Teacher training and continuing education is essential for American Samoa to “empower our students and enhance their learning,” declared 2017 Territorial Teacher of the Year, Dana Love-Ili, during her speech, which stressed the importance of continuing education for teachers, at last Friday’s Department of Education sponsored TTOY celebration.

Love-Ili recalled for the audience of about 100 people including her colleagues from Nu’uuli Vocational Technical High School, this year’s theme by John Cotton Dana: “Who dares to teach must never cease to learn.”

With only an Associated of Arts degree in Liberal Arts from the American Samoa Community College, Love-Ili began her professional career as a teacher in 2007 at NVTHS, but she felt she “needed to learn more.”

“I knew that to be a better teacher to my students, I needed to continue to be a student as well,” she said, adding that there were deaf students at NVTH at the time and she was serving a student with autism. “I didn’t like not being able to communicate with these deaf students.”

Therefore she picked up an American Sign Language Dictionary, found some American Sign Language websites, and taught herself the American Sign Language. “I practiced every day with deaf students and their teacher,” she said and thereafter enrolled with the University of Hawai’i Cohort program, earning a Bachelor in Education and a special education certification.

After the BA degree, “I still wasn’t satisfied. I felt as though there was still so much more that I needed to learn,” she said, and noted that she then enrolled and later earned her certificate in a US certification course. She later earned her Masters degree from Argosy University — American Samoa campus.

“Still I hunger to learn more. I want to be better for my students,” she shared with the audience, which included other educators, ASDOE officials, first lady Cynthia Malala Moliga, and the Catholic Church’s Bishop Peter Brown.

She said now she continues to read online education articles, attend professional developments, has joined the professional learning community, and collaborates with colleagues on best teaching practices.

“As teachers, we should never feel satisfied with the knowledge that we have today. We should always feel the drive and passion to want to learn more, to be better and more knowledgeable today then we were yesterday,” she told educators in the audience. “Our world is ever changing and in turn our students are ever changing. Therefore so should we teachers be ever changing and abreast with the times. We must never cease to learn.”

“Teacher training and education are things I hold in high regard,” the 2017 TTOY said and that in her opinion, “if we are to empower our students and enhance their learning, we must first empower their teachers. Teacher education is essential to the success of our students. The students today cannot be compared to students 10, 15 or even 20 years ago. The world is changing and so are the people within it.”

She suggested that a continuance in education for teachers can be accomplished through regular professional developments, workshops and training and professional learning communities. “Lets work together as teachers,” she said.

To achieve her suggestion, Love-Ili said professional development should be held within schools, at least monthly. “These can be in house training that cost us nothing but time and effort,” she said. “Lets allow our community to be involve in our children’s education by inviting them to share their knowledge with our teachers, through workshops and training.”

She also says that networking and educating each other can assist in achieving the goal of continuing training and education for teachers for the success of students.

“Fellow brothers and sisters in teaching, we don’t need to be given positions or titles to assist in educating and training our fellow colleagues. We help each other on a daily basis, through collaboration and involvement of our stakeholders,” she told educators.

“If we want students to be the best they can, then we need to offer them the best teachers we can,” she said. “In order for teachers to continue to perform great feats in the classroom, it is necessary that we continue to learn.”

“When teachers continue to learn, we will continue to grow,” Love-Ili said and reiterated the theme, “Who dares to teach, must never cease to learn.”

In her special remarks, first lady Cynthia Moliga, a former teacher herself, said that while some of the phases of education have changed over the years, “I think one thing remains the same, no matter from generation, to generation, is the value of education. I’ve seen the value, the recognition, the focus on education, of its important growth over the years.”

Mrs. Moliga, who was born in Hawai’i, also attended and graduated both elementary and high school in the Aloha State back in the 1960s; and she has spent about 34 years of her life in American Samoa, after moving to the territory.

“Back then [in the 1960s] you could get a pretty good job with a high school education,” she said. “Then we realize today as parents, as teachers, as members of the Department of Education as well as the community, that is definitely not the case, over so many years. Today we strongly encourage our children, the students that you educate in your classrooms, to further their education.”

She expressed appreciation of Argosy University for joining the UH cohort program, as well as others, in providing an avenue for residents of the territory to obtain higher degrees.

Love-Ili “accepted the responsibility and challenge” in the classroom by continuing to learn more in order to help her students, said Mrs. Moliga.

“It’s not only about books and resources. It’s the individual, it’s from your heart,” she said, adding that students can pick up on the dedication, commitment and true love and patience of a teacher.

Mrs. Moliga agreed with Love-Ili’s call for “collaboration among teachers, being there for each other” and offering words of encouragement to a fellow teacher, and going that extra mile in an effort to ensure students are educated.

“Collaboration and partnership is very important and critical. Not just in terms of setting goals and objectives, but on an everyday basis,” she said.