24 November 2010

there's no way not to be grateful to HIM

11.23.2010

          This is the big day for my senior students. It's the time to unwind, relax and, at the same time learn outside the confines of the classroom. Our school and the GPTA in partnership with Palanca Tours organized an Educational Tour for High School students. This time, the destination of our tour is Nueva Ecija.

            Out of 59 students from my advisory class (IV-2), 4 students opted not to join, but a majority of 55 students (1 student joined IV-9) with 6 other students (4 from IV-3 + 2 from IV-7), a total of 60 students joined the Educational Tour 2010 and loaded Bus No. 2 under my supervision together with our Administrative Officer Sir Oliver and our tour guide Ms. Irene. The Educational Trip was serviced by Palanca Tours with major itinerary as follows;
·   Fort Magsaysay (Artillery, Air Force Aircraft, Aquino-Diokno Memorial)
·   Hunter Valley Plantation & Resort Inc. (Butterfly Garden, Bird Zoo, Plantation & Resort)
 
          
            Assembly time was 5:00 AM and departure time was 5:30 AM. According to the Junior Batch, who first went there a couple of weeks ago, there's an average of 4 hours  trip from our school to Nueva Ecija (light traffic).

               Everybody was excited, even me... there was no classroom rules inside the bus and I opted not to have any, except for some important reminders given by Ms. Irene. As I have said to them, this is your day! Enjoy it! Luckily, Sir Oliver was also considerate, not like the others... (it's a joke! laugh out loud). Our trip was so smooth along EDSA and NLEX.

          We entered the SCTEX and Ms. Irene was telling something about it. Our bus was moving around 100 km per hour when suddenly, the left front wheel got busted. Everyone was shocked. There were 64 lives inside the bus including Jepoy, an adopted kitten of IV-2.  The bus at a jerk turned right, but fortunately, Coach was able to control it until it stopped along the side of the expressway.











        Thank God! We're safe. That day, again, not just once, twice or even a hundred times, I've felt the need to be grateful to HIM. I remembered what 'Ingkong' have taught me about Thanksgiving. We are thankful in those times that we've realized a good thing happened unto us, but how about those things done by Him that we're not aware of? 

        There's no way not to be grateful to HIM!

        And thanks be to God... that, in so many ways, in my humble life, He always makes me realize that I need to be grateful to Him.

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        We got stranded there for a few minutes when some SCTEX help arrived. The other buses behind us also pulled over to help. When the tire was replaced, the trip continued. In general, as what happens in every field trip, students enjoyed the tour. 

23 November 2010

i love pictures...

so I purchased a digicam!

let me enumerate my 7 reasons for having a digicam...

First, just like others, I have a good taste in photography. I just don't know if photography has the same taste with me.

Second, I love old photos, I love memories. I almost remember everything when I look at the photo compared to mentioning that particular instance.

Third, when asked to describe something (whether place, person or thing), I usually run out of words. The best remedy?... pictures!

Fourth, They (Who? "they") say that I have a good eye in taking pictures. Whether a compliment or a joke, I'll take it seriously, there's nothing wrong with it, everything can be learned.

Fifth, I love to see beautiful scenes.

Sixth, I already have a "cute" and "beautiful" niece.

Seventh, It's just a good remembrance of my year-end bonus.

For best guide on purchasing a digicam, visit http://tech.angresulta.com/2010/07/which-camera-to-buy-well-what-do-you-need/

questions to think about…

If the #2 pencil is the most popular, why is it still #2?

If the only thing to survive a plane crash is the black box, why don’t they make the whole plane out of the black box?

If 7-11 is open 24-7 and 365 days a year why do they have locks on their doors?
If a word in the dictionary were misspelled, how would we know? 
If aliens are smart enough to travel through space, why do they keep abducting the dumbest people on earth?
If it’s called a boxing RING, then why are they square?
If you’re in a vehicle going the speed of light, what happens when you turn on the headlights?

