MMMiii!

When I was in high school, I told myself (I think I told other people too) that I want to hold my debut in a fastfood, McD’s or Jollibee… A KIDDIE PARTY! I wanted a kiddie party for my debut. That would also mean giving out kids party invitations. I wanted to mark my coming of age with a final celebration as a kid. Looking back on that about ten years ago (well, maybe 7-8), now that I’m about to graduate, I can’t be a kid anymore.

I have to get a job. Soon. Before my practicum I applied for a job at Siemens, where my brother Iks works. I got their message that I was ready to work when school had already started and I backed out because things were getting hectic already. I’m glad I didn’t take it back then because if I barely had enough sleep for my practicum alone, what more if I had another job as well?

So, a couple of days ago, after I was finished with everything for college, I sent the girl I spoke with last time at Siemens and I asked if I would need to reapply if I still wanted to work with them, and she said no, I’m good to go, but they could only give me a project-based assignment–which meant that it wouldn’t last. About 3 months or so.

I’m thinking that if I do decide that I want to pursue teaching, I would have enough time to still apply for a teaching job after my contract at Siemens gets terminated.

Sooo… I start work on November 27. Wish me luck.

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Today was the last day of submission of grades. Today I submitted everything–my students’ grades, my journal, all my lesson plans, other random stuff.

I had so many plans after I finished my Practicum… In no particular order

• I’m going to watch anime until I drop
• I’m going to buy a new cellphone
• I’m going to chat all day
• I’m going to sleep for a month
• I’m going to clean and rearrange my room
• I’m going to soak in the bathroom for at least 5 hours
• I’m going to reformat my computer

So many things, right? I don’t even know where to start! I sat in front of the computer, telling myself, “Ah! Finally! I can watch anime!”

Then I stared at my Anime folder and … continued staring. What to watch? Where to start? I stopped downloading anime almost after my practice teaching started, about 5 months ago, so I’m sort of off the hook on what’s new, what’s over, and so on. I tried streaming drama from the mac but it buffers a lot.

So, from the list of things to do, what should I do first? Sleep? Clean? Bathe? Watch anime?

About the cellphone, I’ve kind of given up on it. It’s funny. At first, my goal was a laptop by the end of my practice teaching. Then when my cellphone broke, I figured that a snazzy cellphone would be cheaper, so I could just get one really good one, like a PDA phone or a smart phone. Then Mama ran away with my broken cellphone and had it fixed so I don’t need a new one anymore. And now that I was contemplating on reformatting but not having the space, I figured that getting a hard drive would be cheaper of all those.

Maybe I should invest in jewelry like some gold bracelets >_< at least those I could put in a pawnshop if I badly need money.

Well, anyway, for now I’m going to get a new hard drive and organize my files (and download more) and eventually reformat. And while copying files and so on, going to clean my room! The perfect plan!

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I attended the Bloggers Kapihan event at MonSay yesterday and I must say, it was very informative. It was called Bloggers Kapihan 2.0: Blog Ed 101. Before it started, I went to Cubao and met with Mama and I got myself a new wristwatch! And then I went to MonSay and climbed a mountain. With a not-yet-fully-healed sprain, it was really a high mountain to climb. I chatted with Mr. Lalon dela Rosa about the CEP, school stuff, future plans, what’s wrong with the Philippines and the Filipinos and a lot of other stuff. That was for about an HOUR (The event started late).  And then I asked questions… voiced my opinions… and stuff… The pancake donut thing of Mr Donuts is gewd!

I registered as “Mi” again. Maybe I should write Miii instead? Lalon asked me, “Why Mi?” maybe I should make up something prophetic… nanchatte :D (darnit! I still can’t figure out how to make wordpress accept japanese characters again T_T)

Oh. Ok. the forum.

The first speaker was Prof Danny Arao of UP Diliman and Bulatlat.com.

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Plan? What plan?

A couple of people have already said they have my support, that I should continue this dream. Sadly, I have no definite plan as of yet.

aaahh… I’ll try now.

Contents:

• Forum
• Lesson Plans and Activities
• Teacher Blogs (?)
• Education News
  • Local
  • International
• Resources, Links
• WebQuests

• Student Portal
  • Study Guides
  • Forum?

Shall I use the Wiki software?

And then… how am I going to divide it? By topic or subject area? I mean should I put each subject area below Lesson Plans and activities and so on, or should they fall under the subject areas?

Waaaahhh Ano’ng gagawin ko? Ni hindi ko pa nga bayad si bratyfly!!! Active pa kaya yung account ko sa pinoyhosting.net? May abandoned kasi akong webspace dun..pero… pero…. waaaahhh.. Nagpapanic na ko!

In short, what use are big dreams if you don’t have plans?
What use are plans if you don’t do them?

I HAVEN’T EVEN PICKED A DOMAIN NAME! AOMAI GAWSH!

PinoyTeacher.com
FilipinoTeacher.net
GurongPinoy.com

hmmm… WHAT!?

ok.

