Christmas Message to Teachers 2016

Dalaguete Public Elementary Schools Teachers’ Association (DAPESTA) honoring of retirees, teachers, and Christmas Party 2016

December 21, 2016 at Blue Pot, Cawayan, Dalaguete

Dr. Eddie Lumayag, PSDS

DAPESTA President, Mrs. Reynes

Principals

Head Teachers

TICs

School Caretakers

And other school heads

Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Maayong buntag kanatong tanan!

My dear teachers, you haven’t aged a day. Your young, beautiful and handsome faces remind me of my childhood in Balud Elementary School… Memories…

The good, the bad, the sad, the happy and the life changing ones.

Naa diri kadtong mga nagtudlo nako ug basa, sulat, estorya sa stage, solve problems, do art, learn to appreciate beauty, do experiments, scouting, and acquire good values…

Naa pud diri kadtong mga nangurit nako… But to be honest, I have taken it positively.. However, things are very different now.

My dear teachers, childhood is the father of all men… What we are today is the product of our experiences when we were still children… As teachers, you are responsible to a great degree for the future of a person. And for that, you are very very important. That is why I chose to be like you, a teacher…

We, at the Municipal Government of Dalaguete are very much delighted for DAPESTA. It is high time that its president, Maam Herminia, will sit with the Municipal Local School Board to represent the Teachers of the Municipality. After all, your part in shaping the future of Dalaguete is indispensable.

As you honor some of your members today along with your celebration of the Season of Joy, we share with you the same feeling of gratitude and happiness. The countless pupils whom you have inspired is the pinnacle of your very existence.

We will always take to heart, that those who taught us in college we remember mostly for what they did for our minds. But those who taught us in elementary school made their marks on our character, our ways of thinking about life, our ambitions, our immortal souls!!!

The best education, is in Dalaguete; and that education is with you teachers of Dalaguete.

Thank you, and Happy Christmas!

WHY THE ENGLISH TEACHER DIED AT CHRISTMAS

by Myra Muriel Go

I had the delight of reading this work on the bulletin board at SMA before. From that day until now, I have been meaning my students to enjoy this piece. Happy Christmas! -Sir Leo

It was the day of the Christmas program, and Teacher Helen was not feeling well at all.

Teacher Helen had been teaching English at the same school for twenty years. She was forty years old and forty is supposed to be a very good age to be for any teacher. That means a teacher would have enriched many, many lives.

Still, Teacher Helen was very unhappy, having grown increasingly disappointed with her efforts at teaching English in the last five years.

Even if she doubled her efforts at explaining the rules of subject and verb agreement, she still got sentences that read: The poem are about, or, I think and felt or, Rizal and her writing; and even if the only strategy she hadn’t used was to dance the tango to induce her students to read, she ultimately got reactions like, Teacher? Did I like Kipling? Duh, I dunno, I never kippled before. Is that like bungee jumping?

Or worse, Shakespeare? Is he the new guy with the X-men? The one with the vibrating laser beam?

Teacher Helen couldn’t figure it out very well, could not say where exactly the problem lay. Although her students only spoke smatterings of English they seemed to understand much of it; specially films, or the NBA games. And they correctly pronounced all the signature brands of clothes and colognes. They also liked to celebrate the American festivals like Valentine’s and Halloween. Her students used English mostly to express their thoughts and feelings on those days, even though their efforts left something to be desired:

I Labs Ya. Dya Labs Me 2? Or better, Will ya be may Balentine? U’r cool!

At Halloween they told her of their adventures. Mum! We went to trek and tret.

In the gentlest manner she would say, Oh, Trick or Treat! How wonderful. And Jund, that’s Ma’m. Maaa’m. Mum used to be an underarm deodorant.

Teacher Helen also thought that she didn’t want to teach speech anymore, for it began to feel like The Mother of All Jawbreakers. To try to help students distinguish between the P and the F, B and the V, and the soft and hard TH, and worse diphthongs, seemed Teacher Helen to need several lifetimes to accomplish.

To make matters even worse, her colleagues weren’t much help.

Just the day before, during their faculty meeting, Teacher Helen had to suffer through the entire two hours of English use being systematically slaughtered by the subject area coordinators.

Let’s go to the ballroom dancing! No, I’ve got to go to the house early. It’s my baby’s check in the pedja. You know por da awting let’s go to the bitch in Nasugbu.

To ensure her sanity by the end of the meeting, she formulated some learning objectives. Silently, of course.

O-ke, o-ke, the principal said. Tomorrow’s our program. Is the chairs there prom the delivery?

