We had a seminar in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya at Saint Mary’s University twice already; the last one this past December.  We stayed at the Highlander Hotel, a modest, but the best hotel, in Bayombong.  The walls are dark pink with Venetian style portraits of Filipino life.  It’s a really weird interior design, but it’s the best one Bayombong has to offer.

Vin had his shirt ironed the next morning so that he can look very presentable for this seminar, but a crew member burnt the collar.  All she said was sorry and that they will not be charging us for it.  Weird.  That shirt cost more than Php 1,500.  At the end of the day, they gave a 5% discount on our stay there.  So they ruined a 1500-peso shirt, and we saved about Php 100 on the hotel.  Do your mathematics!

The rooms may be the best, but their service definitely sucks!  At least we slept well the night before.

Today is September 5, 2008, and it’s a Friday. It was raining earlier but now it stopped. Regardless of the strange and uncomfortable weather lately, today is a beautiful day. Maybe for you, today is just an ordinary day, but for me, today is a very special day.

It’s my first year anniversary here at AIEP. Wow…time flies when you’re having fun… I can’t believe I’ve been here for one year already; I feel as if it was only yesterday that I started working here.

I was doing the same thing last year what I’m doing exactly right now…writing. I started out as a writer first before I became a teacher. Actually, everyone was writing, not only me. We had many writing projects at that time. Chris trained and mentored me first for three months before I started teaching students. I also observed Migs and Neysa…how they taught C Cubed, Grammar and Writing class and One on One tutorials. It was tough and I thought I couldn’t do it…teaching three kinds of classes, but somehow, I was able to do it, thanks to all of you guys You stretched and stretched and stretched me until I felt pain and it was uncomfortable, but after some time, I just got used to it, and I became more flexible than I’ve ever been before.

It’s been quite a journey so far…I’ve taught 44 students for one on one tutorials…(yes, I have an attendance list so I’ve kept count) For me, this is the hardest kind of class to teach. As a specialist, you have to assess the needs and wants of each student; you cannot teach each student the same way. The youngest student I had is 11 years old and the oldest is in her 60’s (she does not want me to divulge her actual age, haha…but I do know how old she is :p) The nationalities also abound: Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Italian, Spanish, German, Persian, etc.

Whoever said teaching is easy? Teaching in itself is a challenging endeavor. What more teaching English to students of different nationalities, cultures, and personalities? Believe me, it’s difficult but you learn from your mistakes, more so actually than from your accomplishments. I’m not a perfect teacher, but I know I did the best of what I knew at the time I was teaching.

Even though teaching one on one is the most difficult class to teach, it’s actually the most rewarding. I’ve become very close to most of my one on one students: we hang-out together, spend time together, eat, drink, party and laugh together. I’ve even experienced traveling outside the Philippines with two of my one on one students and they are both very dear to my heart…I miss them so much. We became really good friends…

Grammar and Writing class is the second hardest class to teach, because I don’t really consider myself as a grammarian. Not only that, it’s also time consuming- before, during, and after the class. You have to prepare lesson plans and check grammar tests and written assignments. The best thing to hear though is when even just one student will come up to me and say, “Thank you Mia. I’ve learned so much from you.” Then it’s all worth it

Finally, C Cubed class. This is the easiest to teach among the three but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to teach it in general. This class also changed me as a person. It helped me improve in the three C’s: Critical Thinking, Conversation Fluency, and Confidence Building. I see the world now in a different way. I analyze everything and everyone, sometimes, a little too much, haha. I’m still doing the modules in my head even when I’m not at work: What are the advantages and disadvantages of doing this?…My life is like a rollercoaster…going up and down, right and left, exciting and scary at the same time….Should I do it or not? Etc…

No matter what class I teach, one thing will always remain the same: I am constantly growing and improving as a teacher and as a person Let’s see where else the journey of an English Specialist takes me

To be continued…..