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This is an assignment I gave my students a couple of weeks ago. It was right after Erap’s final trial at the Sandiganbayan, wherein he was convicted of plunder and acquitted of perjury. While many teachers were checking student essays on this topic, there were also a lot of laughs. There were some kids who wrote forgery instead of perjury, and “pardon” being the one said when you didn’t hear something clearly and wanted the person to repeat it (”Pardon me, could you repeat that?”)

Being an English teacher, I have my own share of funny essays. Add to that horrendous grammar and handwriting… Anyway, I asked them to research on the events from 6 years ago that led to this event (objective), and their thoughts on this (subjective).

Guilty or No Guilty!

The result of the trial of former president Joseph Estrada, who was accused of plunder and forgery last 2001, was formerly sentenced by the Saligang Bayan last wednesday September 12,2007. But what are the affects on the Philippine people? what ever was decided of the Estrada plunder case would have agitated the still sharply divided nation on the former president. For me, I either choose anysides in many cases.

There are reasons to agree, which was the easier to explain and out of many people they were the largest people. Other says for stealing the nation’s trust. But for me, I think it’s efficiently right to have the suspect sentenced if he or she did what was accused to him or her. This explanations was usually given by anti-Erap’s rallies.

Few people dis agreed the decision because of many reason.

Some says the court which has not enough evidence and said to like to end the trial for the people to say they’re doing some thing. Few says he didn’t do it for he who waited for 6 years in jail agreed to face the court maybe because he has confidence in him. But for me he have confidence in knowing his inocence will win but no.

Whatever was decided if Erap who was sentenced for 40 years in jail, guilty  or not guilty it is decided. Maybe us people have different answers to the questions because of our different views in life and our values.

And for you what do you think? GUILTY?or NO GUILTY?

I know her grammar was bad, and her thoughts were unorganized. But she had some pretty good ideas, like the nation being divided and people having different views and values.

Still… I can only give her a passing score. >_<

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I have this big dream. It might sound a little too big, though, but I want to start a Teacher Resource website for Filipinos. In the wee hours of procrastinating my lesson plans and/or looking for what good activities I could use in my classes, all are resources for western classrooms.

The Filipino classroom is much more different. We have a quasi standard set curriculum for most schools in basic education. For example, in English, Music and Arts in high school, the first year focuses on Philippine literature, music and arts. In the second year, Afro-Asian. The third year focuses on Anglo-American or western, while the fourth year focuses on the world as a whole.

Well… What I’m saying is… You won’t really be able to find teacher resources on, say, Noli Me Tangere or Philippine History.

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Justin, the other grade 9 English ST, was so angry at 9-Iron today. The kids were just plain uncontrollable yesterday. They have this Filipino presentation on Friday, all of Grade 9 and they were demanding him to let them practice. Justine stormed out. He said that he might hurt someone if he stayed there longer.

Even in my class, their attention was hard to get. They weren’t focused. Even Calcium’s wondergirl just kept agreeing with everything I said even when I made a mistake. I was able to keep my temper more in check though, and gave them an assignment instead.
He talked it over with his Supervising Teacher, Ma’am Tina, and he said that she taught him something important.

“He is a teacher. He doesn’t need to make his students like him. What’s important is that he teaches.”

Somehow I don’t want to agree on that. But I DO agree that making them like you isn’t your sole purpose in being a teacher. I think it should be like this:

“It is important that you teach, and in teaching, get them to like you.”

Right? If you teach them well enough, they might just come to like you. It has been a discussion in my Educational Philosophy class whether you “teach” when they don’t “learn.”  If you try teaching and they don’t learn, are you really teaching? Or are you not teaching good enough? Teaching involves a learner, unless you’re teaching the wall to talk…

Most of my classmates back then were arguing that if the teacher teaches but the student doesn’t learn, the teacher isn’t really teaching. I don’t agree with that. Aside from various factors, learning difficulties and disabilities aside, like the students really just not paying attention, if a teacher is engaging, or worth listening to, then the student will learn. If the student isn’t learning, then the teacher is still teaching, just not well enough.

Why would a student dislike a teacher? What are the reasons? Here are some possible reasons I could think of at 2:50am:

1. Subject Matter
   A teacher must show that s/he knows what s/he is teaching. If you are an English teacher, and your English language skills are faulty, would a student want to learn from you? Wrong grammar, wrong pronunciation, not knowing the meanings of words–granted that you are not a walking dictionary, or that you are just a second language learner yourself, you must still show that you know what you are teaching, or show that you know it.
2. Authority
   Let them know who’s the teacher in class. Yes, the classroom shouldn’t be teacher-centered, meaning the teacher shouldn’t be the be-all and end-all in the classroom, and that all knowledge shall come from the teacher, but you are still the “adult” in class, otherwise known as “The Teacher”.  I have a problem with this, because my students think of me as their buddy, so when I was making a couple of guys transfer seats because they were disturbing those who DO want to learn and couldn’t concentrate in class because of them, they were being so difficult and I had to be firm and remind them that I am still the teacher in the classroom even if I am just a student teacher.
3. Attitude
   If a teacher is always scowling at me, I wouldn’t want to be in his or her class.
   I had a teacher once that reminded me of a dragon breathing flames. She even walked out from our class once. She was scary, but she taught very well. I actually appreciated history because of her… Nonetheless, I still didn’t want to be in her class. *shivers*
4. Reasonable
   The teacher shouldn’t give requirements that aren’t reasonable, like writing a paper within a week, or something. Although that IS possible, but to write a GOOD paper, it might not be enough. For one thing, your class is not the only class of the student. You’re just one of many. A teacher should always keep in mind of other classes. HOWEVER, like what happened in our classes because of the class suspensions due to weather, the requirements ended up being due all at the same day or week. That is excusable. A student can’t complain that they have requirements in other classes too. All classes have requirements. They just had to have done it over the unexpected breaks, since there were no classes. Some students tend to rejoice over class suspensions and take it easy.

