Despite the challenges that I have encountered as a public school teacher here in my country, I always value and appreciate my work because I love my noble profession, and I love the students.
One of the challenges that I am encountering is overcrowded classrooms. Did you know that in one class I am handling more than sixty students of different classrooms per day?
Of course, with the limited resources and growing student population, insufficient resources are also a problem, not to mention that classrooms lack the basic facilities and teaching materials, which could affect the teaching and learning process. These situations made my profession challenging.
But despite it all, I always find ways every day to create an engaging and effective learning environment for my students and be the best that I can to personalize learning and academic progress.
After I have discussed the lessons, I have given them a performance task. Last time, in in one of my classes we had an activity in Science.
Honestly, it is not so easy to have an overcrowded class because chances could be students will not be interested in learning and get bored easily. However, I a so excited to enter my class since everyone seemed participative and they always do their best to learn in my class.
The performance task was to make a model of the different types of folds and make a geologic timeline using a variety of materials. They have the option of what materials to use. They can use recyclable materials and indigenous materials and the only thing in common for them to use was cardboard.
When I arrived at the classroom, I was so happy to see that all of them were eager to do the activity as they had already prepared the materials and went to their groups for collaboration and sharing of ideas. I was surprised that they used colorful clays making their project so colorful and creative.
Some of them even worked on the floor. The others have worked on the wooden tables. A few were working on their armchairs as they were helping each other to finish it in only two hours for each performance task. They knew already that I was so particular with deadlines, so they had to submit it on time. I wanted them to practice the value of having time boundedness in everything that they may do May it be in school or at home.
What I love about this class despite being overcrowded is the ability to collaborate and share ideas whenever there is a group activity. I was surprised that despite the limited time I had given them, they were able to come up with these wonderful projects not to mention the model of the different types of folds and the geologic timeline.
Here are the outputs that they have made for the different types of folds. I was impressed by how they came up with the same ideas but made them so creative in their ways.
These activities were done separately after discussing our lessons about the geological processes of the Earth and its time scale.
For the geologic time scale, I instructed them to make an output that displays the various eras and periods with the biological features and fossil evidence.
Here is the geological timeline that each group has created. Indeed, they were so lovely and they have made it well once more.
Some of them have drawn and made a table with different periods. The others have molded the fossil evidence and have given the biological features. And I love how they have made their time scale that lets them understand the geological processes from the past to the present.
I was also happy to see that my students were learning calligraphy as I checked on their outputs. Even if they did not use printouts, still the projects turned out to be clean and tidy.
All of these were made by their beautiful hands that kept on creating meaningful things. I always reminded them that nice hands are those that work and create. I see that they have enjoyed the activities. And I am happy too that all of them met the deadline.
And after they have done this for an hour, the following they, I let all their projects be showcased in class and say something about them.
I was glad that they showcased their projects in front with full confidence as they shared their bright ideas about the performance task that I had given them. After they finished the activities, I could see their big smiles and happy faces when they came up with a colorful, creative, and unique output for each group.
There may have been more than sixty students in a classroom and although this class was overcrowded, I always tried to make meaningful activities that would help them be interested in learning so that they would not get bored by how they came up with the same ideas but made it so creative in their ways. Perhaps I love my students and my noble profession.
Disclaimer: All texts and pictures are my own unless otherwise stated.
