A Teacher's Journal

7 Things teachers should do to reduce that "End of the year Stress".

2015-05-13T02:32:00.001-04:00

Teachers' job can be stressful, but we learned how to handle it our way. :)

We all know how our job as a teacher can be overwhelmingly draining. If you are a teacher, you know exactly what I am talking about. Humans as we all are, we wanted to get that well deserved weekends and holidays! While we consider ourselves lucky if we get a national holiday one or two in a month but most holidays just don't happen instead we get make up days for the snow days that we wished it didn't happen in winter. Believe me, I always check my calendar and circle the holidays in red!

It is probably one of the reasons why most people don't want this job because of the very minimal holidays we get during the cycle of academic year. On the other hand, I say that we are still lucky because we have the summer holidays. That, by the way, we all deserve after a tedious 10 months of lesson planning and grading and dealing with the different behaviors of children and parents on some occasions.

That remaining two months before the school year ends could be very very stressful. And so I came up with this list of things that teachers can do to somehow help us reduce stress while doing year end reports and forms to fill out, tons of test papers and students' projects to check and all other things that seem to be never ending. Hope these will help.

1. Listen to your favorite music. I have my earphones on and I have downloaded more than a thousand songs in my phone with all the music that I like from R&B to classical music, Latin music, Filipino music, pop music, etc. Music helps me stay in phase with what I am doing, and helps me focus too. This probably works to most people.

2. Make in between conversations with fellow teachers while at work. BUT pay attention to the time! Conversation is only a way for you to not drain your energy doing one thing straight for 8 hours.

3. Take a trip to the cafeteria and back. Walking can make your blood to get into full circulation again after long hours of sitting in your desk checking and grading students' work.

4. Get those magazines and books handy. I have two on my desk. When you feel that you had enough for the day, but actually no..you just want to have break but it is not your break time yet because you're not even half way on the pile of tests papers that you need to check. Hey, grab that magazine or that book and read few pages. It will ease that feeling of "is it 4:00 o'clock yet?".

5. Change venue. Sometimes, it feels like I don't want to stay in my classroom to work. What I normally do is take all the urgent tasks that I need to do and work on it in the library, in the section where it is always empty and spend my time working on it. Believe me, you'll get significant amount of work done.

6. Tidy up your work station! It is always pleasant to sit in your desk in the morning, with all your things in their proper places, rather than looking at piles of tests papers, work books and laboratory reports stack like mountains on your desk and under.

7. Start your day with a SMILE. Yes, I always do. And I believe it can make a difference. I greet students and fellow teachers everyday with a simple hello and a smile. I always feel the need to spread happiness and positivity around, especially like this time of the year when all requirements are set to due.

I can't wait for my most deserved summer break!

And don't forget to put the Philippines in your bucket list. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g294245-Philippines-Vacations.html

I Dreamed of this, Too!

2014-03-18T09:39:00.002-04:00

I came across the blog of Nathan Allen about a month ago and from that time on I became a frequent visitor of his blog pages. And his Facebook too! One of the reasons is because I haven't been in my country in quite awhile and in his blog he features beautiful spots in the Philippines that not most of the visitors and tourists would visit. Not for any kind of wrong reasons but must be because these places are not very well advertised in the country's tourism. So, I want to help promote my country in this aspect because in all sense the Philippines has a lot to offer to people who wanted to have a perfect island get away. Aside from affordability, I think these places in the country is so perfect to get close to what nature can offer.

"El Nido, Palawan, Philippines" Photo credit: Nathan Allen

I am a stranger in my own country. And right now, just like when Nathan says "I dreamed of this" I also dreamed of this, going to beautiful spots in my own country. I have never been to these places and I certainly want to check these out. There are more photos that are posted in Nathan's blog and each time I see them, I am always in awe.

"Bantayan Island, Cebu Philippines" Photo Credit: Nathan Allen

These pictures just make me want to go home, to be honest. :-)

To see more of Nathan's blog about the Philippines, here is the link

http://www.idreamedofthis.com/2014/02/18/a-foreign-blogger-s-letter-to-the-philippines/

Re-blogged with Permission: A foreign Blogger's Letter to the Philippines by Nathan Allen

2014-02-25T11:45:00.002-05:00

Filipinos: Think, Think, THINK!!

-By Nathan Allen

When I was in the Philippines, a friend of mine said "Nathan, you think too much". Actually, I heard this from a few Filipinos. Really? I mean, I know I tend to analyze things, but "thinking too much" is precisely I how I dreamed up a way to (modestly) travel the country for a year - then write an in-depth article on Filipino culture (an article that, guess what, Filipinos seem to LOVE).

Filipinos: I am asking you to think MORE.

Eleanor Roosevelt said "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people." Sadly, perhaps due to colonization and other factors (I'll get to these later), the Philippines may have established itself as a country full of "small minds" - people that were discouraged from being ambitious, and kept from their potential. Those in power wanted to keep it that way, and to some extent I believe it's still the same today. The masses are encouraged to keep consuming products and stay focused on (and distracted by) trashy, mindless TV and gossip. I've seen it happen in the US. It's good for the economy, but bad for the culture (it makes things easier for a government to manipulate its people and keep them powerless).

CONSUMERS AND COPYCATS

The Philippines seems to be a country full of consumers and copycats. What do I mean by that? Media consumption - TV, radio, and Internet...and it's all designed to manipulate you one way or the other. Encouraged through the media is shopping - you've got to have the latest shoes, bags, and phones. Otherwise, your value in society isn't very high.

