Dalubguro
Meet the guest experts and master teachers
Fr. Patrick “Pat” Falguera, SJ is a Jesuit priest who is currently the executive director of Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan (SLB), the socio-political apostolate of the Society of Jesus (SJ) in the Philippines. Aside from being missioned to SLB, Fr. Pat is also currently involved in other works. This includes teaching at the Ateneo School of Government (ASoG) as a core faculty member, and engaging in research at the John J. Carroll Institute on Church and Social Issues (JJCICSI) as a research fellow. Ordained as a priest to the presbyterate in 2004, Fr. Pat acquired masteral degrees (MA Philosophy and MA Pastoral Ministry from the Ateneo de Manila University [ADMU] during the long years of Jesuit formation. After becoming the last Jesuit parish priest of San Jose Manggagawa parish in Marikina City, before its turn over to the Diocese of Antipolo in 2007, Fr. Pat was sent by his Jesuit superiors to study social development at the University College London (UCL) in the United Kingdom, which led him to do field work in Tanzania, and gain another masteral degree (MSc Development Planning) in the process. Coming back from his studies in London, Fr. Pat was assigned to San Jose Seminary in Ateneo de Manila as a member of its faculty and as building administrator of the seminary community. He continued his doctoral studies at the Ateneo de Manila University where he eventually gained a PhD degree in Leadership Studies Public Management Tract from the ADMU School of Government. In view of his parish, academic, and formation work experiences, Fr. Pat has thus become very much interested in working with government in general, and with issues in migration, ethics, and accountability, in particular. These interests have led him to work closely in partnership with local government officials in the Philippines and with various Filipino migrant communities in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.New Paragraph
Schools Division Iloilo
Elisa Beebe is a consultant and speech and language pathologist with over 20 years of experience working with children in schools. She holds a B.S. in Psychology from Clark University, an M.S. in Communication Disorders from Worcester State University, and an M.Ed. in Mind, Brain and Education from Harvard University. In addition, Ms. Beebe holds a certificate of clinical competence from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association as well as licences to teach and to practice speech and language pathology in the state of Massachusetts. Her areas of interest include the application of cognitive science and neuroscience to educational practices, social and emotional learning, curriculum development, and martial arts.
Melanie Saluria Estranero is currently an Inclusion Support Specialist at James Lick High School, San Jose, California. She has been serving the James Lick community since August of 1999. She has taken a variety of roles from the last two decades. She has served as Chair of the Special Education Dept; served at the School Site Council; also a member of the School's Safety Team among others.
Melanie always believes that ALL students can learn and each and everyone has something to contribute in enriching the teaching and learning environment. As teachers, we continue to grow and adapt with the changing needs of our society regardless of the number of years we served..
Melanie graduated from Igbaras National High School in 1993 . She went on to get her degree in Bachelor of Secondary Education from University of the Philippines, Diliman in April 1997. Right after graduation, she worked as a Special Education co-teacher at The Learning Child School in Ayala Alabang, Muntinlupa. She helped started the "inclusion program" since it was also the first year the school opened its doors to students with Special Needs.
In August of 1999, she was hired as a Special Education visiting teacher from the Philippines to teach at East Side Union High School District. She was assigned to James Lick and still continues to serve. She furthered her studies and got her degree in MA Linguistics from San Jose State University in 2008.
She is a wife and also a proud mother to two beautiful children. Francine is now a freshman at Seattle University and Gerard is an 8th-grader at Sheppard Middle School.New Paragraph
New Cabalan Senior High School OJT/WFM
April 19 Orientation
Eliel Etruiste is a graduate of Communication and Media Studies in San Beda College Alabang. She volunteered as a LIT (Media,Music, Dance) head in Missionary Families Christ(MFC) in NCR South for 2 years and she's currently volunteering as a graphics head in MFC Singles chapter division.
My name is Seigmond “MangEmong” Abad, living in Dubai in for 7 years now, resident filmmaker and co-founder of On Distinctive Designs, a creative agency company here in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, co-director of The Bill Out Night (TBON) and a financial planning consultant.
Ran Negrillo is a Senior Executive and Project Manager for Competitive Intelligence related Projects with over 5 years of experience in the UAE. He is a seasoned client servicing, analyst and project coordinator specialist in the Research Industry
He is also a graduate of Mapua University with certificate in Adobe Design under Multimedia Arts Completion Course. Ran is a Vtuber/Vlogger part of the SuperGameTime group.
RAUL JOROLAN Director
Before establishing Hot Salad Productions, Raul Jorolan (Direk RJ), one of the country’s top directors, was a principal creative force behind one of the leading production houses in the country for many years.
After years in the advertising wars, the film production industry and the visual art world he is still happily in the thick of it,
A very good story woven, wrapped and told in beautiful images fascinates him like how!
