Letter to my students

 To my students,

I have wanted to give you this letter on the last day of class but I guess were all too busy doing our own thing. You were busy dealing with your deadlines and the anxiety of ending something that you have been cherishing for the last four years of your life. I was also busy looking at you and trying to remember how far we, together, have gone since the first time we all met.

I could still remember your faces when you learned the news that your teacher left and I was to replace him. I saw those uncomfortable smiles and shocked faces. If I were to read your minds probably you were shouting "Who is he?" in unison. I want you to know, however, that I was also in shock. I came to your school just to serve my practice teaching units. You could just imagine the anxiety I had when I learned that I was to teach you not just your student teacher but your full-pledged teacher.

I must confess that it was not easy for me just like it was not easy for you. I had to shift my paradigm and my expectations from just being a normal student teacher with my cooperating teacher giving me feedback on what I did well and what I did wrong to being a full-pledged teacher bearing the responsibilities of teaching and molding you to become good people.

I made a lot of mistakes as I was going through the months of teaching you. There were times when I fell short of expectation. There were also those times when I surprised myself and exceeded expectations. There probably were  times when I lost my cool and handled situations badly. There were those when I was too lax and those times when I was to lenient. But for whatever it's worth, all these weaknesses had brought me to the realization that I had still much to learn as a teacher and, most importantly, as a person.

Now that we only have probably weeks to see each other walking down the school's corridors, let me thank you for the patience and the understanding that you gave me in these eight months that we were together. Thank you for paying attention and for laughing at my jokes. Thank you for sharing your stories both personal and fictional. Thank you for your honest evaluation and your out of this world suggestions. Thank you for giving me a tap on the back when I did a great job. Most of all, thank you for helping me to actualize my dream and my passion for teaching.

As I said on our last day, you will always have a special place in my heart because you are the firs batch of students that I had. That statement still stands true up to now. You, my dear students, have taught me a lot about teaching-even better than my college professors did. You have welcomed me into your lives not just a teacher but as a friend. Most important of all, you have reminded me why I chose this course, why I chose this profession and why I chose this vocation.


To you will I forever be grateful.

Yours inside the classroom and beyond,

SIR KEN