With holistic learning rapidly evolving the country’s educational landscape, it is crucial for it to be supported by teachers who can impart classroom instruction that works for 21st century Filipino learners.
With its commitment to help educators provide quality higher learning routes that go beyond traditional classroom practice, REX Book Store, Inc., in partnership with St. Paul University Manila, developed the Teacher Certificate Program (TCP-CDDS) as a special training program designed for Senior High School teachers to introduce concepts and procedures relevant to designing and supervising classroom instruction and in-depth mastery of content per subject area or discipline.
The 2017 batch of TCP-CDDS (composed of 442 senior high school teachers representing 230 private schools from all over the country) has graduated. The participants were given their shared-earned certificates during the culmination of their four-day Demofest held at St. Paul Manila.
Apart from increasing teachers’ capacities in developing and adopting innovative curricula, tools, and instruction strategies, the program awarded successful participants 12 units of credit (out of the 18 MA units equivalency of the TCP program) should he or she decide to pursue full graduate studies.
The training program was conducted from August 2016 to May 2017, and engaged 12 groups in intensive curriculum development and instructional teaching training. The schedule has been made student-friendly to help schools comply with DepEd’s requirement for certification.
Optimized, purposeful teaching
To keep up with the learning styles of this generation, educators must have academic mastery, most especially the vision and leadership skills, in order to influence the success of their students. Moreso, teachers need to depart from old ways and become bold advocates of innovative teaching, which is crucial for students’ learning and future careers.
In his speech, REX Book Store’s COO Don Timothy Buhain congratulated the teachers for their accomplishments. He also reiterated that to instill the needed reforms, the “seeds” of change must be planted now, in the classroom.
“Books alone won’t make the child better. It’s an ecosystem of things—the books, the assessment, the intervention, but most importantly, you, the teachers. At the end of the day, you are the ones who will inspire the students to become better. REX Book Store sees you as partners in reaching our highest aspirations for our Filipino youth; the program Para sa Bata, which aims to provide excellent professional development programs for our teachers, would not be successful without you at the helm,” he said.
Modern teaching advocates
During the ceremonies, group leaders—Mark Daniel Cruz (Columban College of Olongapo City), Andy Boncayao (Mt. Carmel High School-General Nakar, Quezon), Mary Joy Duhay Lungsod (Lyceum of Iligan Foundation), Allan Capunfuerza (Dominican College of Tarlac), and Nesie Fe Binatero (Bohol Wisdom School)—representing the five major subject areas shared their training experiences.
In its 67 years of existence, REX Book Store, one of the country’s oldest and leading publishing houses for educational materials, has been at the forefront of reforming the Philippine education system through academic resources and programs that advocate wholistic learning. To date, it has a network of 24 standalone branches and two showrooms to serve clients’ requirements nationwide. REX Book Store has published over 8,000 titles for pre-elementary, elementary, secondary, tertiary, and post collegiate studies, including law titles.