CHILD PROTECTION POLICY A CLASSROOM PRIORITY

FOR TEACHERS
By: MARIBETH I. TABAN
Teacher III, Pamacpacan Elementary School
Jaen North District
Jaen, Nueva Ecija
Child protection is now at the forefront of the Philippine Education system.
Promotion of the welfare and well-being of the pupils thus become primary
objectives of all educational institutions in general, and the classroom teachers
particular.
With the advent of information technology in our society, teachers nowadays
are irrevocably linked and thus are even more aware of their responsibilities and
obligations, which doesnt stop when one completes the delivery of the days
lessons. Once the pupils step inside the school campus, and inside the classroom,
parental authority is the factor transferred to the institution, and the teachers,
hence, it is out most importance that the teachers understand that he or she
obliged to look after the welfare of the pupils. Protection, not only from bodily harm
but from emotional factors that could, in the long run, affect the psychological
development of the children, is a primary concern of the teachers.
Deped memorandum No. 42, series of 2012 entitled DepEd Child Protection
Policy reflects the departments policy and Guidelines on Protecting Children in
School from Abuse, Violence, Exploitation, Discrimination, Bullying and other forms
of Abuse. With this memorandum, schools in the country today are mandated to
organize Child Protection Committees composed of major stakeholders on the
schools. These CCPs are required then to conduct capacity building activities for the
members so that they will have the better understanding on how to deals in cases
of child abuse. Schools are now likewise mandated to come up with individual
School-Based Child Protection Policy (SB-CPP) to set up a firm guideline on child
protection.
With this, it is now the duty of every stakeholders of the school to protect the
pills from any form of abuse. In fact as a guiding principle of schools SB-CPP, school
now promotes a zero-tolerance policy for any act of child abuse, exploitation,
violence, discrimination, bullying and other forms of abuse.
Sometimes, caught in the crosshairs of our multiple tasks, teachers forget
that they should be the prime mover of children welfare, especially when they are
inside the classrooms. Teachers hone, develop, and mold the mindset of the children
at the grass root level, so they should take into consideration the considerable
influences in the formative development of the pupils. Like our own children, our
pupils should fully benefit from our care and protection.

TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION:
A Response to the K to 12 Challenge
By: MARIBETH I. TABAN
Teacher III, Pamacpacan Elementary School
Jaen North District
Jaen, Nueva Ecija
So much has been said about the impact of information technology in the 21 st
century education. And with the scholastic debate still simmering on the importance
of these technological advances in terms of classroom application, everyone seems
to be pointing on a single direction: the technology is already here, and it is up to
the individual or institution on how to optimize its usage.
Maybe the question now is not on whether or not information technology
particularly the internet is a useful tool inside the classroom. It is perhaps the time
to accept the prevalence of a new system predicated on the speed in which
information can be gathered and disseminated as could be dictated by these
technologies.
As we move around our environment, internet shops are now a permanent if
not the most dominant fixture. Following a simple law of supply and demand, the
reason why these internet shops are proliferating is the basic fact of high demands,
be it on the aspect of internet surfing/browsing, online games, encoding, pure
research, or other forms of recreation. And as we may observe, majority of the
clientele of the internet shop are that of the younger generations, from elementary
pupils to secondary and tertiary students. So internet, as an information technology
is already here, and teachers are now facing the daunting task of keeping abreast
with this dominant trend if they dont want to be left behind by their students.
It is on this platform that we may assume that the question now is on how to
integrate these technologies into curriculum and instruction particularly in the lights
of the core objectives of the K to 12 system where the center of the educational
system revolves around the learner.
Creativity, resourcefulness, perseverance, and of course aggressiveness (to
acquire new skills) are now on the forefront of the needs of the teachers to in order
to maximize the technological advances of our time. Teachers should be more
aware of the variegated ways and means of integrating the learning tools offered by
the internet into their daily lessons. And of course it is now safe to assume that the
learning experiences of the children will become more meaningful and interesting
with the introduction of these tools inside the classroom. Multimedia modules (audio
and video) abound in the internet if one is resourceful enough to find them. Yes
there are many irrelevant and useless materials in these medium, but the teacher
should rise up to the challenge of sifting through these materials and picking up the
ones perfectly applicable to his or her teaching situations.
As mentioned above, technology is here, and we should all benefit from its
encompassing impact in our classroom, let us conduct due diligence and extra effort
in order to become more responsive to the call of the times.