Just like in the US, it's a very shallow, endless cycle of consumption, but Filipinos, what are you producing? What are you contributing to the world?

You are widely known to be some of the best cover-artists in the world. You can recreate almost any song - sometimes even better than the original! Pinoy vocalist Arnel Pineda becoming the lead singer of the iconic American band "Journey" is a good example of this. You're such gifted musicians and vocalists, and aside for the US and UK, I'm pretty sure you can speak English better than any country in the world - so where are your own musical contributions? I know you have some classic Filipino songs, but I'm talking about international hits (and Fil-Am artists don't count).

Filipinos, perhaps hundreds of years of colonization have left you holding back your talent...and feeling like you don't have a voice - that your opinions don't matter, and have no value. That is understandable (given your country's repressive history), but we live in a different world now, and I hope you can begin to take the first few steps away from that oppressive past.

(*Note, if you are using Internet Explorer and you can't view the screen below properly, you may need to upgrade Internet Explorer for free HERE)

EDSA LRT Station, Pasay

LIFT YOURSELVES UP, BUT DON'T FORGET WHO YOU ARE

Now, with your growing economy, you are heading in the same direction as many wealthy western countries. You are "modernizing", and that appears to be a good thing. Do you know what the irony is, though? In our countries, the "higher standard of living" is not what you might think. Most of you have plenty of "quality social time". The amount of time we have to reflect and enjoy life with friends and family is shockingly little. Unlike most of yours, our families arebroken and very disconnected. In the "developed" world, we seem to be losing our humanity - we barely make eye contact when we're out in public! Yourfamily-oriented culture and sense of connectedness is something that you REALLY have going for you in the Philippines.

In our countries we work too much, are completely stressed out, and have countless new diseases and psychological disorders that I believe are popping up because of life in our hectic modern world. A therapist is practically a requirement for life in any large American city. Filipinos, do you even know what a therapist is? No? Good. Haha:) These disorders (just like therapists) are rare in the Philippines. This seems to be the price we pay for being "advanced and developed" nations. The point is, I do hope you can break free from this "colonial" mentality, but aside from that...

Filipinos: Don't try to be more like us, try to be more like YOU. I believe what the the world needs now is more you, not more us.

In my last article about Filipino culture, I mentioned how a few people in Manila seemed to be ashamed to speak Filipino with me. I didn't like that; I hoped they would be proud of their culture. I got the impression that they admired me so much - just for being white! When I would go through security anywhere in Manila, I was the only one who wouldn't be searched. I seemed to get a free pass, again, because I was white. That was something I loved about Cebu and the Visayas...there, the security searched me just like everybody else. It was fair. In general, people down there weren't impressed with my white skin. If I was going to impress them, I would have to earn it. They were proud, and I loved that. I don't mean to promote regionalism here; I just would love to see all Filipinos develop that sense of cultural pride.

Truly the "Pearl Of The Orient Seas"

Filipinos (from north to south), please know that your culture and who you are is something unique and special in the world - something precious that's rapidly disappearing, in fact. Please don't be afraid to be proud - I know you prefer to be modest, but I don't believe pride and modesty have to be enemies. I believe you can be proud without thinking or acting like you are better than others. Be proud of your culture; your heritage.

Philippines, I hope soon you will become known for being more than just a friendly country with affordable opportunities for foreign-owned businesses. My hope is that you will gain a reputation as a nation of innovators and entrepreneurs...as creators. I have never seen so much talent be so under-utlilized. With your stunning beaches and lush mountain provinces, you are also poised and ready to take the world's tourism industry by storm. However, your ecosystem is delicate, and it needs to be protected and preserved. I'd love to see your country pave the way for environmentally-friendly tourism. That would be an innovative and much needed contribution to the world!

At the very least, I hope you can share the Filipino way of life with the rest of the world, because we could certainly learn a lot from it.

The "Crab Mentality" - Is It Helpful?

Please put an end to the "crab mentality" - lift each other up, don't pull each other down. If your country is ever going to rise up and share its treasures with the world, you will have to foster an environment of praise and support for your countrymen.

Filipinos: You are some of the most talented, soulful, and generous people I have ever encountered. Please know that you DO have a voice, that your ideas DO matter, and that your contributions (whether they be musical, artistic, or intellectual) WILL be felt.

Believe it, and the rest of the world will, too.

Oh! One more thing. If you work in government, do not EVER forget your responsibility to represent the PEOPLE - a people and a culture with a lot to offer the world. YOU represent them on the world's stage. Do NOT let them down.

- Nathan Allen

Click on this link to go to Nathan's blog

http://www.idreamedofthis.com/2014/02/18/a-foreign-blogger-s-letter-to-the-philippines/

All I have left is Hope

2013-12-29T11:29:00.000-05:00

I knew the time would come that I have to be far from the people I care most in my life. It was very painful. I struggled to keep myself strong while I put some of my clothes in the luggage. I tried to assure everyone that I will be okay. And I made a promise that I will come back. At first, I thought I could keep what I said, that no matter what I will stay. It didn't happen.

I am now one of the fathers who sacrifice their time of being with their children to make a living thousands of miles away. It hasn't to be this way. I tried so hard to be with them as they grow up. I wanted to see them grow in my eyes, so I could guide them to the way I want them to be. But the world is not favoring my plan. It took me awhile to see that the world somehow is against me. I fought, we fought but it didn't happen.

