Enhancement and eXpansion of Capability in
Information Technology and English (EXCITE)
The URS EXCITE Program
Teachers are knowledge-workers. In their stressful jobs of educating the young and in responding to many student needs, there is a need to give them more support in their continued quest for excellence. Continuing education is paramount to maintaining and enhancing one's skills, especially in response to updates in technology that impact virtually every teacher.
Thus, the URS EXCITE Program was born as a major initiative of the URS Development Foundation, Inc. with Dr. Gilberto M. Duavit, Gov. Casimiro A. Ynares III and Dr. Olivia F. de Leon as the brains behind the project. The URS Excite Program is a set of training programs in two areas: Area I is concerned with expansion of knowledge in Information Technology and Area II is devoted to English enhancement.
The Program objectives are:
- To retool and upgrade in the fields of Information Technology and English the 9,000 basic education teachers in the province of Rizal.
- To encourage professional and personal development, and boost the motivation of Rizal teachers.
- To improve teaching methods and skills and to promote more interactive teaching methods inside the classroom.
- To inculcate the value of teaching and continuous improvement among the teachers of Rizal.
The URS EXCITE Program is a modularized training program in four areas:
- Communication Skills and English Language Proficiency
- PC Operation, Word Processing, Spreadsheet and Database
- Presentation, Multimedia Production, Internet, Web Publishing, and Blogging
- Motivation and Values Reorientation (2 hours per training week after the Opening Program)
Each area can be completed in five days. The Program will be open to Rizal teachers but will prioritize those who are 45 years and below and who are not holders of Masters or Doctorate degrees and who are not presently enrolled in graduate schools. Those who have completed their graduate courses and those who are presently enrolled in graduate schools will also be considered in later schedules.
An IT module and the English training will be held simultaneously. A total of 100 participants will be accepted for the English enhancement which will be subdivided into four (4) groups of 25 participants each. The same number of 100 participants will be accepted for an IT module which will also be divided into 4 groups. Thus, a total of eight sessions will be held simultaneously.
