7 Things teachers should do to reduce that "End of the year Stress".

Teachers' job can be stressful, but we learned how to handle it our way. :)

We all know how our job as a teacher can be overwhelmingly draining. If you are a teacher, you  know exactly what I am talking about. Humans as we all are, we wanted to get that well deserved weekends and holidays! While we consider ourselves lucky if we get a national holiday one or two in a month but most holidays just don't happen instead we get make up days for the snow days that we wished it didn't happen in winter. Believe me, I always check my calendar and circle the holidays in red!


 It is probably one of the reasons why most people don't want this job because of the very minimal holidays we get during the cycle of academic year. On the other hand, I say that we are still lucky because we have the summer holidays. That, by the way, we all deserve after a tedious 10 months of lesson planning and grading and dealing with the different behaviors of children and parents on some occasions.

That remaining two months before the school year ends could be very very stressful. And so I came up with this list of things that teachers can do to somehow help us reduce stress while doing year end reports and forms to fill out, tons of test papers and students' projects to check and all other things that seem to be never ending. Hope these will help.

1. Listen to your favorite music. I have my earphones on and I have downloaded more than a thousand songs in my phone with all the music that I like from R&B to classical music, Latin music, Filipino music, pop music, etc. Music helps me stay in phase with what I am doing, and helps me focus too. This probably works to most people.

2. Make in between conversations with fellow teachers while at work. BUT pay attention to the time! Conversation is only a way for you to not drain your energy doing one thing straight for 8 hours.



3. Take a trip to the cafeteria and back. Walking can make your blood to get into full circulation  again after long hours of sitting in your desk checking and grading students' work.

4. Get those magazines and books handy. I have two on my desk. When you feel that you had enough for the day, but actually no..you just want to have break but it is not your break time yet because you're not even half way on the pile of tests papers that you need to check. Hey, grab that magazine or that book and read few pages. It will ease that feeling of "is it 4:00 o'clock yet?".

5. Change venue. Sometimes, it feels like I don't want to stay in my classroom to work. What I normally do is take all the urgent tasks that I need to do and work on it in the library, in the section where it is always empty and spend my time working on it. Believe me, you'll get significant amount of work done. 

6. Tidy up your work station! It is always pleasant to sit in your desk in the morning, with all your things in their proper places, rather than looking at piles of tests papers, work books and laboratory reports stack like mountains on your desk and under.

7. Start your day with a SMILE. Yes, I always do. And I believe it can make a difference. I greet students and fellow teachers everyday with a simple hello and a smile. I always feel the need to spread happiness and positivity around, especially like this time of the year when all requirements are set to due.

I can't wait for my most deserved summer break!

And don't forget to put the Philippines in your bucket list. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g294245-Philippines-Vacations.html

Light and Shadows

I think this one is a language of an artist. Like the one used in painting, probably by using a charcoal or even a plain regular pencil. But I found these words "light and shadows" as a description of what all of us have been through in life and to the perspective of an artist, it is simply making the painting look perfect is to use a combination of lights and shadows. I'm not an artist (though I desire to be one) but I used to watch them paint on sidewalks and inside the malls and observed how they intricately brushed every detail of their subject before they hang it for display.   

We are our life's artist. When we started to sketch what our life is going to look like, we were like artists making dirty sketches on a pad. Just like an amateur who cannot decide on a subject, and he doodle on anything that he could think of.  Some of the lines he made are dark, some are light. And if we thought it is really really bad, we often toss it in the trash can.  A fact that tells us that life isn't always about luck, or serendipity or good fortune. It comes in all packages.

Be your life's artist. Paint your life's portrait to perfection using a good contrast of light and shadow. Look back with the choices that you made in the past that makes the real you today. Yes, those are your shadows that makes a good contrast of your life. Embrace it and be thankful because it make us more of who we are.

 The key to fulfillment is acceptance. Acknowledge the real us without any camouflage. 

The Christmas Lantern





Photo credit: Noel Y.C
 http://nyclovesnyc.blogspot.com/2008/12/parol-philippine-christmas-lanterns.html

I admit, with a lot of things going on with our life right now, I already taken out of plan to put our Christmas tree and Christmas lights and other ornaments. I just thought, "then, I have to take these down after a month.." I am totally lost. I forgot that putting up the decorations isn't a show but a celebration. A christian celebration of thanksgiving, love and sharing. So there is more to say than just seeing the Christmas tree and colorful lights during christmas.

