“Teachers you’re our country’s hope
You will save our land
FUSE is here to help you cope
Lend a helping hand…”
Fuse Hymn, lyrics by Isagani R. Cruz

Frantic was how I would describe the day my Department Head told me with enthusiasm that I was to render a teaching demonstration for the In – Service Training Seminar of our school. Indeed, I was already on the verge of panic and desperation, when I suddenly ‘unearthed’ a stack of compact discs and modules underneath the heap of paper piles inside the bottom drawer of my desk. BINGO! The angels must have heard my incessant supplications. Looming before my bewildered eyes are the most precious things I have kept inside my drawer – the CONSTEC teaching materials, which I have acquired from a 16 – hour Teacher Training, courtesy of the Foundation for Upgrading the Standard of Education, Inc (FUSE). I was vastly overwhelmed, that I thought I have felt the same joy that the Israelites must have felt when upon praying to the Lord they have received their ‘manna’ from heaven.

True enough, these materials were my saving grace and my tools for having outstandingly carried on a teaching demonstration that I have never dreamed of being able to deliver. And then came a surge of realization that I have pondered on for the next few days after my commendable teaching demonstration. One question was lingering – “What are these materials really for?” For a couple of weeks after the FUSE training, I have totally forgotten that I have in my possession powerful teaching aids that I can utilize in my science classes to make my teaching more effective and meaningful. Subsequently, I was asking myself a string of questions – “Are these materials intended to impress my superiors how technologically equipped I am when I teach? Would it make a difference in the way my students perceive Chemistry as a subject matter if I introduce these materials to them? Is my attempt to use it in the class worth it?”

After our grueling yet mind – enriching training, I have heard some of my co – trainees lament on how bothersome the use of CONSTEC materials to them will be. The technology is quite complex for them and the operation of the needed tools to run the materials is something not germane to them. Surprisingly, I was in total agreement at that instance, for I was just too oblivious of the benefits that I and my students would get from using this technology. Never did I imagine that one day in my too ordinary life as a classroom teacher I would indeed imprint a stark difference in my Science class because of FUSE and the CONSTEC.

Emancipating finally from my reverie, I brought a lap – top to school one ordinary Monday to finally prove the worth of my precious CONSTEC teaching aids. There was a sudden gush of whispers from my curious students when I stepped inside the room replete with the tools of the modern times, so to speak. Seeing me with those tools in my loaded arms was enough to arouse their curiosity and get hold of their attention for the next 50 minutes of my contact time with them.

I prepared some clips from the videos for my lesson and I was enthralled by the hovering interest in the atmosphere. Each time I click on the lap – top, sighs of wonderment were ringing to my ears. The usual humdrum of the first day of school every week was finally history and the room was teeming with perky, wide – eyed students. It was a different class and I was feeling a different sense of fulfillment. At the end of that eventful day, it was as if a floodgate of excitement was opened for me and my students. For me, because I have certainly found the best antidote to an afternoon of tiring, lazy Science class. For my students, because they seem to look forward to a lot of things that are reposed inside the mighty CONSTEC cd’s. Now, I humbly admit that my skepticism about the use of technology inside the classroom was pointless. Technology is definitely a gift to improve our way of life, and not an obnoxious burden mthat we have to live with.

Teachers, like me, must know for a fact that technology is man’s most powerful tool in changing his fate. To the present times, its products are improved, fortified, and developed to fill in the need for progressing. It must be remembered that technology was once a dream made come true as a result of man’s endless quest for comfort. His passion for comfort has bred this ingenious spawns of technology, which must be utilized across all professions, age, creed, and color. We, therefore must befriend the fruits of technology and be acquainted with their rightful use. CONSTEC is a sheer proof of technology for education. For me it is the FUSE’s response to quench the educational system’s thirst for quality education.

As the first stanza of the FUSE hymn tells us, their hands are reaching out to the teaching force to constantly improve the quality of education that we give our students. It is the FUSE’s dream to produce a “community of committed professionals aware of critical education issues and taking voluntary action to help attain quality education”. Let that be our dream too. We Filipinos value the fruits of education tremendously because we are one in conviction that education is our key to rise from the quagmire of poverty, desolation, and corrupt social structures. To perpetually inflame our hearts with this faith, we teachers, must be able to convey our duties excellently.

In our hands, as teachers, was and is being laid the mightiest task of all time, that of effecting change as mentors. And the secret to doing this is simple - we have to live the legacy that is FUSE and see our students metamorphose into the young productive individuals that we hoped them to become.

Teachers…“Let us all move forward, educate our nation”.

Type of Training: Teacher Training
Full Name: Roland P. del Rosario
Position: Teacher I
Complete Address: #50C Mercury St., W. Fairview, QC
Mobile Nos: 09192685194
Fax Nos: none
Email: roland_delrosario@yahoo.com
School Name: Judge Feliciano Belmonte Sr. High School
School Address: AFP Road, Garcia Hts., Brgy. Holy Spirit, QC

Founded by Dr. Lucio C. Tan on December 1, 1994, FUSE seeks to improve the skills in English, Science and Mathematics teachers. Its programs include regular teacher training workshops; a post-graduate scholarship program for Science and Engineering teachers; production and distribution of telecourses in English, Elementary Science, Chemistry, Physics and Math; and a host of other educational programs in partnership with government and private learning institutions.