For Grade IV teacher Nancy Aquino, teaching is a challenge that she enjoys facing every day. Whether it be dealing with intelligent fast-learners, or imparting lessons to deprived out-of-school youths, teaching is the profession she will always love even as she has been doing it for 19 years.

“Mahirap maging teacher, but after 19 years, commitment ko na talaga ang pagtuturo,” the 42-year-old Master II teacher says.

And those years did pay off. Aquino is one of the 10 awardees of the 2010 Metrobank Foundation Search for Outstanding Teachers. “‘Yung iba nagtuturo for compliance, ako talagang pinaghahandaan ko. Kung gusto mo talaga ng quality, you have to prepare especially now that you can’t get away with the traditional way of teaching. Ayaw ng mga bata ang boring and I’m so happy kasi talagang nageexcel sila ngayon,” Aquino relates.

DREAM COME TRUE

Aquino had always wanted to become a teacher. When she was a young girl, she would use their house’s walls as blackboards and her dolls as her pretend-students. It was also her father’s dream for all his five daughters to become teachers. Three actually made that dream come true.

“Ang tatay ko ‘yun ang pangarap sa amin, siya na raw ang pinaka masayang ama kung naging guro ang mga anak niya. Kasi noon kapag teacher, mataas ang tingin. At saka ‘yun ang pinaka mataas na kurso noon sa bayan namin,” Aquino shares.

She finished her Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education at Southern Baptist College in M’lang Cotabato in 1988. She first taught Grade 1 pupils at King’s College of Marbel in Koronadal, South Cotabato and after two years, she transferred to a barangay school in her hometown, M’lang. She now teaches at M’lang Pilot Elementary School.

“Mahirap ‘yung adjustment from private to public kasi makikita mo ‘yung difference. Sa barangay school, walang kuryente, walang tubig. Sa hapon, pagkatapos ng klase ang maririnig mo lang huni ng ibon, umiiyak talaga ako kasi nasanay ako sa city,” she recalls.

TEACHING THE BEST

In 1997, she was tasked to teach top students. It was her work with smart pupils that differentiated her from the rest of the faculty. Despite a seemingly easy job, she focused her time — even her lunch hours — to further teach her advanced students. She then created the Every Child a Math Enthusiast (ECAME), Vocabulary Building Enrichment Activities (VBEA), and Enhancing Handwriting Program (EHP) programs for her students, working on a schedule.

“Nakikita ko kasi ‘yung one hour na lesson, kulang so ang ginagawa ko nagbibigay ako ng enrichment activities. I do this every 12:30 to 1:00 p.m. – Monday to Friday – para sa mga bata na instead maglaro sila, I give them enrichment activities in Math like problem solving, exercises, and also peer tutoring,” she explains.

Through activities she created like “Find Words in a Word,” her VBEA students are able to enrich their vocabulary. She is also a coach to her Grade 4 team that competes at the Metrobank-MTAP-DepEd Math Challenge and Math Olympics.

TEACHING THE DEPRIVED

Aside from teaching the best, she also learned to love to teach the deprived.

In 2006, she was asked by DepEd’s Alternative Learning System to teach the out-of-school-youths of M’lang. She dedicated her weekends to teach a total of 120 students for two years.

“Nagturo ako ng out-of-school youths, Kung ano ang approach ko na ginagawa ko sa elementary students ko, ‘yun ang ginagawa ko and they really enjoyed the activities,” she says.

A total of six OSY students under her program passed DepEd’s Accreditation and Equivalency Test and were promoted to high school and college levels.

She plans to continue teaching OSYs on her own, especially those who show the eagerness to learn. “Parang nangangailangan nga sila ng teacher kaya I’m thinking of doing it again kahit wala na ‘yung program. I realize na iyan ang gusto kong gawin, ‘yan ang calling ko habambuhay,” she ends.