THE United States Embassy in the Philippines and the Department of Education (DepEd) launched on March 21 a new six-week virtual webinar training series on “Integrated Language Learning in Early Childhood: Focus on Literacy and Numeracy” to further support teachers and school heads amid the pandemic.
About 3,000 DepEd teachers and supervisors nationwide are expected to participate in the series, which will run through the week of April 25.
The US Embassy, US Department of State’s Office of English Language Programs, DepEd’s Teaching and Learning Division, and Bureau of Learning Delivery co-developed the course curriculum to meet the specific needs of K-3 teachers and learners in the Philippines during the ongoing pandemic. The course will provide guidance, methodology, as well as instructional materials and resources to English teachers via a team of three American English-language specialists who will lead the virtual sessions.
“I would like to extend my gratitude…to our program partners from DepEd, led by Undersecretary for Curriculum and Instruction Diosdado San Antonio,” said US Embassy Public Affairs Counselor John Groch.
San Antonio lauded the webinar series for its role in preparing Philippine educators for the future: “We are glad to collaborate with the English Language Office of the US Embassy in undertaking a very significant and noble initiative relative to our efforts in creating 21st-Century learners who possess 21st-Century skills.”
Once the course is completed, teachers and school heads will share what they learned with their counterparts in their local areas for implementation with K-3 learners. As part of this webinar series, educators will have access to an on-demand resource library that includes a viewing guide, activities, and discussion questions for local learning communities.
The first six-week webinar series for DepEd teachers and administrators, “Bridging the Distance Together,” took place from September 14 to October 21, 2020, and provided training on flexible learning to more than 1,600 teachers, which reached 3.7 million viewers on Facebook. Approximately 3,000 teachers and supervisors attended the second six-week series on “Teaching Grammar Communicatively in the Philippines” from March 22 to May 6, 2021, which had a Facebook reach of over 1.5 million.