As I moved from airport to airport to get to my destination, tears were falling from my eyes. I didn't realize that I confided to this woman who sat beside me. She assured me that things will be alright. This is the moment again that I began asking why some things that happened are just too hard to understand. I wanted to scream to let go of my frustration, and all I have was a heavy heart.

I made a promise.
Things will be alright.
Despite the sadness and longing, I always tell myself that things will be okay.

What if the world didn't have teachers?

2013-10-04T09:31:00.002-04:00

What if the world didn't have teachers?

There'll be no doctors and nurses,

no Lawyers and Engineers.

No accountants and clerks,

to do paychecks or bills.

What if the world didn't have teachers?

There'll be no ABC's and numbers,

no grammar rules and punctuations.

No fractions and square roots,

Neither decimals or exponents.

But God made the teachers,

To help us learn every life's skills.

From knowing values and sentences,

Or to following rules and consequences.

I thank my teachers for all their teachings.

I thank them all for their legacies.

I thank them all for their sacrifices,

I thank them all, I thank them all.

Metamorphosis

2013-10-02T16:40:00.000-04:00

My daughter in her experiment.

This is my daughter doing her observation of the stages of insect metamorphosis. Though, this wasn't a new thing for me but all of us were excited when we saw the butterfly came out from its shell in the final stage. Both girls were very happy as we let go of the butterfly on the very next day.

Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops after birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. This is what Wikipedia shows when I looked for the more comprehensive definition of the word.

I call it transformation. I find this process to be all-inclusive. It speaks of all experiences that brought people to change. Experiences that cause people to doubt, and surmise the way the universe spin. The way it creates a person is imperceptible. I can't recall how many times I had a transformation myself, in a way that I did not recognized. But I was told and I thought that this probably is how everyone's life is drafted.

Change, transform. Metamorphosis.

Choices

2013-07-31T17:22:00.000-04:00

Picture Credit:www.scoop.it

When we were little, we often got punished and reprimanded of breaking the rules or not following the things that we are told to do. And as a young child, we used to feel being rejected, or unimportant after getting the punishments. And some people are so eager to get over this stage of having a parent who’s going to watch every single mishap they've made.

I think I had the best childhood because of the presence of my siblings and parents, yet those moments that I was being punished for things that I've done wrong weren't worth telling. Like for instance, being paddled by a broom because of acting so badly when I was not permitted to go watch movies on a weekend. Yeah, it is not worth telling. But here I am, as a parent and as an adult missing those moments where someone I looked up would tell me how awesome or how awful the choices I made.

Living life is always about making choices. Nobody can figure out whether the choices we’re making are the right one’s for us except us. And it is very difficult to tell especially if you’re a person who wanted to make sure that the way ahead is laid right for you. These are uncertainties, a force that holds you away to where you believe you’re heading.

It is very hard to make the right choices. I made lots of wrong ones in my life, but here is

what I learned over the course of time – have faith.

The Bus Trip

2013-07-27T16:50:00.001-04:00

Photo credit: www.tc.gc.ca

In one of our PDs, our principal asked us to read a book which was about a bus, whose driver has already know the passengers he has everyday. He hasn't only know them by name but by their everyday experiences and struggles. I just can't recall the author and the title of the book, but I know I have it in my shelf. I was just reminded by the story because of the very long trip that I did recently from the south all the way to the east coast by bus. That was the first long trip by bus that I ever had. Inside the bus, I saw people coming up and down in every stop. One guy who happened to sit beside me was not a native of this place, just like me. And so we share the same story and the same sentiments. It was a long conversation about how to live life and successes and struggles plus adversities. And then, he realized it was his time to get down from the bus. We said each other goodbye and he tapped my shoulder to say good luck to my future plans. People get on the bus and come down as they get to the destination.

And so I looked at this whole thing being similar to opportunities that come and go. Most of the time we have it, we loved and enjoyed it and we thought it won't slip away from our hands. I admired the people I know who were able to keep the opportunities they long all there life making it a long trip. As I told the man who was seated beside me in the bus, if we missed one opportunity, surely we're not going to miss the next one that come next. Opportunities are like bus passengers. They come up and down the bus, and so while they're up, enjoy they're presence in your travel.

So that we'll all get to our destination fulfilled and not with regrets.

Light and Shadows

2013-05-07T12:37:00.000-04:00

I think this one is a language of an artist. Like the one used in painting, probably by using a charcoal or even a plain regular pencil. But I found these words "light and shadows" as a description of what all of us have been through in life and to the perspective of an artist, it is simply making the painting look perfect is to use a combination of lights and shadows. I'm not an artist (though I desire to be one) but I used to watch them paint on sidewalks and inside the malls and observed how they intricately brushed every detail of their subject before they hang it for display.

We are our life's artist. When we started to sketch what our life is going to look like, we were like artists making dirty sketches on a pad. Just like an amateur who cannot decide on a subject, and he doodle on anything that he could think of. Some of the lines he made are dark, some are light. And if we thought it is really really bad, we often toss it in the trash can. A fact that tells us that life isn't always about luck, or serendipity or good fortune. It comes in all packages.

Be your life's artist. Paint your life's portrait to perfection using a good contrast of light and shadow. Look back with the choices that you made in the past that makes the real you today. Yes, those are your shadows that makes a good contrast of your life. Embrace it and be thankful because it make us more of who we are.

The key to fulfillment is acceptance. Acknowledge the real us without any camouflage.

