Philippines Independence Day

Wow! Today is a very special day for our country. Today, we are celebrating the  115^th Independence Day. Although, celebrating it is not really as festive as the USA’s fourth of July, deep in our hearts, we could never be more thankful to all our national heroes, who sacrificed their lives for our rights and freedom as Filipinos.

When I opened the Google today, I am amazed to see this logo that shows President Emilio Aguinaldo (the first and the youngest president of our country) waving our national flag on the momentous event when he declared our Independence Day in Kawit, Cavite. 

The First Five Days of S.Y. 2013-2014

Oh my! It’s been a long time since I posted here. If there is something that I am so eager to share about my brave journey, it is all about my new special assignment.

I was assigned by our principal to hold the Basic Education Information System (BEIS) Office. To tell you honestly, the idea of being a BEIS officer never crossed my mind. Although I know that this special assignment requires information technology skills, it also demands a lot of specific knowledge and technicalities, prompt data collection and presentation, and most specially holding this office requires me to improve my people skill. I directly deal with the teachers in data collection for our enrolment and attendance monitor. To give you an idea on what I went through as a BEIS officer for the first five days of this school year, here are my journal entries:

Day 1 (June 3)

• Opening of classes
• My mentor, Mrs. Caunte, told me to start the attendance and enrolment monitor
• I started meeting the class advisers. There are 114 sections and 57 classrooms   organized (34 section in grade 7; 30 sections in grade 8; 26 sections in third year; and 24 sections in fourth year)
• There are no grade/year level coordinators. Data gathering is my sole assignment.
•  I also met my senior students (IV-Dominique).
• I swear this day is really exhausting!

Day 2 (June 4)

• Same tasks: enrolment and attendance update
•   Retrieval of age profile as of June 3
•  We sent report to the Division Office. I felt like I was ambushed every time the D.O. would call and demand for the enrolment update.
• Short orientation and lecture discussion with my IV-St. Dominique and IV-St. Joseph
• Still, exhausting… Will I survive this?!

Day 3 (June 5)

• Same tasks: enrolment and attendance update
• Mr. Tony Luz, the Division Office head for planning, visited the school. He told us to submit the enrolment monitor form, specifying the number of classes and classrooms organized and data on transferees
• I am overwhelmed by these paper works!

Day 4 (June 6)

• Same tasks: enrolment and attendance update
• Retrieval of age profile as of June 3 [I hate when teachers suddenly become invisible when I rove around to collect this]
• Sent the enrolment monitor form to D.O.
• Had a talk with the assistant principal and told me about some of my data inconsistencies [the inconsistencies are not yet crimes, i just have to learn from them ]

 Day 5 (June 7)

• Last day for enrolment and attendance update!
• 97% of age profile collected [I missed a few of them.. will deal with them on Monday]
• Sent the enrolment and attendance monitor to D.O.
• I can’t believe it, the first five days are through and I am still alive!

Reading my journal, I realize how sweet it is to become just a plain classroom teacher. Being a full-time teacher, your concern is just about you and your students: devoting your time for your learning plans and instructional materials preparation, dealing with classroom management and effective teaching strategies. With a special assignment, prioritizing is indeed a big challenge. You still need to prepare for your teaching, because you will also have teaching loads (although lesser, I am handling 3 computer classes), but at the same time you are also required to think and respond to the demands of your office. 

S.Y. 2013-2014 Welcome Banner

It's way past 1 a.m. and I am still awake.

Why?!

I've been working for this welcome banner that my school head assigned to me. I am not really in my creative mode today... It takes me half an hour to think of a design layout and more than an hour to finish working on it with Photoshop. I hope she will approve this tomorrow (I'm crossing my fingers). We need to post this banner in front our school this Friday for the "wear a smile campaign" of DepEd this opening of classes. 

Here's the layout:

[Now I can catch some z z z z ]

[signing off]

Cooperative Membership Education Seminar

Brigada Eskwela Update: Last Friday was the culminating day for our Brigada Eskwela 2013. As for my last task, I was assigned by my Head Teacher, Mrs. Tanfelix, to help in the enrollment of our incoming senior students. It was an easy chore at first, but when the line of students and parents started to pile up in our receiving table, I started to be perturbed on how to entertain them one by one. I was thankful that I was not alone assisting our Master Teacher, Sir Cruz. I was with Ms. Ferrer, our new TLE teacher. She was in-charge for the enrollment forms, while I focused on looking for the names in the master list and collecting their fee for the Identification Card.

In the afternoon of the same day, we, the faculty officers and some selected members, attended the Cooperative Membership Education Seminar held at Legislative Building of Valenzuela City Hall. This seminar was actually requested by our Faculty Club President, Mrs. Lo as the first step in launching our Faculty Club Credit Cooperative.  The speaker talked about the history of cooperative in our country, RA 6939 establishing the Cooperative Development Authority, Principles, Practices, Purposes and Types of Cooperative. We truly learned a lot from this seminar. The speaker even shared some factors to be considered for the success of our cooperative operations. 

The seminar concluded with an open forum for some questions and inquiries. I was very fortunate to be part of this seminar. It made me aware of some important principles behind a successful cooperative. Then, our Faculty President suggested electing the 5 interim Board of Directors and 10 Officers. Everyone agreed so that we could prepare for the accreditation of our cooperative and organized the first general assembly. I was appointed as the secretary. May God bless me with this another great responsibility.  

Brigada Eskwela

The “bayanihan spirit” is always relived every time we conduct the annual National Maintenance Week or “Brigada Eskwela.” All schools are encouraged to seek the cooperation of the different stakeholders of the school (students, parents, teachers, school staffs, and local officials) to do repairs, clean-up and maintenance before the classes start.  In engaging the time, effort and expertise of all volunteers, we can assure our preparedness for the opening of classes.

Today, our Brigada Eskwela kick-off activity starts with a FUN RUN at exactly 6:00 a.m., wherein many participants have joined. This fun run activity serves two important purposes for our Brigada Eskwela: (1) since we require all the participants to pay a registration fee, we are able generate initial fund to support the week-long activities; (2) this is our way to make the community aware of this school activity and seek their participation. We also solicit the help of our local government officials by sponsoring some of our cleaning materials.    

It is indeed a tiring day but I feel so fulfilled that I am involving myself actively in this kind of activity of our school. In simple tasks like sweeping the pavements and corridors, fixing some broken chairs and repainting the walls and bleachers, I know I am making the school a more comfortable place for our dear students. 

Fun fun run =)

The clean-up drive