Scholarship changes public school teachers' lives

MANILA, Philippines - Sixteen public high school teachers, who make up the 2nd batch of graduates under the Smart Mentors Program, recently earned their Master of Arts degree in Instructional Media and Design. The teacher-scholars from schools nationwide received their diplomas during a commencement exercise at the University of Makati. 

Smart Mentors is an 11-month specialized training and development program introduced as part of Smart Schools Program (SSP), the flagship community service initiative of Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) that aims to promote the effective integration of Information Communications Technology (ICT) in public education. The course is designed to equip teachers with knowledge and skills to integrate ICT in basic teaching methods.

According to the teachers, earning an ICT-related master’s degree has significantly improved their teaching style to the benefit of their students.

Marlon Uson of Olongapo City National High School (NHS) signed up for Smart Mentors because he believes it is the best way to make students literate nowadays. “The word literate has been redefined by technology. Aside from reading and writing, one must be equipped with the skills the 21st century environment requires.”

With his thesis “Weekend Blogging: An Enhancement Tool in Learning Physics”, Uson encourages teachers to explore blogging as a way of enhancing their students’ learning because school hours are usually not enough to cover all the topics specified in the curriculum.

He maintains a personal blog (www.diwangpisika. multiply.com) to give assignments or activities to his students. He says teachers should take advantage of what the students know or are interested in such as Multiply, Facebook, Blogspot, Xanga and other blogsites.

For Jonathan Garzon of Bayugan NHS, the ICT-based teaching styles he learned have been very helpful in improving the science competency of the students in their school.

For the past three years, Bayugan students have achieved a mean percentage score of only 30 percent in Science IV (Physics) of the National Achievement Test, far from the national target of 75 percent. This has significantly improved since Garzon taught his students to take the initiative in learning from supplementary educational materials on the Internet.

Teacher Gregoria Bado of Iligan City East High School (ICEHS) attests that the scholarship rekindled her love for teaching. Having been a teacher for 23 years, she admits that she has started to lose interest in teaching.

She claims receiving the scholarship helped her become an “empowered teacher” as it opened new doors for her and helped her introduce innovative techniques to her students. She discovered that the Internet can help increase the English proficiency of Filipino students if teachers just find the right tools or activities to help them.

In December 2009, Bado presented her paper on ICT-enabled lessons in English at an international conference of teachers at the Manila Hotel. She has also become a resource speaker on ICT-enabled environments at various schools and universities.

Fe Oblenda, also of ICEHS, wrote a thesis about a telecollaborative project among students of different schools. Through the Internet, her students in Iligan City as well as those from another school in Surigao City, contribute web content for www.offthebeaten track.wik.is which encourages students to discover and make travel guides of beautiful places not often visited by tourists.  

En route to obtaining their degree, the teachers had to successfully defend their thesis. As Smart Mentors, they were also required to pass on their knowledge to at least 15 other teachers within and outside their respective schools and divisions.

Now on its second year, Smart Mentors is implemented through the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) and supported by the Department of Education and the University of Makati.