EXPERIENCE DAVAO

Davao City is well thought-out as one of the fastest developing regions in the country. The mountainous region is really capable of arousing the curiosity of every visitor because of its diversified cultural traditions and extraordinary gift of nature. Teacher Cris and I are just few of the lucky ones invited by the Rex Bookstore Inc., to attend and participate on the Understanding by Design Seminar (UbD) held last December 6-7, 2010 at Davao City. Davao city explored our imagination. Me gustara estudiar los lmites del conocimiento y la naturaleza! (I would like to study the limits of knowledge and the nature) There are fascinating places and landmarks in Davao that brought us closer to amidst of nature. Our adventures within the 80 hectares resort of Edens Nature Park and Philippine Eagle, whose sanctuary is at the foot of Mt. Apo, Philippines highest mountain was unquestionably perfect. With its remarkable temperature and abundance of natural resources, the Seminar-Educational trip was in fact exciting and memorable. In our quest for knowledge we became acquainted with nature, and it made us feel good. We are indulged in different spectacular views of pine trees, breathtaking panoramic views of the lake and mountain ranges stretched out within the overlooking horizon of Davao city simply made us feel another day in paradise. The cool morning breeze, the scent of pines and herbs exquisitely merged with the peaceful sounds of birds from the aviary near our villa (Camella 8) were oh so overwhelming. The foods that they served were in abundant flavors (super sarap talaga!) and in careful preparations in buffet of natural fresh raw ingredients, planted and harvested on the other side of the mountain. As I looked around the green headed mountain , it seemed were miles away from all our daily worries. Our amiable speaker Ms. Rita J. Atienza welcomed us with the new sets of idea about the increasingly popular tool for educational planning UbD (Understanding by Design). She worked hand in hand with the UbD framework designer/recognized educators Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. As it was defined in the books and internet sites, the emphasis of UbD is on "backward design", the practice of looking at the outcomes in order to design curriculum units, performance assessments, and classroom instruction.[1]. The whole idea rocked our world. Thanks to Ms. Rita because she enlightened our mind about this new framework in building a curriculum. I believe we are already doing the same practice but in different orientation. Sometimes you would ask yourself: How do you know that students truly understand my lesson? Can my students apply their understanding in a meaningful way? The whole idea might be in a very long process before you could master every detail but its not as hard as it was first introduced to us. At first, everybody was puzzled about this new framework in education where its only objective is to enhance each educators capacity in engaging the students to effective life long learning. Following very pages of the hand-outs and listening to the angst of each and every participant, as an educator, all we have tried to do is to pull together whats the best practice in designing effective learning process for the our curriculum. Knowledge is not just information to be memorized or retrieved instead it should be acquired. We could let our students memorized facts and concepts, do from the mathematical equations to calculus, make an experiment but you cannot dictate being responsible individual as easy as ABC. A responsible person is measured how they continue doing the assigned tasks despite his/her complains or protest, with or without somebody watching over them. The true beauty of basic education lies after the ten-year learning process and measured how our students apply those concepts in real life situations. After days of planning and analyzing I believe this new framework will help both educators and learners be on the right track towards progress. Anyway, what is teaching without understanding? .

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understanding_by_Design

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understanding_by_Design