Teacher Readiness: The K to 12 Challenge

By: MARIBETH I. TABAN
Teacher III, Pamacpacan Elementary School
Jaen North District
Jaen, Nueva Ecija
Many educators are questioning the readiness of the government to
undertake a full blast implementation of the Enhanced Basic Education Act of
2013,commonly known as the K to 12 program wherein the basic education of
students are extended with another two years, with its attendant skills training
preparing the students for early into the job market. Right now, on the final year
before the senior high school program finally kicks in, there is a collective holding of
breath on whether or not we really are capable of doing it. On the Elementary level,
the fight has already been going on a mother-tongue-based instruction has already
started for the last three years. In fact any studies have been conducted to gauge
the effectiveness of these K to 12 premises.
Having said all these, the author believes that it is not a question of
institutional, structural, and systematic readiness which is in question here. Yes the
government has a lot catching up do in terms of placing proper structural requisite
including properly configured classrooms and laboratories and training the rooms.
Also lacking are the important teaching guides and instructional materials
necessary to implement the new learner-centered system of education. Classroom
based activities also become central to the achievement of K to 12, so classroom
configuration and readiness also becomes automatically suspect.
So now we come to the issue of teacher readiness. There are so many
questions that come to mind when it comes to the preparedness of the teachers to
carry out program effectively, namely:
Are the teachers professionally equipped to handle the demands of the
new curriculum?
Do they have proper backgrounds and ample training to respond to
needs of the program?
Do they have access to instructional materials, both online and
institutional?
Are they prepared to handle new modules and modern delivery
systems of class lessons and instruction?
Lastly, are the teachers fully committed to carry out these new tasks
and its attendant obligations
These are some of the questions that beg to be answered if we are to achieve at
least a semblance of success for the K to 12 program. The teachers should be
professionally, mentally, an even emotionally ready and prepared for these
undertaking.

Teachers Must Be Computer Literate

By: MARIBETH I. TABAN
Teacher III, Pamacpacan Elementary School
Jaen North District
Jaen, Nueva Ecija
Computer Literacy among teachers of the Department of Education is a long
standing concern among our educational leaders. With the advent and prevalence
of information technology in our society today, teachers must have a functional and
fundamental understanding of computers. The basic premises of this article are
contained in the following conceptual frameworks.
Revelant teaching materials are readily available from online resources so if
teachers have no functional literacy in terms of computer usage, pupils
would not have access to interesting and novel information which could
make learning more fun and entertaining.
The Department of Education is undertaking a large scale computerization
of its system, from pupil database enrolment, report generation, system of
payments, and others.

Information Technology is a must inside the classroom-the modern

classroom of the 21ST century must have the most basic educational
technology. Today at a minimum, the classroom must have a television and
a DVD player so that pupil learning would be more interesting, colorful, and
relevant
School children are adept when it comes to computers and the internet.
Almost every pupil living in an area covered with internet services knows
how to use these technology, so teachers must be one step ahead of the
pupils
Social media and networking is an important way of life today. Through
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other networking services abounds, at
these make the flow of information faster and easier. Real time sharing of
important information is possible through online resources. Teachers must be
connected with one another if she or he wants to be updated with
information necessary in discharging her or his functions.
These are only the basic tenets of why a classroom teacher must be
computer literate in the 21st century. Computer literacy among teachers should at
least be rudimentary. In order for us to perform our duties and responsibilities in an
efficient manner, we should be kept abreast of what is happening around us.

Collaborative Teaching between Parents and

Teachers
By: MARIBETH I. TABAN
Teacher III, Pamacpacan Elementary School
Jaen North District
Jaen, Nueva Ecija
Many literatures and actual studies have been conducted to establish the
correlation between academic achievement and the involvement of parents in their
childrens education. I strongly agree that parents should have a firsthand
involvement if they want to see through an efficient education for their kids.
Involvement does not begin an end with the parents preparing their kids and
sending them off to school. The education of every kid is a collaboration between
and among the following: parent, teacher, and the institution.
Teachers should be very creative in involving the parents, especially those
who deemed themselves too busy to participate in the educational activities of their
children. This is particularly true for families who live in dire poverty, as parents, out
of sheer inferiority feelings due to being poor opt to remain distant and
unresponsive to the needs of their children. It is therefore important for the teachers
to circumvent this problem so that a strong relationship between the institution and
the parents will be established.
As mentioned above, parental involvement is not one directional and limited
to certain aspects, and as the title suggest, learning is a collaboration if everyone
wants to achieve a level of success. And even though classroom activities is mainly
a domain of the teachers, parents should likewise be apprised of the directions and
methods of teaching so that support home activities for the pupils could be
undertaken at home. Regular and periodic conferences between teachers and
parents should be done as well. Important issues concerning the pupils should be
immediately taken up with the parents so that necessary intervention could be
undertaken. Among these important issues and concern could be: unruly behavior,
non-cooperation, bullying, sleeping in class, absenteeism, apathy, and not doing
classwork and assignments. Among the concern meanwhile for much needed
collaborative efforts between parents and children are the following: health and
nutritional status of the pupil; reading habits and literacy level, numeracy, grooming
and cleanliness, behavioral concerns and development, and over-all academic
performance.
Yes, collaboration is a difficult issue to tackle, and it could be very taxing to
the usually overburdened teacher, but then again the main and superseding
objective is the holistic development if the pupil, so much so that extra effort from
parents, teachers, and institution are really necessary. As the old Chinese adage
goes a journey of a thousand miles begin with a single step.