Time is as Precious as Gold

2013-04-09T10:42:00.001-04:00

Photo credit: Mona Liza Letigio "Sunset by the Lake"

There is always time for everything. Life isn't always busy as we thought it is. The true reason why we tend to forget important things that we wanted to do is because of the fact that when unusual events happen in our life, it will stir up our thoughts and will make us forget the priorities. And so we ended up forgetting important dates and meetings and even the much needed appointments. And even forget about the scheduled family dates that we highlighted in our calendar. Things can easily mess up our minds especially when unpleasant and unexpected things happen.

Believe me, I and my beloved wife forgot about our special day several times! But we just smiled when we found out and admit the fact that we were so caught up with what all of the things happening around us. Some situations can just get way in our heads and can blow us up sometimes, and I'm sure everyone experience that. Is it a sad fact? Yes it is. To justify in our case, at least to us, we have two girls who are looking up at us and students that we need to attend each day so that we have to keep up with everything that we do. We struggled to do our routine each time, and responsibilities seem to keep adding up each day. And I thought, life is always like this if we would not take control and put our hand on it.

Time is precious because we can never do things that we were supposed to do when the time is gone. I tend to say this all the time; "I was supposed to do this yesterday," and the same line I am going to say the next day and it becomes my favorite line. While the work keeps on adding and adding each day in our life, it is important to think of the priorities and the ones that we missed. And I realized that inorder to do this, a simple quite moment is needed. Take a mild walk in the neighborhood, or by going into your backyard to breathe some fresh air. Even getting into your room and having a little silence to yourself is proven effective. Well, at least to me. I find it important to take sometime of silence to listen to my thoughts especially when situations seem so deranged. And after that, I can go back to work again.

Time is gold, so that we can never let certain circumstances ruin our plans. We can never go back to the time that was wasted but we can always go back to the plans that we did not accomplish and start all over again. Thanks to our God for the ability to reflect, the ability to re-focus and the strength to do the things He has planned for us. :)

The Power of Faith

2013-03-28T10:03:00.000-04:00

And I ask the Lord; "Why in the saddest of lowestt times of my life, there was only one set of footprints?" And the Lord replied: "My son, my precious child, I love and I would never leave you. During the times of sufferings where you can see one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."

I have this video in my blog for more than 2 years now. I want to re post this over and over. This is a very inspiring song to me because of the many things that I've been through in life. Countless people are experiencing tough and rough times. I used to think that life is really unfair in those circumstances and I always ask why. What have I done to deserve all these? I often blame myself for making wrong choices and as a result I lose confidence in what I do. There was a point in my life that I hated myself so much that I resorted to almost destroy the good future ahead of me. I simply ignored the reasons why we have to make sacrifices. I failed to see good out of the tribulations that we all have to endure. I am so blinded.

Yes, life is challenging. It is not all-luck, nor celebration. We have struggles that we need to deal with every single day, and sometimes we feel like going into hiding and become a coward. It happened to me, and it happened to all of us. These are the times that we feel so alone, helpless and angry and scared. We hated and blame the world for the things that happened to us. Then, we have these moments that we feel we succeeded. We got the things that we dreamed of having. Wealth, money, family and friends. We say God thank you for all these blessings. Thank you for granting us our wishes but never in those moments that we fail. I am guilty that I question God about my sufferings.

May everyone embrace God's love, and be thankful of His presence in us.

COMICS

2013-03-14T12:27:00.000-04:00

Photo credit: http://komiklopedia.wordpress.com

I was amazed by how my 8 years old daughter can draw close-to-perfect images of people's faces, to cartoon characters and even two dimensional objects with her own fine details in it. Now that I stayed home for quite a while, often I could see her with a bunch of paper and pencil in her hand sketching from time to time on just anything that she can think or things that she will notice on TV. At times, she will even ask me what I want her to draw and oftentimes, I told her to look around. Each moment I looked at her drawing, it brought me a picture in mind of my first notebook that has all my first sketches.

Back in time, before I started school, I was already fascinated by the pictures in the comic magazines - which are so popular at the time. I remember, some of my friends in high school would even cut classes because they just want to stay at the comic stand from across the road in our school, just to read their favorite comic story from name comics like Wakasan, Liwayway, Hiwaga, Aliwan, and many others. At that time, we would spend 25 cents to every comic magazine we read.

Photo credit: http://komiklopedia.wordpress.com

My mother would never give us spare money to read comics, and besides, my brother used to bring us a lot of comics from the city where he worked. I have no idea if he bought all those, or if it was given to him but we found ourselves grabbing and swapping each copy and reading it silently in our own corner of the house. That was the time that I started to recognize the difference in the way the pictures were illustrated in each stories. And they were different because they came from different artists. Mar T. Santana and Joey D. Celerio were my most favorite. Every time I read a comic magazine, I always looked up for their name in the title.

I missed those times that I could spend time reading my favorite comics. I searched the names of my favorite comic illustrator to find out that they were already gone. I just love their art, the way emotions are shown in each pictures, and lay out, and most of all, the consistency.

Well, as teacher I'm glad I know a little bit how to draw. And believe me, each time I make simple sketches on my white board it will definitely get the attention of my class. Thanks to the Maestros I mentioned above. They do not know me, but certainly they had an influence on me through their drawings.

I never had found reading comics as a waste of time before, and in fact, I personally believe it helped me with my sharp intuition, imagination and creativity. And also, I was the fastest reader back in kindergarten!

One of my pencil sketches.

Photo credit:http://komiklopedia.wordpress.com

School Shootings, Is there an End?

