Luz posed a question on how true is it. Literacy is a measure of competence, and reading is a skill. Filipinos in rural or urban areas showed low literacy rate (that might also be overstated because of limited ways of acquiring information), and thus comes with poor reading skill, and then poor learning. Luz also saw poor reading as a reflection of poor language proficiency by public school teachers, may it be in English or Filipino. Despite these challenges faced by the Philippines, government and non-government sectors started acting in improving the level of competency of Filipinos that can help individuals and the nation in becoming competent globally.

When I assessed the article, its information may have come from surveys and test results, but it showed a realistic overview of the Philippine's situation. For me, the main problem in reading education that I garnered in the article is the lack of importance given in reading skill. Filipinos, as provided by history, have been dependent on oral transmission of information. While the habit of reading was not fully honed to its people. And, as evidently pointed out in the article, aside from writing and arithmetic, reading skill is also important in learning because it would affect one's comprehension. Learning is a key factor in being globally competitive, as much as reading skill (and anything that goes with it like language proficiency). Fortunately, some people have already begun taking actions in promoting the importance of forming a reading habit to students. It would be even more better if it will be continued from now onwards.

Lack of structural support. Other articles I read centered on, despite education having the biggest share in the national budget (approximately 15% from the proposed 2013 budget, according to Beltran, J., Alvarez, K., and Sunnex in 2012), the lack of structural support, like teachers, training, classrooms, textbooks and reading materials as a problem in reading education. According to Madge Kho, in the article "Status of Philippine Education System - 2004", students had low scores in High School Readiness Test, and the Philippines ranked low in the International Mathematics and Science Study due to contributing factors, such as national budget, lack of structural support and malnutrition.  The lack of structural support was the inadequacy in the number of books,classrooms, school materials, educators, and training of teachers. While there was also a problem in the competency of teachers in the English language where only 10,000 out of 51,000 teachers passed a test in assessing the English language. In another article by Ama Abeberese, Todd J. Kumler, and Leigh L. Linden, they mentioned that the Philippine National Budget for education was spent mostly on staff salaries, and little left for training, textbooks or buildings, and scarce reading resources are common in public primary schools.

With great conviction, I affirm to what the authors in the above two articles had mentioned. Aside from those articles, there are documentary films that would present the condition of the Philippine education like an award winning documentary film by Kara David in I-Witness: Piggy Bank (a story of a boy living in a far-flung area of Eastern Samar who endangers himself in the depth of the sea to earn a penny and fulfill his dream through education)(UNICEF, 2013). Seeing that film, it showed me that poverty does not limit an individual in pursuing education. Government, on the other hand, has a part in making education worthy of each seconds risked by individuals. But knowing that most of the budget are allocated to staff salaries, education will not be enticing to students, especially if there are no classrooms conducive for learning, trained teachers, and books and other reading materials helpful on their process of learning. 

Malnourished readers. Lastly, in the same article by Madge Kho, malnutrition of students was seen as a contributing factor in the poor quality education in the Philippines. Children are not learning because of physical deficiencies caused by the lack of food to sustain their health. According to the article, the Education Department together with Social Welfare Department will provide food for families that are in need of it. Malnourished students that are having difficulty in learning were evident as well in studies conducted in developing countries.

Malnourishment, in my opinion, affects children's education in general, not only in reading education, and it is brought about by poverty. Poverty is a hefty topic to be discussed, and still inconclusive on how to be effectively addressed, so I will not focus on  that. Malnutrition does not only alter children's learning capabilities but also hinders them from attending school. Some children would rather chose to stay at home and help with their family's financial needs, even at an early age. Fortunately, as cited by Lim (2013), government has been consistently developing programs in creating malnutrition awareness and aiding in need students and their families. Just like the "2013 Nutrition Month Celebration" Program of Department of Education, in partnership with other sectors.

REFERENCES:
Abeberese, A., Kumlerm T., and Linden, L. "Improving Reading Skills by Encouraging Children to Read: A Randomized Evaluation of the Sa Aklat Sisikat Reading Program in the Philippines." Working Paper, Columbia University, February 2013. Retrieved from http://www.povertyactionlab.org        /evaluation/enabling-young-readers-primary-school-reading-program-philippines

Beltran, J., Alvarez, K., and Sunnex. (2012, July 24).  Aquino submits 2013 budget to                congress. Retrieved from http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/local-news/2012/07/24            /aquino-submits-2013-budget-congress-233828

Kho, M. (2004). Status of Philippine Education System -2004. Retrieved from http://bkpinc.org                     /education-in-the-philippines.html

Lim, D. (2013). 2013 Nutrition month celebration, theme: gutom at malnutrition, sama-sama nating wakasan. Retrieved from http://scoopboy.com/2013-nutrition-month-celebration-theme-gutom-at-malnutrition-sama-sama-nating-wakasan/

Luz, J.M. (2007). A nation of nonreaders. Retrieved from http://pcij.org/stories/a-nation-        of-nonreaders/

UNICEF. (2012). Philippine documentary on education wins 2012 Asia-Pacific Child Rights Award. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/philippines/mediacentre_19774.html#.UbRQMNgSbyo