YEAR-END VIDEO

Cheer up, Veritans! Relive your BEST MOMENTS of 2011-2012 and look forward to school year 2012-2013!

K-12, here we come!

These are tough times for Philippine education. Much like its American counterpart, the DepEd continues to parry the slings and arrows of critics as it unfurled early this year the K-12 banner that is supposed to save the Philippines from mediocrity. It has weathered the storms of dismal TIMS scores and UbD, but can it survive the onslaught of the likes of everyone from esteemed UP scientists to parents horrified at the prospect of 2 additional years in high school? Veritas has not been sleeping under a rock while all this is happening. We have done our research well in anticipation of K-12. We know it will happen, as it is already happening around the world. We are preparing our 6-year-olds to skip the Prep level and hopscotch their way to Grade 1, through intensive readiness programs in Reading, Math and Filipino. DepEd may insist on using the mother tongue (in our part of the Philippines that would be Tagalog) in the early grades to teach all subjects, but we decided to continue teaching in English.Like we do on a yearly basis, we revisit the curriculum of grade school and high school, redirect certain things, and innovate. Next school year, we will give a name for the flagship English program that has brought our students so much linguistic confidence and proficiency: Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), where English is not just a subject, but a learning methodology of Math, Science, Social Studies and the Arts. The CLIL framework is popular amongst European countries where demonstrable gains in student engagement and progress have been reported. In Veritas, we have actually been implementing CLIL, with English as the second language used to make meaning in other school subjects. Our choice of English textbooks-- Voyages in English (Loyola Press), English in Mind (Cambridge University Press), Grammar and Composition (Prentice-Hall)--and our teachers' dedication to using the language, have motivated students to use the English language more. Authentic, communicative, high interest books for the English subject have effectively contextualized learning for our students. For the Reading strand of English, we are finalizing a deal with the world's largest publisher of books for children and young adults to provide us with scientifically sound Reading programs---and tons of books, of course--that will ensure that everyone is reading, and reading well. We will also be teaching Science in the first and second grades. Kids are never too young to explore and discover. CLIL shall also set the stage for Foreign Languages learning tentatively starting in 2012-2013. The FL program includes Language and Culture clubs, direct communicative instruction, and in the near future, student exchange programs. Target languages include Mandarin, Korean,Spanish, French and Italian. Studies are consistent on the importance of foreign language in the curriculum: students generally become better citizens of the world--more sensitive to the needs of others, more responsible for their actions, more open to advocate for something they believe in, more sure of themselves and what they can do. These are exciting times for Veritas. Changes are coming, and they are all for the better.

BYOD (Bring Your Own Device): WIWIV? (Will It Work In Veritas?)

Building an Effective School BYOD Plan

View more PowerPoint from Sam Gliksman

I'd like to share these slides made by Sam Gliksman, a proponent of the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) system in schools. We all know that Veritas, as in many other schools in Manila, ban the use of cellphones and other electronic gadgets and devices in school. While the ban stays in place, I'd like to take a long, hard look at this policy, and perhaps look at the other side of the coin: What if we allow the devices to be brought in school for EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES? I can think of many such uses: filming a documentary, accessing e-books, using periodic table and trigonometric apps, recording music...students can certainly add to this list. But as the slides suggest, clear policies have to be drafted in order for the policy to work. At this point in time, technology must be seen as a friend, and not as an enemy. A schoolwide effort to make this happen is a necessity, and if things fall into place--parents, admin, teachers and students agree on the guidelines--we can actually star the BYOD scheme next school year. Now, that is really a move we could call, FTW!

