Flowers are beautiful. These are used to adorn church altars and even tables during occasions. A wedding party would be luxurious with thousands of beautiful flowers around; aside from this it sets a blissful wedding environment. Of course, let us not forget the toil of the flower gardener. The gardener was responsible for the watering, pruning, applying fertilizers, and for spraying pesticides to the plants for these to produce healthy and beautiful flowers. However, due to climate change, the gardener needs to double his effort and adapt modern farming techniques.

A student is like a flower while the teacher is the gardener. The teaching strategies, techniques and methods in delivering the lesson, audio-visual aids and the learning environment are equal to the farmer’s ways in taking care of the plant which include, watering, pruning, and applying proper fertilizers and pesticides.

Students now are in the age of information and communication technology. Most of the educators in the field would agree with me if I say that students today are less motivated to learn and most of them are lazy to read books and other references. The problem is aggravated by the addiction of students to multi-media cellular phones. This is a ‘climate change,’ a change in the educational environment of the child.

I observed my students once; I offered them a computer installed with electronic library software and volumes of Encyclopedia from the Library to research about optics, the majority of them flocked to the computer. When given a research report, most of them preferred going to the city (20 kilometers from the school) to download from the World Wide Web.

Like the gardener, I have to find ways by which I could cope with the fast changing environment of the learners. Hence, I’ve been joining several trainings about the modern teaching strategies, methods, and motivational techniques. I have learned a lot. However, I observed that most of these strategies and techniques were modifications of what I am presently using while a few of these are renamed. This sometimes discourages me to join such activities.

It was summer of school year 2007-2008, when my school head called me to join a Foundation for Upgrading the Standard of Education (FUSE) seminar. I was to replace one of my colleagues who cannot join the said activity because she was on vacation. I was quite hesitant, I thought it was another modification of teaching strategies, but I was wrong. The training created a change in me.

The gardener acquired a solution to his problem, so thus the teacher. Eventually, because of the FUSE Constec Video materials, I will not be spending too much of my time preparing illustrations or written visuals about the lesson. I’m using the FUSE Constec video now in my Physics class to enrich the class discussion for almost three years since 2007.

The host, the host of the “Physics in Everyday Life,” has been my mentor. She introduced activities which I also introduced to enrich my class as a laboratory activity or for demonstration purpose.

The school has only one TV set, I and the other teachers use it on schedule. When it is being used, I use a use computer. I cut the episode into video clips to fit into the class discussion. The monitor screen, however, is too small for 35 students. (I wish we could buy one Liquefied Crystal Display (LCD) projector.) When I use the TV set I have limitations its remote control receiver is not working. Hence, I cannot move it forward to hide the punch-line of the host “Good morning fellow physics teachers.” One time we were in the middle of class discussion, when I flashed an episode about light colors, my students said jokingly, “sir that’s for you.” I said, “Alright, for now you have to imagine that you are physics teachers.”

I am the only teacher in our school that joined the training on the use of the FUSE video material (one per school participant), hence, the material that we have is about Physics. My colleagues who are teaching Mathematics, English, Biology and Chemistry subjects would also like to have one for them to use in their respective class.

The FUSE video discs helped me a lot. It makes the lesson entertaining to the students, simple and understandable. Aside from this, I also refer to it when there are concepts which I could not simplify. Moreover I need not to draw or illustrate concepts in a wide sheet of paper, which is time consuming; all I have to do is flash it before the students. It makes physics, a subject presumed by my students to be the most difficult subject, an enjoyable subject, easy and with lots of practical applications.

Aside from these, as I watch each episode, there are various strategies and techniques which I take on board in my teaching. I am physics major but the video reminds me a lot about the concepts and mentors me on how to deliver the lesson effectively. Sometimes, my students watch the episodes during their vacant hours like “sine-eskuwela” I task the Physics Club officers to guide the students who were watching.

The joy of the gardener who loves his job of planting and tending flowers, is not with money gained from his sales but on how productive his plants would be and how happy those people would be upon receiving flowers.
And the teacher? The teacher is sometimes tempted to go abroad and join those who have been teaching in foreign lands. His passion for teaching is also dying. However, the FUSE Video Clips is like a spark that ignites his love for children. The teacher was reminded about the truth that he will not be materially rich in the profession that he has chosen. Yes, no material thing can match the teacher’s passion for teaching, molding and mentoring the youth. His happiness is just simple. He would be happy if in every session the students will learn even a single thing.

I believe that despite of the onset of ‘climate change’ in the learners’ environment, these problems could be addressed with the continuous support of the government and non-government organizations like FUSE. -30-

GERALD A. SALDA
Sablan National High School
Benguet Division
Cordillera Administrative Region

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.