Montessori De Sagrada Familia opened the school year with a series of focused and tailor-fit professional development sessions designed to ground teachers in its core instructional approach: joyful, project-based, and community-rooted learning.
With each department taking the lead, the training reflected a unified yet distinct direction across academic levels.
Mrs. Maria Perpetua Socorro Santos, Head of the Preschool Department, led the early childhood team through foundational practices in play-based instruction and developmental milestones, further improving the implementation of their emergent curriculum.
At the grade school level, the plenary sessions were helmed by key academic leaders and in-house specialists. Mr. Dan Angelo Bagadiong, Vice Principal for Curriculum and Innovation, led discussions on cohesive and joyful curriculum design. Mr. Jomar Dela Cruz, Vice Principal for Academic Affairs, facilitated sessions on PBL integration, highlighting teacher agency and real-world relevance. Mr. Christian Anthony Valino facilitated onboarding and learning sessions on student affairs, ensuring that elementary educators were equipped to balance academic rigor with holistic support.
For high school, Officer-in-Charge Rojana Evangelista laid out an intentional shift toward Project-Based Learning (PBL) as a core method of assessment. Her leadership highlighted the department’s goal to cultivate real-world thinking, collaboration, and authentic outputs. Ms. Criselda Valderama, who co-led student affairs onboarding for the high school faculty, emphasized positive discipline and student support systems aligned with adolescent needs. Meanwhile, Mrs. Rosemarie De Vera, Officer-in-Charge for Senior High School, reaffirmed SHS’s commitment to future-ready education as they implement the strengthened SHS curriculum.
Specialized teams also strengthened the sessions: counseling and testing officers tackled conflict resolution, while student well-being officers shared practices in classroom management.
A key highlight included a briefing on child safeguarding policies session for the whole institution led by Mrs. Andrea Chaveli Dela Cerna, child protection advocate, and school leader from Xavier School.
Beyond plenaries, subject-specific workshops empowered teachers to refine their craft. English teachers attended a session on mini-lessons and writers’ workshops by Ms. Steph Barredo of Keys School Manila, while math educators underwent PRIME Math training.
Notably, VP Dela Cruz said the school intentionally limited the number of external speakers to ensure all facilitators were familiar with MDSF’s evolving instructional culture. Faculty were also encouraged to design their own project-based learning units to infuse relevance and joy into their instruction.
“Project-based learning only becomes joyful when the teacher and student both believe in the meaning of the work,” Dela Cruz remarked.
Teachers appreciated being given the space to adapt, explore, and co-create the learning experience. According to the feedback, they noted that the sessions were focused, relevant, and responsive to actual classroom needs.
PD sessions—with contextualized small-group discussions—are set to continue throughout the year.
This professional development initiative reinforces MDSF’s broader goal: to make learning an active, collaborative, and purposeful journey—powered by empowered, inspired, equipped, joyful, and active educators.