Mindanao tutor finalist in Greece World contest

PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines— A Western Mindanao (WM) rural coastal high school teacher who earlier topped the 2012 Innovative Teachers Leadership Award (ITLA)-Asia Pacific Region competition held last March in Auckland, New Zealand will represent the region in the world competition late next month in Athens, Greece. Shateen Serana, who teaches Filipino subjects at the Muslim-populated Taluksangay Community National High School in Zamboanga City, is one of the 13 tutor-finalists from as many countries to compete in the international contest. Serana, after closely observing her coastal community problems with her Muslim students, noted that mangrove planting “could be a feasible project since it would ultimately protect the locality from continuous erosion caused big waves.” The Zamboanguena mentor told visiting newsmen that she taught her students to utilize the internet for the project prompting the school children to create Facebook groups “where they updated each other on the progress of the tree-planting project and the task they had to perform.”