Mr. Carmelo Alba, a physics teacher at West Po, in his fourth year here. He has been teaching for 32 years, and spent 12 of those years teaching at Xavier University. Mr. Alba really enjoys West Po especially because of the welcoming and friendly community.
“The students are respectful and warm,” Alba said.
Mr. Alba’s path to becoming a teacher isn’t what you expect. He went into his education at Xavier University in the Philippines intending to become a physics researcher. But, then, there was an opening for a teaching position at Xavier, and the idea of him interviewing for the position was floating around. Mr. Alba applied and got the job.
He has been teaching ever since. He stayed a professor for around 12 years at Xavier until he jumped down to high school education. If Mr. Alba wasn’t a teacher; he would want to be a NASA engineer.
Even though Mr. Alba is interested in the sciences, he would also be interested in teaching math. He used to hate math when he started doing physics, but then he realized that it can’t be done without math.
“That is the tool that I use to survive, so I have to embrace it,” Mr. Alba said.
Mr. Alba wishes for his students to be thinkers, who can apply physics to various situations. He aims to help students realize the broad applicability of physics.
Outside of school Mr. Alba has many hobbies. During the summer break he enjoys going on vacations and personal activities like gardening and fishing. He also has played numerous sports like soccer, baseball, and volleyball when he was younger.
Mr. Alba found teaching challenging in the beginning because he was an introvert but he had to learn how to interact with people due to his new role.
“Talking to people in the beginning is challenging for me, because I don’t know when to start,” he said.
Mr. Alba is very approachable and willing to help out students with any physics question they have. He finds the teaching process in high school easier compared to the detailed grading in university. Mr. Alba has become proficient in teaching and has learned to handle spontaneous questions and situations with ease. He enjoys the flow of teaching and the satisfaction of seeing students understand concepts.