Exactly one year ago, I had the opportunity to be part of a chain of schools which promises quality education to private school students minus the skyrocketing fees most private schools offer nowadays. This is a start-up by Ayala Corporation, one of the biggest business conglomerates in the country and Pearson, the world’s leading educational company.
Having been part of one of Ayala Foundation’s programs in the past, I knew that Ayala is involved in educational ventures such as Centex, Text2Teach and others. This is the first time though that Ayala is venturing into Secondary Education and I was nothing but curious on how this will turn out for the company.
July 2014 marked the launch of over 12 private high schools around Metro Manila and along with it is the start of a year long journey with a unique model of educating the Filipino youth. I could say that I learned a lot of new things as I journeyed through the school year. Some of them are new and some are good reiterations of basic principles that teachers already know but seem to forget.
1. Affordable Education is a possibility
I guess the most frequent question that I get whenever I am asked where I work is “How is that possible?” To be honest, affordable, quality and private are never really used in one sentence frequently. This new model of education is new to the Philippine setting where quality has always been attached to private schools and affordability to public schools. The concept of Affordable quality private education, however, is not new. It has been done in other parts of the world. The question remains though, how is it possible?
There are definitely a lot of factors that need to be considered in coming up with a franchise such as this. But for the purpose of this article, we have to get a glimpse of how complicated and costly the educational system has been. To give you an example many private schools require its students to purchase books. I remember that in my highschool alma mater, every student is required to have a copy of the textbook in each subject. Parents need to pay an amount of no less than 4000 Php just to purchase them all.
In APEC, the use of textbook is not entirely removed but the students are not required to purchase them. The school realized that textbooks can be used as reference materials but majority of the lessons can now be sourced out from the web, unlike before. This makes a lot of sense especially now that the birth of the internet and other technological advances led to the growth, discovery, production and consumption of information in an unprecedented rate. This is something that printed textbooks can not entirely cater to. Also, why purchase something very expensive when you are really just going to use it for a year?
There are a lot more things that the school does that helps it maintain its quality low-cost status. I believe that it is a model worth replicating and sustaining.
2. The Know-it-all teacher is dead.
In a traditional worldview the teacher is the sole source of knowledge and information while the students are viewed as empty vessels passively waiting for knowledge to be passed on from the teacher. This is not the case anymore. With the young generation’s exposure to evolving types of media, such as the internet, students nowadays become more and more active participants in the teaching and learning process.
This has led to a shift in the responsibilities of a teacher from instruction to facilitation. Teachers now are expected to draw out information from the students. With this is the mindset that students, in one way or another, know something about the topic at hand. Teachers are encouraged to see the students’ experience as teachable materials and as jumping boards in the introduction of a topic.
My personal experience in APEC has taught me the importance of letting students discover the information with the teacher’s assistance. It has taught me to be more open minded and to be forgiving of students mistake which, in fact, is an important element for them to be able to learn a certain material. I do have a tendency to want everything to be right all the time, but then I realized that more mistakes that the students make, the nearer they are in coming up with the correct answer. I have never really seen it that way before but then being with the school made me realize that learning is indeed a journey rather than a destination both for the students and me, as their teacher.
3. Discipline is a skill young people have yet to master
One of the biggest dilemmas of teachers is handling and managing discipline. A minute attributed to managing a student’s misbehavior is a minute taken away from instructional time. The truth is, it is very hard to manage or handle misbehavior especially if at the start of the school year the teacher failed to establish authority. It is not a secret that coming up with the right amount of authority and being approachable can be very tricky. You want your students to respect you but at the same time to be not afraid of you.
Another challenge presented by classroom management is developing the skill of catching misbehavior even before it happens. It is more than increasing your teacher radar because it involves creating a classroom environment wherein students are mindful of the rules set in the classrooms and the consequences that go with them. Furthermore, it requires consistency and fairness on the part of the teacher.
My experience with APEC has taught me a proper mindset on handling students’ misbehavior. I remember clearly how Mary Anne explained that when you think of how discipline as a skill that students have yet to master you become more patient and understanding in handling misbehaviors. The best part of being with APEC is that it teaches you to look beyond the surface of misbehavior and looking more on the tendencies and motivations that cause students to misbehave. It is very easy to reprimand students of their behavior but it is another thing to really sit down with the student and understand where they are coming from and what the consequences of their actions are.
4. Conversation and constant feedback is key.
One of the main reasons that employees leave is stagnation.Doing the same thing all over again can hamper one’s productivity. Being under appreciated can be more dangerous than being overworked. Intrinsic motivation can be useful but knowing that there are people who are able to see your body of work and appreciate it at the same time, can add value to the tasks at hand.
In the APEC setting we are fortunate enough to have a team of Master Teachers who visit us and observe the classes that we are handling. Creating a culture of feedback helps teachers to always be on their toes and gives the motivation to always put their best foot forward. The feedback that master teachers give reminds us that there is always a better way to do things and that there is always something that can be changed to make the classroom experience better for the students. Without this, I think teachers would just be doing their own thing and would be unaware of the wonderful possibilities that could still be done in the classroom.
I am fortunate enough to have Melvin, Dianne and Gerald as my master teachers. Their honesty on the things that I did well and in the things that I have yet to do well, makes teaching more fun and positively challenging. Knowing that there are mentors who are always ready to lend a helping hand can be a source of inspiration to do better everyday. More than that, the conversations about teaching, about students and about life make working fun and enjoyable.
5. Teach the importance of Dreams.
School has always been a place where someone asks you what you want to be in the future. It’s no different here in APEC. We always ask our students what they want to be in the future. But I guess the difference lies in how we actually use these dreams to encourage students to perform well in school.
