Story and Photos by Georgene Quilaton-Tambiga
November 7, 2020—Colegio de Sto. Tomas-Recoletos, Inc. hosts the first of a series of webinars sponsored by the San Carlos City Private Schools Association (SCCPSA).
“Stress Management Tools in the New Normal” featured Dr. Junrel Zarco, Vice-President for Academics of Asian College of Technology-International Educational Foundation, and Dr. Jeralden R. Jumao-as from Cebu Normal University.
Six SCCPSA schools joined the virtual event including CST-R, Colegio de Sta. Rita, Tañon College, Daisy’s ABC School Foundation, Our Lady of Peace Mission School and Our Lady of the Mountains Mission School. Each school registered at least 15 faculty members.
Manage Stress at Work
Zarco, who is also the managing director of SJ Training and Consultancy Services that focuses on training teachers, discussed the varied strategies that teachers can easily apply in order to manage stress in the new normal workplace.
He emphasized the need for cognitive rehabilitation for when teachers are already showing memory lapses and work inefficiency. Cognitive rehab can include keeping an activity and deadline calendar, developing a new work system, and making tasks and goals visible on a daily basis. All these are aimed at training the mind and developing mental responses to improve work efficiency.
Emotional diffusion, Zarco added, is also an effective means of sorting out and releasing emotions at a time when work stress is coupled with anxiety over the pandemic situation. Developing hobbies, breathing exercises and practicing creativity are healthy and effective strategies to divert negative emotions.
The SEL Way
Meanwhile, Jumao-as introduced the topic of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) in the New Normal. Although the foundation principles of SEL can be attributed to existing principles of education, its implementation is made urgent and valuable now that modes of instruction are limited through online and modular classes.
Jumao-as, who is a CNU instructor specializing in early childhood education, told participants that now a teacher’s “work is to make social-emotional learning stable.” She cited practical and doable methods of incorporating values in both live and asynchronous instructional materials. She also emphasized that SEL actually means that teachers today need to partner with parents for their children’s education because social-emotional learning begins at home.
For his part, Rev. Fr. Joel Alve, OAR, CST-R Director and Principal and incumbent SCCPSA President, in his welcome address, spoke of the need for faculty and staff to acquire and apply novel methods of stress management.
SCCPSA is currently organizing the next webinars that will involve school administrators and student-leaders as participants.
SCCPSA is an association of private secondary and elementary schools in San Carlos City whose administration is passed on from one member-school to another biennially.
