Cotemporary patterns of activities in the classroom may spell out the comforts a teacher enjoys until retirement. No extra effort, no change in discourse and no shifting of paradigms to effect change in the routinary teaching conveniences (eg. attempting to recycle lesson plans for the succeeding years with little modifications). I could have found comfort in this prevailing condition had my passion for teaching not ignited by an experience to behold. Came the training in Summer 2005 which opened opportunities in my career I regard as a vocation.

Opportunities go hand in hand with willingness to change. To help bring out the culture of excellence, a dedicated and concerned teacher has to change with the times. To do this, she has to give change of practices a chance to be accepted first to herself then to her partners in learning. There is not much I can do to transform education standards but in my own little way, I can contribute greatly in reaching that standard by improving on strategies and making the learning process more appealing to learners. With this aspiration, structured teaching resources do helped me a lot. Unlike teacher’s daily lesson plans framed overnight, teacher support material can substantiate deficiencies in the teaching process because they have been carefully planned by expert teams. They enrich lessons because they were designed and were made negotiable within the system to ensure better learning. The video tele-courses brought magic to the learners as I watch them improve their learning readiness each day. Under way as I kept on monitoring the interaction of my pupils, it inspired me to see them learn with happy faces especially the lower sections. After getting through the lessons, the pupils can now set their own standards to meet the desired skills. Such favorable circumstance to effect change can transform attitude and study habits! My day-to-day lessons became the basis for thinking ahead about how it might be improved through the years with the video lessons as guide. I begun to redefine the kinds of transformations I may require myself to work by first identifying possible barriers to change. It may suggest speculations which I should recount but more precisely what I always aimed to work for is a marked improvement. There were no apparent mismatch on the language used in the textbooks and those presented on the videos which have helped me establish instant familiarity with the sequence of lessons presented. Tendered by sound motives, I tried to be consistent in my good performance. This has placed my competence to be ‘of synch’ with outstanding teachers for the past four years. Within the four formative years, my capabilities were enhanced. I got promoted to Master Teacher position and had the opportunity to function as Officer-in-charge designate for twice. As a consequence, my pupils in four successive batches showed significant improvement in their ratings. I was able to successfully routinise my practices into fittingly well-ordered patterns which facilitated my teaching alternatives. Behind all these qualitatively confirmed observations, the greatest factor reviving my enthusiasm to teach is legitimated by frequent use of same teacher support materials. I am referring to my encounter with FUSE.

This narrative account will help me spread my fascinating experience with FUSE video lessons. I thought at first I would just put them aside after the training. But, today they have transformed me into the next generation of teachers.

Laura Barcelona
barcelona.laura@yahoo.com

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.