Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program: Aiding Students While Empowering Future Educators

For the past few months, I’ve been really busy with a lot of things—from the grueling revisions of our research, various reporting and teaching demonstrations, and ultimately the tutoring program that I’ve applied for last February. I first thought it wouldn’t push through because it did take time before the list of applicants that got accepted was released. I was a bit hesitant by that time because it kinda conflict with our research revision period. But when I heard there’s an allowance and salary, that changed my mind and toned down my reluctance. I’m undeniably broke because we need to print a lot of papers, especially at that time when we are nearing our research defense.

Fast forward to the start of our pre-deployment training; it happened last April 13-17, and there we spent hours of learning and relearning stuff about teaching children. I remembered that on the very first day, Sir Mart, our speaker, shared a lot of laws regarding the protection of children’s welfare. Along with it, he shared about his experiences that really gave me insights on how I will handle my students, especially those who have special needs and are in dire circumstances. The rest of the days went fast as we went on to the other stuff we need to learn and relearn in order to effectively teach. Most of the lessons were familiar since I’m already nearing my fourth-year studying, so it’s quite given. And what I really appreciate in those sessions were the moments were a speaker taught us about how to teach children reading.

I admit that I don’t have experience in teaching children to read, despite the experiences I already have with tutoring. I guess that’s one of the reasons, aside from cash for training, why I was really into that capability-building training. I badly wanted to learn something valuable from it, so I was psyched when I heard there would be guest speakers attending it. We did a lot of things during the capability building, such as sharing and teaching demonstrations. As happened during the first days, the coming days after, there were experiences that were shared, and I’m thankful when I heard them because they would be useful to me in the future.

After the capability building week, our deployment to the schools we’re assigned for tutoring didn’t happen immediately. It took several weeks when everything was finalized and ready, and when they announced the date, I was really excited…and somehow nervous. Days went fast, and it’s finally May 4! That day I made sure that I arrived way before the call time, and sure enough, there were already a few of us who arrived early, and also parents and learners. There were still student teachers from last school year who were finishing their day requirements, so I was able to get in my assigned room and prepare my instructional materials. I kinda expected that the kids would be a little late, but they arrived later than I expected. The first moments were definitely awkward, and they were definitely testing the waters that time because those kids really behave.

Days went on, and I soon got to know more of them. We’re doing Filipino sessions first for the first 8 days of the tutoring period. Supposedly, our post-test would be in the second week, yet unfortunately it was moved to the third week because we had our departmental that week. So much for that; a lot happened during those days, and also, I relearn stuff while I’m teaching them. I thought it was just an exaggeration when teachers told us how exhausting teaching children is. But lo and behold, by the time I finished the first week, I was really drained badly. Our duty is 3 hours every morning from Mondays to Thursdays, and unfortunately, our class is still ongoing at that time. I tutor in the mornings, then go to university in the afternoon, so by the time I get home, I’m tired… so tired. Yet I still need to stay awake because I need to make instructional materials for tomorrow’s session. Just even reminiscing about those times made me feel tired again.

Weeks passed like a wind, and just like that, we’re on our fourth week. Unlike the first and second week where those kids are quite tamed, now they are beginning to reveal their true colors. It became more challenging for me to sustain their attention for the whole session. Some of them often go to the comfort room, especially when it’s time for reading. It’s quite distracting at times, but anyway I was able to soon quell that habit of theirs by designating time for their comfort room trips. And as for their attitude…that’s the part where things get tough. Not all of them are non-reader, some are just too distracted and at times bratty. No, I’m not exaggerating the bratty part because there’s really this student who can read, but the problem with her is she always wants to go outside and play.

At first, I tried talking it out, but when her attitude got worst, I was forced to exert my authority on them. Ugh, it was really hard because I’m not used to it, but I need to because she’s already bothering her classmates during the session. Perhaps the good thing is that she still reads whenever I ask—scratch that, order her. That attitude lasted for like until the last week, and indeed I kinda wished our tutoring program was longer so that I could figure out how to properly handle that kind of student.

As promised on the last day, I gave them their reward…a gift that's more like a consolation for the summer days they spent inside the classroom. I know it was frustrating for them to attend summer class, especially when most of your friends are out there having fun. So, to somehow reward most of them for their complete attendance, I gave them a gift. It wasn’t really that much because my budget pretty tight and our salary was still nowhere.

We had a little culmination with salo-salo for our last day, and I was happy that the parents really cooperated with us. Overall, my experience in this month-long tutoring program was a rollercoaster of emotions. I couldn’t express exactly what I felt after I finished teaching them because it’s a mix of emotions, yet one thing is clear, and that is I learned a lot from it. I know I still have a lot of things to learn on my future teaching experiences; however, I’m happy that I got to experience how it is and how it felt to teach those kids. I do hope they too learn something from me, as I have from them, and that wraps up my Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program experience. Hope you enjoyed my somewhat lengthy sharing and see you guys around~