(…to distinguish P and F sounds)

Yes Mum.

The Science people, how’s the exhibits

(…must always agree in number)

O-ki Mum. Biri Creetib Mum. P-6 and Kim ar tim is Science, Da Stap of Lipe and Libing.

(…must be able to clearly pronounce English sounds)

Whatabout Math?Good Mum. We Mutt people are riddi. Da grid tu will sing about the Aso-syatib and Comyo-tatib to da song of Chisnut Roosting on da Open Payr.

(…must speak English)

Art and Music?Da kids will sing Samsungs and dance the dances.

(…must not smirk)

Da buckdrop is pinis, and light epecks we check olreydi.

(…must not puke on the table)

Last year one payrents complain of the warmth so pliss, check the ercon.

(…must grit my teeth)

What about Ingliss? Titser Helen?

(…must not five in to urge to reply, I tits my class)

All the grade five sections will recite The Night Before Christmas.

(…must practice Christian values of humility, honesty, perseverance)

The meeting ended soon after that, and Teacher Helen was very relieved to have survived it.But this morning, when she awoke from a very bad dream in which she was banished to hell, tied to a chair and made to listen to Jimmy Santos, she told herself maybe it was time to shift professions.

Insurance maybe? Or real estate?

Maybe she should shift languages.

No, no, no she told herself. How could I think of that at this time of the year, when Christmas carols are in the air, and everyone, yes, everyone still greeted each other, Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!

Maybe I should relent and allow fragmented language in class.

But I can’t give up now! It’s my life’s work!

These were her thoughts as she trudged up the steps to the hospital entrance.

Merry Christmas! The receptionist at the medical specialist’s center greeted her.

Oh, and Merry Christmas to you to, my dear, she replied. She was so relieved that the sounds were correct.

Do you have an appointment? The receptionist asked.

I’m sorry but I don’t, Teacher Helen answered with a smile, and a feeling almost vibrant.

Come again? The lady asked. At that moment the phone ran. Excuse me please, the receptionist said as she answered.

No, I’m sorry, the doctor won’t be in for another hour. Shall I give him your message? Yes, I’ve got that. Thank you for calling, have a nice day, and Merry Christmas.

There is a God, Teacher Helen thought as she relished the words she had just heard.

Suddenly curious about the rarity of the person, she decided to chat a little bit.

You know, you’re so familiar. Which school did you attend?

Laughter.

You mean which school did I teach at. I was an English teacher before I quit to work here.

Oh. May I ask why?

I finally realized that trying to teach English was being Sisyphus, a hopeless, uphill going nowhere job.

And so you quit.

Wisest thing I ever did in my life.

Yes. Of course

Some of my friends have better paying jobs abroad. DH-Tutors. Have their own houses.

Teacher Helen didn’t feel as good as she did a while ago. She fell into deep thought, interrupted at last by her physician who arrived, hounded by a large group of medical reps waving Christmas packages.

Merry Christmas, Helen, not feeling well this season?

Teacher Helen seemed far away, managing a wan reply. Can you believe this?

She whispered, a little lost.

An hour later, Teacher Helen was still there, as the waiting room emptied of the other patients.

It might have been pleasant waiting all together had not the receptionist asked one patient, Have you been x-rayed?

No, was the patient’s quick reply. I was ultra-violated.

Teacher Helen shot a glance at the patient, then locked gaze with the receptionist. Like a trouper that she was, the receptionist ignored the mistake and kept silent.

And like the teacher that she still was, Teacher Helen was about to speak in correction. At the last moment though, she too kept silent.

At that moment another receptionist came over from the kidney doctor’s clinic.

Hey, did you hear about the baby our next door pedia lost this morning?

No, what happened? Sepsis. Infected ambivalent cord.

Teacher Helen staggered to her feet, feeling like she had been shot.

Ma’m? Are you leaving? You’re next.

Really? Thanks so much. So Teacher Helen returned to her seat.

We have this Christmas program I’d like to catch, you see.

Her doctor said it was stress, that’s all. That the chest pains were imagined. That she was taking her job too seriously. That perhaps she should extend her Christmas vacation well into January.

She promised to consider it, and was actually preparing a little speech in her head as she walked into the school auditorium filled with clapping parents and costumed children.

Her principal was glaring at her, but Teacher Helen came right up to her assigned seat on the front row, together with the other members of the faculty and did not notice how late she was.

Soon, amidst the rasping minus one tape of Christmas songs, the curtains opened to reveal the extravaganza of the day, the Music teachers’ opus.