In a country of free speech, why are there phone bills?
What do sheep count when they can’t get to sleep?
What hair color do they put on the driver’s licenses of bald men?
What’s the speed of dark?
Why are there 5 syllables in the word ‘monosyllabic’?
Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?
Why do tourists go to the top of tall buildings and then put money in telescopes so they can see things on the ground in close-up?
Why do you press harder on a remote-control when you know the battery is dead? Why is it considered necessary to nail down the lid of a coffin?
Why is it that when we ship something by truck, it’s called a shipment but if we send something by ship, it’s called cargo?
Why don’t you ever see the headline “Psychic Wins Lottery”?
Why is “abbreviated” such a long word?
Why is the third hand on the watch called second hand?
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Sources:
coolsig.com/lifes_questions7.html
angelfire.com/super/peculiar/unansweredquestions

positive PERSPECTIVE

"When it rains, all the birds fly for shelter. But the eagle alone avoids the rain by flying above the cloud. Problems are common to all but attitude makes the difference." (adapted)
 
While it is true that almost all of us were given the gift of sight and the capacity to see things, it is also true that almost all of us didn’t know how to see things the way it should be. 

POSITIVE multiplied with NEGATIVE is still NEGATIVE…
POSITIVE is the product of both POSITIVE……. and both NEGATIVE?

16 November 2010

[online advisory]: THINK before you post...



The Other Perspective of Lesson Planning

I’ve been in the teaching arena for almost four years. Not for anything else, but it is rewarding to myself to have a compilation of Lesson Plans (LPs) at the end of the school year. In my first two years of teaching, I’ve prepared my LPs handwritten but in my third year I’ve exerted effort encoding and printing each LPs and book binded it at the end of the School Year. The advantage of preparing your LPs encoded is for editing purposes. Unlike handwritten LPs, encoded LPs were easy to edit and revise. I have compiled an average of 150 Lesson Plans every School Year.

A lesson plan is a teacher’s detailed description of the course of instruction for an individual lesson. A daily lesson plan is developed by a teacher to guide class instruction. Planning the material is much more difficult than delivering the lessons. Planning is when you look at the curriculum standards and develop the content that match those standards you also have to take into consideration the needs of the children you are planning for (Wikipedia). Luckily, textbooks that are adopted for subject areas are typically written with this in mind. Aside from that, DepEd also prepared a prototype LPs for each learning areas. However, it is different inside the classroom and it is a no-no to rely on prototype LPs. The teacher should always be creative considering the level of student’s comprehension, available materials, and number of students, classroom environment and the level of difficulty of the lesson.

My LPs were originally developed for daily classroom instruction. It was produced after 3 years of persistent revising and updating my older LPs to align with the standards of the prescribed curriculum. It has been said that the extent of the detail of a lesson plan varies depending on the number of years of experience that the teacher has and the number of times he has taught the lesson. So still, some revisions have to be made with my LPs, considering my young age in the field.

My LPs also reflects our collaborative work within the Physics Group and also our constant sharing of useful and updated materials for classroom instruction. On the other side, these LPs also serve as a diary, an account of daily classroom teaching-learning process which reminds me of some experiences that made me angry, made me smile, made me laugh or even challenged me to the extent of increasing my blood pressure and raising my voice. Thank God, I’ve survived and I’m still alive!

I would like to acknowledge the people who helped me to come up with my daily LPs.

I would like to thank our Department Head for her constructive criticism during our ‘post conference’ every time she renders classroom observation which made us persevere to improve our teaching practices and in one way or another made us better mentors. For her patience and guidance, I wish to thank Ma’am Norie.

I would like to thank our MT’s for patiently rendering classroom observation with our department head. We are grateful for your follow up observations and your valuable inputs for us to improve more our craft. Thank you Ma’am Weng and Ma’am Cora.

Also, I would like to thank my co-teachers [especially to Physics Group] for their support, my students for their naughtiness, and my family for their understanding.

Thanks to my inspiration, who often believes in me more than I do myself.

Mostly, I express my gratitude to HIM above, for none of these would be possible without HIM.

J. Freigh