Explore #1 in 2015

January 2, 2015

Road trip with my Friends

January 1, 2015. We received an invitation through fb chat from our friend Mayzar for a road trip on January 2.We planned to go to the waterfalls that our friend Eric and family went to if we can find it. On the day of our trip, Butch, (husband of Mayzar) said that  the direction going to the waterfalls is confusing so they decided to bring us to Mon Cham. It is a grapes and strawberry farm. A place for campers because we saw tents everywhere. We did not expect that the weather was cold because Chiang Mai is hot already during the day. Good thing we brought sweaters and jackets. Good thing I brought my red scarf which I was planning to use as a towel if ever we will be going to a waterfalls.

After taking pictures, we decided to eat lunch in a restaurant within the area. We waited I think for almost an hour for the food that we ordered, roasted chicken cooked in a big pot. It’s worth the wait though because the chicken tasted good.

Next stop is a strawberry farm (again) that we passed by going up to Mon Cham. We expected it to be a wide strawberry farm because a lot of people are really going to this place. We found out that it is only a small farm. We wondered why a lot of tourists are visiting it. We wondered why it trended (a joke within our group).  Maybe like us, we do not know that it’s only a small farm.

Next stop where I enjoyed most is the Maesa waterfalls. I brought extra clothes in case we will be going to a waterfalls. When we got to the falls and found an area for us to sit I had second thought of swimming because it is cold. I decided not to swim.

After some time, we went down to see the other part of the falls, the first waterfalls that we passed by.  It was there that I recognized the place. We’ve been there with my friends before. After taking pictures, I can’t resist the water so I swam even though it’s cold. I’m glad I did. I enjoyed swimming.

Praise God for this first trip for 2015. One of the dreams/ goals that i’ve written on my birthday (November 2014) was to explore. This is my second exploring after my birthday month.  The first one was when we had our mission trip to Phrao last December. Praying and hoping for more exploring this year. Thank you Lord.

2014 Birthday declaration from a friend

November 25, 2014, i received a message from a friend for a late birthday greeting for me. I found the words/ declarations so powerful that I decided to post it here to remind myself. Because of busyness, it is only now that i remembered to post, he he.  Here it is, unedited:

Hi Ate Nida!

(Belated) HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY! We declare you are blessed and highly favored!

This is our prayer for you. The Lord bless you and keep you. Make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you, let the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.

Lord, command your blessing upon Ate Nida’s life

Ate Nida, you are the seed of Abraham through Jesus Christ, receive the blessing of Abraham. Lord, in blessing, bless Ate Nida, and in multiplying, multiply her as the stars of heaven and as the sand of the seashore.

Lord, turn every curse sent her way into a blessing.

Let Your blessing make her rich!

Let all nations call her blessed!

Let all generations call her blessed!

Lord, daily load Ate Nida with benefits!

Her seed is blessed!

She will inherit the land!

Lord, bless her latter end more than her beginning

Lord, let Your presence bless her life

Lord, let Your favor cause her horn to be exalted!

Lord, let her understand things kept secret from the foundation of the world.

Lord, let her speak to others by revelation.

Reveal the things that belong to her.

Let her receive an abundance of revelations.

Make darkness light before her.

Lord, let Your Kingdom and Government increase in her life more and more!

Let her increase exceedingly!

Increase her greatness, and comfort her on every side,

Let the years of her life increase!

Grant her divine health all the days of her life.

Preserve her into Your heavenly kingdom.

Lord, let Your fire surround and protect her life from all destruction.

Defend her from those who rise up against her.

Lord, surround her with Your shield of protection.

Lord, guide her continually, guide her into all truth, guide her with Your eye, and let Ate Nida guide her affairs with discretion. Guide Her by the skillfulness of Your hands. Make the crooked places straight and the rough places smooth before her. IN JESUS’ NAME. AMEN AND AMEN!!!

Ate Nida, We declare wealth and riches in your house because you fear God and delight greatly in His commandments. You are blessed coming in and blessed going out. Let God’s peace be within your walls and prosperity within your palace. You will prosper! God richly bless you more this year Ate. Continue to be His channel of love. take care. Miss you. Mwah!

(LadyDonRoyce)

Goals and Dreams for the next years of my life

I’ve got big dreams because I’ve got a Big God, and His name is Jesus.

