Metrobank awardee is a Global Filipino Teacher

MANILA, Philippines - Thirty-nine-year-old Galcoso Alburo never wanted to be a teacher. In fact, he developed a strong dislike for teachers due to not-so-good experiences in the past. So he took up AB Filipino in college with a focus on mass communications only to grow disillusioned with the way some of his colleagues took advantage of their position. He later on worked as a data controller and accounting clerk at a now-defunct telecom firm.

But the pull of the teaching profession must be in his blood, having a father who is also a teacher. In a twist of fate, Galcoso ended up a Filipino subject instructor in a private school for three years before transferring to Concepcion Integrated School in Marikina City in 1997.

When the country entered the information and communications technology (ICT) age, Galcoso became restless. He felt that the Filipino subject was being overlooked when it comes to ICT. He wanted more than just the traditional chalk and blackboard, and pen and paper. Yet he didn’t know where to begin. It was during that time that the Global Filipino Teacher (GFT) program of Globe Telecom and the Coalition for Better Education (CBE) was introduced to his school.

“How to incorporate ICT in teaching Filipino became a challenge to me. I believe that the real essence of ICT integration should mean that it must be relevant to the real world. The GFT program taught me all I need to do that. GFT pushes for natural integration of ICT in the teaching-learning environment especially in the public school system,” he said.

The five-day intensive GFT training gave Galcoso ideas on how to approach his subject via ICT. First, he taught his students how to open an e-mail account using the desktop computers and Internet connection provided by Globe. With the explosion of social media, it didn’t take long before 99 percent of his students were on Facebook.

These days, Galcoso conducts lessons not only in the classroom. Facebook has become an extension of the school, a virtual place of learning. Facebook is where he posts assignments, asks questions on various topics to encourage even the most timid student to participate, and provides links to his blog where he posts reading materials which he himself encoded.

Aside from the usual Microsoft Office programs, Galcoso also taught the students how to make short films using computer programs and apps, and how to upload them to the Internet.

“With the power of technology, an ideal teacher should be able to teach anytime and anywhere. I’m proud to say that I can be a teacher even outside the school,” Galcoso said.

Galcoso, one of the Ten Most Outstanding Teachers of Metrobank Foundation, said GFT was also instrumental in this recognition. “GFT enlightened me on how to be more technologically savvy, particularly how to use the Internet in teaching, how to hit specific websites that could help in our own activities, and provide highly-interactive class discussions,” he said.

Of all the lessons included in the GFT training, Galcoso is primarily thankful to the project-based learning module, an innovation that connects school experiences with the real world.

With PBL, students are guided on how to complete a project which encompasses different school subjects and is therefore, graded by the teachers concerned. In Galcoso’s case, the students did a study on gender equality assessment among medical practitioners and the police force in Marikina City. More than the results of the study, the process was given a heavier weight as students learned how to write letters using Microsoft Word, use Microsoft Excel for tallying survey results, conduct research over the Internet, and make a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.

“Computer units and Internet connections are nothing if it will not be properly utilized in the school so we are thankful to the Globe GFT program for training us on different applications and proper use of ICT,” Galcoso said.