1) Practice teaching is an important but challenging part of teacher training that tests students' commitment to teaching and requires independent learning. 2) Creating effective lesson plans, particularly developing objectives and motivation, is difficult but important for engaging students. 3) Support from cooperating teachers is invaluable for learning teaching strategies and preparing for final demonstrations.

1. Practice teaching is one of the most awaited parts of every pre-service teacher’s journey. It is a life
changing opportunity as it gives meaning to all the rigorous academic preparations that one underwent for
more than three years. As one who is almost done of all
these stuffs, I felt excited at first until I finally started
practicing my chosen career. Day to day moments that
you open your eyes and it still dark and you’re still sleepy
is like putting chili oil on top of an ice cream. You still
have to eat it because at the bottom of the cone, there
stays the sweet snowy cream that you have been
wanting for. This experience tested my faith on my
decisions. Often that I ask myself, “Do I really want
this?” and often that wrinkles occur on the space
between my nose and my eyebrows. However, with
all those shillyshallies, I never compromised my
students’ opportunity to learn. As much as possible, I have to
give all the knowledge that they deserve. The things they need to learn. Natural
occurrences that they have to understand and most importantly is to help them find the teacher within
themselves.
To provide them with such accurate
information is not an easy task because it’s not
simply the recall of things that your professor have
told you for the past years. It also involves
reeducation of yourself that calls for independent
learning, self-discovery, and a lot of books. If you
deprive yourself with knowledge, same is true with
your students. Practice teaching trained me to read
more books. I accepted the truth that I AM
LIMITED but I CAN EXTEND BEYOND.
The quest of knowledge is after all infinite and so
with a teacher being a student.
Practice teaching is very backbreaking to the nth power. In fact, while I’m
writing this part of my journal, I’m exercising my back because I have been sitting for two hours now. It’s
been three months since I’ve been a cave man in my room. There are lot of things to accomplish that’s why
you don’t have time anymore to watch TV or even text to your friends. Sometimes, it comes to a point that
MY REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Cagayan State COLLEGE OF TEACHER Andrews
University EDUCATION Campus
“The Practice Teaching Experience”

2. you think you’re crazy because you always find yourself talking to no one. It even changes the way your brain
works and of how you see the world. Call it delusional but there’s
nothing I can do. It’s part of the making of a beautiful story.
Indeed, Beautiful.
As a requirement in our practice teaching, we have to have lesson
plans of our daily teaching. This is what I don’t like. Making
lesson plans is a curse. “Effort na effort ang peg”- sleepless nights
and a lot of thinking. The struggle starts with the construction of
the objectives. It must contain the tree domains. It’s easy to
construct for cognitive and psychomotor but when it comes to
affective, there my brain bursts of too much thinking. Objectives
for the affective domain have been my dilemma and my friends’
dilemma too. Why? Simply because we teach science and I don’t
know if we’re the only ones who can’t extract an affective
objective that makes sense. We even tease ourselves because the
moment one already came up with an objective, we mock her with her
melodramatic objective. Think of this, if your topic is all about Quantum numbers, where
on earth can you find the connection of the azimuthal quantum number to the heart? Truly, constructing
objectives is a challenge. Well that’s just the start. The hardest thing, I believe, in terms of lesson planning is
your choice of motivation. This is when often times
that I am screwed at my computer staring blankly
at it. We, practice teachers, always agree that the
hardest part of a lesson plan to make is the
motivation. The enthusiasm of the class for the
whole period relies on the motivation. It is a
challenge to sustain the energy of the students
until the last second of the period.
One more thing that makes teaching even harder is the
choice of strategies and techniques in teaching. Practice teaching taught me employ
techniques that I never learned in my academic preparations.
Because it seemed that I have no knowledge at all bout strategies, I should
find a way. I searched the internet on all teaching
resources that I might use. However, the answers are
just in front of me- my cooperating teacher. I am so
lucky that I was with Ma’am Rosechelle. She is one
of a kind. She is a very intelligent woman. A
dedicated teacher. A teacher who is loved by
her students. How I wish that I can be as
creative as Ma’am Rosechelle. She taught a lot

3. of strategies and even introduced to me some games in
Chemistry. Games that she conceptualized by herself. Isn’t
that amazing? , indeed it is. She is really an inspiration. Because
of her, I am now pushing myself to learn more strategies and
different approaches to add in my pedagogy. I’m now pushing
my limits to a more creative and imaginative horizon.
To add with the most memorable events of a practice
teacher is his Final demonstration. I experienced too much
pressure and stressed nights as I prepare with my final
demonstration. My lesson plan just went four revisions to
finally come to life. Not to mention, the last minute
modification of the strategy that I have to use. Nonetheless,
all of my hardships were worth it. I am satisfied with my grade
and I was really happy with the result. It’s the most successful
teaching that I had. Once again, my cooperating teacher was
the person behind that success. If not because of her, my
teaching demonstration would have been an ultra-epic-fail-
mega-disaster. So I owe her a lot. I am not who I am now if
not because of her.
Moreover,
practice teaching had opened my doors to meet new friends. A
friendly relationship with my co- practice teachers was
developed. A different atmosphere that was not like before when
we were still at CSU. We became closer and I really liked that
idea. We talk about our frustrations and our experiences here in
TCSHS. We laugh together, eat together and take pictures
together.
Exhausting it is! But just like any other training,
we should learn to live with it. The practice teaching
experience is an experience of a lifetime. It’s an
advantage for any pre-service teacher because it gives
one a bird’s eye view of the teaching profession. It’s a
preparation to life, for life and with life.