Picture sources:

worl map: http://www.ezilon.com/maps/world-political-maps.html

the power of right believing: https://www.josephprince.com/

 

God is good all the time

November 18, 2012, around 9:10am, a call was coming in from my sister Brenda in the Philippines. While the phone was ringing, I was all smiles thinking that my sister was calling to greet me a Happy Birthday.  But the tone of her voice tells me that something was wrong. There was a problem with the communication line and all I heard was that my father was missing. I told her to update me by sending a text message.

My father had been living alone in Pangasinan to look after my brother’s rice field. (Pangasinan is around 3hours from Baguio City – where our home is).  He decided to stay there not only to look after the rice field but also to avoid drinking alcohol. His liver was half burned because of too much drinking. In the morning of November 18, 2012, his neighbors didn’t see him walking around so they got concerned. They sent a message to my family in Baguio City saying that he is missing. A neighbor’s kid went to where my father was living and saw my father still in bed. The child tried to wake him up but he was not responding. My father died of SUDS (sudden and unexplained death in sleep or what we call “bangungot”).

Around 9:30am, I received a text message from my sister informing me that my father died. , We were on a songthaew on the way to church when I received the message. I started crying and showed the text message to Val who was beside me at that time. Losing a loved one is very very difficult. I honestly asked God why, and why on that day?  We went straight to my apartment instead of going to church. I thank God for my friends Eartha, Val and Joy who were with me at that time. I thank God for Ate Ellen who accompanied me to book my flight and for all my friends who visited me during that day. That day was supposed to be a celebration of my birthday. I started making calls to certain people if it was possible for me to go home. I thank God for all the favor He bestowed upon me during that time. I was able to go home.

It took me two days and one night to reach Baguio.  I reached home at around 2am and I saw my father’s body on the floor and he looked like he was only sleeping. In our culture, it is prohibited for anyone’s tears to fall on the coffin so they waited for me before putting him in the coffin. I embraced him and his body was hard and stiff. No warmth from him and reality striked that my father was really dead. Death is inevitable. He was buried on that day around 10am. I thank God for the provisions He gave us. I thank Him for families, relatives and friends who mourned and prayed with us.

During the first few months, I cried everytime I hear people celebrating their birthday. Birthdays remind me of my father’s death. I didn’t show my emotions because I didn’t want to spoil anyone’s birthday. I was happy for them but I was sad at the same time. There were also times that I didn’t like seeing candles because of the same reason.

Tomorrow will be the 1^st death anniversary of my dad. There were times that I wished November 18 would just skip but of course that can’t happen. I remember the lines from a song that I posted on my facebook wall on that morning of November 18, 2012: “This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it”.  I wanted to delete it when I learned that my father died but chose not to do so. Because I know that whatever happens, God is a good God and He will always be.

I was listening to Ptr. Joel Osteen’s message this morning titled “Move Forward”. In his sermon, he talked about a man grieving because his wife died in an accident 10 years ago. Ptr. Joel said this:  “If you lost a loved one, they are up in heaven celebrating. You know what? They would want me to tell you move forward. Quit mourning over something that is over and done. Quit mourning over what you cannot change. If God wanted them to be still here, they will still be here”…. That is what I like about God. Whenever I need comfort, He is always there to give it to me.  What comforts me is the thought that my father is in heaven and he is not suffering from alcohol addiction and not suffering from his health condition. God is good no matter what. Sometimes things happen in life that I don’t understand but I choose to always believe that God is good. He is my Father and I am His beloved daughter. I will always miss my dad but I know that he is in a better place now.

I miss you daddy.

