Ms Lorna Coral's Speech

Wednesday, 27 February 2008

1st CHIANGMAI-CHIANGRAI FILIPINO EDUCATORS CONFERENCE (warm up for everybody)… stand up! Sit down! Stand up! … clap, clap, clap, turn around… shake shake shake… ) Good afternoon, how are you? It’s being great isn’t it? I’ve been really amazed with the whole conference thing.  There were three things I’ve noticed running around this conference, that I would rather talk about, One, is the extra ordinary evidence of human creativity in all the activity and presentations that we had, secondly, the preparedness to implement the ideas that we absorbed during this conference, and third, is being a part of the Educators positive influence in helping students to develop their enthusiasm and interest in learning. Let me tell you a story that really keeps coming to my mind most of the time… Way back when I was in my fourth year high school or let me say I was in grade 10. I remember I was talking to my friend, asking her what she’s going to take, by the time we finished high school, so, we talk and talk… until suddenly, she stopped. And said, Lorna, you can take all courses you want, but don’t you ever take education course, then I was speechless and then I end up laughing, and so I asked her as to why its like that, then she answered me back… well, its because “Teacher’s never get a good salary”,  they work 8 hours a day and they don’t have time for themselves, and etc, she mentioned a lot of discouragements to not to take Education course… so that time I told myself, ok NO EDUCATION as it is…. But apparently, her mom was a teacher during that time and i think my friend was looking at herself if in case, she’s going to be a Teacher like her mom in the future.… So what I’m saying here, is that, we, as Educators or Teachers are really an example in every aspect in and out of the classroom. (like for instance you say KOMPORTABLE then you have to expect that your students will say I KOMPORTABLE AT SCHOOL, instead of saying I’M COMFORTABLE AT SCHOOL.) then I realized.. wow! What a teacher’s job… It was 8 years ago, When I arrived in Cambodia, I told my sister, I will find a job same job that I had in Philippines, bank teller. My pride was so high during those times, I supposed my expectations in hunting a job in Cambodia was really easy to find the same job that I want.  I told my sister, I will never teach or never talk to any Eurasians or Caucasians, because I don’t have any self confidence in speaking English and I’m really really shy. It was really a tough time for me, since I can’t go back to my old job, since I resigned before going to Cambodia. It takes a while for me to accept the fact that I really need to develop my English language.   After 6 months of hunting a job and being a jobless, I then finally, want to teach, since that’s the only in demand job and nice paying job that I could possibly get while in Cambodia. So what I did, was, I bin my high pride (which is actually difficult to do)… I slowly overcome my fear of speaking English by practicing my English language with my brother in law. I received a lot of corrections and really starting to lose face, but I told myself it will be for my own good. So then, I keep reading newspapers out loud, pretend as a news reporter and starting to talk to the mirror and telling myself… I know I can do it. There are few lessons I’ve learned when I was at the stage of developing my confidence in speaking English, which I also shared to my students: “stay positive as much as you can”,  1) accept problems, (learn from your mistakes)   2) believe the best, (follow your heart)  3) Cast out negatives, (you know, stay positive)  and 4 ) be disciplined.  (This includes your character or your attitude).  Teaching is not really an easy job but indeed a very challenging and a very NOBLE job. It takes a lot of effort and time to teach any age, it’s only the matter on how you make it really fun, motivational and to maintain the positive impact in the classroom. At the end of the day, when you see the result, the feeling is unimaginable and really fulfilling, since you, yourself enjoyed the lesson as well. To end my long speech, it is so good to have this conference, for us to learn and to add additional information to our knowledge regarding the field of Education or in Teaching, the only thing I would like to say is that, “love your work and grab all positive chances you know it will help you motivate in teaching”. Ms Lorna Coral Association of Cordillerans in Thailand