It was a fair weathered morning, and the town was still silent. There were children seen going to school and a few vendors hoping to make a profit early in the morning. But they are not the only ones on the scene. On the valley of Pangasinan, in the municipality of Natividad, teachers from different districts and towns along with their principals gathered for a Teachers’ Training.

Professor Shirley Equipado. Ma’am Shirley, as the participants fondly called her, began with story reading. Goldilocks. She showed how teachers may be able to make Reading very interesting for their students. She emphasized the use of intonation; long and short pause, and correct pronunciation of words. These according to her, good reading will catch the attention of children, and will make them want to learn even more. The teachers were amazed at how simply she narrated the story… They were also enlightened on how story-telling can be helpful to elementary readers.

The second part of the training was focused on reducing anxiety of children towards Mathematics. According to Ma’am Shirley, children fear Mathematics even before they experience it. She asked the participants of the training to list several reasons why their students fear Mathematics, and those, as she said, were very irrational. She then presented the teachers top ten myths about Mathematics and gave them strategies on effective teaching. One such strategy was the proper use of simple instructional materials. She mentioned that since children are playful, teachers have to be creative.

The training ended with a promise by the teachers. Ma’am Shirley made them promise that they will try to be patient with their students.

As more teachers are helped by Synergeia, more students will be able to have access to good and quality education. Synergeia remains committed to its goal of building more communities to make education work.