The gift of reading
Maribel Daisog, P. Manalo Elementary School’s remedial coordinator, passionately strives to help students become proficient in reading.
How a teacher’s passion imparts more than reading proficiency to her students
How crucial is education in a child’s formative years?
Many would agree that the first five years are when milestones are supposed to occur—one of them, the ability to read. This is also one of the deciding factors that will determine how a child will fare for the rest of his or her student life.
Teacher Maribel P. Daisog has been tirelessly helping her students develop their reading skills for 13 years now. Apart from teaching Kindergarten and Grade 1 pupils, she is also the remedial coordinator of P. Manalo Elementary School in Pateros. She holds a special place in her heart for these students in her remedial class who, unlike their peers, need more time and guidance in practicing their reading skills.
CREATING JOYFUL CENTERS OF LEARNING
Daisog is one of the teachers from five schools in the National Capital Region (NCR) that went through the Reading Enhancement training of Mondelez Philippines in collaboration with Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP).
Seeing the need to reinforce the literacy and healthy lifestyle campaigns of the government, Mondelez Philippines (formerly Kraft Foods, Inc.) partnered with PBSP for the inception of Joy Schools in 2013. It aims to create joyful centers of learning and empower families to live healthy lifestyles. This is done by transforming schools with highest cases of wasted and severely wasted nutritional status of students into the top schools in their cities. The Php8-million grant from Mondelez also includes training on how to conduct feeding programs.
The five schools in this campaign are Bayanan Elementary School (main), Muntinlupa; P. Zamora Elementary School, Pasay; P. Manalo Elementary School,Pateros; Gen. Vicente Lim Elementary School, Manila; and Sampaloc Site II Elementary School, Parañaque; with the addition of Panalaron Elementary School in Tacloban this year.
TEACHING FOR JOY SCHOOLS
While Daisog still has a long way to go in terms of helping her students in reading proficiency, she believes that slowly but surely, she will be able to accomplish her mission.
“Para sa akin, kapag nakita ko ‘yung mga pupils ko na marunong nang magbasa at pag nakapagtapos na sila. ‘Yun talaga masasabi ko na fulfilled ako. (For me, I will be fulfilled {as a teacher} when I see that my pupils are properly equipped with reading skills and when they finish their studies.),” said Daisog.
She credits her own improved skills in teaching to PBSP and Mondelez. “Napakalaki ng naitulong ng PBSP at Mondelez. Sabi ko sa mga co-teachers ko, ‘We are the lucky ones dahil sa support na ibinigay nila sa amin. (PBSP and Mondelez helped us a lot. I told my co-teachers, ‘We are the lucky ones’ because of the support they gave us.),” she added.
Her passion for teaching has indeed paid off because until now Daisog continues to serve as an inspiration even to her former pupils.
“Thankful ako na ‘yung mga dati kong pupils, bumabalik sila para magpasalamat. Meron nga magpapatulong sa akin sa assignment. Natutuwa din naman ako kasi kilala pa rin nila ako kahit malaki na sila. Thankful din ako kasi naturuan ko sila magbasa nung bata pa sila. ‘Yun talaga ang pangarap ko para sa kanila. (I am also thankful that I still have former pupils who still come up to me to thank me for the help that I have given them. They sometimes even ask for my help with their assignments. I am happy they haven’t forgotten me. I am also thankful that I was able to teach them how to read when they were young. This was really my dream for them.), said Daisog