DIVING FOR PEARLS

As school year 2011-2012 draws to a close, I put on my thinking cap once again and start mapping out the events for next school year. I've been promoting the coming 30th anniversary of Veritas Parochial School since after the 25th anniversary (I tend to plan waaaaay ahead,sorry), so I hope that Veritans everywhere will embrace the idea and do some pearl-diving with me! Most of the events are still on the drawing board, and I don't want to spoil the surprise. But let me just say that the celebrations will highlight two things: our lasting links with the parish (ROLP) and our academic excellence. If that's not enough, we're thinking of Saturday nights in February 2013 where our alumni, parents, students, teachers and staff will be treated to the best that Philippine and global culture has to offer (there's a big event in October 2012, but that's another story). Our fundraising efforts will hopefully bear fruit, as the school moves to welcome more scholars from the public schools of our parish and neighboring communities. That is the essence of a parochial school, after all: our doors are open to all children seeking holistic Christian education. The coming year's milestone events are also the perfect opportunity to revisit our history--from our humble beginnings as a CWL-run preschool to an academic institution known for its curricular and co-curricular programs. Through it all, we have remained warm and familial, always welcoming our alumni, and yes, our alumni's kids (Some teachers can now call themselves "grandmotthers":))! I enjoin parents and alumni to visit the school, bring memorabilia, share stories, and contribute to the school's ongoing growth. We seek to bring Christ into every lesson, every activity, ever exam, every program. We hope that this coming Pearl Anniversary will light up our lives and hearts, as we share in the fruits of 30 years of Education in Christ's Truth.

LESSONS FROM LIN AND LEBRON: HOW THE NBA CAN ACTUALLY BE EDUCATIONAL

Work has kept me from watching the NBA season live. That has been my sad plight since I started teaching in 1994. Having worked in advertising from 1991 to 1993, it was much easier to catch a quarter or two in the post production room with a rowdy bunch of Bulls fans. And for two jobless years when I was my mom's fulltime caregiver, I was soaking in the Boston Celtics victory, remembering the 80's when telecasts were 3 months delayed, and all we had were Celtics and Lakers games.

The NBA for me has always been ripe with teachable moments. Here are some of them:

The NBA and Language Arts

More than any other televised sporting event, I find the NBA to be the most transferable and appropriate to my work as an educator. Sorry, arnis and Azkals-infected soccer, but basketball is STILL the national game. Proof of that is my expletive-laden facebook newsfeed for every game day of this year's NBA finals and all the relevant playoff games. In previous years, I have designed NBA-themed language exams (ok, sometimes I switch to tennis or Formula 1, but the NBA themes get better ratings, so to speak), and it was so much of a wicked thrill to use such sentence completion items like "Kobe ______ to pass more and shoot less." I could hear the snickers from the students, and I'm glad that everyone ended up writing "needs" on the blank.

I always tell my students that the best examples of idioms can be heard from NBA play-by-play commentators. Marv Albert on TNT is my all-time favorite, but half-time analyses are just hilarious when Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith are onboard (Steve Kerr and Reggie Miller are ok, but they're not as irreverent). NBA vocabulary  and jargon have become part of our lexicon--from "posterized" to "raise the roof", from "nothing but net" to "deep bench", "sixth man" to "lottery team". More recently, "Linsanity" has become a proper noun referring to the Knicks point guard, Jeremy Lin, who came out of nowhere to lead a fast fading team back into the limelight, and the winning column, with, well, insane double-double performances.

I'm sure that other sports broadcasts are just as words-worthy, but basketball, being so much less complicated and more graceful than, say, American football, inspires more interesting idioms. Still, I have some issues with our local broadcasters sticking their microphones into the NBA finals. Code-switching (e.g. "With fifteen seconds left on the shot clock, inuubos na lang ng Dallas ang oras.") just doesn't sit well with me. You either do play-by-play in straight English, or do it in straight Filipino. There were many crucial and momentous parts of the finals that got lost in translation. Sayang!


The NBA and Mathematics

The NBA is also a great way to apply concepts in Statistics. I used to collect basketball cards myself, and I like the ones (the Fleer cards) that feature every conceivable stat there is about the player, including college hoops stats in field goals, rebounds-per-game, etc. Students can easily learn averages, ratios, percentages, and making logical conclusions just be looking at game stats. This can be applied to intramural games, where individual records-keepers must focus on a specific variable while the game is in progress. Simply recording scores is not enough. A player should learn from his stats. How many field goals did I make successfully, vis-a-vis the number of shooting attempts I made (field goal percentage)? If I shot below 50%, how will I raise it to above 50? I am the team's point guard, but I made only 2 assists in the game. What does that say about my effectivity as a point guard? Serious athletes should think this way, and not just care about winning and fret about losing.