2013-01-11T12:17:00.001-05:00

"I don't want to shoot you," he told the popular teacher, who was trying to coax the teen into giving up the shotgun he still held. - From Yahoo! News, January 11, 2012 about new school shooting in California, this is nearly 3 weeks after the mass school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.http://news.yahoo.com/student-tells-teacher-dont-want-shoot-091521422.html

Photo credit: Yahoo! News showing paramedics transporting a wounded student from a shooting inside San Joaquin Valley H.S. , Taft, California.

I cannot imagine myself being Mr. Heber, who stood and try to convince a student shooter to give up his gun. But then again, as a teacher, there is a moral obligation that we need to do in this kind of situation and that is to provide safety to the children in school aside from the job of teaching the standards to them. I could have probably did the same thing, or I might not. I don't know.

It has been a series of incidents of school shootings, and I just thought that school administrators need to brainstorm on what other certain things they can do apart from doing lock down drills to protect the children. I am absolutely not into giving guns to teachers. It is just not a good idea and I don't want to bring a gun when going to school. Schools should be a safe environment for children and teachers and not a place of fear, or terror, or harm.

What are other things that can be done? Do we need to wait for the lawmakers to come up on something? But how long? Or do we need to wait for another massacre to happen before they can come up on something? Or maybe the question is, which school in the country will have a shooting next?

I am worried about the safety of my children and my friend's children who attend school. When is this going to end?

The Christmas Lantern

2012-12-01T11:15:00.001-05:00

Photo credit: Noel Y.C
http://nyclovesnyc.blogspot.com/2008/12/parol-philippine-christmas-lanterns.html

I admit, with a lot of things going on with our life right now, I already taken out of plan to put our Christmas tree and Christmas lights and other ornaments. I just thought, "then, I have to take these down after a month.." I am totally lost. I forgot that putting up the decorations isn't a show but a celebration. A christian celebration of thanksgiving, love and sharing. So there is more to say than just seeing the Christmas tree and colorful lights during christmas.

The Parol vendor

Back in the days, as early as September, all local stores are already filled with Christmas decorations. One of the things we do in our household is to make our native Christmas decorations from materials and scraps that we could recycle inside the house. I love how we do our Christmas Tree from plastic bags or dried tree branch from a tree we call "Pobreng Kahoy".

Yes, the Parol is a reminder of the simplicity of life way back the early Filipino christians who use this lantern to light their ways to attend the dawn mass we called "Misa de Gallo" or "Aguinaldo Mass". Simple and yet it brings back the true meaning of the season.

Dancing with the Vampires

2012-11-16T12:18:00.000-05:00

Sounds creepy. Yeah, that is me in the picture wearing the stripe black and white bonnet dancing. But these folks who were with me were not blood suckers. We were just having fun this cold fall, but feel like winter night.

A party with Zombies and Vampires!

Life can sometimes be like "go where the wind goes". Remember how strong the super-storm Sandy was that hits the east coast lately? Kind of like that, but most of the devastations are not visible in the eye. It's more of inside, tearing down what's left for you to hold on. Our instinct tells us not to let go, and just continue to get a grip on anything. Anything that we thought are strong, and powerful to resist the seemingly insurmountable test of faith.

But what if at certain point in life, we just let go? What if we became tired and weak of gripping, and our arms and hands just gave up? I thought, it would just be safe to go where the wind goes. It should not be a safe travel for sure. It should be scary and dangerous. There could be lots of barriers. But I just thought, that after the wild and reckless, and destructive wind speed, everything will go back to normal. A relaxing breeze that we want to feel each time that life gives us heavy burden. That is why a lot of us wanted to be at a place where we could just feel the relaxing breath of fresh air. Where we are at peace. And we could think.

I love to dance like a debonair. A carefree. It surely is reviving. And yes, vampires do exist but is not in the picture of the ones we know. They are more human this time. They are more camouflaged. They suck not blood but the energy that we need to fight back with the storms in life. That is why I learn how to dance with them.

Project Ipad with Donorschoose

2012-11-06T21:45:00.001-05:00

There was a problem with the smart board I have in my class, so I went to the technology room to grab an overhead projector. As I was pushing the projector cart to my room, a student blurted out: "Mr. Letigio, it looks like we're going back to the 70's with that!". I was actually laughing when I heard what the student said, but I just told him,"Hey, we'll just make use of what we have at this point."

I refused to believe what I just read from most of the teachers forum, with one donor says that teachers only want an Ipad in class to be their toy, where they can play angry birds during breaks. Teachers deserve the technology that they need in class especially to these generation of learners where students already have their own sophisticated cellphones, and tablets and computers at home. And in irony, they don't see any of these technology in their own classrooms

I thought my projector and laptop would be enough, but I was challenged when one of my students told me that in the school where she came from, her LA teacher has a set of Ipad for them to use. Then, I thought, the school was probably not in recession but behind my mind, I need to upgrade my use of technology in class.

Please support my project at Donorschoose.org by clicking on this link:

http://www.donorschoose.org/mr.letigio

If the link is not working, please come back in later time. The team is still reviewing my proposed project and it would take a while. Thank you for your support.

Happy Halloween, 2012!

2012-11-01T12:56:00.002-04:00

My daughters, Rossie and Riza trick or treating on halloween, 2012.