Prancing children dressed like elves held boughs and boughs of what looked like plastic leaves. They danced about the stage during the taped intro then stood still at their designated places to burst into their much practiced chorus:

Dick da holes with bosso Polly, Pa la la la la la la la la!

Isdasison to Jollibee. Pa la la la la la la la la!

Dochano da gay apartelle, Pa la la la la la la la la!

A blinding, white light. A great force upon her head.

Teacher Helen was puzzled. Did the stage collapse? Why were there so many people all of a sudden? And why were they screaming and hovering above her?

She heard the Science teacher say, Titser Helen, Titser Helen, ded you paint?

Then the Math Teacher said, Wooter pliss, someone git wooter!

Lay down, Lay down, the Principal was directing.

But just then, Teacher Helen no longer cared, and was thinking, you all make me funny.

She died with a smile on her face.

Brigada Eskwela and Adopt a School Program

PSDS Eddie Lumayag and PSDS Cecille Cartilla, (Secondary Schools Lead Principal Roger Banogbanog) Other principals and School heads, Lead Brigada Eskwela Coordinators, School Brigada and Adopt a School Program Coordinators for Elementary and High School… Teachers, and friends… Good morning!

Thank you for inviting me! For that, your lunch is free… J

My message today focuses on Strong School Governance…by encouraging you to partner with everyone who can help us in our schools.

Last August, a professor from the Department of Sociology of Ateneo de Manila, Dr. Emma Porio, came to Dalaguete to answer the question, “What is in Dalaguete that that makes her education work?”

Her research involved the cities and municipalities who partnered with the Synergeia Foundation. Our Elementary schools yielded commendable results which she shared in the National Education Summit on September 8 at Philippine International Convention Center…

Her Thesis was:

Empowering LSB, SGC, teachers, parents, and community partners through organization, meetings trainings, camps, and summits built the social capital

The Power of Community

We must learn to embrace the power and opportunities offered by decentralized and community-based educational leadership.

The need and demand has never been clearer. National educational failure remains one of the largest contributors to poverty, with about 44% of poor households being headed by individuals who did not finish elementary school. And the immediate future demands immediate action: for every 100 students who enter Grade 1, almost one-third (32 pupils) will drop out by Grade 6.

Making sure that children finish their primary education is a necessary step in ending the cycle of poverty, but this challenge is too big to be shouldered solely by individual schools and the Department of Education. A model that creates powerful and effective partnerships between local governments, schools, and communities is the key to success. We need to partner with people and institutions.

Today, we are having the Brigada Eskwela and Adopt a School Program of DepEd. These are important programs which can help us develop the partnership I am stressing out.

“To quote the late DILG Secretary and Naga City Mayor Jesse Robredo: ‘Kapag maraming may-ari ng problema, maraming tutulong.’ And this is what decentralizing education is all about—allowing the entire community to have the authority, responsibility, and resources to assure that our kids get the quality schooling they deserve. Stakeholders learn first hand what the educational challenges are and they work together to solve them.”

In one of the breakout sessions during the National Education Summit last September 7-9, The discussion on Public-Private Sector Partnerships in Education with our panelists from SEAOIL, Hyundai, Dept. of Finance, and DepEd were asked, “When do private partners respond to letters asking for donations?”

Their answers are:

-      The term donation is a passe (Old-Fashioned/obsolete).

-      We are not dole out machines. Asking a few chairs or one laptop, does not appeal to us.

-      We want to be the school’s strategic partner through and through. We want to share your purpose.

-      We choose schools who show us what their plans are, and how we can complement their efforts in a long term basis.

-      The letters should be short, and it should give the desired outcome clearly.

 

WHEN YOU WANT TO ENGAGE IN A PPPs through the Brigada Eskwela and Adopt a School, you need to…

u  List down private institutions/individuals who have/will help/ed the school (donations, feeding, etc)

u  Document partnership through MOU/MOA (Parties, Name of Project, Terms of Reference, Effectivity/Time Frame, and Signatories)

u  Documenting PPPs is:

ü  To serve as proof of partnership existence

ü  To ensure fulfillment of promises

ü  To fill the gap of verbal or handshake agreement

ü  To be assured of formality

ü  To help the private partner to claim tax incentives

My dear friends, Education is everyone’s responsibility… It takes a village to educate a child.. If we could successfully encourage, establish, and develop ties with education partners, we would reach our dream of ensuring that the next generation who are to replace us, are better than us.

Thank you, and good morning once again.