WE SURELY have missed sending them fluffy little gifts or bursts of colors or even words of love and thanks. This time, yes. Because for the past years, this day’s always a roll of highlight.
With the ongoing pandemic, here we are – stuck in our homes waiting for learning modules and the official signal for go’s. Well, classes begin today. And we have anticipated this fresh setup.
Maybe we know we can’t hug them today, sadly, but we can always look back at their experiences and learn from their struggles even before the pandemic started.
As we mark National Teachers’ Day today, Oct. 5, let us wade into our teachers’ blurry realities as we journey with them bringing with us their fights and dreams for a better tomorrow.
Panay News compiled these heartwarming stories of our beloved Ma’ams and Sirs as they fulfill their very mandate: give quality education to their pupils and students amid adversity.
Go, Sir Moises!
Actually, this post of a college instructor from Surigao del Sur recently went viral on Facebook as he was seen crossing a river in the province’s Tandag City just to deliver reading materials to his students.
According to Palomo, the wooden ‘bridge’ suddenly broke and some pages of the materials fell into the water. He tried retrieving those, but he fell down, too.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MOISES PALOMO
Every kilometer counts
In Barangay Tipolo, Lanao del Norte, this teacher walks around two kilometers everyday for him to deliver the learning modules to his students.
Sir Stanley Butalid carefully grips the box containing the modules for he would pass by a river and a hill, reports from ABS-CBN News revealed.
According to Butalid,one of the greatest challenges of this distance learning is how parents would cater to their children’s education.
“Marami ang hindi nasagutan sa module dahil hindi rin alam ng magulang. ‘Yong ibang magulang, ‘no read no write,’ hindi matututukan ang pag-aaral ng mga bata dahil kailangan rin magtrabaho sa sakahan,” he shared following a dry-run of the new mode of learning.
PHOTO COURTESY OF STANLEY BUTALID
‘Everyday she is striving’
A daughter penned a sincere post to her mother who is a public school teacher in Batangas City, and it touched the hearts of the online community.
Angie Macatangay shared a photo of her mom Vicky Macatangay who is, at midnight, still busy preparing learning materials for her students.
“She’s non-techy and old gen teacher pero everyday she is striving,” Angie said.
The daughter also urged students to appreciate the efforts of teachers and include them to their prayers.
‘Brownout ka lang, teacher ako’
Because of the sudden power interruption, this teacher from Kinaadman Elementary School in Tigbauan, Iloilo has found a way to continue holding her classes.
And that’s to go over her car, charge her internet connection, resume class. Para-paraan lang ‘yan!
PHOTO COURTESY OF MA SOL/FB
‘Appreciate our teachers’ effort, understand their shortcomings’
“We will never understand their struggles unless we’re seating on their side of the screen.”
Anexa Marie Gange, a daughter of teacher has also shared the struggles of her mom at the start of online classes amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a Facebook post, she wrote:
I honestly got a little teary eyed seeing her in her first online class this morning. I witnessed how much she prepared for this for four months – making modules, practicing Zoom and Google meet to the point where we even pretended to be her students for practice purposes. My mom isn’t the kind of person who is fond of social media and the internet but for the past months, we only see her infront of her gadgets downloading and trying applications that may make her class more convenient. She even slept late last night trying to perfect her PPT, prepared her clothes for the day and was so frustrated when our internet connection wasn’t too stable this morning. Today, she had to juggle both being a mom of two kids who were also preparing for the first day of online classes and a teacher who had to prepare for her own class as well.
This is why no matter how frustrated I am with the online classes, I continue to bear with my teacher. It’s not their fault that we are stuck in this set up. Seeing my mom, I am reminded that teachers are adjusting and are having a hard time too. They’re also adjusting to the technology and trying their best to adjust to our situation and that like us, they’re also stuck at home finding the best means and resources to teach their classes. So let’s appreciate our teacher’s effort and understand their shortcomings.
It is okay to voice out your complaints, but please do it with respect. We will never understand their struggles unless we’re seating on their side of the screen. You can hate the system, but not your teachers. Goodluck sa online classes everyone.
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Our teachers need us as much as we need them. Let’s make them feel that they are not alone in this fight. In this journey. We understand their discomforts. They also understand our struggles. Maybe our demand for a better system – if we collectively raise our voices – would give them, give us, the dive in the space we truly deserve. It’s your day, Ma’am and Sirs. And we are with you./PN
