In Ifugao, as the seat of early education, teaching is one among the top careers youth have been choosing. However, less have been choosing early childhood development catering to kindergarten and nursery kids.
To embrace teaching the young in their kindergarten and increase the classroom management styles among newly positioned kindergarten pupils, the “Division Training and Workshop on Effective Assessment and Manipulative Strategy” were held where 45 kindergarten teachers from 11 school districts of Ifugao attended on May 27 to 29 at the Schools Division Office (SDO).
The three-day long activity was spearheaded by four resource persons who discussed and trained the teachers. These include: Alma D. Tayaban, Instructor at Ifugao State University (IFSU); Rosebella P. Buya-ao, School Head of Salamague Elementary School in Lamut; Lalaine V. Mahilum, Master Teacher II of Kiangan Central School; and Shearyl P. Tuguinay, Teacher III of Lagawe Central School.
The topics discussed included the Strategies in Guiding and Managing Learners Behavior in Early Childhood Education and the Overview of the Philippine Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Checklist.
Purpose of the program
According to Delleah A. Tagayo, the Education Program Supervisor of SDO-Ifugao, the participants include not just kindergarten teachers but also those who have been in the service for zero to three years.
“Mayroong mga cases na matagal na sila sa teaching pero iba iyong grade level na hinahawakan (nila) when they are deployed to other schools (There are cases where they have been teaching for a long time but are assigned to different grade levels when deployed to other schools),” Tagayo said.
“Mayroon kasing teachers na walang proper training or orientation on how to administer the ECCD Checklist. Kung wala kasi silang training or orientation in this kind of assessment, hindi nila alam kung paano iaddress yung needs ng mga kindergarten learners (There are teachers who have no proper training or orientation on how to administer the ECCD Checklist. If they are not trained or oriented in this kind of assessment, they will not know how to address the needs of the kindergarten learners),” she added.
The ECCD Checklist serves as a tool to assess a child’s growth and development in various domains such as gross motor domain, fine motor domain, receptive language, expressive language, cognitive domain, self-health domain, and social emotional domain.
Integrating these matters is essential in making the lessons and creating manipulative materials tailored to children’s diverse educational needs.
Teachers on learning new teaching strategies
The program also aims to equip the teachers on the new and improved ways of making manipulative materials or hands-on learning tools. The participants produced different kinds of play-based manipulative materials during their workshop.
“This training really helps teachers adopt new (teaching) strategies to be used inside the classroom,” said Hermie B. Ildefonso Jr., one of the participants from the district of Alfonso Lista.
He also mentioned that these play-based learning tools is helpful in making learning enjoyable and educational at the same time, especially since children nowadays get easily bored. Additionally, they can also share what they learned their co-teachers in their respective schools.
Ildefonso Jr. together with his fellow teachers from the district of Alfonso Lista, made five manipulative materials on their second day. One of the materials they made is called the “Letter Buddies.” This material teaches the students the English alphabet and how to identify uppercase letters and lowercase letters. They explained that this activity helps with their cognitive and fine motor skills.
The “Division Training and Workshop on Effective Assessment and Manipulative Strategy” opened up valuable learning opportunities for kindergarten teachers in Ifugao to enhance their skills and knowledge in early childhood education.
Through this collaborative experience and the shared knowledge of the resource speakers, participants can make their teaching more dynamic and inclusive. With excellent teachers comes outstanding learners.// Khaszandra B. Tade, BSU-DevCom Intern
