Group trains daycare teachers

(originally published by Sun Star on April 21, 2008)

Montessorians also gave workshops to pre-school, elementary teachers from public schools

Hoping to improve the educational system in the city's public schools, the Cebu City Government, the Department of Education and the Association of Montessorians in Southern Philippines (AMSP) are joining hands to train preschool, daycare and elementary teachers.

Around 60 preschool, day care and elementary school teachers gathered for a 10-day workshop starting last week at the Oneworld Montessori House along Salvador Extension in Banawa, Cebu City.

The seminar/workshop trains the teachers about the Montessori education so they can apply this when classes resume in June.

Handling the seminar/workshop are teachers from Oneworld Montessori House.

The activity is one of the recommendations that Dr. Jocelyn Kintanar, Oneworld administrator and AMSP president, included in her proposal to DepEd and the City Government on how to improve public education in the city.

Discussion

After submitting the proposal to DepEd and the City, Kintanar sat down with Joy Augustus Young, Cebu City's consultant on education, and DepEd officials to discuss how to go about implementing her recommendations.

The present batch of participants is only part of the projected 290 teachers who will benefit from the program, said Kintanar.

Kintanar said she came up with the idea after noticing that something is lacking in the mainstream educational system.

She said the Montessori method could be a viable alternative to improving literacy of children.

Partnership

Like all Montessori schools worldwide, Oneworld aims to promote the total development of the child through parent-teacher partnership.

It strives for a holistic development of the child by seeing to his cognitive, emotional, social, physical and spiritual growth.

"We look at the child individually. We respect each child's learning pace and learning style. We implement individualized instruction," Kintanar said.

There are many other things the public school teachers can learn from the Montessori method, she said. This includes mixed age grouping in class; a hands-on learning instead of the textbook approach; the teacher not as center of attraction in the classroom but as a "guide" or "facilitator" only, and many more.

ONEWORLD Website http://www.oneworldcebu.com