Happy 1st Anniversary, PTN!

By: Rox Cosico, Claret School of QC (Philippines), PTN E-Pals Moderator

Where have many of our best teachers went? In the United States of course!

However, a group of teachers (including me, although I'm still sticking it out here) wants to make a difference. We only want the best for our students' future. These children are not just our real children but as well as our hundreds and thousands of children in our classrooms.

Whether that would mean teachers working abroad or staying in the Philippines, the Pinoy Teacher's Network was organized a year ago to come up with an on-line teachers' community support group. We, PTN members, share not only our expertise in our field of work but most especially in comforting and helping one another. I could just imagine how it is to be lonely and feeling lost in a foreign land for our Filipino teachers. But here comes PTN with open arms with their generous projects, among them, the giving of winter clothes to newly arrived teachers (who have just sold just about everything that they own or borrowed lots of money just to get to America). This simple act of kindness perhaps could never be seen in any other culture except among Filipinos and surely would be long cherished by these teachers... "Nagtutulungan kahit saan ka man".

We just hope and pray that all of you, colleagues abroad, will succeed in the path that you have chosen. We also hope that one day, you will share whatever blessings that you have back here in the Philippines not only to your own relatives but as well as to the millions of Filipino children all over the country who are underfed, who had no classrooms, no books, no chairs and now not even enough good teachers because they are now in America. I pray for the leadership core group members of PTN to always have the energy and determination to continue what they have started and I hope more teachers will join and actively participate in the months and years to come.

I am proud that I am among the first to have signed-up to join this group and have a chance to interact with Filipino overseas as well as local teachers. They have become my friends and will remain a part of my life.