Teachers’ battle cry: Never surrender
With all the tasks they have to accomplish and the paperwork they need to complete, being a teacher is one of the hardest jobs there is.
Despite all the issues and concerns being raised by various groups on the state of the teachers in the Philippines, four teachers
– who recently received honors as 2018 Metrobank Foundation Outstanding Filipinos – believe that there is so much more to being a teacher than awards, salaries, or benefits.
In time for the celebration of World Teachers Day (WTD) today, October 5, the Manila Bulletin was there as the five teachers shared their journey to becoming “outstanding” educators and how they deal with constant changes and challenges along the way.
Through their experiences, Mary Jane Ramo, a Master Teacher II of Tonggo Elementary School in Tudela, Misamis Occidental; Alma Janagap, Ed.D., a Master Teacher II of Pavia National High School in Pavia, Iloilo; Aimee Marie Gragasin, Ph.D., a Special Science Teacher V of Philippine Science High School-Cagayan Valley Campus in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya and Carla Dimalanta, Ph.D., a Professor 10 of University of the Philippines Diliman in Quezon City expressed hope that their fellow teachers – as well as the future generation of Filipino educators – will be inspired and become better versions of themselves. Rising up to the challenge For Dimalanta, the hardest part of being a teacher these days is “getting through the students.” Getting students interested in what teachers’ are teaching, she says, is “more challenging now because the students have more distractions.” Thus, teachers need to be more creative.
As the Philippines’ first female exploration geophysicist with a doctoral degree, Dimalanta has been in the teaching profession for 25 years. For young people, she notes that he field of specialization – which is exploration geophysics – might not be as appealing compared to other fields of study. That is why having a student or two become interested in what she teaches is enough to make her day. “I feel that I am able to accomplish what I have set up to do if my students are somehow inspired by what I teach,” she adds.
Gragasin could not agree more, noting that “being a teacher is not really an easy job especially if it involves paperwork. “There are so many paper works and I really do admit that at times, I would like to surrender,” she admits.
While it takes a lot of time and energy to complete these paper works, Gragasin believes that it helps them in their jobs as teachers. “We cannot do away with these paper works,” she says. “But, if you really love your job, you will love everything that comes with it – even the paperwork,” she adds.
In her 24 years of service, Gragasin believes that paper works are for something. “We could not just monitor our students with just the eyes and the ears that we have,” she says. “We have to have documents to somehow serve as evidence of what our students have done and what have we done as teachers,” she added.
Gragasin also noted that competing with the gadgets is another challenge for teachers like her. But, she notes that “if the students are very attracted to gadgets, as a teacher, you really have to level up your teaching – particularly your teaching strategies.”
“As a teacher, you have to keep yourself abreast with the latest trends around,” Gragasin explains. “You really have to level up and abreast yourself with what is going on outside,” she adds.
A teacher for 23 years, Ramo says that the most challenging part of being a teacher is seeing learners who belong to Indigenous Peoples (IP) communities – particularly the Subanen tribe in Tudela, Misamis Occidental – slowly forget their very own roots. Thus, it became her major advocacy to promote IP education and reintroduce the culture to the learners of her own school.
Ramo also notes the increasing number of learners who are struggling with reading skills. “In school, there are many children who are struggling with their reading skills and you can’t rely on the parents because some of them too don’t know how to read,” she shares. Despite this, she continues to gather parents and other stakeholders to help the children who are struggling in school. “They are all our responsibility so if we do it together and help each other, we can help them as well,” she says.