Forums

An online forum is like a virtual community, with members and activities and common interests. Forums on a multitude of topics abound, from geographic or cultural to personal and educational. Forums are a great venue for establishing connections with people who share your passion or profession. Because of the nature of forums (forum: a place to discuss or express views), it’s a great place to learn various perspectives on topics you might not be able to discuss in full at the faculty room before going home.

Take the first step and scout for available and credible forums online. Try a simple search through Google of keywords “forums for teachers” or “Education forums,” or similar phrases. When you type in “Philippine education forum,” one of the top results is www.eduphil.org.

Read the rest of the article on Forum for Teachers here.

Twitter is a microblogging site — 140 characters and that is it! — which means there isn’t really much space for long lectures or long exchanges. People have been using it to update each other about what they’re doing or thinking in a matter of seconds. For something that seems to be made for temporary outbursts or, in social networking site terms, shoutouts or status updates, Twitter has actually gained popularity as a venue for meaningful interaction.

First off, you need to register at www.twitter.com. Once you have a Twitter account, customize your profile by adding your name, location and a brief description. Of course, you have to mention that you are an educator!

Your Twitter homepage will have three main parts. The first one is marked “What’s happening?” That is where you type in your thoughts, questions, activities, and so on, a.k.a. your Tweet. The second part is the feed, which is constantly updating. It will display the most recent Tweets from your connections or people you are following. Then you have a sidebar which displays your info, including who you are following and who are following you, what are the latest hot topics, and the Search bar.

There’s so much more to learn about Twitter. Click here to read Twitter tips for teachers.

I took the LET in October 2009—and PASSED! Here are some tips and tricks that can help you review, prepare and even pass!

• Familiarize yourself with the LET’s table of specifications and point system. The table of specifications, as every teacher should know, identifies the topics covered by a test and how much weight each topic is given. Every board exam has one. A copy of the LET table of specifications is included in the “kit” the PRC gave you after your application. The general distribution of items is: General Education, 200 items; Professional Education, 200 items; Major or Specialization, 200 items. Your score won’t be based on the raw score but on this percentage distribution: General Education, 20%; Professional Education, 40%; Major or Specialization, 40%. The passing rate is 75%, but you also need to get 50% in all three areas. Given all those numbers, you can plan out your approach to achieving the passing rate!

Read the rest of the article on how to pass the Licensure Examination for Teachers.

The Underachieving School by John Holt. Dr. Jose Rizal, Philippine’s national hero, put it best when he said: “The school is not a torture chamber but a playground of the mind.” This book perfectly encapsulates this thought, for John Holt discusses the negative effects of focusing too much on teaching as a formal job where students are treated like robots who listen and learn on command. Through several chapters in the book, Holt brings to light the many flaws of the educational system and reminds teachers that children only learn to hate school because of what their teachers do and not because they don’t want to learn.

Fires in the Bathroom (Advice for Teachers from High School Students) by Kathleen Cushman. There is no better judge of a teacher than the students themselves. So, kudos to the people who came up with the idea for this book. It offers very valuable knowledge for first-time and veteran teachers alike. Students always have a preconceived notion of what a teacher should be like, and what teachers should or shouldn’t do. The book also gives students the chance to be heard. The advice given in the book are gathered from focus groups of various American high school students who have shared their ideas of what a teacher should or shouldn’t do, what an ideal class should be like, as well as some fond memories of favorite mentors, or traumatic experiences from their worst teachers.

Check out the rest of the 7 Inspiring Books for Teachers.

• Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.

• Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.

• Learning may reside in non-human appliances.

• Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known

• Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.

• Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.

• Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.

• Decision-making is a learning process.

More and more teachers the world over are connecting with experts and peers alike to expand their professional learning network or PLN.

Creating your personal learning network entails some changes in understanding of continual professional development and requires learning some new skillss. The following tips will help you develop the mindset and the skills for successfully starting a PLN.

Read the rest of the article “Personal Learning Network for Teachers: Start Building Your PLN.”

The La Union Surfing Break had a successful reprise last year after its launching in 2006. It is conceptualized to educate and expose surfing to the general public through proper teaching methods. Timed during semestral break, the target market of the event was students from Manila, Baguio and other Northern Luzon cities. Among the three other well-known surf sites in the Philippines — Siargao in Surigao del Norte, Baler in Aurora and Daet in Camarines Sur — La Union is the most accessible for those coming from Mega Manila. The event turned the beach cove of Urbiztondo, San Juan, La Union into the likes of one hot summer getaway in Boracay.

The LA UNION SURFING BREAK proved very successful in the past 2 years. It has positioned La Union as the Surfing and Active Lifestyle Holiday Destination of the Philippines. With the help of the media, both broadcast and print, the activity has become popular throughout the country.

Surf Clinics

Day 2: Maximum of 12 teams, mixed, male and female. Whole day competitions. Teams will be seeded upon registration to form 2 groups of 6. Each group will compete to arrive with top 4 teams per group.

Day 3: The top 4 teams per group will enter into a quarterfinal round, semi final and final round to come out with the Champion, 1st Runner Up and 2nd Runner Up.
 