Tula Para sa Isang Malapit na Kaibigan

A poem for a close friend, Ellen de Leon who will be celebrating her birthday tomorrow (August 2, 2013)

Tula Para Sa Iyong Kaarawan

Salamat kaibigan, sa iyong kabutihan

Ako’y iyong kinupkop at inalagaan

Nuong mga unang buwan ko dito sa Chiang Mai, Thailand

 

Salamat sa iyong pasensiya nuong mga araw na iyon

Dahil alam kong minsan ako’y pasaway nuon

Salamat sa Diyos at hindi na ngayon (promise, he he)

 

Dumaan ang mga araw, ako’y kaibigan mo pa rin

Isa ka sa mga taong naging malapit sa akin

Andiyan ka palagi para makinig sa akin

 

Salamat sa mga payo, mula sa iyo kaibigan

Kahit minsan ito’y masakit pakinggan

Ang mga ito nama’y nag pa pa balik sa aking katinuan (ha ha ha)

 

Ang aking dalangin, sa iyong kaarawan

Pag-ibig ng Diyos lagi mong maramdaman

Buhay na masaya at masagana magpakailanman

 

Happy birthday ate…

Complex Thinking Processes

Reflect on your learning habits and strategies. In what ways might have you been either nurturing or neglecting your own complex thinking processes?

There were times that I neglected nurturing my own thinking processes. I usually accept ideas passively. Our online study helped me nurture and develop my own thinking processes. As I read the study modules (learning theories from different theorists), answer discussion questions, read discussion post from my classmates, I have learned how to research and think on my own to process the things that I have read. I have also learned to compare and contrast different learning theories. Reading learning theories of different theorists made me also see that even  theorists have different ideas and that they either support or contrast other theorists too.  From our study materials, it was mentioned that we must not passively accept ideas and we should consider the following recurrent themes (Dewey) in critical thinking:

1. Avoid jumping to conclusions – keeping an open mind until you have adequate evidence
2. Examine assumptions – defining the problem
3. Generate new ideas – brainstorming, writing down every idea that comes up without criticism
4. Evaluate evidence – asking how an idea can be tested.

From our online activities, I have learned how to examine assumptions and evaluate evidence by reading my classmates discussions posts and by searching the internet for answers. I also nurture my complex thinking processes by sharing what I know to my co-teachers and by asking their ideas about it too.  I also ask answers from them if there are questions that I encounter from my readings.

What strategies are you currently using to promote critical thinking among students (peers/ siblings, if not yet a teacher)? Are your current teaching methods effectively meeting / approaching critical thinking goals? How do you know that your students are utilizing critical thinking strategies?

With regards to using strategies to my kindergarten students  to promote critical thinking, I use simple activities.  I know that they are utilizing critical thinking strategies by observing them on how they respond to the activities. Examples are listed below:

1. Asking them which object that represent the shape that we are studying. (I was smiling when a student gave me an example of a triangular shaped object. His answer was angry bird. I pause for a moment and then he said “the yellow one”. Indeed, the yellow angry bird has a triangle shape. Smart thinking).
2. Using action songs where they show how an animal move. The song says “move like a monkey” and the children moves like a monkey.
3. Playtime with clay and building blocks – creating something out of a clay/ building blocks
4. Drawing activities – drawing the things that they have seen/ that they went to during holidays and presenting their drawing to the class.

Summary

Ryan Michael Educado’s final e-journal entry is about lessons that he learned in the class. I find it helpful as an outline of the things that we have learned. Below is the link of his e-journal

http://ryanmichaeloducado.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/top-10/

A Fruitful Semester

 

The Theories about Learning that we studied helped me understand myself better as a learner. Reading about metacognition has helped me understand why I failed exams before even if I studied and read the study modules that we were required. I used shallow processing while reading those.

Being an auditory learner, I was having a difficult time reading the study module. I am an auditory learner and I learn best by listening. Reading suggestions from the discussion post on how to improve reading helped me how to improve my reading. I even enjoyed reading because our study materials are rich in information about learning. Reading will be one of the things that I will miss when this semester is over.

As a Kindergarten teacher, I was using behavioral theories in my teaching. I wasn’t aware though that it was called classical and operant conditioning. I wasn’t aware that there had been studies about it. Our further studies about operant conditioning suggest that punishments are discouraged to modify students’ behavior because it affects students negatively. This made me reflect on the things that I used before to discipline students. I do regret using those forms of punishments before because it affected my students negatively. Through observing other teacher on how they discipline and through the behavioral theories, I know that I would learn how to discipline students without using punishments.

Aside from the above, as a teacher, I’ve learned also that:

1. I can teach kindergarten students how to self-regulate (which at first I thought that I cannot apply to kindergarten). We were actually doing some activities that teaches self-regulation to student. Again, i wasn’t aware that it is about self-regulation.
2. There are 9 intelligences and we can develop this in the students by integrating different activities that involves 9 intelligences.
3. I will always be aware of what I do because students learn from their teacher (social learning theory).- A reminder
4. I can also use constructivist approach in kindergarten.

