The Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) is offering teachers five-day courses on creative ways of teaching.

“We recognize that with all the entertainment and gaming fares that students have grown accustomed to outside the classrooms and in their homes, teachers will need out-of-the-box means of getting students to understand their lessons and participate in class activities. These courses will make learning fun not only for students but for teachers as well,” says a PETA artist-teacher.

Aside from offering regular theater and arts courses, PETA has also pioneered the Theater-in-Education (TIE) Courses, which makes classroom teaching more interesting and engaging by introducing creative means of teaching for regular subjects like mathematics, English, Filipino, science, etc.

For the past three years, educators from as far as Camarines Sur, Davao, and Cebu come to the Theater Center to take these courses. Last year, a group of six teachers from Camarines Sur took the Theater-in-Education 1 (Creative Pedagogy) and now, the whole group plus two more of their colleagues are coming back to take Theater-in-Education 2 (Asian Theater).

“The course helps us immensely. It’s simple and it’s quite easy to apply to the classroom and has allowed us to introduce innovations to our division. As teachers who are always looking for ways to improve our craft, we are definitely going back to PETA because they always offer something new for us to discover not only about arts and teaching but also about ourselves,” shares Victor Sorellano, a teacher from EILI National High School, Camarines Sur.

Enrolment is still going on for the following classes:

Creative Pedagogy (Theater-in-Education 1) is designed for formal and nonformal educators. Pep up your teaching competencies through creative methodologies, approaches and philosophies in the teaching of arts and academic subjects. Enhance your teaching technique by using artistic disciplines as tools of learning

Asian Theater (Theater-in-Education 2) is for theater artists, cultural workers and arts/culture/history/humanities educators. Immerse yourself in the discussions and analyses of the rich culture of Asian countries, their theater history, art forms and world views. Discover their influences to artists, dramatists and theater pedagogues all over the world. Be more conscious of their nature and qualities that have influenced your own artistic expression.

As a final output for these courses, teachers will design and showcase creative lesson plans which can immediately be put to practice in the coming school year.

PETA also offers Theater for Development for community and cultural workers. This course is designed to help community workers in creating different forms of performances for the propagation of their own issues and programs through the PETA Integrated Theater Arts (ITA) approach with special sessions on community situational analysis.

For inquiries, contact Ms. Julie Bautista at 7256244, 4100821, or +63 928 5078368.

Theater-in-Education Courses
May 12 to 16, 2008, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
PETA Theater Center
No. 5 Eymard Drive
New Manila, Quezon City (behind the Quezon City Sports Club)