Learning is one thing and teaching is something else. I still remember when I first did my practice teaching in year 2017. It was the very first time I tried to apply all the knowledge I had acquired in the university I attended. My critic teacher let me do things with less supervision so I can say that it's a total of four months of application and exploration. Handling five different sections in teaching a subject area sounds easier, but not when you consider the different type of students you may encounter in each class. As someone who believes in individual differences, it is challenging for me to recognize the individual needs of learners. We are all aware that different students have different minds therefore, it is requirement for us as a teacher to choose activity that may fits to their ability as a group in an existing material available online or to think and create new one. As I remember, I used to live like a philosopher day by day while thinking about the activities and stuffs I need in lesson preparation for just one day of teaching. I mean I teach different subject matter each day so in a week I need to prepare four activities based on my philosophy that will surely fit to the needs of my students with different learning style. The subject area I was teaching is Mathematics, in this subject student requires not only memorizing facts, theories, and equation but also to explore and enhance their critical thinking skills in problem solving. Because of I see Math as an essential subject to living I always make an effort to connect every problem I made in daily practice in their real life situation. It results in application of gained knowledge instead of just thinking about it.
Looking back in these experiences of mine in my early teaching career leads me to realize that one of the famous theories in education reflects on my early years practicing my profession; that theory I talking about is called pragmatism. Where in education can be seen as a life preparation, where in education gives importance to individual differences when it comes to learning, where in the teacher seems to be a philosopher who created his or her own philosophy in teaching, where in teachers created task that let their student gives priority in doing action over thought, where in rewards and punishment did not matter because students engage in learning because of their own interest and passion, and where in education can provide real life experience to students. Moreover this will made me realize that learning is really one thing that is important to living and teaching is something else that really matters.