My Socially Constructed Reality

Three of my students nine years ago are my students again this year.. Darren, Jan and Eujean --- they were in grade three at Brightwoods School when they first became my students. They're my students again in their Speech class. It's good to see them -- and they still remember me. I didn't recognize one of them -- Eujeania Graelea -- but when I called her to introduce herself, she said I was her teacher years ago. I was really surprised. I didn't remember her face, not even her name. But while she was talking, I looked at her in her eyes and I suddenly reminded myself of a cute chubby little girl with a shiny long hair. Indeed, she was the sweet little kid I used to call "Eujean." They were my students when I just got out of college to teach grade school. I only taught kids for a year. I immediately realized I wasn't designed to teach primary students. When I left Brightwoods School, I started teaching here in AUF. Unfortunately, and fortunatel...

Tonight is my first time to try INTERNET RADIO. I think I like this. Free radio -- why else would I buy CDs or why would I listen to local radio stations? I wonder how local radio stations compete with Internet radio...

I don't feel comfortable in one of my speech classes. I don't understand where the problem is -- with me or with the students. I have the same lessons with the other two Speech classes that I have but I feel more competent there. In my first MWF BSN class, it seems like the students are not at all interested. And when I call them to recite, I coudn't get a good performance or answer. Grrr... ************************* Bringing the laptop and LCD is causing a lot of delay in my class, not to mention that bringing them from one building to another makes me really tired. I wish I would not need to use LCD and laptop but my lessons are in my USB! I hate bringing them and I hate asking students to bring them for me. But I surely won't be able to teach well without my lessons. The only choice left is to choose the lesser evil: bring or not to bring. I never want to be media dependent. I wish things are the same even without PowerPoint. This is media dependency in action! ****...

Let me quote Raul Pangalangan in his column today at http://www.inquirer.net/ Marketing by milk formula companies has become increasingly aggressive. The number of women who breastfeed their infants has gone down dramatically in just a few years, while the sales and profits of the companies have risen. The irony, in the words of Sen. Edgardo Angara, author of the Rooming-In and Breastfeeding Act of 1992, is that each year we import $400 million in milk formula, but spend P536 million to bury 15,000 bottle-fed babies , and another P3.5 billion to treat infant malnutrition and diarrhea . We needlessly fritter away our foreign exchange reserves. We forget nature’s first form of immunization, enabling the infant to fight serious infection. We forgo the benefits of birth spacing as a form of natural birth control. WHAT I THINK ABOUT THE ISSUE: I think Senator Angara should first find out if hospitals abide by the ROOMING-IN AND BREASTFEEDING ACT. I gave birth three times in different ho...

Paul T. Bryant, in his book CONFESSIONS OF AN HABITUAL ADMINISTRATOR , said that A UNIVERSITY HAS NO MEMORY AND NO CONSCIENCE. This might be true -- at least based on what I see in the university where I am. It's too bad that the one in charge of my job before does not care about my proposal on TV studio and media lab. When I asked her about it, she said, "Wala na siguro yun." She did not even ask what exactly I proposed and what it means for Comm. students to have a media lab. Kalimutan ko na lang daw yun. See? Tuition fees keep going up but the university is cutting on manpower cost. Whatever work can be delegated on faculty will be delegated by the chair. Now, as a full-time faculty, I am still told to do things which is supposed to be done by a coor. Ano ba yan? Bryant's Second Law of Academic Administration: Always be aware that a university has no memory and no conscience . I'd like to quote Bryant when he said: If you can live comfortably with that charact...

Blogging for me would never be the same now that I'm blogging from home -- finally!

Last weekend, I went to Johnny's supermartket to have my weekly grocery shopping. When I asked the saleslady for ENFALAC for babies below six months , she told me it's no longer available in the market. She said there's a new law that requires buyers to show an Rx from their baby's pediatrician before they would be allowed to buy one. "What?" that was all I uttered when I heard her answer to me. What can I do? I ended up going home with ENFAPRO for babies 6 months and above -- anyway, Dani's turning six months by next week and she still has milk supply at home for perhaps a couple of weeks more. Going back -- I wasn't satisfied with what the saleslady told me so I did my research. Then I read from the PDI this morning that the revised implementing rules and regulations (IRR)of the MIlk Code ban advertisements for breast milk substitutes intended for infants and for children up to 2 years old. Santos and Salaverria's report today on the PDI said th...

I've found a new reason to be happy in school: My Newswriting and E-newsroom class :-) and of course my best students: the graduating batch :-)

This job is killing me. I'm teaching non-Mass Comm. students again. I'm handling three Speech and Oral Comm. classes. It's like going back to basics. But if I will handle all 7 major subjects, I know I'd die early. My mind actually started wandering and I am hoping that my feet would lead me where my mind wanders. A part of me says I'm not happy anymore. This may be the signal that I have to go -- go out of the system before it's too late. When I attended my 9th general assembly here, I prayed to all saints that I hope that would be my last GA to attend to in this institution. I'm just being honest when I say I lost my heart. My heart's no longer in this job. I feel bad because MC is not a priority course in this school. It's very hard to get a proposal accepted if it does not guarantee return in terms of money. What's worse, I see and hear a lot of concerns but I just couldn't do anything about them. The best thing to do now is to distance m...

Ever wondered why moods are said to be contagious? I came across an interesting book by Daniel Goleman which says that our brains are " wired to connect in ways we had not realized." In his book, SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE: THE NEW SCIENCE OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS, Goleman emphasizes that social intelligence is the skill that teachers, physicians, parents and lovers ought to have in order to have an affective life. One good point in this book is that social intelligence is "what allows rapport, is the basis for love, is the basis for any important interaction." Goleman also explains scientifically why our emotions seem to be contagious. The clues are all in our brains!

Technology. Indeed, it makes life comfortable. But, surely, technology has a price. It's expensive and it entails a lot of responsibilities and maturity. With the Internet, we can travel around the world without moving from our place. But it can also manipulate our opinion and perception in life. Without us knowing it, our views change when we are exposed to information from around the globe. Conservative teenagers suddenly become liberated upon exposure to pornographic and sexual materials online. Honest students who used to read books and paraphrase suddenly learn to plagiarize due to the vast amount of sources available in a click of a mouse. Many do not know that the Internet was created to serve military purpose and not really on file-sharing. Oooppss, this file-sharing thing concerns a lot of issues like fair use, respect to copyright law and industry profit or loss of profit, to be direct. With medical technology, people who don't believe in the sanctity of life inside...