I.T. Festival Emblem

This is the emblem that I designed, which will be used in the forthcoming I.T. Festival. I was also tasked to design the official banner. I will post it here soon... :)

I.T. Festival 2014 Emblem

Chinese New Year Holiday on January 31

The Proclamation No. 655, s. 2013, signed by our President, declared January 31, 2014 as Special (Non-Working) Holiday:

WHEREAS, on 31 January 2014, the Chinese nationals all over the world will celebrate Spring Festival, popularly known as the Chinese New Year, which is one of the most revered and festive events celebrated not only in China but also in the Philippines by both Chinese-Filipinos and ordinary Filipinos as well; and the joint celebration is a manifestation of our solidarity with our Chinese-Filipino brethren who have been part of our lives in many respects as a country and as a people; 31 January 2014 may be declared as a special (non-working) day without detriment to public interest;

Source: http://www.facebook.com/DepEd.Philippines

Hurrah! I will ask my mama to buy a box of tikoy (Chinese rice cake) for our breakfast (yummy when fried with egg). Then, I will spend that day to finish my review on Educational Statistics!

Reuniting with Old Friends

Good friends make life so much better! Who doesn't agree on this adage? I could never forget how I enjoyed my years of studies with some good friends. Now that I am already  in this teaching profession, I am also enjoying the company of friends, because of them, work is less-stressful, lots of funny moments and gimmicks to unwind from very tough weekdays. This year, one of my resolutions is to reunite with my old friends, college friends and former colleagues that has become close to me. I promise myself that I will attend or initiate reunions or get-together with my old pals this year. 

Just last January 19, I was so glad to be reunited with my college friends from Valenzuela City Polytechnic College. After more than six years, it was just amazing to be with them again... endless chatting, reminiscing, and fooling around with each other again...LOL! After eating our dinner sponsored by our two classmates (Ate She and Joel). We went to Roots and Herbs for coffee and there the never-ending chatting continues. 

[Sigh] How time flies so fast. Well, I hope it will not be our last reunion. Actually, I did a pledge to sponsor another get-together this November.

My college friends, (from left to right) Peewee, that's me,
Ate Sheryll, Mary Beth, Fricyl, Sheryl, Marites, Robert and Dante,
with our dear Professor, Sir Eddie Alarte (extreme right).

  
Also, last January 25, I attended a friendly date we set, together with Melissa and Julie. They are my beloved former co-teachers and pals from St. Bernadette College of Valenzuela. We just missed each other so much that during our conversations in Facebook, we immediately decided to set a get-together. Ever since Karaoke singing was our favorite bonding, so we went to Karaoke Hub in SM Valenzuela and stayed there for hours of non-stop live singing... as if we were concert performers! :D 

Me, Julie and Melissa 

Friends inspire us to live and follow our dreams. Aside from our family, friends are the souls whom we can share our triumphs and defeats. I really can't imagine a life without them. 

Happiness is a Choice

Happiness is a choice. It is not something that you should depend to anything or anyone. If you want to be happy... just choose to feel it. Be content. Be thankful with what you already have. Claim happiness and it will be yours. 

I totally agree with this quotation I've seen from Daily Quotation Facebook Page:

The bad news: There is no key to happiness

The good news: It isn't locked. 

Early Registration for Grade 7

In compliance with DepEd Order No. 2, s. 2014, on January 25, Early registration will be held in all public elementary and secondary schools. This early registration will help the school heads to prepare for the class opening this June by addressing the potential gaps and preventing logistical problems. 

Our school head assigned me to layout this banner that will inform our community about this early registration. 

GURO21 Oral Revalida and Graduation

Hola! It’s been like so many days the last time I updated you about my brave journey. Well, it is because of those overwhelming events that happened to me as soon as the classes resumed this year. January is not yet over, yet I could already claim that it was really indeed a great start for me this year.

