Championing Learning Continuity in the New Normal

-Narrative Report of the School- Based Orientation to Parents for the

Effective Implementation of the Distance Delivery Modalities

October 2, 2020, Facebook Live

New home… New journey… New normal…

A Chinese philosopher once said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” and
on the second day of October 2020, the faculty, staff and the stakeholders of Fernando Air Base
Integrated National High School took another step towards the attainment of continuous learning in the
new normal as the school held the orientation to parents for the effective implementation of the
distance delivery modalities via Facebook Live.

As the whole FABINHS community adapts to its new site, it was also timely that the Department
of Education adopted a new set-up in education amidst the pandemic; thus, new ways to provide
education were also introduced.

This paved for the issuance of the Division Memorandum No. 110, s. 2020 that provided
guidelines for schools in the conduct of the school-based orientation to parents which would raise
awareness to the duties and responsibilities of parents/ guardians in delivering the chosen distance
learning modality. In here, parents will be provided with a deeper understanding of the new set-up in
education and with strong support in the continuous basic education.

To formally start with the orientation, a prayer and nationalistic song were rendered in a form of
a video presentation. This was followed by the welcome message of the General Parent-Teacher
Association President Mr. Ruben P. Magnaye.

In his message, Mr. Magnaye acknowledged the great role of the local government unit, the
school administration, the teacher and the parents in assuring that education would continue in time of
pandemic. He also stated the importance of attending the orientation as it would give the parents the
ideas on how to properly guide their children in dealing with online classes as the internet might open
possibilities to students to get exposed with some sensitive and inappropriate information. He also
encouraged the parents to never get tired of supporting and guiding their kids to ensure learning at
home despite the pandemic.

Then, the father of the institution, Mr. Joe I. Titular, talked about the parents’ responsibilities
which involved parental guidance and supervision of their children’s learning. In his talk, he enumerated
the duties of the parents. He cited that the school has provided 100% of the learning materials to be
used by the students. He also discussed in a nutshell what Modular Distance Learning is through 5P’s:
Paghahanda, Pagtungo, Pag-aaral, Pagbabalik and Pagtugon. Additional reminders were also given by
the principal such as the use of the Weekly Home Learning Plan and the Individual Progress Monitoring
Report and the guidelines in answering the activities in the modules and the work sheets.

Dr. Dulce M. Manaog, Head Teacher III of the Mathematics Department was the next speaker
and she discussed about the school’s chosen learning delivery modalities, its processes and
considerations. In this session, she discussed the different types of distance learning modalities. These
are the modular distance learning (MDL), online distance learning (ODL), TV and Radio- based instruction
and blended distance learning.

Dr. Manaog also mentioned of the survey of preferred learning modality to the parents and
gathered data showed that most of the parents chose MODL or Modular Distance Learning Modality and
this will be generally adopted as the school’s learning modality for both Junior High School and Senior
High School students. She also thanked the parents who had been showing support to the institution
since the onslaught of COVID 19 and requested for continuous parental support in the school’s future
activities.

The next speaker was Mrs. Alma G. Dimaano, Head Teacher III of the Language Department and
she tackled about the use of the Self- Learning Modules (SLMs), Weekly Home Learning Plan (WHLP) and
the Individual Learning Monitoring Plan.

Mrs. Dimaano reiterated that SLMs were based on the Most Essential Learning Competencies
(MELCs). She advised parents to constantly guide their children in answering the SLMS and to inculcate
within their children the value of self- discipline and perseverance and to encourage their children not
only to rely on the answer key that could be found at the end part of the modules. She highly
encouraged the students to do self- reflection as this would make learning more meaningful for them.

In addition to this, Mrs. Dimaano also discussed about the importance of the Weekly Home
Learning Plan to parents in monitoring the progress of their children in accomplishing tasks and in here,
Ma’am Dimaano also conferred how important it was to communicate with the teachers of their
children in case they had been having some difficulties in doing the learning tasks.

The last topic that Mrs. Dimaano explained was the Individual Learning Monitoring Form. This
form was for those students who would be found struggling in accomplishing the activities for each
subject and this form would help teachers to come up with the best intervention that would aid the
students in addressing their difficulties.

The next session was given by Mrs. Cin Dy V. Guce, FABINHS ICT Coordinator, and she delivered
a talk of the use of DepEd Commons and the other DepEd- recognized Learning Management Systems
like Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, HubHuman and Quipper. Mrs. Guce mentioned that DepEd
Commons is an alternative online aid to students in doing classroom tasks and reviews at the comfort of
their homes.

Moreover, Mrs. Guce introduced the different DepEd recognized LMS that teachers and
students may use to conduct classes even in a virtual set-up. However, the speaker also reminded the
parents that students should only use legitimate applications so as protect their children’s data privacy.

In addition to that, Mrs. Guce strongly emphasized Department Order 2020- 00612 that stated
the allowed screen time for students by the Department of Education as recommended by the World
Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Since learning and discipline could not be separated, Mr. Milner C. Lacorte, FABINHS Guidance
Counselor and Mr. Brian M. Lacerna, Chairman of the school’s Committee on Discipline, went one by
one in informing the parents of the schools’ rules and regulations, the minor and major offenses and
the sanctions for each offense. The rules that were laid down were based on the DECS Service Manual
2000, DepEd No. 40, s. 2012, Anti- Bullying Act of 2013, the guidelines on and reporting incidents ground
for student disciplinary action and the Division Memo 48 series of 2015. There were also other
provisions that had been added which were specific to the new normal set-up in education.

After everything had been discussed, the virtual orientation ended as the master of the
ceremony, Mr. Val D. Balita expressed his gratitude to parents who shared their valuable time in
attending the orientation. In the orientation every stake holder amidst the pandemic was in high hopes
to emerge as champion in delivering continuous, quality and inclusive education for every Batang
Fernando.