A Teacher is not only a facilitator of learning, but also a Learner.
Good day Hive. I would like to share the knowledge and values that I have learned from our Moral Values Seminar today, April 12, 2024 from 8:00 in the morning until 12:00 noon.
Upon arriving on the venue, a lot of teachers from different schools of our district were already there. Some teachers are in line for the registration of the training and I directly follow the last person in the line.
After the registration, I looked for my co-teachers because we will sit according to our school. When I found them, there are no enough chairs on their row, so I decided to sit on the vacant chair in front of them.
I also like to sit in front because I can hear the speaker clearly and it is easy for me to take down notes.
The seminar started with an opening prayer followed by Philippine National Anthem, Sugbo Hymn, Tabogon Hymn, energizer, welcome remarks, and introduction of participants, introduction of speakers, and then the session proper.
Ma'am Cinco warmly welcome all the participants of the seminar. According to her, teacher is a noble profession. The seminar that we have today, aims to foster a culture of integrity and respect among individuals. It enhances the teachers' critical thinking and moral skills. She also added that it is the foundational steps to build a good community.
Furthermore, values are not only an integration of the subject, but also a subject to learn. She ended her welcome remark with a quote of William Arthur Ward.
"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires."
Our first speaker is from Inayawan, Pardo, Cebu. He is serving 40 years in Archdiocesan Evangeline Ministry. His name is Brother Bing Villiarta. He let us watch a worship video on the screen and he asks everybody to observe the people on the video the way they worship God. Then, he let us stand, sing, dance, praise and worship the Lord.
I learned from him that God created first the dove, fire, and the wind. The Holy Spirit guided all of us always. He also shares about moral values. It is a belief system and principle that help us make decisions about the correct behavior in a given situation. It forms the basis of our behavior and action in different situation and often derived from sources like culture, religion, family values, laws, and personal experiences. He cited an example such as honesty and respect.
Honesty means telling the truth, but also avoiding the deception and ensuring you are not misrepresenting facts.
Respect refers to honoring others by treating them with dignity. To be respectful, we would aim to be polite, kind, and honor other people’s wishes.
He also highlighted that no matter how busy we are, we will always give time to pray and talk to God. Moreover, he also explains the Ten Commandments.
- You shall have no other Gods before me.
- You shall not make for yourself idols and worship them.
- You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
- Remember the Sabbath by keeping it holy.
- Honor your father and mother.
- You shall not kill.
- You shall not commit adultery.
- You shall not steal.
- You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
- You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.
He said that God written the ten commandments on the stone and it is also written in our hearts, and we will always forgive the person that do wrong to us and God will forgive us.
He ended his talk by saying "You are the son and daughter of God." and he told us to tap the shoulder of our seatmate and tell him or her that he or she is the child of God.
Our second speaker is brother Efren Rubas. I was touched by his story. He shared to all of us his life story. He shared to us that he went to jail before. After the circumstances that he had, God touches his heart and led him to the path of God. He surrenders himself to God and prioritized God above all and everything.
He also tells about baptism of the Holy Spirit and the story about the walls of Jericho that the Lord said to Joshua and his army to march around Jericho for six days. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, and have the priest blow the horns. When they give a long blast on the ram’s horns, at the seventh time, when the priest had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for the Lord has given you the city” and the walls of Jericho collapse.
The Moral lesson of the story that I have learned is to obey God and have a strong faith on him. We can pass all the trials in life no matter how hard it is if we have a strong belief and trust to God.
Just like your parents and teachers. Your parents sometimes are so tough in dealing with their children. You have to trust and understand your parents on the way they treated you because they just want you to grow brave, strong, and responsible. They do not want you to cry and just give up when obstacles are trying to pull you down.
And the teacher as your second parent in school, you should understand if he or she corrected you for the wrongdoings. The teacher just wants to makes sure that your cup is not only full of knowledge and wisdom, but also with spiritual aspects, good values, and good attitude.
If a teacher also fills the cup of the learners with spiritual aspects, good values and attitude, why a teacher still need to attend this kind of Moral Values Seminar?
A teacher is just human like everybody else. He or she is not perfect. It does not mean when a person is a teacher, he or she does not need a new learning.
Learning is dynamic just like the language. There are things in this world that we already learned, but still need change and improvement.
That's all, thank you so much for reading my blog 😊