Geometry and Physics applications abound in basketball. Angles, force, and motion are very important elements worth understanding if a player wishes to succeed in this game. That is why some outside shooters have "sweet spots", where they have the highest probability of getting the ball in. Smart shooters also know inherently how to use the backboard, how to jump and shoot over taller players and outstretched arms. Instinctive defenders know where to position themselves for the rebound and how to get a clean swipe of the ball. The best point guards have excellent peripheral vision, knowing which of the four people on court will best benefit from his pass. Alley-oops from fastbreaks are one of my most favorite game moments, and perhaps the most spot-on application of geometry and physics combined.

The NBA and Social Studies

Next to the Olympic Games, the NBA can be used as a springboard for teaching Geography, World History and Cultural Studies. Just by knowing the names of the players, students should be able to identify which country, or which region of the world the players hail from. Yao Ming is easy. But what about Stojacovic? Kukoc? Eastern European, if you look at the last syllables. Nowitzki-Obviously German. Ginobili-Argentine,  though I thought he was Italian until I saw him wearing the Argentine jersey in the Olympics. From knowing a player's nationalities, students can then do research on the countries of origin, and the unique and fascinating cultures therein. It is interesting to note that players from Communist countries had a more difficult time entering the U.S. to play professionally than their democratic counterparts, and that these Eastern European (e.g. Croatia, Yugoslavia, etc.) ball players were marksmen on the hardcourt because of their military-like training in their elementary schools. Now don't get me started on Yao Ming's early years in China...

The NBA and Values Education

Not all NBA players are model citizens, of course (Right, Ron Artest? Dennis Rodman? Kobe?). But as a sports league, the NBA has an impressive roster of charity events and advocacies that I'd like to believe are not just publicity stunts. Many African-American superstars have openly talked about rising from poverty by using their basketball skills and a lot of academic discipline to get to where they are now. But back stories of valour and triumph from adversity are not always available for the regular NBA follower. Through a player's demeanor, his actions, and his leadership, young people can pick up lessons in respect, sportsmanship, humility, and gentlemanly behavior. Rising star Lin has been praised for being openly Christian. Personally, I have rooted for the league's more boring, less flashy players like Jason Kidd, Grant Hill, Tim Duncan, Ray Allen, Larry Bird. One-handed dunks don't impress me much, and trash-talking is a cheap psychological trick to get on the other player's nerves. Basketball for me is still a game of sharp shooting and clean defense. Trash talkers can get in the ring with Pacquiao's mom.

Here's to an interesting shortened season!

Useful and interesting links:
http://www.melrosegirlsbasketball.com/blog/2011/02/20/core-values-for-basketball/
http://www.nba.com/history/finals/champions.html
http://jonesonthenba.com/2006/12/20-greatest-international-born-nba.html
http://www.coachesclipboard.net/BasketballTerminology.html
http://www.teach-nology.com/teachers/lesson_plans/language_arts/vocab/35basket.html
http://www.nba.com/history/toptenteams_index.html
http://basketballvalue.com/index.php

AN EXCUSE FOR BEING ABSENT

Haven't blogged for eons, sorry. Busy with school admin work, Mama, and Game of Thrones. But I'll be back soon, True Believers. Very soon (*insert ominous laugh here*).

Mideo Cruz' "Kulo" and James Soriano's "Language, Learning, Identity, Privilege": My Humble Opinions

Let me jump into the firestorm that is James Soriano's Manila Bulletin article entitled Language, Learning, Identity, Privilege (in http://everythinginbudget.blogspot.com/2011/08/mila-d-aguilar-in-reply-to-james.html; scroll down after Ms. Aguilar's response).

I have never read so much pagbubuhat ng bangko (bench, not bank), and so much pangungutya from a Filipino writer of his own race. He has undone what our vanguards of cultural equality have painstakingly done in word and deed in just a few paragraphs:

"These skills were required to survive in the outside world, because we are forced to relate with the tinderas and the manongs and the katulongs of this world. If we wanted to communicate to these people — or otherwise avoid being mugged on the jeepney — we needed to learn Filipino."