We celebrated my daughter's 4th birthday 5 days ago, and I thought, "Yeah, right. Halloween is here, then, Thanksgiving holiday. Then, christmas." By the time we gathered together to celebrate my daughter's birthday, and I know it has become a culture to us to come to our house in halloween costume, especially with the little kids and eat dinner together and then, we were reminded that yes, after the halloween, all the holidays are in the corner.

Nearly 8 years ago, we celebrated our All Soul's Day and All Saint's Day with our families in the Phil. Although there was no glamour of wearing the most expensive costumes but we enjoyed visiting our deceased family and relative in their graveyard, and some folks are actually partying with them bringing food and drinks in their grave. In the night of Nov. 1st, we used to gather together as a family and offer prayers to the souls of our departed families. After the prayer, we come and eat together as a family and welcome kids and neighbors treat and tricking and have them eat and play with us.

Now that I am thousands of miles away from home, all I can do is just recall my memories as I saw the kids treat or tricking in the neighborhood. I felt a sudden sadness while I watched my girls knocking at my neighbor's door. At that moment, I decided to go with my girls to the main street and be with the rest of the kids in town enjoying the display for halloween. It is something that cannot replace my childhood experience during halloween but at least, I have them experience the moment.

When skin color matters 1

2012-10-17T12:27:00.000-04:00

It's probably a desperate decision to move to China, but the way I look at how the economy is going in the US, I am guessing that everyone have to think twice. The gas prices soared up, now at more than $4.00 a gallon in major cities. And the trend is the same in the past 3 years, when gas prices go up then the rest of the commodities go up as well.

I watched the second presidential debate last night, and if I would be one of the voters, up to now I would still be one of the undecided. There were a lot of blah, blah and blah from both candidates . Not one of them was actually hitting the point. Well, at least they mentioned something about immigration but not in the details that I want. They talked a little bit about education but both of their ideas were vague. It's like indirectly saying it is the least of their priorities.

I went to this website http://www.seriousteachers.com/ to register to view some jobs in China. In fact I like the website and hopeful that I could get an offer from one of the schools in Asia. While navigating the website, I stumbled on their forum and one of the discussions was coming from this lady, who tried to apply as an ESL teacher but have been rejected several times because the school only hires "native English speaker". She got great qualifications, and have taken and passed the required examinations but still her applications were rejected. I find this system of job hiring to be ridiculously absurd and discriminatory. And I know that they knew that this is a wrong practice of the hiring schools and it is obvious they only use the white people to market their school. Because the more white people in an international school, the more it would look "international", and more wealthy families will enroll their children in the system. This practice is a form of racism in the job and is unacceptable. Even if the reason is the one I stated above "For the school to look and sound - international" or "diverse". They should not reject a person who is highly qualified, with relevant degree, and experience and proven record of success in the classroom, all because he/she is not a native English speaker or not white. Period.

View the forum I mentioned above in this link: http://www.seriousteachers.com/te2/seriousforum1.asp?topic=356

Lately

2012-07-27T14:59:00.000-04:00

This is one part of the Rock Hill Riverwalk. We used to come

here on late afternoon or early evening to relax and take a

gentle walk and feeling the cool breeze of air. So relaxing, that

you'll forget the stress the day brings.

Things are falling into place...I guess. Just being thankful that despite of the too many unstoppable, out of hand circumstances, at least, me and my wife are still on our sanity. Well, our two lovely girls helped us a lot to overcome those feelings of losing our hope and or not being in control of our emotions. To those people who knows us and knew what we've been through lately would surely understand what I am talking about.

It is only like this. Life is always about finding the way through good times and bad times. You have to deal to every situations. You have to think and be logical on dealing with something big. In other words, there is no place to being too emotional. It is not helping. Maybe it would help by bringing out the heartache inside, other than that, no. I realized that when you are facing a situation that is beyond your means to control, all you have to do is to raise your hand. Not in defeat, but surrendering it to the one who is omnipotent, the one who is in control of everything. There is no such thing as being hopeless, because there is always hope. I learned that a lot. And it is always to our advantage if we look at things positively, that there is always a reason to everything that happened. I am a big believer of that.

Just keep the faith. :)

Acts of Kindness

2012-06-08T11:08:00.001-04:00

366 Random Acts of Kindness: Day 158: Gave Away My Lunch: My job at ZocDoc requires me to meet with different doctors all throughout Chicago. As I drive around, I am always saddened by the fact t...

This is just amazing. I am greatly inspired by this Random Acts of Kindness blog by Ryan. And I sincerely wish that everybody would do the same thing, show simple act of kindness to someone who needed one. If we can show kindness to someone each day, I can imagine what a better world we would be. Lister to the video I posted above. It is worth your time.

For the Sake of Education

2012-06-06T12:07:00.002-04:00

"Wake Up!, Wake Up!" This is our mom, yelling early in the morning during our school days. We don't have the luxury of having an alarm clock like what most kids now have in their bedroom, but I am telling you that you cannot shut off our mom and doze again in the morning. She is the best brand of alarm clocks not available in stores.

The rule is, we have to eat first before we go to school. And it is not always the best food you wanted to eat for breakfast. And mom used to say, "Hey, you're brain is not going to function well when your stomach is empty!" True enough. So, whatever food we have on the table, we have to eat it without any complain.

Being the youngest in the family, my experience of poverty while in school is far less than what my siblings had. And I believe and understand that it is very hard to raise nine children, yet my parents were able to send all of us to school. I see the struggle and the hardships to look for food, and to look for funds to buy our notebooks, pens, and papers and to have a book bag is not so important at that time. We carry our school materials by hand and it teaches us to be responsible with our stuff.

