Technology, Parenting, and Classroom Management
Last week, I met with of my high school teachers. It was a happy reunion and after some time, we discussed the kind of students she encounters these days. She told me it’s totally different now with kids bringing their iPods, PSPs, cellphones and other gadgets in school.
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The Writer’s Block
Five or six or seven years ago (this is intentional so you would have a little confusion guessing my age), I was a college student worrying about term papers, research materials, book reports and the likes.
Lucky for me, I was not a Journalism student because of peer pressure or parents’ will, it was my love for literature that made me take the course. Apparently, about 20 to 40 percent of my classmates did not share my passion for writing and each time we were asked to submit dissertations or research papers, they would utter words of disgust and would try to cajole our other classmates to write their papers for them.
It was also during my college days that I’ve learned about the proliferation of businesses in the university belt area and Recto for some hundred bucks, you’ll have your thesis or research papers ready in time for submission! I never used their services and in fact, was offered opportunities in the past to write papers for some students which I declined for some reasons.
Today, you need not go to U-belt and Recto to buy essay. All you have to do is surf the internet for keywords like custom essay and essay online and voila, you’ll have websites in your midst offering vast choices of writing services.
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Anti-Poverty Tool Revealed!
Last week, I attended an International Symposium for PovertyAlleviation held at the DepEd Complex in Pasig City. It was hosted by an international technician education college (CPSC) and in collaboration with different international and regional organizations including Asian Development Bank, European Training Foundation, ILO, FAO-UN, SEAMEO, InWent, IBM and others. I was lucky to attend this symposium which gave me a deeper insight on poverty at a larger scale.
Among the many reasons for poverty, not only in the Philippines, is the rapid urbanization and migration of rural people to urban centers. These migrants’ motivation for leaving their rural life to endure urbanity are: poverty, poor health, unemployment, air and water pollution, poor sewerage system, lack of basic education, lack of vocational skills, and unemployment.
I highlighted the last three reasons because the symposium targeted these areas for poverty alleviation. To quote:
Rapid progress in poverty reduction is crucial for achieving the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. International experts around the world agree that one of the ways to achieve this is by providing relevant modular and employable skills leading to gainful employment or self-employment.
Poverty and unemployment is not a problem unique to the Philippines. In fact, many countries in Asia-Pacific, including China and India, have deep pockets of poverty in rural and urban areas. And althought poverty incidence has quickened recently due to educational reforms and skills development programme, there’s still so much to be done.
The UN and all other international organizations believe that the master key to poverty and unemployment is Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).
What is TVET? It is the branch of education directly linked to the preparation of learners for the world of work. TVET is concerned with with the acquisition of occupation specific skills, knowledge, and attitudes. Dr. Chiranjib Kumar Basu, Director Emeritus, CPSC
It is not surprising that TVET is indeed the answer. In Marikina alone, the program on redirecting the youth towards learning short and employable skills versus aspiring for college degrees, has along ago started. Need for highly-specialized technical workers are high not only in the country, opportunities are far-reaching and abundant overseas.
However, there are challenges facing the development of TVET in our country and in the whole of Asia-Pacific Region. A Manila Declaration was promulgated at the end of the syposium as an attempt to address the worldwide issue on poverty.
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Overseas Jobs For Medical Career Professionals
Just this morning, my husband asked me to check the POEA website for possible job opportunities abroad. Apparently, he was watching television last night when he saw the news on the need for a lot of overseas workers by POEA. There were also gossips among his friends that indeed a lot of pinoys are needed to fill in overseas jobs.
When we opened the website though, we were disappointed to see that there were only job announcements abroad for those in the medical field.
I was not surprised with this considering that a lot of Filipinos are shifting careers now from other fields to medical related. The most popular medical profession today for Filipinos is Nursing but it takes too long to finish the course and you must pass the board too which is critical. If you’ll look at the screenshot from POEA, there are actually a lot of other opportunities in the medical arena that’s easier and shorter to study and inexpensive.
