ICT in Education Planning and Management

Last October 4, 2013, instead of enjoying with my fellow teachers in the World Teachers’ Day celebration in our school, I attended a seminar workshop about Information and Communications Technology in Education Planning and Management. But I didn't regret accepting the task to attend to this event, because I knew that I would learn something new from this.

The learning event was sponsored by Felta and Intel. It was held at Astoria Plaza, Escriva Drive, Ortigas, Pasig City. Educational supervisors, ICT coordinators and computer teachers from different divisions of Metro Manila were invited to this event. The keynote speaker, Mr. Benjamin Vergel De Dios, guided the participants into a modular approach of developing an ICT program for every DCS.

First, every division was asked to present the CHALLENGES that we were currently encountering about ICT program implementation. Then, the speaker talked about the uses of ICT in Education particularly in teaching and learning process. He also discussed about the stages of ICT development and its pedagogical uses. I was amazed when he presented the ICT Master Plan of Singapore and Korea. How I hoped that we could do the same in our education system. Mr. De Dios said that they succeeded because they had a vision.

Mr. De Dios, while discussing the Stages of ICT Use

The next activity was about writing our VISION. In writing our vision, the speaker gave us the following guide questions:

• What do we do?
• How do we do it?
• From whom do we do it?

After stating our vision, which we proudly presented to all other ICT leaders, we were guided by the speaker to come up of at least TOP 5 PRIORITIES for ICT program to achieve our vision.

Lastly, all ICT leaders were encouraged to conceptualize an ICT PROJECT by setting goals and objectives, identifying components and activities, and allocating funds. He even shared some of the ICT projects and best practices of other schools around the country to serve as our inspiration in working with our own.    

Conceptualizing ICT projects for your division

Mr. De Dios, in his closing, shared a challenging quote from Karen Salmansohn, “Don’t shrink your dreams. Super-size your courage and abilities.” It is indeed a challenge to transform our education system through ICT. With limited resources and cynicisms, we might really shrink our dreams and just settle for pre-historical approaches. But an ICT in Education leader should strive with his super-sized courage and abilities by upgrading himself and improving the learning situation of his school/division. 

Mr. and Ms. Teacher Idol 2013

As part of the World Teachers’ Day celebration, the Faculty Club of Gen. T. de Leon National High School organized the Mr. and Ms. Teacher Idol 2013 “The Ultimate Search for GTDLNHS Teacher Idols.” I never expected that this event would turn out to be huge. The support of students and teachers for this event was overwhelming. The goal of this project, as an income generating activity, was to support for the expenses of faculty dinner and dance party.

The logo that I designed for this event:

The pageant was a personality and popularity contest. 

The following were the criteria for judging:

Popularity (ticket canvassing)                                           50%
Fashionista Attire and Long Gown/Formal Wear          25%    
Q&A/Interview                                                                   25% 

During the pageant night, all teachers and students screamed at the top of their lungs calling the names of their bet teacher idol candidates. In the end, Mr. Rainier Concepcion and Ms. Sheila Marie Juralbar, both from English Department, were crowned as Mr. and Ms. Teacher Idol 2013. First Runner-Up winners were Mr. Robert Obispo and Ms. Maricon Valeza, both from Science Department and Second Runner-Up winners were Mr. Jesher Baldove and Ms. Archie Vergel, from Math Department.  

TEACHnology Tools of the 21st Century “Creating Interactive Presentations”

As our final requirement for our Knowledge Management subject in our graduate program M.A.Ed. Educational Technology, we organized an ICT literacy seminar-workshop titled: TEACHnology Tools of the 21^st Century “Creating Interactive Presentations.” 

The banner I designed for this seminar-workshop

We held it last September 28, 2013 in Sta. Elena High School, Division of Marikina City. Some selected teachers of the said school were our participants.

As the class president, it was indeed a challenge to delegate tasks and coordinate all our efforts to make this event a success. I was glad to have very cooperative classmates, who would always participate actively and perform their duties wholeheartedly.

We were very thankful to Facebook Group, because it became our official bulletin to keep everyone updated about our preparation. Our class was also blessed to have Mr. Ryan Lee on our side, because he took the role of being the speaker. It was not an easy job for him, but he generously shared his talents in his topics about: Advance PowerPoint and Creating Newsletters with Publisher. As a treat, Ms. Dessa Joy, also our classmate, shared to our participants about the power of Edmodo as a course management system.

Here are some pics during the seminar workshop. (Photos below credit to Sir MJ Serafica)

Participants were amazed while Sir Ryan discussed
the Advance PowerPoint

Busy working with their Class Newsletters

Participants were listening intently while Ma'am Dessa
discussed the Edmodo registration

After the tiring day... how about a nice pose :)

After this event, we all went home tired but happy, because we had finally surpassed the challenge to share knowledge and promote dynamic teaching and learning through ICT among our fellow teachers.

Maka-KaLIKHAsan "On-The-Spot Recycled Project Making Contest"

Last September 27, St. Louis College of Valenzuela, on their College Week, invited all fourth year high school students to join the campaign against climate change. As part of their Eco-Fair, they held the Maka-KaLIKHAsan, an on-the-spot project making contest. I chose two of my most creative senior students and we joined this very challenging competition.

In this contest, the goal was to come up of a recycled product out of scrap materials that SLCV provided (old diskettes, egg trays, cartons, CDs, old newspapers and magazines). The final outputs were judged according to the following criteria:

·         Use of Recyclable Materials – 40%

·         Creativity and Craftsmanship – 40%

·         Originality – 20%

After revealing the materials to be used, the coaches were given the chance to collaborate with their students on what particular output they could come up with using those materials. The coaching was limited to ten minutes, so I maximized the time in helping my students to figure out their output. Then, we decided to come up with a TABLE ORGANIZER. Here is their recycled product:

Office table organizer with flower vase and picture frame 

These are the outputs of other schools who also participated:

While the outputs were being judged, we attended the Kabataan para sa Kalikasan Forum. We learned a lot from the speakers who talked about small ways that the youth can do to battle against the danger of the climate change.

When they announced the winners, my students were filled with joy, because in spite of so many beautiful entries, we still bagged the THIRD PLACE! My students received trophies (the trophies are also recycled, made of twisted old newspapers coated with bronze paint) and a cash prize of 1000 pesos.  

With Ms. Venus Bucud, SLCV College Marketing Officer

A Very Frenzied Week

Wow! I couldn't imagine how I survived the last seven days. To give you an idea how frenzied my schedule was, here’s a peek:

• September 27 : On-the-spot recycled project making contest in St. Louis College of Valenzuela
• September 28 : TEACHnology Tools for the 21^st Century Learning, an ICT literacy seminar workshop we organized as our final requirement in Knowledge Management course
• September 29 : Bulletin board/school organizational construction with a Sir Mike and Ma’am Cora
• September 30 – October 3 : Preparation for the Mr. and Ms. Teacher Idol 2013
• October 4: Attended ICT in Education Planning and Management

This will also explain why I haven’t had a post for a while. I want to tell all my wonderful experiences and crunch them in this single post, but I am afraid that I may miss some details and insights I feel like sharing with you, so I have decided to post these events one at a time.