My Socially Constructed Reality

Be One of the Chosen Few! Be Part of the 1ST I-WITNESS DOCU SEMINAR! For Free!!!! Learn From The Masters! Catch: Jay Taruc Sandra Aguinaldo Kara David and Howie Severino Learn the Basic of Documentary Making:- Researching- Scriptwriting- Shooting- Directing- Editing To join: Submit the following requirements: (1) a resume with picture and (2) an essay of your favorite i-witness episode. You can send it via e-mail: iwit.docufest@ gmail.com or via snail-mail: I-WITNESS 2nd Floor, GMA Network Center, Edsa cor. Timog Ave. Diliman, QC Application Ends March 15, 2008 * A screening and an interview will be given to the Applicants.* Only 80 Participants will be chosen.

BALATKAYO is one of the documentary films produced by my ABMC 4 students (Parallel Vision Productions). It made me really proud to know that this docu was nominated for BEST DOCUMENTARY in the First (biennial) Quisumbing-Escandor Film Festival for Health sponsored by Mu Sigma Phi Medical Fraternity from UP College of Medicine. Being one of the five finalists is already an achievement for us -- knowing that there were 37 entries nationwide. We attended the awarding ceremony and the event was a learning experience for me. I learned to appreciate the effort of fraternities like Mu Sigma Phi. I hope the media would also report on good deeds by fraternities, not just the riots and death that some notorious fraternities had caused. The people should realize that fraternities are great venues for creativity, public service, and cooperative learning. I also couldn't help thinking that hopefully, schools would be more supportive of students who join contests. I wish I could do ...

Charles, my 6-year-old son, is a Prep student from one of the schools in Angeles City. I got his card last week and here are the grades for the three quarters: Reading 92 93 95 Language 93 94 95 Writing 86 89 91 Math 92 93 91 Science 90 93 93 Filipino 90 91 89 Sibika 93 91 96 He is currently in Rank 3 among all Prep students in their school (2 sections) Congrats to Cha!

It was planned. Contestants were invited. Some refused. Many agreed to join. Pre-production. Production. Post-production. I stayed for almost an hour during the program. But I couldn't stay longer because the sounds were not ear-friendly. And so I left when contestant number two started to entertain the audience. I was never in any of these production stages. There's a reason behind. Without an active and supportive adviser, the show went on. The bottomline: why else do organizations need advisers? The answer is at the back of my mind.

"An A ct of R andom K indness at a time." -- GOD in EVAN ALMIGHTY (great movie!) pix fr. www.imdb.com

When I first learned to use the PowerPoint, I was excited and thought that using it would make my class more lively and my teaching more effective. I was right then. It was working to my advantage -- but it didn't stay that way for long. I just woke up one morning and realized that I DON'T NEED THE LCD AND THE POWERPOINT, AFTER ALL. Let me tell you why I changed my mind about using this presentation tool. First, making a PowerPoint presentation consumes a lot of my preparation time . Whenever I make a PowerPoint presentation, I make sure it is presentable -- complete with graphics and animation. One hour or a couple of hours is not enough to design a satisfying presentation using this tool. Second, whenever I use this tool, I notice that some students are just staring at the LCD and no longer looking at me. I don't like this because they tend to simply "wait for the last slide" so they could be dismissed. It's hard to get the students' full attent...

I feel guilty for not being able to update this blog. I've been busy with a lot of insignificant things.