Time really flies so fast. Aside from reading, I will also be missing writing blogs. I have been reading blogs on the internet and it has always been my dream to write blogs. When the semester is over, one of my goals is to continue writing blogs. I am glad that I learned how to create folders in the blog site. Another folder will be added to my folder which is “Friendship” – the topic that I wanted to write about. Another goal is to learn more about how to design my blog page.

This semester is indeed a fruitful one.

Anecdotes

One of our group discussion was to discuss and elaborate through anecdotes the section “Factors affecting obsedrvational learning and performance.” I like reading the anecdotes because it’s a fun way to understand more about our topic so here are our answers:

 Model Prestige and competence: by Carolyn de Guzman

Actors are really good in portraying their roles. Versatile actors can portray different characters and they perform it pretty well. An actor has great mentors who trains him and he has different models (depending on what role he’ll play) whom he should observe and learn to imitate so once he internalizes his role, he can perform his character well.

Developmental Status: Maria Aster Joy Garcia

I am currently working in a BPO company. Everyday, we have individual metrics such as After Call work, Quality audits, Actual handling time, schedule adherence and others. We also have team leaders and support staff  who check our performance at work.  They usually provide Skills and knowledge  enhancement program to be able to know the individual performance, strengths, and areas of opportunities.  We usually let the newbies at work to observe the tenured agents to be able to know how they handle their calls, provide power phrases and explanation skills. In this way, the new agents will gain more confidence in doing the tasks at work, gain knowledge and understanding about the product in which they will support and be able to imitate how the tenured agent performs. Thus, they can apply the best practices which they have observed to be able to attain customer’s satisfaction, get high quality scores and get high incentives.

By Robenille Malit

Outcome expectations – Employee A was new to the company. He made fast progress to learn a lot about the company, made good impression on his peers, and completed all his required tasks on time. Even though he was a newbie, within a few months, he was promoted. Employees now try to model what he did to get thatpromotion (rewarding outcome).

Values – Mr. D loves dogs. He takes his dog on a walk in the park where he meets Mr. J, another dog owner. They become buddies and now take their dog walks together. Mr. D observed that Mr. J’s dog are very well groomed, disciplined yet so full of life. He notes how Mr. J takes care, treats and trains his dog. He asks Mr. J further tips on taking care of dogs so he can do as well with his. He feels that he would find fulfillment if he would be able to take care of his dog as much as Mr. J does his.

Vicarious Consequences: (by Ahzil Gabion)

I remember the famous saying “kung ano ang ginagawa ng matanda ay nagiging tama sa mata ng bata”.  We usually encounter a child saying that she wants to be a doctor like her mother, because she grew up seeing her mother’s profession or some came from a family of doctor that the child thinks that this is a good profession. Another example is when the child always sees their parents fighting and shouting with each other because children are very observant and sensitive especially when you do not explain the whole scenario the child can mimic the situation to their friend and also find shouting and fighting to his/her friends as a normal practice.

On self-efficacy (by me)

Peter, a discouraged athlete, watches a game show on television. He saw that that the player has one leg only. Before the game started, a short story about the life of the player was shown. The player lost his leg in an accident. A swim coach encouraged him to join his team. He joined and was trained by the coach. Now, he is with the national team and won gold medals in the Olympics. Two of the gold medals that he won were record breakers. Peter was touched with the story of the player. If the player was able to win gold medals despite of his disability, he too can do it. Peter was inspired and decided to go back to his team with the determination to do his best in their trainings and be a good and successful athlete.

No More Teachers

As a response of Robenille Malit to Ryan Educado’s discussion post entitled No More Teachers, he posted the link of his e-journal. http://robenillemalit.wordpress.com/personal-selections-and-commentaries/sudbury-model-self-directed-learning-for-any-age/

He mentioned in his journal about a school called Subdury Valley School where there is no curriculum, no grades, no teachers (just adult supervisors) and they just leave the students be and learning would come naturally.

I was surprised to read that there’s a school with those kind of program. I don’t agree with their program. I still believe that students need teachers to guide them in their learning.