Nothing can perfectly describe the feeling of seeing something I fought for and worked so hard on finally come to life. I couldn't sleep right away the night before the pilot testing of the EduPREP program. Despite the lack of sleep, I woke up feeling well. Was it excitement or fear? Nervousness or relief? Perhaps it was a mix of all those emotions, but my eyes were fixed on a successful implementation. 

On the morning of the EduPREP program (June 14), I had prepared everything I needed and was ready to leave for FIS when my gatekeeper informed me that one Filipino English teacher (Teacher #4) wouldn't be attending on-site. She had just received the message that morning as well, so we were both surprised. Ms. Tiffany said that the teacher is requesting that she join the session online instead. Rather than panicking, I focused on getting it done. I told myself, this is a test of resourcefulness and resilience—and I must pass. 

I arrived at FIS twenty minutes before the start of EduPREP. I brought a second laptop and a webcam, which I set up on one of the classroom tables. I opened a Google Meet link and sent it to Ms. Tiffany so she could forward it to the teacher, who joined immediately. Although she remained in the Google Meet throughout the program, I couldn’t confirm her attentiveness or engagement, as I hadn't prepared any online interaction strategies for such a last-minute change. I also opened OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) on the laptop to record the full session. Meanwhile, I connected another laptop to the smart TV for the presentation slides. The participating and facilitating teachers, as well as my gatekeeper, arrived shortly after, and the session began at around 8:00 a.m. 

Teachers Daisy, Mirra, and Elio started with an introduction to the EduPREP program and self-introduction prompts, which led to Teacher Daisy's discussion of Part I: Context & Program Overview. This section covered the agenda, learning objectives, rationale and purpose of EduPREP, an overview of DOET’s English Speaking Contest, and FIS' English Speaking Summer Program. Throughout Part I, I observed that the teachers were attentive, interested, and taking notes, fulfilling Learning Objective #1: Understand the purpose of the EduPREP training in connection with DOET’s English Speaking Contest and the upcoming English Summer Program. 

Around twenty minutes later, Teacher Mirra presented Part II: Needs Analysis: The Current Speaking Landscape, where she discussed the English speaking proficiency situation at FIS, as well as the factors that impact English speaking proficiency. After ten minutes, we moved on to Activity #1: Case Analysis, aligned with Learning Objective #2: Analyze common student speaking challenges and identify appropriate instructional strategies across linguistic, performance-related, and motivational domains. Teachers analyzed five sample student profiles (generated by ChatGPT), identified their primary speaking challenge (e.g., linguistic, performance, affective), and proposed instructional strategies—culminating in peer sharing and discussion. The teachers correctly identified challenges and offered fitting solutions. Around this time, my gatekeeper had to leave for other meetings but continued to monitor the session via the online meeting. 

Teacher Elio then facilitated Part III: Instructional Solutions: Strategies for Teachers, which included techniques and strategies for linguistic practice, performance development, and motivational support. He also presented instructional planning strategies like ensuring instructional coherence of activities with contest rubrics and using backward design to map learning outcomes. After twenty-five minutes, he introduced Activity #2: Rubric-Based Review, aligned with Learning Objective #3: Use the DOET speaking rubric to evaluate student speeches and align classroom instruction with contest expectations. The participants watched four student speaking videos sourced from YouTube, scored them using the DOET speaking rubrics in the EduPREP Training Booklet, and discussed their evaluations and rationale. Due to the unavailability of videos from DOET's previous English Speaking Contests, I chose videos as close as possible to the DOET speaking activities and those that could be assessed using the rubrics. 

Teacher Elio continued the discussion after the second activity, ending with a segment on monitoring and evaluation strategies, such as think-pair-share, oral presentations, peer review, and digital polls and quizzes. He then briefed the participants on Activity #3: Micro-Planning and Activity-Designing, which supports Learning Objective #4: Design a level-appropriate speaking activity and formative assessment tools that support student proficiency and contest readiness. Teachers used the booklet’s templates to design a short speaking activity and create a supplementary formative monitoring checklist. A notable observation was that the teachers designed activities addressing a range of skills: vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, fluency, confidence, coherence, listening/speaking integration, and peer interaction. Overall, the teachers effectively applied the training strategies to their classroom contexts, aligning with student levels, contest goals, and instructional clarity. 

To wrap up the session, Teacher Daisy introduced the EduPREP Teacher's Handbook and distributed physical copies to the participants. She briefly summarized its contents, which expanded on the training topics, and encouraged the teachers to share their insights—key takeaways, questions, feedback, clarifications, reflections, and learnings. Lastly, a QR code and link to the EduPREP Post-Session Feedback Survey were displayed on screen, which gathers feedback on content relevance, delivery, and next steps using Likert-scale and open-ended questions. Before leaving, the participants were informed that classroom observations would take place the following week (i.e., the first week of the summer program), supporting Learning Objective #5: Demonstrate the use of learned instructional strategies for developing students' English speaking proficiency in their own classrooms. 

The EduPREP program officially concluded at 11:30 a.m. Despite minor challenges, the implementation fulfilled its core objectives and was characterized by active participant engagement. A particularly resonant moment was when the teachers expressed their appreciation for the program, noting that while they were already familiar with the instructional approaches, the opportunity to revisit, relearn, and reflect on these strategies was both timely and valuable. They shared that EduPREP served as a meaningful reminder of effective teaching practices and reaffirmed their purpose as educators. With such feedback, I am hopeful that the school will view this project as a foundational step toward sustained teacher training and professional development initiatives.