Middle school Social Studies teacher Mr. Joselito Ebro, who recently joined St. Mary’s shared his thoughts on finally joining the school after hearing about it in 2018. Mr. Ebro is from the Philippines, he taught there for 15 years, as well as a few years in China and Myanmar. He has always wanted to join the St. Mary’s community, but a position showed up in Guangzhou, China, and he had to take it. After three years of teaching in China, Mr. Ebro contacted the Middle School Principle Ms. Ashmore, and was offered a job as a 7th-grade teacher.
“When I was younger, I was more like the source of information to the students, I tell the students what to do,” Mr. Ebro explained, “but then I realized that students should also have a voice.” Mr. Ebro talked about his teaching style and philosophy, he stated that over the years, he started decreasing the amount of objective questions given to students, and started highlighting opinions and arguments in his classroom. He also mentioned the importance of stress in the classroom, “I think a little bit of stress helps students learn more effectively, but not too much, of course”.
Mr. Ebro explained why he decided to pursue his career in Social Studies. “I was very interested in flags when I was young, I also liked to research about stuff.”, he said. He also talked about his college degree, he said he was originally participating in a pre-law course and would be a lawyer if he did not become a Social Studies teacher. Mr. Ebro was then asked if he ever considered teaching outside of Asia. “I would prefer to stay in Asia because I’m close to home, the Philippines”.
“The best part about middle schoolers is that they are active and are genuinely interested in the subjects”, Mr. Ebro spoke about his thoughts on teaching 7th graders, “the worst part would be that they are immature”. He then talked about all the grade levels he has had teaching experience on, he taught university students, high schoolers, and middle schoolers before coming to St. Mary’s.
