“And it’s all worth it”: There Is a Reward for What Seems to Be a Struggle
(Admer Balingan)
On April 18, 2022, forty-two teaching interns of Assumption College of Davao
convened in the gym for the culminating activity of their internship program.
After completing the 360 hours of teaching internship, all interns went to their
cooperating schools on Monday at 9:00 a.m. to attend the culmination. One of the
partner schools of Assumption College of Davao was Assumption Polytechnic College
of Southern Mindanao (APCSM)—Tigato Campus, where seven interns were assigned
to both the senior high and junior high departments.
Richard Rubio, an intern from Values Education and president of the Senior
Education Students Organization (SESO), facilitated the morning activity. He handed
each intern a card and instructed them to write a note of thanks to their cooperating
teacher (CT). Thereafter, Leslie Batiancela, MAED, the teaching internship supervisor,
called on every representative from each department (BED, JHS, and SHS) to go to the
office to get the tokens and certificates for their cooperating teachers.
As a token of appreciation, each intern handed the token and certificate to the
offices of their cooperating teachers. Some went emotional, and some whooped with joy
and gratitude upon giving and receiving the token. The interns also took some photos
with their CTs afterward. This streamlined distribution process was implemented to
avoid overcrowding in accordance with health and safety regulations.
Dine Banluta, an intern from Values Education, shared that she felt excited since
it was her first time seeing her cooperating teacher.
“I was also happy because I was able to express my gratitude to my CT,” she
added.
Attending this culminating activity was a very meaningful experience for every
intern, especially for Joan Malidas, a math major intern, who shared her sentiments that
her teaching internship was quite stressful. It was very demanding due to all of the
preparation that she had to go through and also the various materials that she had to
provide for the students in order to have an effective and engaging discussion, as well
as the activities that she had to complete each week.
“And it’s all worth it,” she finally said. “The hard work we’ve put in is rewarded,
especially when we received our certificate of completion at the end.”;