At the start of the school year, I asked my students what they dream of becoming in the future and I got the usual answers along with some unusual ones. I asked them to make a dream board where they have all their pictures along with the things that they dream of becoming. We displayed it in the classroom and since then we always started the day with our mantra “The Dream Catcher”. We also made a video out of it which you can watch here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9XlDXPEeO0
I learned that always reminding students of their dreams can be a useful tool in encouraging them to do well in school. Helping them realize that what they do today may have a big impact on their future. It makes school more purposeful and interesting no matter how painstaking it may get.
6. The Journey is as important as the destination.
During the first term, I observed that students usually would write goals that are related to assessment. It was always about acing the test, getting a high score, passing the exam. It was nice that they wanted to get perfect scores in their tests but after a consultation with MT Gerald, I realized that though the goal of acing a test in itself is impressive, we also have to put premium on the process of achieving the goal.
So come second quarter, my students tried to focus more on the APEC values. We realize that acing a test is easy, but practicing grit, having self-control or maintaining integrity all throughout the day is more challenging than a thirty minute test.
Third term came, and I realized that my students would come up with a lot of goals everyday. It was good on one hand but I did see that many of them are not able to achieve these goals. To better help the students, I asked them to write only one goal everyday but in addition, they have to write a paragraph on how specifically they will be able to achieve the goal that they have set for themselves. It was a good exercise on building strategy and at the same time reiterating that goals are not just things that they have to write for compliance but rather something that they have to commit to.
Fourth term cam and I wanted to tweak the goal making exercise a little. So after writing their goal and their strategy on how to arrive at the goal, I asked my students to exchange notebooks and look at the goals of their classmates. I will then ask them to write a recommendation to help their classmates arrive at their goals for the day. This exercise, I believe, was aimed at promoting collaboration in helping each other achieve their goals.
One of the usual qualifications that a company considers in hiring its employees is the capability to be goal-driven. I always wondered how a student’s capability to be goal-driven can be honed inside the classroom. When I joined APEC Schools, I was happy to know that the school puts premium on helping students acquire the skill of setting goals. This may be a simple task but it can help students a lot.
7. Help students make sense.
One of the most unique feature of APEC schools is the reflection time. During this time students are asked to reflect on how their day was and to write the said reflection on their journals.This exercise is very useful in terms of helping students make sense of their learning. Moreover it helps students assess their performance through out their day b pointing out the things that helped them and the things that might have distracted them.
This exercise also helps students evaluate whether or not they were able to achieve the goal that they have set for themselves. Through the reflection time, the students will be able to determine whether or not they were able to achieve their goal. It can also be a way to make students realize the things that they have done to help them achieve the goal or the things that they were not able to do that made them miss their goal for the day.
In my experience, reflection time can be a very effective tool in knowing the students more deeply which can be helpful in giving appropriate grades in their skills and values assessment. Also, more than anything else, it is very heartwarming to know that students are very willing to open themselves up and trust you with their stories. The students’ journals, albeit discreet, is a form of sincere communication between the teacher and the student.
8. Values should always be verbs not nouns.
Most of the schools in the country have what you call their core values that hey wish to impart to their students. More often than not, these values are painted on the school walls or embedded in the school’s logo. However, the problem is that many schools regard the core values passively, some just have it for show or because it sounds nice.
In APEC, it is very different. Values are not just fancy word you hang up on the ceiling. They are things that students are expected to embody day in and day out. They are in the very core of the classroom experience and students get to talk about these values all year round. In fact, part of disciplining a student is asking him to identify what values he could have practiced to prevent a certain misbehavior from happening.
Of course, we cannot claim that the students have already embodied the values after a year of being with APEC but through constant conversation and reminder we are able to bring these values into the students’ consciousness. We are driving a point that these values must be seen more in action rather than in words.
9. Collaboration is the new black.
I remember a few months back, I posted on facebook a status regarding the possibility of removing the honor roll system in schools. I must say most of those who commented saw it negatively and cannot even grasp the idea of a school with no honor system. Right there and then, I realized that thee is something wrong with how most people view education and the education system.
When I got to APEC, I was able to see that a school can exist without an honor roll system. Students should not be put up against each other and should see school not as a place where they will be marked everyday but rather a place here they can learn for the sake of learning. Furthermore, students should see school as a place where they can help one another to learn and grow.
Collaboration is a very big word in this school and it cuts through not only in the instruction but also in the management and supervision of the school. When students collaborate, they are able to expand what they already know and they are able to make the academic tasks easier. Also,we cannot deny that the school is going through a lot of birthing pains but collaborating makes it easier for everybody. This made me realize that collaboration should be and is the new norm.
10. Highlight the positive.
At the end of every teaching day, the teachers get a chance to debrief. During this time we are able to talk about any concerns we had for the day and any inspiring thing that might have happened. However, not all days are good and sometimes teaching can be really toxic. There are times that whenever my school head Angeloe would ask me how the day has been, I would come up with a litany of rants and disappointments and what have you. But Angeloe would always ask us again, “So what’s good today?” and we will start mustering all the positive things we experienced tat day no matter ow small they may seem.
I did not realize it then but I guess I get it now. Looking at the positive side of things is always a choice that we have to make everyday. Teaching can easily be a very frustrating job is you are looking at all the negative things happening either inside or outside the classroom. But when you choose to focus on the positive things, it can make the job less stressful and more meaningful. Highlighting the positive may not seem easy at first but when you are bale to master it, life can get a bit more interesting.
There are a lot more things that I know will come my way as my professional journey continues with APEC. There are still a lot of things to be learned. There are a lot more students waiting to be inspired. There a lot more new ideas and concepts to be discovered and certainly, there are a lot more experiences to write about. My first year was challenging, indeed, which makes me very excited for the incoming school year, still with APEC Schools.
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