Mobile teacher is unlocking potentials of the deprived

MANILA (PNA Features)—By pursuing a teaching method called the Alternative Learning System, Marlyn Lozada has been helping transform lives and opening doors of opportunity for out-of-school youths and differently abled individuals.

Lozada, a 33-year-old mobile teacher in Bay, Liliw, and Luisiana in the province of Laguna, has been successfully practicing the ALS for seven years, and for this has been recognized as one of the "Most Outstanding Mobile Teachers of 2008." A holder of a Psychology degree, she started as a daycare teacher, taking on the job when the one who was hired backed out.

Aside from mentoring learners who have to stop schooling because of work, she also teaches those who have experienced some form of abuse and others who are differently-able. A case in point was a learner who suffered from medicine overdose as a child and had to stop schooling altogether when the parents deemed he would not learn anyway.

Her students require one-on-one teaching. “At first, they are not very responsive,” she said, “but when they see you are committed and that you value their progress, they also begin to give importance to their education. Eventually, their parents also offer their support.”

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Emergency learning modules set for affected schoolchildren in Maguindanao

MANILA (PNA)—To ensure that students’ learning would not be affected by the current turmoil in Maguindanao, Education Secretary Jesli Lapus on Thursday said that the department will assist the regional education office under the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in providing emergency learning modules to the affected schoolchildren.

“We will be sending educational learning modules for home study of the school children for this emergency,” Lapus said when reached for comment about reports that many schools in the province, particularly in Shariff Aguak have closed, while among areas where schools opened, there are only a handful of students.

At the same time, he said they will also send nurses and guidance counselors to the province.

“These nurses and guidance counselors will conduct stress debriefing and psychosocial intervention on our schoolchildren and even the teachers,” Lapus added.

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Spanish language to be included in Philippine high school curriculum

MANILA (PNA)—The Department of Education (DepEd) has signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the University of Alcala in Spain to allow the inclusion of Spanish language in the high school curriculum as well as to strengthen educational and cultural ties between the Philippines and Spain.

The agreement was signed by DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus, together with University of Alcala Rector Professor D. Virgilio Zapatero Gomez. It seeks to develop students’ skills in listening, reading, writing, speaking and viewing, which are fundamental to acquiring communicative competence in a second foreign language.

“Bringing back the Spanish language in the school curriculum would help us understand and connect with our past,” Lapus said. “Many of the works of our forefathers, including our national hero Jose Rizal, which were written in Spanish, remain significant up to this day.”

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Controlling a classroom isn't as easy as ABC

Educators, administrators and experts say classroom management—the ability to calmly control student behavior so learning can flourish—can make or break a teacher's ability to be successful. Indeed, experts say that mong the top reasons why teachers are deemed unsuccessful or leave the profession is their inability to effectively manage student behavior.

Take the case of Chris Cox's dim classroom at Daniel Webster Middle School in Los Angeles' Sawtelle neighborhood. Students filed in and took their seats, then immediately began working on a language arts warmup exercise. While Cox took roll, the eighth-graders silently worked. When they went over the answers, students raised their hands and waited to be called on.

Down the corridor, seventh-graders streamed into Brent Walmsley's classroom and took over. Some sat on table tops; others wandered around the room, pausing to grab foamy handfuls of hand sanitizer that sloshed on the floor. As Walmsley took attendance, one boy brushed his hair, three girls sucked on lollipops while one sang Pink Dollaz's "Lap Dance," and a boy in the last row unleashed a barrage of spitballs. The day's warm-up was quickly forgotten.

Same school, same day, similar students, similar teachers—yet profoundly different behavior.

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English department offers modern Greek class

For many students and community members the Greek language seems difficult and out of reach, reflecting the cliché “It’s Greek to me.” However, learning the language is no longer a dream but an obtainable goal.

For those interested in learning to read, write and speak the Greek language, the English department at Shawnee State University will offer a Modern Greek class for the spring semester 2010.

“Many students want to take the class to learn how to read the Bible in it’s original language, Greek, while others are interested in learning the language to gain a competitive edge in their careers," said Dr. Stylianos Hadjiyannis, the professor who will be teaching the course.

According to Hadjiyannis, a native of Greece, thousands of words in the English language have been borrowed from Greek. The language is based on phonetics and the English alphabet, making it easier to learn.

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Mobile phone English lessons a hit in Bangladesh

DHAKA (AFP)—Every morning, Ahmed Shariar Sarwar makes it his daily ritual to call number 3000 on his mobile phone to get lessons in English—his passport to a better life in impoverished Bangladesh.

The mobile tutorial lasts only three minutes, but Rahman, 21, who is studying the textile trade says it is already helping him learn the language, which is key to getting a lucrative job in foreign firms based in Dhaka.

He is among hundreds of thousands of young men who have turned to the novel English teaching service since it was launched last month by a charity arm of the BBC. The aim is to teach the language to six million people by 2011.

"It’s simple and good. It costs three taka (four US cents) per lesson—the cheapest way to learn English in Bangladesh,” Rahman said. “There are a lot of English courses available here, but most rip you off and the quality isn’t so good.”

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Iranian student writes of hope, fear over protest

BEIRUT (AP)—On Dec. 7, tens of thousands of students marched at universities across Iran, in the most significant anti-government protests in the country for months.

The Associated Press asked a 20-year-old philosophy undergraduate at Tehran’s Allameh Tabatabei University to record his thoughts and experiences in a diary before, during and after the protests. He provided the AP the diary on condition of anonymity, because some of his friends have been arrested or suspended for contacting the foreign media.

The student has been suspended this semester for taking part in protests. More than 100 other students, including friends of the diarist, have been arrested in recent weeks, some sentenced to long prison terms.

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“Mediocre” schools in the United Kingdom warned

The annual report of education watchdog Ofsted says that school improvement in England is being held back by a “stubborn core of inadequate teaching.”

But the chief inspector Christine Gilbert hit back at local authority leaders who had accused Ofsted of “feeding fears” over child safety. She said criticism of children’s services was justified if it “saves just one child from abuse.”

The report also raised concerns over maths and English in primary schools. Chris Keates, leader of the NASUWT teachers' union, attacked the focus on negative aspects of the report. “This regular ‘talking down’ of teachers and state schools is not only totally unfair, it is grossly inaccurate,” she said.

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