So glad that I was through with most of my special assignments and paper works in school, now I can recharge and do my leisure, which is this - blogging! J

If there is something I’m so excited to share with you is my GURO21 Oral Revalida and Graduation Ceremony. Last January 9, I attended the Oral Revalida for the GURO21 Course 1: Facilitating the Development of 21^st Century Skills for Southeast Asian Teachers. The mere fact that I was invited to attend the Oral Revalida (revalidation) was already an honor for me, because it would mean that I was considered as a potential graduate of this course. The revalida was held through a panel discussion that could help the SEAMEO-INNOTECH authenticate the learning portfolio of every candidate. The panel interview with our online tutor Dr. Brenda Corpuz and Mr. Pierre Alejo went so well and I was pretty confident that I could really make it, that I will successfully finish this course and be awarded with the international certificate. All my classmates in Class 4 were really apprehensive too about the result. Can we really make it? Are they impressed by our learning portfolio? Is there any problem with the way we comply with their requirements?  I was a bit reflecting about all of these, when one of the SEAMEO staff approached and told me about Dr. Brenda’s request to prepare a class reflection later for the graduation ceremony and he congratulated everyone in our class. We did it! Hurrah! 

To be requested by Dr. Brenda Corpuz, an icon of Educational Technology in the Philippines, to represent our class was indeed an honor of all honors… She trusted me so much with such a very important task. My classmates teased me that perhaps, I was their first honors or class Valedictorian. I was flabbergasted. I was a bit nervous (believe me I really have a stage fright hehe), but thank God that I was able to pull it off.

I can never forget my learning experiences with GURO21 because of these reasons:

• The course delivery transcends time and space, one of the 21^st century new parameters of learning. I’m not new with virtual classrooms, but I am still amazed by the iFLEX platform
• Being so fortunate to be with the class under Dr. Brenda Corpuz, our online tutor, my idol in the field of Educational Technology. I even asked her to sign my book she co-wrote about Educational Technology in the Philippines
• Very insightful classmates – I also learned a lot from them, every time we had the chat session, I was amazed by how they reflect with our current education system, by their ideals and hopes to mold the young learners
•  A chance to improve myself through a Personal Lifelong Learning Plan (PLLP) – so happy that we were taught how to become lifelong learners in this course. After all, to become a 21^st century teacher is to become a lifelong learner.

Before this school year ends, I will see to it that I could share all of my learnings among my fellow teachers through an echo seminar.  

Together with my GURO21 classmates :)

Giving our Class Reflection (a.k.a Valedictory Speech :D )

Dr. Brenda B. Corpuz and her very proud fan :D

My grade report, I just can't believe it, straight A's... Pardon me for bragging this my friend... I just can't help it.. To God Be the Glory! :)

GURO21 Course 1 Grade Report - Worth all the effort!

Funny but Sensible - Save Our Library Please!

While browsing the news feed of my Facebook account, I bumped to California Teachers Association page and saw this funny but sensible comic photo:

© 2011 Pittsburgh Post - Gazette

We are now in the Digital Age and that going to library will just be a waste of time for our students, since everything under the sun can already be researched through Internet. That is why there is really a need to revamp our libraries and convert them to what we call now Knowledge Activity Centers. We should integrate computer and Internet facilities within library. How I hope that electronic catalogs, interactive e-books and multimedia learning modules could also be part of our public school libraries. Am I being too idealist again? Maybe, but the government should do something about this or else our libraries will soon become a place long forgotten, full of cobwebs and dusts. 

Graphic and Layout Designing: My Special Assignment

Last year I was asked by our school head to design a cover for our year book. For this school year, I have this feeling that she might ask me again to do the cover design, and perhaps the graduation official banner as well. That's why I'm kind of preparing my "creativity stamina" for these special assignments. 

This was the last year's cover design used for the year book of batch 2011-2012:

Year Book Cover Design

This is the school's official banner for the 16th Commencement Exercises I designed last year:

Graduation Official Banner

Last Few Drops of Holiday Vacation

I can't believe it... three days to go then back to school again!

How should I spend these last few drops of holiday vacation? Actually, I still have my three remaining goals unchecked to maximize this vacation:

1. Home foot spa

2. Read Wicked by Gregory Maguire

3. Play my newly installed PC and Android games

Done with #1 and #3. I hope tomorrow I can finish this "Wicked" book. :)

_________________________________________________________

Just this moment, a question popped in my mind... "Am I prepared for January 6?"
Well, let's do an inventory:

Lesson plan ✔

Test Notebook ✔
Attendance Record ✔

Updated E-Class Record ✔
Visuals ✔

Well it seems that I am already "on fire" to start my first class session for the year 2014. I accomplished most of these tasks even before the Christmas vacation had started. 

