EVENTS

A CURRICULUM INTEGRATION AND LEARNING PLAN SHOWCASE: CULTURE MAPPING, A TEACHINGLEARNING LIFESTYLE FOR A CULTURE-BASED CARING FOR OUR COMMON HOME

Prof. Mia Marie Jala-Biliran
Principal, Camaya-an National High School (CNHS)
Bohol, Philippines

Watch Full Video: https://youtu.be/Sx9sw_vwxZA

Action Song, Dance (“It’s a Beautiful Life”)
    
Hello, are you good? How are you? Let’s energize. What’s your body movement when you say, “Hello”? What about, “I am good!”? Then, how do you show “How are you?”

The group was divided into three and they practiced, counting the steps for
each expression. Then, dancing commenced with the song “It’s a Beautiful Life.” 

Did you feel the energy? We can now start. My talk will be on Culture Mapping for Culture-Based Caring for Our Common Home. I will give a historical background so you will understand how we started the mapping. Our school started in 1995 with 10 feeder barangays. Most of our students were overaged learners, children with behavioral problems, and dropouts from other schools. In the beginning, the academic achievement was low. Dropout rate was also increasing.

In 2008, I became the officer-in-charge (OIC). I thought of a way to motivate our students to decrease dropout rate, and this gave birth to the Arts Program. In 2010, the Skills Enhancement Program was created as an intervention to reduce the dropout rate. Children could choose which program they would like to be in based on their interests. There would be two hours of classes on their chosen program. Since Loboc is the music capital of Bohol, the music program bloomed the best. That is why during the culmination program, “Talento Ko, Kalamusan Ko” Projects, learners get to showcase their skills (Talento Ko, Tagumapay Ko). It is held to raise funds (or a show for a cause) to finance food, costumes, props, and some
instruments.

This has given opportunities for our learners to do performances within Loboc municipality. There are around 100 learners as members of the band, choir, and dance group. We saw them happy and inspired while performing. Later on, we started performing outside Loboc. We were invited to DepEd Regional Office’s events and celebrations. The neighboring towns took notice of us and started inviting us as well. We participated in arts-related competitions at national levels such as the Sayawit competition (a song-and-dance competition), chorale recitation, etc. Korina Sanchez and Cesar Montano had visited our school, which brought prestige and popularity to our school.

So, we became a school that offers the Special Program for the Arts. We
conducted teacher trainings and there were more performances. Then, we were granted a scholarship by the NCCA (National Commission for Culture and the Arts) for teachers toward a Graduate Diploma in Cultural Education. This started our culture mapping. Culture Mapping is a systematic approach to identifying, recording, classifying, and analyzing the cultural heritage of a certain place. It should be cultural heritage that is more than 50 years and it should have had an impact on the community that owns it. It refers to the totality of cultural property preserved and developed through time and passed on to posterity.

Tangible Heritage:

1. Movable – artwork, religious objects, crafts, household items, clothing, furniture, ceramics, coins, books
2. Immovable/built – Government structures, private built structures and commercial establishments, schools and hospital, churches, temples or places of worship, plaza, sports complex, cemetery, streets, heritage houses, etc.

Intangible Heritage:
Oral traditions, rituals, performing arts, personalities, festivities, traditional healing systems, knowledge, technology, culinary traditions, traditional craftsmanship, traditional dances, natural landforms

Cultural Mapping Process

1. Choose location
2. Communicate to community people
3. Make an inventory of cultural assets or resources
4. Choose what to map
5. Do the documentation
6. Validate information

Personal Realizations

1. Loboc is gifted with amazingly beautiful and abundant cultural assets, but the municipality has no documents of these assets.
2. The intangible cultural assets are slowly fading.
3. Low awareness of natural heritage sites except the river, Busai Falls, and Loctob spring – the most famous tourist attractions in Loboc
4. Majority does not value the tangible – movable heritage items except for religious items.
5. Only the old folks know about the important stories, history, legends, and other folktales.
6. If all these were documented, it can be easily taught for the community people to protect, preserve, and promote the environment.

My Research:
“The Value of Cultural Heritage to Students, Teachers, and Parents of Camaya-an National High School, Loboc, Bohol”

The guiding principle of this study is S.O.A.R.:

Search for truth, beauty, and good in communities

Opportunity Structures recognition and acceptance

Aspiration
Kuyug Program (Going Together)
Vision of DepEd (learners who passionately love their country)

Regeneration for development Processes
–Increasing Awareness (Appreciate, Value, Protect/Preserve)
Changing names of grade sections to names of natural heritage sites:
Examples: Gr 7- Busai, Pangas, Loctob, etc.

Contextualization:
English Competency: Explaining a process
Examples Suman making; basket weaving
Mathematics Competency: Solve routine and nonroutine…

Science: Investigative projects (use of indigenous resources to develop products)
Inventory of flora and fauna

MAPEH: Panajaw Festival (Sto. Niño Festival)
Devotion expressed through dancing
– Journal writing
– student choreographers, musicians, dancers, props, and costume

We were able to produce a marvelous thing integrated with love of the environment (Hamon ng kalikasan as a theme)

Objective: Display application of knowledge and skills previously acquired

Technological and Livelihood Education: Developing products using indigenous materials
– Bazaar exhibits

Outreach programs

1. Cultural show
2. Tap parents and alumni (importance of family)
3. Perform for a cause
4. Helping the Bishop in the Pope Francis Laudato Si’ Advocacy (exhibits)
5. Peer Tutoring
6. Tree planting and coastal cleanup
7. Summer Camp
8. Participation in the Sandugo Festival

Next Projects:
Creating storybooks about people in the community who are working hard for awareness. It is called “Kumparsa” Loboc. They will also do research on this. Then, “Gawang Kamay,” which is the creation of indigenous musical materials.

Outcomes

1. Increased Achievement
2. Decreased Dropout rate
3. Winning in Competitions
4. More exposures
5. Philippine–Korean Cultural Exchange
6. Benchmarking of MAPEH Regional Supervisors
7. Community Involvement
8. Unity among teachers and staff
9. Trust of stakeholders
10. Transformation of students
11. Each learner has his or her own story to tell
12. A learner who is suicidal found a way of self-expression through visual art (painting)
13. Be an instrument to glorify God

We are contemplating on how our school can contribute to helping solve environmental problems. Our learners perform to send a message. We also work with the church, especially with the Bishop of Bohol. We did exhibits, sharing of experiences, and performances in the event organized by the Archdiocese of Bohol. We also did tree planting along the coastal areas. We also did Summer Camp. We thought of initiating and proposing to the community to revive the dance called “Kuradang.” Our learners serve as trainers of this dance used in our local festival. I consider this as a big achievement. This is a way to show gratitude to our patroness, Our Lady of Guadalupe, who saved our town from a massive flood. There also a lot of miracles performed by our Lady. This is a story of faith and gratitude.

Application:
The resource person taught participants the dance called “Kuradang.” Then, she asked for volunteers to dance on stage.