"But perhaps this is not so bad in a society of rotten beef and stinking fish. For while Filipino may be the language of identity, it is the language of the streets. It might have the capacity to be the language of learning, but it is not the language of the learned."

And his coup d'grace:

"So I have my education to thank for making English my mother language."

Read more: http://everythinginbudget.blogspot.com/2011/08/mila-d-aguilar-in-reply-to-james.html#ixzz1WUtY1AGZ

I have read two responses to Mr. Soriano's now-much-googled piece. Mila Aguilar's is the kinder
rejoinder:

"This is not to disparage James Soriano, a young man who may have learned German, but hasn’t yet seen the world in all its gritty detail. I wouldn’t quarrel with him, especially since I’m a very old woman of 62; but I would love for him to learn a thing or three about his country."

Inez Ponce De Leon in her blog did not mince her words:

"Your opinion piece did not raise Filipino or English to any level whatsoever. It only showed your readers that you brought Filipino down to the level of admonitions, a language of mere orders, a means of communication with those whom you perceive to be beneath you."

"Can you not see what you have done? English is not a language for you, Mr. Soriano. It is your weapon to wield so that you can reassert your perceived superiority over everyone else.

http://inez.abcruz.com/Diary/2011Aug27Sat060531

This issue brings back to mind the spectre of the CCP-Mideo Cruz "Kulo" exhibit. In my very limited understanding of visual arts, I will not even attempt to deconstruct the pieces that I saw online. I just didn't feel like looking at it for longer than a second. Kinilabutan ako sa hiya. Isn't art supposed to make you look closer and longer at something? I don't know. As I said, ME=Art-stupid.

But I do know a tad about English. It was and still is my bread and butter. Like the three aforementioned writers, it is my language of choice and comfort. But Filipino is the language of my blood. It was never just a subject to me. It is in my veins, from home to work and everywhere in between. I listen closely to the dialogues in Amaya and play Joey Ayala songs on my laptop. If that puts me in the level of manongs, tinderas and katulongs, based on Mr. Soriano's simplistic social stratification, then it makes me proud to be Filipino.

THREE MONTHS LATER...

HOW SCHOOLS CAN WEATHER THIS CRAZY WEATHER

 
For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV

When I was in grade school, I would cry and throw a fit whenever my parents would tell me that classes have been suspended due to storm signals 2 or 3 hoisted over Metro Manila. I would pout and stare out the window at  the sheets of rain and listen to the howling winds (our house was just one of two in our street in the late 70's) battering our rooftop.I think I sat around and moped still wearing my school uniform. It was a source of amusement for my parents, assuring them as well that I loved going to school  more than anything else. It was a little different in high school, of course. I whooped it up like any normal teenager, whenever the AM radio announcer intoned his much-awaited "No classes in Metro Manila!" It was especially sweet when the suspension coincided with CAT training days and Trigo exams!

There weren't too many of those in my school days. But now--the merest cloudy skies or hint of rain can put everyone in a frenzy. "May pasok ba bukas?" For the last few weeks since school started this year, that question has filled our school's official twitter and facebook pages, as if nothing else is more newsworthy than the imminent suspension of classes.

Though I am guilty of secretly rejoicing at the prospect of lazing around at home when classes are suspended, it also makes me pity this generation of students--from preschool to collegiate--as week after week, their momentum to learn is cut short not be debilitating storms, but by the constant paranoia of being stranded somewhere between the school and one's house. This school year alone, I have been stranded FOUR TIMES already--a sorry, disgusting record, given that I live just 10 minutes away from school. Our main building tends to be isolated and inundated by some really disgusting liquids from nearby overflowed canals, to the morbid fascination of our grade schoolers who find all that exciting. Last year, a post-Ondoy typhoon caused our library ceiling to leak, permanently damaging a P4,000-hardbound Rizal memorabilia book. Colleagues and friends have suffered worse fates,wading across waist-deep waters of SM Sucat and scampering for higher, dryer ground as flood waters poured mercilessly into their homes. Clearly, this isn't funny any longer.

