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Saint Mary’s School of Sagada,
Inc.
Sagada, 2619 Mountain province
PRESS RELEASE
16 April 2004
WORLD-CLASS TRAINING IN SAGADA
By
Bernice A. See
Saint Mary’s School of Sagada,
Inc. [SMSSI] fulfilled its mission of bringing
the 2002 Intel Excellence in Teaching awardee Dr. Josette Biyo to do a workshop
in Sagada. The Centennial Summer Institute in Science Research Education and
Science Summer Youth Camp was conducted this April 12th – 14th, 2004 at Saint
Mary’s School, Sagada, Mountain
Province. Dr. Biyo, the first Asian to win
the international award since its inception in 1997, headed the 11-member team
composed of teachers from the Philippine Science High School – Western Visayas
[PSHS-WV] Campus who are well-experienced in giving workshops to teachers in
the Visayas and Mindanao. This was their first workshop in Luzon.
The three-day Institute was an intensive hands-on interactive training focusing
on the best teaching strategies that are being used by the PSHS-WV faculty
headed by Dr. Biyo as the Academic Chief. Attended by 43 teachers and 41
students, the workshop was part of SMSSI’s celebration of the Centennial Year
of Christian Education in Sagada.
The teacher-participants came from six high schools, four public and two from
the private sector, including SMSSI. The same number of elementary schools
also participated, five public schools and one private. The sister schools
of SMSSI, Saint James’ High School in Besao, and All Saints Mission Elementary
School in Bontoc, Mountain Province,
came over.
Back-to-back with the Institute was the Science Summer Youth Camp whose overall
objective was to empower and motivate students to love learning. It aimed to
aid students by providing effective study skills, providing students with
venues to enjoy science and math, and enhancing their leadership skills for
them to build effective and functional students organizations. The youth
participants came from five schools in Sagada, both elementary and secondary,
and two students from out- of-town schools.
The topnotch team of trainors was brought to Sagada through the efforts of
Saint Mary’s School, Inc. [SMSSI]. Ever since its incorporation, the Board of
SMSSI focused on transforming the school into an institution of quality
learning by vigorous networking with well known institutions and educational
corporations like PSHS-WV, Brent Schools, Inc., and International School –Manila.
This endeavor is a follow-up to the December 4, 2003 visit of Dr. Biyo who came
over to Sagada to assess the training needs of SMSSI on the invitation of Mr.
Rufino Bomasang, Chair of the SMSSI Board. The two met earlier as speakers at
the Ayala Young Leaders Forum in February 2003.
The Institute was generally aimed at sharing the best teaching practices of the
PSHS-WV Campus with Cordillera teachers. It also intended to give
participants opportunities to reflect on their own teaching strategies, while
providing them with a pool of strategies from which they could choose those to
be used in their teaching-learning environment. This is in recognition of the
fact that each school operates within a context of its own. With their coming
over to Sagada, an additional goal was the establishment of linkages with the
participating schools for future endeavors.
The visit of Dr. Biyo and her team was made possible through SMSSI’s efforts to
look for sponsors like the Sagada Local Government Unit for the scholarship of
the Sagada District public school teachers and Mr. Dennis Faustino for the
Saint James High School participants. PETRON, the Philippine Geothermal,
Inc., took care of the travel of the team from Iloilo to Sagada and back,
while Pfizer Philippines
provided the bags for the participants and training
paraphernalia, and Philam Life for other support. All these would not have been
possible though without the willingness of the PSHS-Western Visayas to share
the time and expertise of its faculty with other institutions, and regions.
The Institute started with a talk on “Teaching Beyond Content” which challenged
teachers to teach students to love to learn. The resource person emphasized
that if gifted students like those at PSHS have to be motivated to learn, how
much more for regular students. The traditional approach to teaching was also
compared with the Learning Cycle Approach being employed at the PSHS. Emphasis
was placed on collaborative learning that has a value-content on sharing. The
use of the environment and ordinary materials that are readily available was
emphasized. Dr. Biyo said that it is how we use the resources available at
hand that is important and not how sophisticated are our facilities, nor how
plenty or complete. She mentioned that SMS of Sagada has more textbooks per
student than other schools, even at PSHS-WV, and blessed with a natural
environment that is a laboratory by itself.
The youth participants were given the challenge, “Why Should I Study?”, as
their first topic which was followed by “How do I Study Effectively?” Group
and field activities were done. A leadership workshop and sharing on organizing
a students’ society was also shared.
The event ended with a demo-teaching by the Humanities, Science and SMSSI
groups with the youth participants as students. In her closing message, Dr.
Biyo promised to come back next summer for an Evaluation Workshop and a bigger
Youth Camp as part of the continuing partnership with SMSSI and her passion to
develop a scientific culture among Filipinos. She also emphasized the
seriousness of their efforts and thus their desire to monitor how the
teacher-participants will apply their learning from the Institute.
Initially planned to be an exclusive SMSSI activity, the school opened the
Institute to other schools by getting sponsors for other participants. This is
its contribution to upgrading the quality of education in Mountain Province,
and living by its motto of sharing blessings.
Aside from Dr. Biyo who is a Biology specialist, the other members of the team
were Zennifer Oberio [Mathematics], Shena Faith Ganela [Humanities], Edgar
Babiera [Integrated Science], Virna Jane Navarro [Biology], Aris Larroder
[Physics and Earth Science], Gilbert Andres [Advance Physics], Mario Juanillo
[Physics and Chemistry], William Laride [Chemistry and Earth Science], Resa
Joyce Yandog [Chemistry] and Rose Elizabeth Espinosa [Mathematics].
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