Nutrition Month 2018 Theme

The National Nutrition Council (NNC) Technical Committee selected this year’s Nutrition Month theme. After thorough review by the NNC Secretariat and Technical Committee of the 142 entries received by the NNC, the chosen theme for this year’s Nutrition Month campaign is “Ugaliing magtanim, Sapat na nutrisyon aanihin!,” an entry sent by Ms. Julie Ann Q. Colipano of Valencia City, Bukidnon. ~ NCC

The winning logo design for this year's Nutrition Month Celebration

PGCB Conference at ADMU (Day 2-3)

Day 2 (May 30)

The second day of this conference was equally full of learning experiences. We had the plenary session with Dr. Christine Lim of National Institute of Education in Singapore. She talked about "Development through Lesson Study." She showed us some videos showing how teachers can collaboratively improve lessons to a more student-centered and authentic learning experience. 

In the afternoon, I joined my fellow teachers, who are Science major, in a semi-plenary session at Escaler Hall. The topic was all about "Science Teaching that Makes Practical Sense." Dr. Lee Yew Jin of National Institute of Education humorously discussed how science should be taught to learners in a more practical way. Here is the outline of his topic:

• Making science relevant and engaging
• Inquiry works but we all need practice
• Learning with students and other teachers
• The importance of feedback from teachers and peers

According to Dr. Jin, while good teaching is certainly important, what perhaps is more important is the quality of student learning that occurs in our classrooms.

Dr. Lee Yew Jin of National Institute of Education

In the afternoon, we attended two concurrent breakout sessions with the following topics:

• "Using Teacher Prepared Videos in Teaching Physics" by Mr. Bonifacio Caculitan Jr.
• "Measuring the Acceleration Due to Gravity Using a Massive Metal Ball and a Smaller Wooden Ball" by Mr. Arcenoel D. Zapatos
• "Virtual Laboratory Method in Teaching Electricity" by Ms. Carina D. Cabuguas

Day 3 (May 31)

The last of day of the conference and still we were all excited and anticipating of what insights we could learn from our plenary and breakout sessions. We were all amazed by our plenary  speaker in the person of Ms. Roselle Ambubuyog of Freedom Scientific. She has a very inspiring story. Despite of being blind since the age of six, she became successful in her studies and even graduated as class valedictorian among all summa cum laude graduates at ADMU. She actually reminded me of Helen Keller. On the personal note, I consider her talk about "Teachers Who Saw the Vision of a Blind Student" as a call to all of teachers to never give up on our students. Just like Roselle's teachers, who became so patient with her condition and guided her to achieve her dreams. 

Roselle Ambubuyog receives her token of appreciation as plenary speaker

I attended the last concurrent breakout session at David Hall for the topic "Using Music Inside the Classroom" by Vin Dancel and Tina Zamora from Republikha. They talked about how music can be integrated to the learning experiences of grade school pupils. They even shared some tracks on their official album, which features educational songs composed and sung by some of our contemporary music artists. 

After the breakout session, we went back to Irwin Theater for the closing ceremony. The audience went delirous when Mr. Ebe Dancel (lead vocalist of Sugarfree) performed a song tribute (Makita Kang Muli) for all the teachers. He even performed another song (Tulog Na) 

An inspirational message was given by Dr. Philip Wong, Programme Director, PGCB and this was followed by a closing remarks of Mrs. Carmela C. Oracion, ADMU Center for Education.  

Indeed, this conference was a great learning experience for all the teachers. It enlightened us to transform our practices into a more effective teaching towards increasing student achievement and equipping them the knowledge and skills needed to survive the 21st century. 

By learning you will teach, by teaching you will understand

PGCB Conference at ADMU (Day 1)

Last May 29-31, we attended the culminating activity of the Policy Governance and Capacity Building Programme for Leaders and Educators at Henry Lee Irwin Theater, Ateneo de Manila University. With the theme "Paunlarin ang Pagtuturo, Paunlarin ang Bayan," the conference aimed to showcase interesting strategies, experiences and exchange best practices of teachers who have undergone the various training programme under PGCB organized by Temasek Foundation, Singapore and ADMU. 

Day 1 (May 29)    

At exactly 8:00 AM we arrived at the Irwin Theater for registration and opening ceremony. We were amazed to see the great number of teachers coming from different divisions. Upon registration, we received our conference kits and snack and lunch stubs. We attended the opening ceremony and we were also entertained by cultural presentation from the amazing San Bartolome High School Handuraw Dance Tribe. 

