My long and fulfilling journey to teaching

by Susan Palmes-Dennis

I’VE always wanted to become a teacher ever since I became more aware of the world around me. 

I recall holding my first class in a makeshift classroom made of old wood near the old family house fronting the Tagoloan River. I think I was in Grade 3 then and my pupils were my sisters Laura, Betty and my “little aunt” Luz Naelga who is the same age as Laura. 

My family and I in the photo

I couldn't exactly remember if my baby sister Aida was already born at that time. I also have other kids as pupils in my class who live as far as the house of Lola (grandmother) Eging Casino. 

My brothers Simeon Jr. and Ramon attended my class for a while but the lure of diving and playing “tirador” (slingshots) with the other boys proved too much to resist. 

I also have in that class the late Mary Ann Paduganan who later became the City Clerk of Court in Cagayan de Oro City. I also had the late Glafer Dagus and her sisters Brenda and Lalaine. 

Pirating students
I guess they had fun in my class as they kept coming and I had fun as I made up stories and mimicked my favorite elementary teacher Iya Puring Nabong Pacheco.  

At first I held class in our secret hideout and it became a frequent activity especially in the few days leading to the end of school season in March. Two months after, we were supposed to attend Rosary class. 

After sometime there were already non-regulars who came and started to create trouble in my class. I had to stop not only because of them but because Glafer “Pering” Dagus started her own school at their house, “pirating” my students.

She had better materials because her father, the late Benjamin Dagus, was connected to the PACD, the forerunner of the Department of Interior and Local Governments (DILG).

After a while even my sisters were absent from my class and attended Pering's class. Looking back it just dawned on me that it was really funny.

Defining moment
My school materials were old notebooks and books of Pepe and Pilar and also magazines (Philippine Graphic and Free Press) that my mother subscribed to which was delivered by Ms. Pingping Villegas while she worked at the Philippine Packing Corp.(now Del Monte Philippines).

I think those classes planted the seed of my love for teaching in my mind and  Pering also encouraged me to become one as she became a kindergarten teacher in Tagoloan town. 

As a senior in St. Mary’s High School in Tagoloan town, Misamis Oriental in northern Mindanao, Philippines, my classmates and I were required to teach  catechism at the public elementary school.

I was assigned in Grade Six Section 1 three times a week. I was always excited to go there. It was my defining moment at that time. 

I can remember the students under me and that means I was ahead of them four years: Mercedes Sabio (through the years we maintained our friendship and she is a certified public accountant) now based here at New York, the late Mary Ann Paduganan, a lawyer, Urcel Casino (the beauty queen), Josefina “Jojo” Casino, who's also here in the US.

Life story
Other students include Pinky Lim, now a banker who spends most of her time working for the church in Tagoloan town, Bertilla Akut, my late brother Ramon and Eduardo Casino, Tess Gala and Marivic Yap. The list is long but they are the people I remembered in my class then.

At center Puring Nabong Pacheco. (Photo/Tagoloan Heritage USA)

I might have taught them well since they made good in their lives. My sincere apologies to those whom I failed to mention here.

Through the years my love for teaching was set aside as destiny would lead me to take up commerce as my first degree, then I took up Masteral units. 

The opportunity to teach again came in without me asking for it when I started to take up law  and worked at the 6th Municipal Circuit Court of Tagoloan-Villanueva, Misamis Oriental.


At the time, then Tagoloan mayor Arteo”Arting” Valdehuesa was defeated by a newcomer Vicente Emano who later rose to become the governor of Misamis Oriental. Sorry for the detour; I am writing my life story, not local politics.

Permanent assignment
Now back to my story. I was still taking up law at the time Judge Valdehueza assumed as Municipal Circuit Judge. He taught at the Cagayan de Oro College (COC) now known as COC-Phinma.

Judge Arting would be absent at times because of his heavy case load or he felt ill and he would ask me to teach on his behalf. It wasn't long before it became a permanent assignment for me.

Judge Arting entrusted his teaching load to me and it kicked off my teaching career in college. You never know when and where life leads you. 

I finished my law course and worked in media outlets in Cagayan de Oro City, also in Misamis Oriental, northern Mindanao in the Philippines.

I started at the local daily Mindanao Goldstar then to Radio Mindanao Network (RMN) dxCC then to Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro then to dxCO and finally to COC TV/Radio.

Fulfilling
I took up Masters in Communication Management and I was invited by the College of Mass Communications of Liceo de Cagayan University to teach radio broadcasting and media ethics where I stayed for eight semesters I think.

Before I left for the US, I was teaching at Xavier University College of Agriculture's Development Communication Department.

Several years after I set foot in North Carolina, I became a member in a pool of substitute teachers in one of the biggest school systems in the US and I work daily.

Until now I could hardly process what happened along the way. I guess I continue to focus on my dream of becoming a teacher. 

I value teachers as they are among the most noble of professionals in the world. I continue to abide by the values taught to me by my teachers like the late Purification Nabong Pacheco, Godilla Eduave, Realina Tapulgo, Mrs. Apolonia Yap, Mr. Ray Abejo and Nora Lim. 

Of course I also remember teachers like Rodrigo Gape and Mr. Ranedo. It was a long and fulfilling journey indeed and I'm not about to stop now.

The Grade 6 graduating class. (Photo/Tagoloan Heritage USA) 

(Susan Palmes-Dennis is a veteran journalist from Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao in the Philippines who worked as a nanny and is now employed as a sub-teacher and a part-time teacher assistant in one of the school systems in the Carolinas.
Read her blogs on susanpalmesstraightfrom the Carolinas.com and at http://www.blogher.com/myprofile/spdennis54. These and other articles also appear at http://www.sunstar.com.ph/author/2582/susan-palmes-dennis.
You can also connect with her through her Pinterest account at http://www.pinterest.com/pin/41025046580074350/) and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Straight-from-the-Carolinas-/494156950678063)