Among the courses are ultrasound tech or sonographer. My husband’s friend is an ultrasound technician and has never had any problem applying for a job locally, much more, abroad. If you’re interested in becoming a sonographer, enroll in an ultrasound technician school which links to actual ultrasound tech school websites which may be found in the internet. For instance, for those who are interested in enrolling to any medical career training, online schools like www.medical-career-training.com would help you find the right schools in popular medical careers in your area.
A Filipina in Today’s Society
(Just last week, while uploading my post for Filipina Images dot com, an empowering Filipina website, I have stumbled upon the post of Ms. Leah Cantos, another proud Pinay, on her Contest for Filipinas with blogs. It is open to all Filipina bloggers residing in the Philippines. How to enter the contest? Blog about how you as a Filipina, achieved your goals for the past year and your plans for 2008. Here’s my entry for this contest.)
It’s a well known fact that the Filipinas of today are far different from the traditional Filipinas in the earlier period. Being a pinay myself, I am thankful for all those fearless Filipinas in our history who valiantly fought against the society’s narrow concept on women particularly on the issues of our rights, responsibilities and capacities.
Today, to my delight, our country is already inundated with empowered Filipinas. We are now free to obtain an education, plan and have our own career and fight for ideals and principles that we believe in. Although there still exist tapered dogma on our gender from the conservative and conformist sector of our society, everyday, more women are enlightened and refuting abuses and violence against them.
Today, I am celebrating my being a proud Filipina and let me share with you my accomplishments last year as an empowered pinay juggling different roles in life:
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Filipinas are truly amazing. Once they set their eyes on their goals, nothing would be able to stop them. I need not be a powerful, rich or popular Filipina to impact lives and change society and culture, but in my own ways, I know in my heart that I am affecting lives. Hopefully, 2008 will be a better year… A year where we would be able to help more and redirect more lives for the better. After all, I’m a Filipina.
Professionalizing Work and Skills
In my years as a trainor, I have met a lot of people who possess technical or vocational skills and very good at what they do and they mastered their skills through experience. They can be tagged as “street smarts.” No proper training or academic background and no theoretical context of their craft but they are indeed very good in what they do.
An example of this kind of worker was my father. He was a very good carpenter. He was called the “foreman” and “maestro” (master) by colleagues and everyone who knows his skill in designing and actually making a house. My father was not even a high school graduate and does not speak English but he can converse very well with any engineer or architect when it comes to the rudiments of constructing a building.
If my father was still alive today, I would convince him to undergo training programs on construction provided by CSkills. Among the benefits of undergoing such trainings are: professionalizing your skills and experience via their On-Site Assessment and Training (OSAT) or Experience Worker Practical Assessment (EWPA) trade testing; arming yourself with knowledge on health and safety which is very important to avoid accidents in the workplace; and opportunity for career development in industry.
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No More Boring Classes At Last!
“Learning should be fun, not forced. Learning should revolve around the needs and interest of the student, not the teacher.” Marikenya
Good news to public school students! I was browsing through Philippine Daily Inquirer when I stumbled upon this news about the introduction of “microLESSONS” in public schools in our country. Supposedly, these “easy-to-develop” student-centered instructional units was pioneered by Singapore’s National Institute of Education and will soon remedy boring lectures, stiffling chalk dusts and sleep-jerking activities in the classroom.
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A Mind Puzzle for Introspection
Since it’s the beginning of the year, let us do some introspection and reflect what happened to us during the past year. Let us start by answering this mind puzzle…
“I am the longest and the shortest, the fastest and the slowest, I am the thing that most people waste the most and yet, they need me more than anything else. What Am I?”
The Answer…
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On Productivity
A Matter of Attitude
It is indeed a matter of attitude.
Productivity is doing it right.
The first time,
The next time,
And all the time.
— Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP)
Our Childish Dream of Changing the World
In my educational psychology class, I have discussed the school of thoughts and me and my fellow classmates were fascinated with a particular philosophy that teaches that man are inherently good.