Well… this is it for now. If I get any more ideas, I’ll just add to this. :D

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I’ll write one of my student’s essays here. I really liked it after reading it, even if while reading it I was steadily developing a headache. His handwriting was so horrible, and grammar was bad. But in the end, I was very pleased. I’ll keep the original spelling and punctuations. The essay’s theme is “The Definition of Heroism/Hero”

Define: Hero, A Hard name To Earn

 

Hero a name baptisted to a person with extreme capabilities and mild manner values, toadd up, in short a perfect being. A man so great and admired by millions , his name Known all through out where man can reach. A perfect specimen of beuty and looks he stands as a symbol of a flawless being.

How depressing, is it all about physical ? great deeds and splendid tall tales, howabout those whoare plain looking those wholive plain lives and those too ordinary of life tobeastory Haven’t they have a chance to be heroes?, as said “heroism is toogreat of forms we cannot decide which is to be”meaning we are not too decide or influence a person’s perception of his or her hero. For me hero is a tainted word,aword bias and unfair , calling whom they like to, being thrown around carelessly and stupidly, forgeting those who deserve The word should be redefined a hero should be selfless selFless enough to forget he is a selfless being. intelligent, enough to help and protect others and for the common good. He must be willing and proud in doing so.

For me all our hero’es should be out,parents,not to influence your perception but our parents are selfless giving eve-ry thing including their comforts for us. In telligent, enough to guide and help us prevent stupid decisions,and lastly though you may not know yoru parents very much proud of you ,they are proud they raced a person , aperson they hope will be better and more of whom they are.

A man can reach a star, all of life success. But a hero can reach success and take his fellowmen in doing so, together

To be honest, this kid’s paper was the reason why I procrastinated long enough (I had 6 days off since Wednesday and I’m only marking them now), because just looking at his paper was giving me headaches. This guy (he’s 15 and living in a bedspacer place) is always talking and not facing the teacher, even if he sat right by where the teacher stays. Sometimes, I want to hit him because he’s always talking with his seatmates, and then asks me what to repeat what I just said.

Anyway, his essay is one of my favorites. I would have given him a perfect score, if only I didn’t need to give points on mechanics.

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And so ends my 10th week of being a Student-Teacher… and supposedly the First Quarter of the school year… It ended with a storm. Just another 10 weeks (No, I think just 8 weeks left… or less… but then, it could be more.)

Recap: I am a student-teacher at the laboratory school of the University of the Philippines (UP), UP Integrated School. I teach Grade 9 (3rd year High School) English in a heterogeneous class–a mix of really intelligent students and really crappy students (not really THAT crappy. They actually have to maintain a certain grade to stay in their school). I’m the only student-teacher under my supervising teacher, and she treats me like an apprentice. Classes are only Mondays and Thursdays and I only handled one class for the 1st Quarter, but will soon be handling another class once the 2nd Quarter officially starts (eh.. already started but unofficially)

What I have learned so far from being a teacher:

1. Be patient.

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I’ve been meaning to make an official post of this on my blog but I’ve been busy lately.

I chanced upon this site that teaches Tagalog, although it teaches more of Filipino, I believe. But since Tagalog is the more known “language,” I shall let it be. It is interesting enough that Matt and Yu remembered some of the phrases there. Matt’s pronunciation greatly improved as well. He probably spent the time we didn’t talk practicing those phrases. When we spoke to each other again after two days, he greeted me in Tagalog.

The website doesn’t just have audio of the phrase, but includes of video of the words. I think it would be better if they showed the mouth because Tagalog has its distinct sounds that changes with the shape of the mouth. This way, those who would like to learn could imitate that as well.

It has sections that teaches you how to curse and insult someone which was pretty cool. the makers of the website probably had that first thing on their list.

They’re still indexing and adding more stuff so it’s not complete, though I don’t think it will ever be complete. Maybe they should have a submission box or something where Filipinos could submit audio/video and other words to add to their media and dictionary–of course with proper screening.

That way, it could grow faster and have different perspectives.

I was looking for a way to contact them or comment on them, but I didn’t find any at the time of writing this. I hope they see this entry and read my suggestions :(

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