Next week will be our Third Quarter Examinations. I hope my students will exceed their mastery level last quarter... I'm pretty confident 'cause most of them are doing great during our class discussions and computer lab sessions. 

I'm also looking forward for the fourth quarter mini-courses. For my Grade 8 students, I'm going to teach Graphic Designing with Adobe Photoshop, while Animation and Multimedia is my prospect mini-course for my senior students. 

Symptoms of Procrastination

All of us are kind of guilty procrastinating and wasting time for unproductive things. And I bet that for this new year, TO AVOID PROCRASTINATION is for sure part of your resolution. I think for us to really defeat this enemy no. 1 of self-productivity, we should define procrastination clearly.

Web Definition by Google.com

How many times I've heard excuses from my students why they failed to submit on the due date of their assignments or projects. Most of those are just make-up excuses I know, but what they are missing actually is to accept the fact that they don't have time management and that they are totally unaware that they are being struck by this sickness called procrastination. 

We should identify some symptoms that we are actually procrastinating. Christian H. Godefroy and John Clark in their book "The Complete Time Management System" gave the following symptoms to alert us that we are already procrastinating and I also included some tips on how to combat these symptoms:

1. You let your mind wander. Daydreaming while working is a usual cause of procrastination. Counter-attack: Be in the NOW! Focus to what you are currently doing and never entertain thoughts of the past or future.
2. You voluntarily let yourself be interrupted by anything that comes up, a phone call, an e-mail or a visitor. Counter-attack: Screen you phone calls, set specific time to reply to all your messages, sometimes it's not really bad to close your doors to some friends, surely they will understand that you just can't take your hands off with the tasks that you need to finish. 
3. You get sidetracked by the least little unimportant job instead of doing what you really should. Counter-attack: Your TO-DO LIST must be arranged from the most important tasks to the least important tasks. Be sure to tick off those most important and urgent tasks first. Prioritizing is very important if you want to be more productive. 
4. You take long coffee breaks, over-extended meals. Counter-attack: This is not to say that you should not enjoy "break times or vacant periods", these are also essential to increase our concentration, but remember that these are just energizers, so allot just enough time frame for it. 
5. You do a lot of things that you don't really have to do. Counter-attack: Simple tasks like paying bills, going to groceries etc. can be delegated to others so that you can concentrate with your task.

Godefroy and Clark (1989) also suggested that for us to avoid procrastination we should have clear defined goals. What is your goal? Do you really want to attain it? Most of us also have fear of failure, so that we are really afraid to start the task. This fear is usually caused by our previous failures. It's important to note that failures are ladders to our success. It's true that by avoiding these tasks we can escape failures, but surely we can't also experience success. 

Welcome 2014!

So what is in store for me this year? Only God knows. Though I am somewhat expecting a lot for this year, because I have this gut feeling that most of my personal and career goals will come into realization this 2014 (I’m crossing my fingers).

Last night for the New Year’s Eve celebration, our family just had a simple dinner. Then, we attended a mass at St. Francis of Assisi Parish Church. The mass is not only a celebration of the New Year, but most importantly the mass was dedicated for Holy Queen. The priest said that it is important for the Catholic like us that every January 1, we also honor Mama Mary, the mother of mercy, the first apostle of Jesus Christ, the virgin who gave birth to our Lord.

We also enjoyed watching the fireworks display in our rooftop, while playing our loud music to drive away bad spirits (it’s become part of our tradition). Most of our neighbors really celebrate the New Year with a “bang!” as in with strong fire crackers. I just hope no one was hurt from them. Sadly, as I’ve read from the news, firecracker injuries were worse this year than the past five years. Filipinos should learn that we can still celebrate the New Year festively even with out those dangerous firecrackers.

By the way, about my New Year’s resolution, I’m actually planning to print it and post in a wall where I can always see it. This is to remind me every day of what I should accomplish for the whole year. Try it too. Let’s see if it will work. J