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Saint Mary’s School of Sagada is aiming to be a learning institute for teachers under the different subject areas. As of the present time, the school has offered learning institutes for English and Music. The English Institute took place last vacation on April 21-28. The follow-up institute of the same subject took place on August 28-30. The Music Workshop will happen on October 18-20 on the same week that the Festival of the Arts will also take place.
The English Institute that took place last vacation happened here in the SMS compound. It was composed of Sir Dennis Faustino, the school principal, Mrs. Nemia Ngalob Lite, the assistant principal, Mrs. Beverly Ticobay, Mrs. Racquel Killy, and Mr. Melvin Magsanoc from the English Department of SMS; Mr. Paul Christian Santiago and Mrs. Karen de Vera from the ABS-CBN Foundation; Mrs. Jinky Molina and Mr. Michael Armentia, faculty of Betty Go-Belmonte Elementary School in Quezon City; Daniel Thalkar, Melissa McCauley, Keith Fields, Alyssa Budoff, Syd Mertz, Vickie Browne, Bryan Barnett-Woods from the Peace Corps Volunteer of the United States; Dr. Margot Orendain from Ateneo de Manila University; Mrs. Christina Semon, the principal of Ambasing Elementary School; Professor Louie Agnir-Paraan from St Scholastic College in Manila and 67 teachers from the different elementary and high school schools in Western Mountain Province attended the event.
The institute aims to provide teachers with proper training in communication in the English language, and whose focus, is on developing the English proficiency of Filipino educators. Also, it is a refresher course that deals with phonetics, vocabulary expansion, grammar, comprehension, clarity and understanding of idiomatic usage. Overall, this institute wants to help teachers speak English clearly, properly and with the use of correct words and pronunciation. It is also for the improvement of the use of the English language of teachers who speak Tagalog and teach the Filipino subject. Instead of mainly focusing on using the Tagalog language, they can use English as an alternative to explain terms and ideas that are too deep to be understood in Filipino. This is also for the benefit of the students because by listening to their teachers, they can get the habit of saying English words properly when they speak. It also gives them the correct pronunciation of the words. The follow-up workshop took place August 28-30 and only 39 of the original 67 teachers attended.
Group discussions were done in which a group has 10 to 12 members. These different groups were named under different dap-ays of Sagada, namely Losban, Malingeb, Bilig, Matoba, Maballay and Ticong. The purpose of the grouping is for each of the member to listen, comprehend and reflect from his/her group mates’ words.
The follow-up English Institute took place August 28-30. It was a joint project of the ABS-CBN Foundation, Saint Mary’s School of Sagada and the municipality of Sagada. Sir Dennis Faustino, Mrs. Nemia Lite and Mrs. Christina Semon with the help of Mrs. Louie Agnir-Paraan of Saint Scholastic College lead the team. The Peace Corps Volunteers Daniel Thalkar, Jessie Folk, Katie Kaltenbrun, John Schellhase and Tom Ferrebee also helped facilitating the event. The SMSS Faculty members Mr. Melvin Magsanoc, Mrs. Beverly Ticobay, Mrs. Racquel Killy, and Miss Gay Pascual supervised and helped in organizing the teachers. Lastly, 39 public school teachers out of the 67 participants who joined the first English Institute went to the follow-up institute.
Sir Dennis Faustino talked about Vocabulary Expansion and Public Speaking Techniques 11. This helps the teachers to expand their vocabulary and gives them ways to be an effective public speaker towards the students and towards other fellow teachers. Mr. Daniel Thalkar focused on Developing Public Communication Skills. This helps the teachers to develop a set of skills that they will apply when talking to the public. These skills aim to improve their communication skills when talking to the general public. Ms. Jessie Folk talked about Oral Communication in the Classroom. This discussion aims for the improvement of the oral communication of teacher and student within a classroom environment. This aims to improve the teacher’s ways of explaining certain things to the student orally so that the student will understand the topic on hand.
On July 19 this year, the principal, Sir Dennis Faustino, along with Mr. Daniel Thalkar, the Peace Corps Volunteer assigned in Sagada, and Mr. Daniel Ambasing, the P.E. teacher here in SMS, went to Barangay Dayap Calauan, Laguna to conduct a two-week training for elementary school teachers in the resettlement area of the ABS-CBN Foundation at the said place. They went to show the teachers new and effective teaching methods in order for them to be able to teach their students more efficiently. In these Oscar M. Lopez Dayap Elementary School the average number of pupils in a class is in between 60-80 according to Mr. Daniel Ambasing. He also said that there are only 14 teachers handling almost 2,308 students. The teachers teach almost 12 hours every single day. That is 4 hours more than the maximum office hours of teachers set by Dep-ED which is 8 hours. Teachers will have a morning session from 6am until 12 noon. They will have a different set of students to teach after lunch, from 1pm until 6pm. Because of this, the teachers are always under stress and this is the main reason why the ABS-CBN Foundation continually asks for more teachers to the school to lessen the work hours of the teachers there and also so that there would be a decrease of students being taught by a teacher. The next visit was scheduled to November 4-6 2010.
Music workshop as a part of SMS being Training Institute for teachers will take place on October 18-20 which is open to all Mountain Province Elementary School teachers who teach music. Each distirct is allotted 10 slots. Maximum size for the workshop is 120 participants.
The idea of this workshop is to address the need of public school teachers to effectively teach the subject and inculcate a love of and appreciation for music among their students. Therefore the intent of this workshop is to simplify the concepts of music for teachers, to develop an appreciation for the subject, and equip them with the necessary knowledge and strategies to be effective. On the other hand, the workshop includes a review of basic music concepts: music as a form of communication and cultural expression, its basic elements (melody, rhythm, harmony and lyrics), and its forms, symbols, and notations. It will also train teachers to read, write, and apply music notations. They will also have a brief overview of music history and music literature. Expected acts of the participants are the strategies that are used during the workshop may eventually be effectively emulated in the classroom. They will be actively involved in the process and participants in the workshop are expected to attend all sessions, and stay during the entire duration of the workshop.
SMS will continue to reach out to near and far schools in and out of the vicinity of Mountain Province. It aims to be the role model to other school of Mountain Province and the Cordilleras. With continues support and financial assistance from the SMS alumni, staff, faculty and students, SMS will be great! It will be Learning Institute for all teachers in all subject areas.
“ADI TAKO BOKODAN DI GAWIS”…
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