Team Speed Climbing and Bouldering

Maximizing on the presence of the climbing wall, we can set up a professional Bouldering Competition apart from the team Speed Climbing Competition.

Day 1: Whole day clinic with hired instructors, arrival of competitors, invitation of locals to form teams or join existing teams, practice sessions on the speed climbing wall

Day 2: Whole day Bouldering Competition, approximately 50 participants male and female. Climbers are given 2 rounds of boulders to score. The top 16 male and top 8 female competitors advance into the next day’s rounds. Team speed seeding rounds happen at 4pm.

Day 3: Quarter final, Semi final and Final Rounds for Team Speed Climbing and Bouldering Competitions to result in Champion, 1st Runner Up and 2nd Runner Up in Men’s Bouldering, Women’s Bouldering and Team Speed Climbing.
 
Beach Volleyball
 
This is the classic beach game which cannot go missed. Teams will travel to compete, or can be formed together by interactive game marshals monitoring interested individuals wanting to play. After 3 days, interested teams will get competitive and compete for the LUSB Beach Volley International Trophy.

Day 1: Seeding, free games, forming of teams for those that don’t have teams, arrival of teams, registration

Day 2: Registration, maximum of 12 teams of 4, mixed with at least 1 female. Whole day competitions. Teams will be seeded upon registration to form 2 groups of 6. Each group will compete to arrive with top 4 teams per group.

Day 3: The top 4 teams per group will enter into a quarterfinal round, semi final and final round to come out with the Champion, 1st Runner Up and 2nd Runner Up.

The Ultimate Beach Break Party & Oktoberfest
 
News of the beach party which took place last year was spread like fire through campuses and schools when the students went back to school. This event definitely made its impact in the students’ social scene. This year aims to have more bands and more people attending the party concert. The party happens on Day 1 and Day2 of the event.

Search for La Union Surfing Bodies 2008
 
The La Union Surfing Bodies 2008 is a personality and modelling search for young boys and girls that aims to discover the most beautiful and most refreshing face that has the best potential to penetrate the industry of advertising and fashion and eventually crossover to be the next teen idol.
 
La Union Amazing Race Challenge
 
It is a race against time with a competitive team element. The race consists of a series of clues to get from one checkpoint /pit stop to another. Route Markers which will either contain a Road Block or Detour shall be in place to each checkpoint where the team or one of their members must complete a given task before going on to the next pit stop/checkpoint. Route Markers mark the location of additional route information; Road Blocks on the other hand, shall outline a specific task to one member which one must complete to be able to proceed while detour gives a choice of two tasks the whole team must complete before moving on. The first team to reach the final pit stop/checkpoint shall be the winner of the race.

In the bigger picture, the La Union Surfing Break is a real nudge to La Union’s over-all tourism industry as well as other business ventures. With the expected influx of people coming over, the goal in the end is to ensure the event leaves a trail of small business start ups, idea transfers, and enough momentum to promote La Union as a sports and adventure destination as well as the premier surfing destination in North Luzon, prepared and ready to take on an influx of tourists.

-Provincial Information and Tourism Office

(For interested dudes and dudettes, you can direct room reservation inquiries to me. Just leave a comment with contact details.)

          The Blue Skull and the Dark Palms by NVM Gonzalez is an example of what Pratt calls a mutual determination of context and subject. A pragmatic stylistics analysis of the speech acts in The Blue Skull would be incomplete if the larger context of the story is not considered.

          Analysis of Ms. Inocencio’s language in the speech acts at the beginning of the story reveals an overuse of the politeness indicator “sir” which she uses after almost every utterance. This indicates her desire to please Mr. Vidal, the School Inspector, and not simply to be polite. This also emphasizes how she sees herself as subordinate, and even inferior, to him. Later on, in their first encounter at the school, she moves from short phatic utterances to more illustrative illocutionary acts like explaining her plans for the garden, the illocutionary force being to make a good impression.

          Mr. Vidal, on the other hand, begins with a series of compliments to Ms. Inocencio. He also addresses her as Ms. Inocencio only once, and the rest is direct “you” address. This reveals his desire not to seem imposing and to establish a less formal and more familiar interaction with Ms. Inocencio.

          The disparity in the disposition of the two is revealed in the dialogue they have after Ms. Inocencio mentioned the war. Her illocutionary act describes the school during and after the war, hoping to make a point about the school’s condition. The perlocution on Mr. Vidal instead is to discuss an intimate topic, the death of Pepito, Ms. Inocencio’s lover. He does this using an illocutionary act of clarifying a fact. He asks Ms. Inocencio, “Did you know him?” not to clarify but perhaps to get her to talk more. She, in turn, rejects and replies with an indirect illocution, “Pepito Malabanan, sir?” Mr. Vidal persists, “Do you think it’s ever possible…his being alive, his ever coming home?” And Ms. Inocencio answers, “I can’t say, sir.” The polite address at the end reveals she does not want to discuss the intimate connection she has with the man in question. Obviously, though, with his questions, Mr. Vidal is aware of it.