That teaching struck me as relevant to this article I’m writing about everyone’s childish dream of making a difference. Isn’t it that when we were born, our parents told us were special and meant to become somebody important?
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Tintin Rios: Nice article mhel! As always, I am indeed enjoying all the stuff that you are doing. Very honest and very inspiring. Keep it up! :)
Big Brother: Very helpful and enlightening person, always there to lend a hand whenever you’re in need… Keep it up !!! GOD Bless!!!
Zaldy: Very interesting and informative. Lovely as the author.
Kengkay: Ipagpatuloy ang pag blog tungkol sa kagandahan ng pinas… gusto ko ang mga ganitong blogs. nakakataba ng puso :)
Apple Lucero: It's wonderful, and knowledgeable. I love the beauty of marikina, continue blogging, great!
Ed Ebreo: You have a very interesting blog and an even more interesting work. Keep up the great work!
Rino: Thanks for this information. I would never have known about this. Good job and please continue to provide us with more of these…
Eclud: You surprised me mhel!!! This is great.. keep up the good work… (saka parang paganda ka ng paganda..) *From the author: "Aint this the best comment of 'em all?" :D
AnitoKid: Wow! Danda na ng Marikina! It has been a while since I last visited it! I studied at Marist School (Gr 1-6, HS 1-4). Loved your site kabayan! And I kid you not!
MyGlitch: Hi, Mhel. I salute you for promoting Marikina, the only blogger I know who truly loves her municipality.
Alvin Aljecera: Marikina is the Best in TOWN!!!
Lad Madrigal: Nakakatuwa, napaka informative at talagang helpful ang blog mo. Rating: 11 out of 10 haha.
Edelweiza: Hi der! I admire BF, too. I always see him during Cabinet events in the Palace as our office is the one in-charge of them. It’s his strong character and sincere efforts to “urbanize” the metropolis and us city dwellers that keeps me an avid fan. He belongs to a very rare breed of public officials that really walk the talk. I think he deserves all the support he can get from Filipinos. :D
Dennis: I was once a passerby, ngaun mukang magiging regular reader at “avid fan” na din! hahaha!
Ericc: Congrats to this wonderful website! it’s a good advocacy for responsible citizenship and good city governance! all the best to marikina!
Heidelyn A. Camaligan: We are so lucky living here at Marikina, werein lots of educational training are offered.
Islander: Wow! grabe na talaga ang marikina. beyond the legend na kayo. pano pa kami makakahabol nyan? hehe. Alamat!
Reign: I used to pass by Marikina since i’m just 40 minutes drive away from Antipolo but I never thought of these great facts about your lovely place. You’re a sure proud marikeña.
Lotus Flower: Happy Marikina Day to you. Aren’t you glad to be part of this quaint but definitely bustling and progressive city? I am :-)
Meeh: Maituturing na ang marikina ay nakilala sa paggawa ng mga dekalidad na sapatos na nagdala sa ating lugar upang makilala sa ibang panig ng pilipinas at sa ibang bansa…at ipinagmamalaki ko na ako ay isang marikenya…mabuhay!
Tapsiboy: Marikina is my happy and comfort place.
Spinning Lovely Days: I’m so glad there are so many interesting places to check out in our city now. with gas getting so expensive, i’m all for limiting our explorations within marikina. :D as always, thanks for all the wonderful tips.:)
Mera: Ang ganda naman ng lahat ng nakapost dito sa site mong marikenya Ms.Mhel…more of it were very inspirational.interesting and educational…just keep it and godbless u!
Abby: Hi. I'm glad i chanced upon this really interesting blog. i'm from marikina too. we’ve been living here for more than a year now. i'm super excited about your list. you see, hubby and i frequent eating spot in town. we are, still in search for the perfect crispy pata. a lot of my friends say you can find it here.
CallCenterGal: Thanks for the additional tips on improving one’s blog in simple, doable ways.
Sagada Philippines: I like your niche. More power to your blog! =)