Feeling the poverty in those critical times, each of the siblings have our share. For several times, I walked the 6 miles walk after school to go home because I spent my money to buy materials for school projects or I used the money to buy food because I was hungry. At times, I made projects for some students to earn money. Yes, they will pay me. And its a big help on me every time I get those extra cash because I can skip a day of asking money from our mom.

When I saw this picture of kids crossing this old hanging trail on a rainy early morning without minding that the water underneath is dangerous and they might fell, just to go to school, my heart just fell for them. I felt what they feel at that moment, they just want to get to school that day..whatever it takes.

This is an example to the rest of children around the world who value education. This is an eye opener to agencies in charge that they have a work to do. This is a reminder to some children who are fortunate to have been provided with everything that they need and yet did not bother to take advantage with the opportunities they have in hand.

Poverty is Everywhere

2012-05-09T11:29:00.001-04:00

I came across this article from The Herald Online Voice of the People - May 8, 2012, and it urges the school to continue to provide food service to the students, meaning, schools will continue to offer free or reduced lunch and breakfast to students who are eligible to the service. Several people commented on the article, while one of them was saying and I quote: "...let everyone feed their own children. You have to be a pretty sorry individual if you cannot feed your own child!"

I came from an economically challenged family and during my elementary school days up to high school, I could feel how my parents struggled with our finances to keep us from school. My mom, has a great vision for all of us and I remember her saying that education is the only treasure she can give to us. Despite of the difficulty of money, my parents was able to send all of us to school and she never failed to have us eat our breakfast and packed our lunches each and everyday! And besides, our schools don't offer free lunch.

I am now a parent and I have a 7 year old daughter who goes to school. I am currently having financial struggle as well. But I do believe that it is the parent's responsibility to feed their children and pack their lunches before they go to school. It is our job to do these things to our kids and not the cafeteria crew!

One time, one of my students in my first block in the morning asked me for a piece of peppermint candy after class. I told him, "No, you don't eat candy early in the morning. It has sugar in it." And he replied, "But I am hungry." I did not believe in him because who's parent who will send a child in school with empty stomach? Now, it makes sense to me. And I agree, the performance and the academics of the child are affected.

Poverty is everywhere. But I never let poverty blocked my way to get the education I deserved. Thanks to my hardworking Mom and my siblings.

The Effect of Poverty to Teaching and Learning: http://www.teach-nology.com/tutorials/teaching/poverty/

What Makes a Good Teacher?

2012-04-28T00:41:00.000-04:00

Being a teacher is not accidental, but a true calling. Or otherwise, I will be miserable everyday doing things that I did not dream of doing. This job requires knowledge, creativity, and patience. In college, we were required to pass 30 units of education classes aside from the majors, while the most crucial stage was to pass the in-campus practice teaching so that we will be assigned for an out-campus practice teaching. We have to go through rigid and critical glass lenses of our Ed-teachers, including recommendations from cooperating teachers off campus. When everything are satisfactory, including our academic record, then we will be recommended for graduation.

The certificate we received upon graduation would not really count until we passed the Li censure Examination for Teachers (LET) from the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC). It became a requirement that teachers need to be certified and must pass the test. I am saying all these because I would like to account the time we spent to acquire this degree prior to landing a job in the classroom and therefore,

I thought that these whole process played a major role in the making of a good teacher.

While learning is a lifetime process, as a teacher we don't allow ourselves to be stagnant and become stereotyped. Getting a master's degree is one way of keeping ourselves abreast with what are new in our field, and I don't believe that this isn't helping us become a good teacher, because I myself, have used in the classroom some of the things I learned from the units I took for my initial master's degree classes.

So what makes a good teacher? Yes, I agree with the video above but to add on the idea is the real passion for job. If you are passionate about teaching the students in your class, then creativity, enthusiasm, and everything will just follow. Your energy towards making your students learn will be endless.

Hats off to all the great teachers!

The Chosen One

2012-04-25T11:04:00.000-04:00

To apply for a full time teaching position, one must put a stack of about twenty papers together...resume, cover letter, recommendations, and even those certificates from workshops and training attended. Knowing the odds of getting hired, what? 30:1, 50:1 or it must be safe to apply everywhere.

Nearly 6 years ago, when life became so tough for me. I decided to try my luck abroad, so I quit my teaching job at a local school. Not knowing that things would not come out as easy, especially when getting a job offer. It was a long agonizing time of waiting, at the same time, thinking if we still have money to pay for apartment rent, and to pay for our visa application. My anxiety and worries reached to almost breaking point, but yet, I received a call from the agency that I got job offer from a school in South Carolina!

Nothing new. Life must be going around in circles. However, it is from these series of experiences that I started to grow. It looks like it is going back and forth but if I look closely at how I lived my life in those times, there are messages that I need to know. During down times, my wife and I used to retrospect to see how how our lives have been. Weighing the good things that life brings versus the bad ones and we realized that more good things took place and that we are thankful for. We are also thankful for every failures we made, because we learned from it and will thrive not to do it again. While oftentimes when something went wrong, we used to say we can never be good at anything. Or life is just a failure. But we failed to acknowledge those moments in our life that we soar and we became accomplished, big time or small time.

Yes, it is very agonizing to hear good news and bad news. But I thank God, for the gift of patience and for bestowing on me the gumption to take chances.

For many are invited, but few are chosen. - Matthew 22:14.

What do we get in Exchange?

