“You can only give quality basic education if you make it a goal yourself to become a good teacher. And you cannot be a good teacher if you stop learning,” elementary school teacher Cristy Eisma gathers, musing on her own journey as an educator. 

“If teachers only knew the depth and range of their individual experiences, and how sharing these with one another can change the way we teach, learning will be easier and fun for the students,” she explains.

This hasn’t always been how she felt about the teaching profession. She’d be the first to admit that for the longest time, she felt that something was missing. 

“Personally, when I became a teacher, I felt like I was lacking something,” she shares. “The confidence wasn’t there because the knowledge I perceived that teachers should have wasn’t in me just yet.”

A PASSION FOR TEACHING

As a child, Cristy wanted to become a teacher so much that she even fancied herself being one in role-playing games. But by the time she entered college, she was set on becoming a psychiatrist, and ended up getting a degree in Human Behavior Technology, in 1994, at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Manila.

Financial limitations hindered her from pursuing a medical degree. So she entered the world of work where the childhood dream of becoming a teacher was to present itself once more, but through a different perspective. 

“Right after I graduated from college, I got a job as a guidance counselor at La Consolacion School in Pasig,” she narrates, “and I remember feeling so pressured dealing with the problems of the students.” 

“Even more concerning is when I call on the parents to discuss their children’s issues with them, it’s the yayas who usually show up,” she adds. “And I keep thinking to myself, if this will always be the case, what’s going to happen to all these children? At that point, my wanting to become a teacher was emerging yet again.” 

She resigned after six months, and got a job as a records clerk in another school’s registrar’s office, where she encoded transcripts of students, day in and day out.

“Doing nothing but that all day convinced me to get a certificate program in teaching.” Cristy recalls with a laugh. 

After completing the program at the Philippine Normal University, she finally became a teacher in 1998, at La Salle Greenhills, where she taught for four years.

Her desire to have more time for her family made her decide to teach in a public school. She transferred to Aurora A. Quezon Elementary School in 2002. She continued pursuing her studies, this time taking up Language Studies at the University of the Philippines, which she finished in two years. From Teacher I, she was promoted to Teacher III. 

THE AWAKENING

“When I was promoted to Teacher III, I thought I had everything I wanted for a career,” Cristy recalls. “But that was also the time in my life that I faced so many struggles at work… to think I was really focusing on work. I wasn’t even studying anymore.” 

One day, the principal asked her to attend an event in another school in the city, where the Educator Empowerment Program (EEP) was to be introduced. 

“I didn’t know why I was the one who got sent there,”Cristy reveals, “But (the speaker), Sir Carlos (Valarao) said something that really changed my life that moment on.”

Our schools are only as good as our teachers.

“When I told the principal what I picked up from the EEP orientation, and told her how I see the program changing the way we can run our school, she encouraged me to take the lead—even when I didn’t know where to start.” 

Cristy took the mission of EEP to heart, eventually convincing her co-teachers to participate in the program. 

“At first, the master teachers weren’t cooperative. I mean, who would listen to a Teacher III like me?” She points out. “Their lack of interest was rooted on the thought that they were too old to benefit from the program. They didn’t take into consideration that their experiences as seasoned teachers play a big part in honing the skills of teachers who are just starting. When I postulated it that way, they began to warm up to the program.” 

Through her efforts and with the full support of the principal, Quezon ES became the first school to implement the EEP—and with great success. 

“There was really a noticeable improvement in the teaching and learning process because the teachers were able to implement what they have learned from the program. There were more activities, more engagement with the pupils,” Cristy explains. “The teachers were really empowered, kasi they gained knowledge from the program.” 

“Parang ang dali palang magturo,” she adds. “And the teachers were really empowered. Actually, ang daming na-promote.”

Cristy was of course one of those who got promoted.

As a newly minted Master Teacher I, she was transferred in 2017 to another school in the city, San Jose Elementary School, where she worked on implementing the EEP with the support of City Savings Bank. She would take the principal’s test that same year—and pass.

By 2019, she returned to Quezon ES as Master Teacher II, since she was still to find a school where she could serve as principal. She would again take on the task of coordinator of the EEP in her old school, to the delight of her co-teachers. It was, to her, all part of her homecoming at Quezon ES.

“Having experienced this program in two schools, I was able to discern what was lacking in me when started my journey as a teacher, many years ago,” Cristy explains. “It’s not just knowledge, but the continuity in professional development. And not just in my subject area.” 

“There’s a different sense of fulfillment, knowing that my co-teachers and I face similar challenges even if we don’t teach the same subject, and that we can freely talk about these to figure out possible solutions,” she adds. “We all found deeper awareness and appreciation of our role as teachers.”

ANOTHER PROMOTION

In April 2020, at the height of the pandemic, teacher Cristy finally got her appointment as principal, at Francisco P. Felix Elementary School in Cainta, Rizal, where she resides. For her, implementing the EEP in her new school during the new normal is one crucial challenge. However, as an empowered teacher—and principal—she knows the value of empowerment training and how she can make things happen through innovation.

“It’s difficult to talk to teachers in a virtual space because not all have equal internet access, but I already prepared some documents they can use and retrieve online,” Cristy shares. “I may have not formally implemented the program yet, but that doesn’t mean that the first step of the program, which is to read the materials, cannot be done in advance.”  

TRUE EMPOWERMENT

Despite her many achievements, Cristy knows that as an empowered educator—whether teacher or principal—she shouldn’t stop improving. She knows that learning should be a lifelong pursuit.

“By the time I discovered that the key to becoming a good educator is lifelong learning, I found contentment in what I was becoming as Master Teacher III. Perhaps, there is a greater purpose out there for me, that’s why I became a principal,” Cristy points out. 

“But that doesn’t mean I should stop learning,” she adds. “If I do stop, what can I give my teachers? What can I offer my students? We have so much to learn from each other, and all these experiences will reveal what is vital in attaining quality education.”

For Principal Cristy Eisma, the journey toward true educator empowerment continues.

The Educator Team salutes Cristy Eisma, teacher, principal, empowerED educator.