BEAM Newsletter

In-service commits to more trainings for DepEd teachers

In the last quarter of the year 2008, BEAM In-Service Component has been working across Regions XI, XII and ARMM October Cluster Orientation Trainings, the Multi-grade Program and Cycle 6 of ARMM Reading Program.In-service Trainings
The team, together with the School-Based Management team conducted another series of training for Cluster Coordinators and Cluster Focus Teachers (Grade V, VI and Year IV teachers). The Division Supervisors and District Supervisors from Regions XI, XII and ARMM were also included in the training to support the implementation at the school level. The training for the Cluster Coordinators and their Cluster Focus Teachers were conducted over three consecutive weeks. The orientation was in preparation for their delivery of topics during the one-day Midyear Performance Review and Evaluation (MPRE), October 27-31, 2008.

The focus was on giving a common platform to all teachers, school heads and other DepEd leaders to share information. All school heads and Grade V and VI teachers who attended the 2008 Summer In-Service Workshops were then trained during the MPRE week on additional Learning Guides. The School Heads will also received an orientation on the Special Education Manual, “No Limits: Teachers Including Students with Disabilities in Regular Classroom”. This useful resource provides information and support strategies for students with disabilities.

The table below shows the active participation of those who were trained in this program.

Work has begun on the organization and development of materials for the 2009 Summer Workshops, which will focus on classroom-based assessment to support the Basic Education Curriculum (BEC). Technical Working Groups have been established in each region to oversee this work. Melanie Estacio (RXI Student Assessment Officer), Anwar Ito (Region XII Assessment Officer) and Jan Roach have been developing the training design and materials. The Regional Technical Working Group have been working with the School-based Management team on the selection of trainers and have developed their training schedule and budget.

It is expected that this last cycle will be able to successfully infuse significant changes in the way teachers teach, students/pupils learn, administrators and divisional and regional leaders monitor and the need for all stakeholders to collaborate in order to attain the quality education which remains an elusive dream of everyone.

Multigrade

The In-Service component also conducted a training for program on Multigrade headed by Ms Jan Roach, BEAM Australian Consultant for Multigrade.

Multigrade teaching is a challenging multi-dimensional role for teachers. It requires enthusiasm, creative thinking and special skills to manage multi-grade instruction and learning. A multigrade class has two or more grades in one classroom, with one teacher for a whole year or longer. This is also called a “combination class” (if there are only two grades) in the Philippines. Multi-grade classrooms provide the opportunity to ‘break down the walls’ between grades and look at the students as groups of learners.

In September 2008, BEAM In-Service team trained a group of RXI and RXII division trainers, with the recently trained national trainers, 64 trainers in RXI and another 64 trainers for RXII, a total of 128. The ARMM training will be conducted at a future date.

This was followed by training for 485 teachers in Region XI and approximately 687 teachers in Region are expected to be trained.

DepEd Central Office has integrated the BEAM Multigrade materials into their programs; Jan Roach and Mary Jeanne Aldeguer of DepEd XI supported the training of teachers and DepEd officers in the national training of Mindanao and Luzon Clusters.

DepEd XI was invited to share Multigrade practices at the National Summit on Multigrade in Baguio City last October 26-29, 2008. Jan Roach spoke about the “Trends and Approaches in Effective Multi-grade Instruction.” Parts of BEAM Multi-grade Teaching and Learning DVD were shown during the presentation to the 570 participants from across the country. A display of BEAM’s Multigrade materials raised much interest among participants.

ARMM Reading Program

The ARMM Beginning Reading program developed by BEAM in collaboration with the USAID Project, EQuALLS 2, is being piloted in two schools in each of the 13 divisions in the ARMM.
The Training of Trainers for Cycle 6 of the ARMM Beginning Reading Program was successfully conducted for five days in Cotabato City.

Mr.William Wellms of the EQuALLS shared his expertise on “fluency” during the discussion. With the books given by EQuAllS, participants enjoyed preparing lesson plans integrating vocabulary development, fluency and reading comprehension. During the return demonstration, participants proved that they have gained a clear understanding of the topics and demonstrated good facilitation skills. These trainers then trained the participants from the pilot schools during the second half of November.