2012-04-22T17:34:00.001-04:00

Below is an article from the Los Angeles Times, back issue March 18, 2009. This is not too long ago, and it tells a story that all of us can relate. I admire all of us who endured every circumstances we face inside and out the classroom and yet are able to deliver quality instruction to our students. After all, that is who we are, The Filipino Teachers!

Filipino teachers exchange homeland for jobs in America

Filipino exchange teacher Ferdinand Nakila landed in Los Angeles expecting "Pretty Woman" scenes of swank Beverly Hills boulevards and glittering celebrities. What he got was Inglewood, where he stayed for two weeks in temporary housing and encountered drunkards, beggars, trash-filled streets and nightly police sirens.

It got worse. In training sessions about American classrooms he received in the Philippines, he was told his students might not be quite as polite and respectful as those in his homeland. Nothing, however, prepared him for the furious brawl that broke out in one of his Los Angeles classrooms, where two girls rolled around on the floor clawing at each other while the other students jumped on the desks and cheered.

But Nakila said his American sojourn has transformed him into a far better educator than when he arrived in August 2007. In the Philippines, he was imperious and demanding, throwing students out of his classroom for inadequate preparation with little thought of their plight.

In Los Angeles, his daily encounters with students struggling to learn despite shattered homes, sexual abuse, physical violence or hunger have humbled him into a new vision of teaching.

"I realize we are servants and teaching is more about touching lives and helping students own their own learning," said Nakila, 38, a special education teacher in English at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles.

Nakila is part of a recent wave of foreign exchange teachers from the Philippines, who are primarily being recruited to fill chronic teacher shortages in math, science and special education throughout the United States. More than 100 school districts, including at least 20 in California, are recruiting from the Philippines, said Los Angeles immigration attorney Carl Shusterman.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has hired 250 to 300 teachers from the Philippines -- the largest contingent among more than 600 foreign exchange teachers overall, a district official said.

The statewide budget crisis and impending layoffs, however, have prompted L.A. Unified to suspend its foreign recruitment this year, said Deborah Ignagni, a district human resources administrator.

Pay is an incentive

Ignagni said the L.A. district first began recruiting foreign exchange teachers in the 1980s from Mexico and Spain to help with bilingual elementary education. But it shifted to the Philippines and Canada for math, science and special education teachers in the last four years, she said.

L.A. school officials have tapped the Philippines for several reasons, Ignagni said. The higher education system is similar, so credits are easily transferable for U.S. teaching credentials.

The Philippines has an abundance of teachers, which allows U.S. recruiters to avoid perceptions that they are taking educational resources needed by Filipinos, Ignagni said.

And most Filipinos speak English and can understand some Spanish, which is embedded in the Filipino language as a result of Spain's 300-year colonization of the islands.

Many of the teachers themselves say they jumped at the chance to work in the United States, lured primarily by far better pay. Most teachers in the Philippines earn $300 to $400 a month, less than one-tenth what they can pull down in Los Angeles.

But high processing fees from recruitment and visa sponsoring agencies have strapped many with debts of $10,000 or more.

Some, such as Gelacio Aguilar, sold land in the Philippines to finance their ventures. Others scraped up money from family and friends; still others took out loans.

To be hired in L.A. Unified, the teachers must pass basic skills exams and interviews, fulfill the requirements for a California teaching credential and have three to five years of successful teaching experience in public schools.

The teachers had hoped for work visas that would potentially lead to green cards. But L.A. Unified brings them in on three-year teacher exchange visas known as J-1s because they are easier to obtain, Ignagni said. The district is now applying for work visas for some teachers whose exchange visas have expired.

Rocky beginnings

Once the teachers arrive in Los Angeles, school officials give them a two-week orientation and offer job fairs to connect them with schools. But many describe a rocky start: loneliness, befuddlement over bus routes, apartment hunting, dealing with U.S. currency, American-style resume-writing. And, once in the classroom, utter shock.

Asked to describe his first year, Garcia leaned back in his chair, covered his face with his hands and murmured, "Oh, God."

His ninth-graders' average math skills were sixth-grade level. While he was trying to teach, students roamed the classroom, applied makeup, chatted with one other, tuned out with iPods. A hallway fight started spilling into his class, and when he tried to push the brawlers back out, he said, he was reprimanded for touching them.

During a recent evening interview at his Washington Boulevard apartment, Nelson de la Cruz pulled up his shirt to reveal a black and blue bruise. He got it, he said, after a student threw a book at him. Another teacher suffered injuries after a chair was thrown at her, said Daniel Gumarang of the Filipino American Educators Assn. of Los Angeles, which is aiding the teachers.

Some teachers have given up and headed back to the Philippines, but Ignagni estimated them at "less than a handful."

Nakila, for instance, said he learned something every day about how to handle his students. One lesson: be sensitive to their backgrounds. Aiming to inspire them, he presented Latino success stories and asked students to write about their own heroes, but the reaction was negative, even angry. When he told them about his own heroic father and asked them to describe their own, Nakila said one lashed out, "I don't even know his name, and I don't want to know."

Now he avoids lessons that might cause them to feel inadequacies in their own families.

He keeps cookies in the classroom to feed students who come to school without breakfast, a situation he said he never imagined he would find in wealthy America. He calls parents to ask why they're giving their children Kool-Aid rather than something more nutritious. He tells students he will never give up on them, even if they show their worst.

"I used to wake up thinking 'Oh, my God, let me survive this day,' " Nakila said. "Now I wake up excited, eager to meet my students."