For the first time this school year, DepEd is actually considering to move the opening of classes from June to September. But in the same breath, they have nipped that dream in the bud, saying that Luzon is the only part of the country that is affected by the weather disturbances of those months, and that it will even be worse for the students to suffer through the stifling summer heat of regular classes in April and May. Point taken. It's also a known fact that many sectors will be affected by the shift: the tourism sector, in particular, will not agree to it. Boracay in July, anyone?

I don't foresee any DepEd-initiated movements in the near future. Neither do I see any improvement in the ever-changing weather systems that have ravaged even the most pristine of natural cradles (New Zealand), and serious, drastic efforts to change wasteful and inconsiderate human lifestyles. In the meantime, students are missing out on contact time with teachers, valuable time for knowledge procurement and drills and skills development. Saturday classes won't cut it--Ondoy came knocking on a Saturday.  I shan't wait while DepEd wrangles with politics and CHED officials reluctantly learn how to tweet. I have a few suggestions and interventions--bandaids if you will--that I believe will help augment the gaps in education whenever classes are suspended:

1. Advance worksheets: These are given at the start of the school year. The emphasis should be on skills and practice, and not on specific topics and lessons, since chances are, students will have left their books in school on that fateful day. Neither should it be dependent on internet use, since not all students have internet access at home, and power and phone lines may be cut during severe weather conditions. The key is to make students use their time practicing universal skills, like mathematical operations and grammar. Teachers just need to instruct the students on how many and which worksheets to accomplish on a particular day.
Examples:
Math drills-http://www.math-drills.com/multiplication/multiplication_facts_to_144_all.pdf
Grammar practice: http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/subjectpredicate/subject-predicate-c.pdf




2. Reading booklets: Like the advance worksheets, reading booklets should be given out at the start of the school year. Unlike textbooks, these are left in the house, for use on days of class suspension. Reading materials can range from non-fiction to short stories to an anthology of poems to thematic collections, the length of which is good for one sitting. All subject teachers can prepare such booklets. The selections are followed by a series of writing and reflection activities that should take at least an hour to accomplish.

3. Shortened Class Programs from June-August, and Extended Class Hours from September to March: We all hate it when we come to class in the morning and DepEd sends us home at midday. So why not shorten class hours in the first quarter--say until 1pm only, but extend class hours for the rest of the year--say until 5pm? This will entail major pencil-pushing of course, and the school's parents association should be consulted about it.

4. Distance Education: The University of the Philippines Open University pioneered the Distance Education (DE) instructional delivery system in the country, and to date, it has been the benchmark both here and abroad for the efficient and effective use of cyberspace as a medium of instruction. Can this be brought down to the basic education levels? This is a country that consistently tops the list of the most number of social networking users in the world, with the 15-30-year-old demographic taking up most of the credit. Students don't even need to sit in front of a computer to actually attend an online class. Any mobile device will do. Teachers don't even have to teach live. Lessons can be prerecorded, in keeping with a timetable that already includes those days when classes might be called off, and these can be downloaded, played and replayed any number of times. Lessons conclude with written outputs by the students, or if every member of the class is programmed to go online altogether at the same time, a chatroom-style class discussion can ensue. Anything is possible!

Got any more ideas on how to battle the class suspension blues? Send me a comment or two!

THE HOBBIT MOVIES: COUNTDOWN TO 2012

December 14, 2012. Another Christmas season is coming, and with it, another star in the Lord of the Rings movie franchise-two movies, actually: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again are currently filming back-to-back in "The Home of Middle Earth", New Zealand.Seventeen months of waiting after a ten-year LOTR drought? Better be worth it!

The Hobbit should be required reading for sixth grade or first year high school. Or for the busy executive or fulltime mom who's willing to take on the lighter side of the behemoth that is the LOTR trilogy.It reads pretty much like a typical boyhood adventure, complete with hundreds of close calls, a treasure hunt, and a really nasty dragon. I actually read this after I finished The Return of the King, and my loyalty to and admiration for J.R.R. Tolkien has been cemented forever since then. The Two Towers made me proud to be an English major in U.P., having written one of my most grueling final papers (for modern British literature) ever. I started to appreciate the depths and breadths of the world's epics, and before long, no professor had to require me to wolf down The Iliad and The Odyssey.