Bagong Silangan Elementary School Choir

San Bartolome High School Handuraw Dance Tribe

Beautiful Costumes

Our first keynote speaker was Mr. Jose Luis M. Oquiñena of Gawad Kalinga. He talked about building the nation through the power of presence. I was personally pleased to hear that they had housing projects for teachers in some provinces in Mindanao. He believed that for a teacher to effectively function, his basic needs like comfortable abode should be addressed first. Gawad Kalinga is indeed a reliable partner of Department of Education. 

Jose Luis M. Oquiñena of Gawad Kalinga on his keynote address

Fr. Bievenido F. Nebres, SJ, ADMU on his inspirational message

After the opening ceremony, we had the plenary session with Dr. Ashley Tan from National Institute of Education. He talked about the "ICT Steps-Social, Student-Centered, Self-Sustaining." I was amazed to know how passionate teachers are in Singapore and how they flexibly integrate ICT through mobile technology in teaching and learning experiences. We also attended one semi-plenary session at Irwin Theater with Ms. Devi Benedicte I. Paez as our speaker. She spoke about "Teaching English Using Filipino: Investigating How and Why Filipino is Used in an Elementary Public School English Classroom."

Dr. Ashley Tan during our Plenary Session

Policy, Governance, and Capacity Building Programme for Philippine Leaders and Educators – ICT Training for Teachers

Last April 28 to 30, I attended the Philippine Governance Building Programme – ICT Training for Teachers at Ateneo de Manila University. I was so blessed that my head teacher sent me in this training because I got the chance to learn some of the most useful ICT tools that can be used to enhance my students’ learning experience.

Day 1

We met our trainers: Mr. Red Prado, Head Teacher in Division of Valenzuela; and Mrs. Rebecca, Master Teacher in Division of Quezon City. They were both energetic trainers. They immediately conduct the opening routine and facilitated a dynamic and engaging “getting-to-know-each-other game.”

As an introduction for the training, Mrs. Rebecca talked about the background of this training. We learned that Policy, Governance and Capacity Building (PGCB) Programme for Philippine Educators is an initiative of TEMASEK Foundation, in cooperation with Ateneo de Manila University. It aims to enhance the skills and knowledge of teachers when it comes to content and pedagogy of elementary and secondary teachers in Science, Math, English and ICT.

She also discussed about the ICT Affordances. It was my first time to hear the word “affordance.” Mrs. Rebecca defined it as an actionable property that exists between the object and the actor. During her discussions, we learned the different affordances of ICT tools from pedagogical, social and technological perspectives.

In the afternoon session, Mr. Red trained us on how to utilize Edmodo as a course learning management system. Although I am quite acquainted with the features of Edmodo, I still learned a lot from the training because the environment of this site has changed since the last time I used it.     

I'm with my great grandfather's statue :D

Day 2

Hot Potatoes, CMap Tools and Blogger were the “star ICT tools” during our second day. After demonstrating how to use these tools, the trainers gave us a lot of challenging exercises. They required us to develop interactive and online examinations using Hot Potatoes, concept maps about our lessons using CMap Tools and we even created a blog site account using Blogger (of course on this part I am quite at ease, since I already know how to manage a blog site in Blogger).

When Mrs. Rebecca asked for volunteers, who would like to conduct a micro-teaching demonstration as our culminating activity, I didn't hesitate to raise my hand. I would also like to share the things I learned and how I could apply it to actual teaching. But, since many were interested to conduct a demonstration teaching and only four teachers will be given the chance, Mrs. Rebecca did the selection through a raffle among those interested. I was so blessed to get a slot.

Day 3

I was so excited (and quite nervous) to attend the last day because of my scheduled demonstration. I just told myself that it was a chance for me to share also my strategies with my co-participants on how to effectively use those ICT tools that we learned and I should make the most out of this opportunity.

During the morning session, Mr. Red trained us how to use Audacity, which is a sound-editing program that can actually help us record and edit our voices for instruction or for interactive learning module development. He also shared a lot of websites, wherein we can access interactive educational games.

Micro-demonstration teaching in ICT integration

My micro-teaching demonstration was indeed a success. Although, I was cut because our time was just limited, I believed that I covered the essential parts that my co-participants should capture. In my micro-teaching instructional plan, I used the ASSURE model. This was something that I would really like to share to them. With ASSURE instructional design model, we can integrate technology tools more effectively.