Bataan Public Schools Teachers Association (10 April 2021)
Dr. Maria Victoria "Marivic" Lualhati is owner, president and CEO of Beyond Medical Hub, Inc. and corporate secretary of MD Link Diagnostic Center. She is presently the CEO of Tarlac Medical Center and board treasurer of Kaisipan Foundation incorporated in Florida. Marivic’s management style focuses on ensuring operational efficiency and ensuring financial viability in addition to instituting organizational development and change management culture. Among her noteworthy accomplishments are authoring scientific papers in quality improvement and customer Relations. She has won twice in the TQM contest in the Philippine Society for Quality Assurance.
Honey Dawn G. Gubuan is the Principal of James Lick High School, East Side Union High School District
Honey was born in Las Pinas, Metro Manila, Philippines to parents from Kabangkalan and Bacolod City. She was raised by her maternal grandparents until she was 7 years old. At the age of 7, she joined her parents in Rome, Italy where she lived until the age of 11. That was a transformative time for her, as she experienced living in a culture far different from her own. Honey attended schools that spoke Italian, and gave her a first hand experience of being a language learner. Her experiences and growth then, still influences and defines her educational values today. At age 11, Honey and her parents moved to the United States.
Thelma Boac was born in the province of Bohol, Philippines. She came to America at the age of ten and lived with her adopted parents in Grover Beach, California. Her adopted father, a World War II veteran, was one of the original “manongs” who immigrated to America in the 1920’s. Thelma’s adopted mother, her own biological aunt, came to America as a young war widow. Both parents were active in community affairs. Thelma received her BA degree and Secondary Teaching Credential from San Francisco State University and the University of Granada, Spain, and MA degree in Educational Leadership with emphasis in Administration and Supervision from San Jose State University.
MR. PAUL RAY MARK N. SALSAG is a College Instructor and Senior High School Faculty at the Colegio San Agustin Bacolod teaching courses on curriculum development, educational technology and general education courses from the senior high school to the undergraduate level in face to face and online modality. He has been the Discipline Officer of the Basic Education Department. He is currently pursuing his Master of Arts in Educational Administration at the Ateneo de Manila University. He just recently finished month long online courses on Blended Learning Practice and Introduction to Technology Enabled Learning from the Athabasca University, Canada. As a Certified Apple Teacher he is an advocate of e learning, literacy, teacher education, student affairs program development, and curriculum development. He is currently a fellow of the Curriculum Studies Association of the Philippines, Inc. (and Philippine Educational Measurement and Evaluation Association Inc.)
Ronna Reyes Sieh
President: The Coding School
Ronna Reyes Sieh’s over 20-year career has evolved from being a New York based investment banker covering tech silicon valley to becoming an investor and ed-tech entrepreneur . She is the co-founder of Coding.ph, launched to provide a sustainable positive social impact by preparing students for future jobs and equip Filipinos with skills to gain meaningful employment through 1)The Coding School 2) ACE: Adult Coding Education and 3) Teach-Up.com which provides online personalized learning support in Mathematics and other subjects. Her international experience includes working at Morgan Stanley, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Global Growth Capital in New York. She is an active member of the community as a founding Trustee of PhilDev whose goal is to eradicate poverty through education, innovation and entrepreneurship. She is also a founding trustee of an organization which promotes women empowerment. Ronna is a CPA who graduated with Honors from Boston College. She holds an MBA from Columbia University. She is also an alumni of Tuck Executive Education at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
Her work today is focused on addressing the following Sustainable Development Goals:(1) Eradicating Poverty; (4) Quality Education; (5) Gender Equality; (8) Decent Work and Economic Growth; and (9) Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.
Merve Lapus
Vice President of Outreach & National Partnerships: Common Sense Education
Merve is responsible for the overall outreach strategy and national partnerships for Common Sense Education and oversees a team that works directly with leadership to impact communities using technology for learning and life. Collaborating with school networks, state-level organizations, community leaders, and national partners, Merve is committed to fostering a whole-community approach to digital well-being, and establishing supportive learning spaces for all children and families to thrive in a world with media and technology. Merve has over 17 years of experience driving education technology initiatives across school programs, and building educator confidence through professional development and strategic implementation. Merve continues to keynote education-based events across the United States and delivers professional development to school networks, districts, and major conferences. He sits on a number of steering committees addressing school climate and state policy initiatives within his local counties and currently sits on the Marketing and Communications Board for the University of San Francisco. Merve holds a B.A. in psychology and sociology from the University of San Francisco and is often behind a camera snapping pictures of his wife and two daughters dancing around the Bay Area. You can follow him on Twitter @molapus and email him directly at mlapus@commonsense.org.
