Teaching Teenage Students

I was at a dilemma one morning on whether or not I’d go to school upon waking up with very swollen vocal chords and bad fever due to the infection of my larynx. I remember that earlier, the head teacher informed me that he will be attending a seminar today and therefore, he will not be able to attend the class. This left me then with no choice but to go to school.

Despite my physical conditions, I still managed to smile and got on with the lessons. However, as with my encounters with them for the past days, the students began going overboard despite my initial requests (or pleas) for them to focus. Too tired to match their energies, I instead took off the headset, looked afar, and stopped speaking.

The conscientious students then started reprimanding the other students. When they settled, I got on with the class as if nothing happened. I knew that they already feel that I had enough.

Teaching teenage students has its own distinctive share of challenges that is very different from teaching preschool kids and young adults in college. They are no longer kids yet they would like to engage in childish games every now and then. And yet, when you treat them as you would a playful kid, they seem to demand respect as that of full-grown adults.

So that is what I try to give them to the best of my abilities. Culling from my own experiences as a high school student, I maintained a credible stance as a teacher of the subject matter that I am teaching while enjoying every moment of it. In fact, the teachers that I most admired are those who are very good in what they do and, at the same time, having fun.

I was also hungry for positive affirmation then (and even until now), so I make it a point that I praise or recognize the efforts of the students to learn and participate in class.

The only weakness that I see is that I have this tendency to please the students so that I would be “liked” – thus, (I admit) be popular among them. This weak spot was further validated by one student who wrote in the evaluation form that I should not respond to every comment or request made by her “boastful” classmates (she may be referring to her classmates who love to call attention to themselves).

Teaching teenage students, then, demands that the teacher is willing to face the tension of growing up and wanting to live only for the moment. My worth as a teacher will only be valuable when I have inspired courage in any of my students to squarely deal with whatever dilemma their growing up brings - in the hope that they will make the right choice as I did when I decided to go to school nevertheless.