          The aforementioned explains a hidden illocutionary force in Mr. Vidal’s being generous with compliments at the start. He wants a more personal relationship with Ms. Inocencio, and perhaps even to court her. Several breakdowns or turning points in their dialogues apart from the one above show this. When they were talking about Ms. Inocencio’s plans for the garden, he commends her then implies the possibility of the school getting closed, and how he can do a part in that. That has a perlocutionary effect on Ms. Inocencio of recognizing his influence and power even more. Also, when she leaves to join the praying, after the skull is discovered, he suggests subscribing to teacher journals, in one of which he has a contribution. The illocutionary intent is to impress her. Ms. Inocencio is not completely clueless to the advances, nor is she impervious. After their first conversation, she wonders if Mr. Vidal has a family.

          On the night of the padasal for the skull, Mr. Vidal greets Ms. Inocencio with, “Do you think it would be possible to identify the skull?”—an obviously familiar rather than formal illocutionary act. She reveals, “I don’t know what to do, sir,” referring to both skull and her situation as Pepito’s beloved. Mr. Vidal then explains in detail what he has instructed and done about the skull, the perlocution on Ms. Inocencio being her seeing him as a chivalric man, a savior. When two women pass them to attend the padasal, she is reminded of her purpose and obligation and she says, “Don’t you think I should join them?” It is an indirect illocutionary act saying she should join them. It also suggests she considers Mr. Vidal’s opinion on whether she is obligated to go.

          After she decides to leave the padasal, a liberation from her obligations tied to the hope of Pepito’s return, she goes to Mr. Vidal. All her utterances at that point onwards lose the polite address “sir,” a sign of change in the psyche. However, the shortness and fewness of her utterances in that scene show she has not completely yielded to Mr. Vidal. He, on the other hand, dominates the dialogue with directives, the perlocutionary act being to convince Ms. Inocencio to leave the barrio and become his protégée. She recognizes this, and allows him to draw her to him and put his arm on her shoulder. Her silence, however, signals that she is not totally free. In the end, she tells him the generic utterance, “It’s very kind of you,” and makes the issue final with “I must stay…”

          Why were Mr. Vidal’s perlocutionary acts unsuccessful in the end despite Ms. Inocencio’s decision to be free at the padasal? The last sentence of the story, “The dark palms were staring at her,” serve as the clue. On her way to Mr. Vidal, she sees the palms waving as if to celebrate her freedom. But then she wonders if it was too easily won. The change in the personification of the palms, “waving” to “staring” shows that for Ms. Inocencio, the barrio residents are watching her. This is reminiscent of the concept of panopticon, wherein people think and feel they’re actions are being watched even if they are alone. This hinders them from doing forbidden acts by the community. This panopticon can be religion, tradition and culture, ideologies. For Ms. Inocencio, the barrio folk have been watching her every step ever since Pepito did not come back, and they continue to do so after the skull’s discovery. Even if she leaves for the capital, the people will talk about her and how she abandoned her betrothal. This underlying reason is shown in how she had said her last utterances: “as if someone were making decisions on her behalf.” “There—her tongue had uttered them!” emphasizes she does not claim it as an utterance from her but that her tongue had merely produced them.

          Going back to Pratt, Ms. Inocencio’s case shows that the subject is not a fixed element. The subject builds the context of a speech act, or acts within a given one, and changes the context while she herself and her speech acts are shaped by a greater context entrenched in cultures, standards, and ideologies.

Analysis

          The descriptions of the mother and Vicente are contrastive not only against each other but also against stereotypes of their genders. The story opens with Vicente being described as “so gentle, so kind,” a phrase usually used for women. Vicente is a dark “little” man whose “voice [was] soft [and] manner slow.” On the other hand, the mother is a “gloating” mother whose “eyes [held] pride.” She is barely described at the start, as absent as the father except for short delivered lines, which are also in a tone not in sync with stereotype mothers. Only later is the mother completely revealed: a “tall woman” who spoke in a voice “very low, very heavy” and with an “awful timbre.” The contrast emphasizes the darkness of Vicente and the mother’s magnificence.

          This contrast is also displayed in the metaphor of light or illumination. At the start, Vicente was described as slowly advancing into the circle of light. During the crucial moment, the mother is “transfigured [by a] glow” (note the connotation of Jesus/God, images of magnificence). She had been “in the shadow” literally, and figuratively, about Vicente’s “queerness” that “crouched” inside him. In her anger, she “advance[s] into the glare of light” and reveals her magnificent self. Vicente is then forced “out of the circle of light” and “into the shadows that ate him up.”

The mother’s sense of control with Vicente is set against her inner disposition once with her daughter. Her touch is “heavy…kneading”, eyes with “angered fire”, her actions “almost frantic.”

The reversal of gender assignments is not only incidental. The story is not just about one magnificent woman but of all women and mothers who have been in shadows but “raise [their] hand[s]” against male abuse. This is shown in how throughout the story the mother is referred to as “mother” but at the moment she was punishing Vicente, she is called “woman.”

When she gets back to her daughter, she is seen as “mother” again, but in exploring her disposition and rage she is again “woman.” Finally, upon calming down, she becomes “mother” and tucks her child in.