Trudl Meniado-Wink is a math teacher at Independence High School in San Jose, CA. She has been with East Side Union High District since 2001. She was hired as a math teacher under a teacher exchange program and she eventually got employed as a permanent classroom teacher on her third year of teaching. For almost 2 decades as a classroom math teacher in the US, she has had the wonderful opportunity to participate in committee work and workshop trainings at the district level as a member-facilitator and as a co-presenter at a number of math conferences. Trudl comes from a family of teachers. Both of her parents were classroom teachers and they retired as school administrators. Their passion and dedication for teaching inspired her to follow their path. She completed her Bachelor of Secondary Education, major in Math, from the University of the Philippines in Diliman. Immediately after graduation, she landed her first full-time job as a teacher.
As a first-year teacher, she would not have imagined her first year of teaching would run smoothly. She had to learn early on that having procedures in place helped her to focus on teaching and not to worry so much about classroom management issues. Professional development opportunities and collaboration with fellow teachers have equipped her with strategies and have solidified her content knowledge. This year’s distance learning has brought her back to that first year of teaching. She is again on a productive struggle as she navigates this unchartered territory of online learning. Though it is still a work in progress, having procedures in place has proven to be a good starting point in the virtual classroom. Attending workshops and collaborating with other teachers have continued to inform, enrich and nurture her quest to translate these strategies that she has employed thru the years in the traditional setting to the format and context of distance learning.
In the words of her school principal, “Everything has changed, and nothing has changed. You won't be able to see your students in person or work within your classroom, but you're still the same great teacher and content expert, and an empathetic figure so central to students’ lives.” Inspired by this, the most critical things that she does when she gets challenged with situations in the virtual classroom: adapt and adopt, keep it simple, and make connections.
Nerissa Gerodias has been teaching mathematics at East Side Union High School District since 1999. She taught mathematics at Saint Andrew’s School in the Philippines for 12 years before coming to the United States. She graduated from Philippine Normal University with a Bachelor of Science in Education, Major in Mathematics in 1987. Nerissa has always been fascinated with the technology in the classroom specifically for teaching mathematics and improving teacher productivity. This inspired her to take a Master’s Degree in Instructional Technology at San Jose State University.
In 2014, she stumbled upon Desmos. It is an online graphing tool and an activity builder that can be used to create interactive exploration tasks that make mathematics come alive. It has been a valuable instructional tool for many educators during in-class and remote teaching. She was accepted as a participant in the first Desmos Fellowship in 2016 where she met outstanding math educators throughout the United States. Another area she was quite interested in is assessments to measure student academic growth. She discovered Edulastic which is an online app for dynamic assessments. She has been a member of Edulastic Innovator’s Team since 2015. Edulastic provides immediate feedback to both students and teachers allowing students to immediately fix mistakes and improve the retention of math concepts. Nerissa believes that her job as a teacher is to provide opportunities for her students to continuously improve and to remove barriers to their success.
Maria Lourdes Mones Galendez obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education, Major in mathematics in 1993 at the Philippine Normal University in Manila, Philippines. She had completed her Master’s degree in Instructional Technology in 2009 from San José State University in San José, California, USA. She has been teaching high school mathematics for 28 years – both in a classroom setting and in training teachers. She has participated in mathematics competitions and attended mathematics conferences both in the Philippines and in the United States. Currently, she is a member of the California Mathematics Council-North (CMC-N) section and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). She has facilitated mathematical learning sessions within her school district, East Side Union High School District, and in the Northern California section. She believes learning is continuous so with the shift from in-person to distance learning, she had taken advantage of using various online educational tools such as Edulastic, Kahoot!, Google extensions Loom and Jamboard, Peardeck, Notability, and Desmos in her classes. She currently resides in San José, California, and spends time in the Philippines in the summer months.
Gil Quintana Agoylo believes in perseverance and hard work. He is an advocate of collaboration. He practices these beliefs both in his classes and also in the professional development activities where he had a part. He had co-facilitated several workshops in his district, East Side Union High School District, while also serving his department as co-chairperson. He is an active committee member of the East Side Alliance Assessment for Learning, a committee that is responsible for providing sessions on assessments to the elementary, middle, and high school teachers in East Side San Jose, California. For the last 3 years, he is also a member of one of the Northern California Region 1 teams of Instructional Leadership Corps, a California Teachers Association and Stanford University project aimed to cultivate and enrich instruction and assessment practices of local educators. Gil has actively participated in the many conferences of the National Core Advocate Network and the California Mathematics Council where he is also a member. Gil attended Mindanao State University - Marawi City as a scholar and finished his BS in Civil Engineering degree in 1990. His first job was teaching at De La Salle University - College of St. Benilde as a Math instructor. Within the 11 years of his service in the institution, he has served as a department chairperson and president of the faculty association. He moved to the USA in 2002 and started working as a high school math teacher in his current district.
Growing up, Gil had always dreamt of becoming an engineer, pursued this dream, and eventually earned his license. He never got the opportunity to practice his field of study but has developed a passion for teaching instead. Life and its surprises. The famous golfer who is the current resident of the White House got it right when he said: “What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate.”