Back then, eons before Cate Blanchett's (as Galadriel) beautiful narrative intro to The Fellowhip of the Ring, the trilogy plus The Hobbit created an organic tapestry for me--a world that's out of this world, yet deeply rooted in this world: the politics, religion, psychology, philosophy, science of it all, timeless and bountiful, were there in Tolkien's manifold imagination. As a flashlight reader, I kept these nuggets close to my heart, moving on to The Sandman series in the mid-90's, until Peter Jackson came along and brazenly shot the three films. The anticipation nearly killed me. The antipathy towards Liv Tyler (sigh, as Arwen) grew and grew, and so did my movie memorabilia. Those were crazy years indeed.

But teaching the novels in high school wasn't a crazy idea at all. Thanks to the movies, mass market paperbacks were all over the bookstores, and my third and fourth year high school students then were reading  The Two Towers and The Return of the King, and writing really splendid essays on them. The entries on my students' thematic worksheets were such a joy to read, and our discussions were alternately hilarious and thought-provoking. I took care to focus on chapters that were not featured in the movies, like The Houses of Healing, where Eowyn and Farmir find each other and nurse each other's broken hearts, and The Scouring of the Shire, where the four hobbits--sans the mighty Elves and Men--defeat the evil forces that have taken root in their homeland The Shire. My students were telling me how proud they were to be annotating the movies to their friends and family, knowing what they knew beyond the movies. They have also come to realize that most everything in pop culture (read: Harry Potter) borrows from  the quest archetype and the heroic tradition. Every other adventure tale after the 50's pretty much echoes The Lord of the Rings, for better or for worse.

The Hobbit films should be promising. Some of the old gang will be reprising their roles (Orlando Bloom, Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood, among others), but it is the new crop of actors that interests me: Thorin Oakenshield, that brave, beloved dwarf leader will be played by Gerard Butlerish Richard Armitage (see pic on the right, also see the Captain America movie, where I think he plays a Nazi)), and Thranduil, Legolas' father will be played by Lee Pace of Pushing Daisies fame (he will also be in the Breaking Dawn film as roguish vampire Garrett). Smaug the CGI dragon will be voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, the suave villain from Atonement. Lost's Evangeline Lilly is an elf here, and I hope she doesn't glide and whisper like Liv Tyler. What should be interesting to all is Bilbo's epic first encounter with Gollum, and the riddles that led to the ring ending up in Bilbo's pocket.Plus, the merry band of dwarfs that came knocking on Bilbo Baggins' door are featured in the early poster versions. These little guys are poised to make a fashion statement!


"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." Tolkien first wrote that line in the middle of checking his students' test papers. Me? In the middle of my administrative paperwork, I'll be blogging about this ongoing journey. That's a promise.

LOTR around the net:

http://www.theonering.net/
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/tolkien.html
http://www.tolkien-online.com/
http://www.lord-of-the-rings.org/index.html
http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/The_Return_of_the_King_(novel)
http://www.tolkiensociety.org/

LITTLE WEBMASTERS

This year I'm handling an organization for 2nd and 3rd graders called SIFI, or St. Isidore's Friends of the Internet. Naturally, many of our activities are web-based, and my role is to guide them in choosing the right sites for them and enjoining their parents to be present whenever they go online. We are also using the free website builder, weebly.com, which we build one hour at a time every week. What's on the site? Feel-good stuff about God, the Church, school, family, friends, pets, hobbies...we have an entire school year to work on it.

Weebly is the safest and friendliest site builder I've worked on so far. It lets me work safely in the education category, and adult/teacher-supervision drives the site, allowing kids to upload, drag, drop and play in a safe environment. Parents have given me positive feedback about their kids' experiences with SIFI (Now on our second year!) Thanks to St. Isidore of Seville, the walking wikipedia of his time, for being our inspiration.:)

AWWWW. BEST EDUCATIONAL ANIMAL APP EVER!

This app was recommended by computer teacher Angelo.I like the interface, the concept, the affective nature of the site, and the amazing photographic detail.  Best for toddlers and preschoolers!

If you're using Google Chrome, install ASAP:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/eklkpgbllomnhfjcceieickilbeajjdg?hl=en-US#