The Parol vendor

Back in the days, as early as September, all local stores are already filled with Christmas decorations. One of the things we do in our household is to make our native Christmas decorations from materials and scraps that we could recycle inside the house. I love how we do our Christmas Tree from plastic bags or dried tree branch from a tree we call "Pobreng Kahoy". 

Yes, the Parol is a reminder of the simplicity of life way back the early Filipino christians who use this lantern to light their ways to attend the dawn mass we called "Misa de Gallo" or "Aguinaldo Mass".  Simple and yet it brings back the true meaning of the season.

Happy Halloween, 2012!



My daughters, Rossie and Riza trick or treating on halloween, 2012.

We celebrated my daughter's 4th birthday 5 days ago, and I thought, "Yeah, right. Halloween is here, then, Thanksgiving holiday. Then, christmas." By the time we gathered together to celebrate my daughter's birthday, and I know it has become a culture to us to come to our house in halloween costume, especially with the little kids and eat dinner together and then, we were reminded that yes, after the halloween, all the holidays are in the corner.

Nearly 8 years ago, we celebrated our All Soul's Day and All Saint's Day with our families in the Phil. Although there was no glamour of wearing the most expensive costumes but we enjoyed visiting our deceased family and relative in their graveyard, and some folks are actually partying with them bringing food and drinks in their grave. In the night of Nov. 1st, we used to gather together as a family and offer prayers to the souls of our departed families. After the prayer, we come and eat together as a family and welcome kids and neighbors treat and tricking and have them eat and play with us.

Now that I am thousands of miles away from home, all I can do is just recall my memories as I saw the kids treat or tricking in the neighborhood. I felt a sudden sadness while I watched my girls knocking at my neighbor's door. At that moment, I decided to go with my girls to the main street and be with the rest of the kids in town enjoying the display for halloween. It is something that cannot replace my childhood experience during halloween but at least, I have them experience the moment.

Lately

This is one part of the Rock Hill Riverwalk. We used to come 

here on late afternoon or early evening to relax and take a 

gentle walk and feeling the cool breeze of air. So relaxing, that 

you'll forget the stress the day brings.

Things are falling into place...I guess. Just being thankful that despite of the too many unstoppable, out of hand circumstances, at least, me and my wife are still on our sanity. Well, our two lovely girls helped us a lot to overcome those feelings of losing our hope and or not being in control of our emotions. To those people who knows us and knew what we've been through lately would surely understand what I am talking about.

It is only like this. Life is always about finding the way through good times and bad times. You have to deal to every situations. You have to think and be logical on dealing with something big. In other words, there is no place to being too emotional. It is not helping. Maybe it would help by bringing out the heartache inside, other than that, no. I realized that when you are facing a situation that is beyond your means to control, all you have to do is to raise your hand. Not in defeat, but surrendering it to the one who is omnipotent, the one who is in control of everything. There is no such thing as being hopeless, because there is always hope. I learned that a lot. And it is always to our advantage if we look at things positively, that there is always a reason to everything that happened. I am a big believer of that.

Just keep the faith. :)

Being around with Pinoys

 When you are with other people apart from your culture is all awkward, unless you've been with each other for quite awhile. I found this video about how it is to be with Filipinos, I hate the fact that it is overly presented especially the enunciation of some words but I enjoyed it.  :) I love the idea of showing the Filipino culture of respect with the elders and prayer before meal,..and the rests of it, yeah, is real!

A Taste of HOPE

During the President's State of the Union, he shed a little light to the less prioritized issue of immigration. While it is true that America is a hub of people wanting a better way of living, but we could not deny the fact that a bigger percentage of these people is a potential asset to the country and not a liability. I could see a better approach on immigration in the President's speech that instead of chasing the violators, embrace them and make use of their potential to improve and help the economy going.

http://www.illegalimmigrationfacts.com/state-of-the-union-address-on-immigration.html

President Obama addressed those who came into the US more recently to “study science, business and engineering”. His argument for legal students to find a way to citizenship is that “as soon as they graduate we sent them home to invent new products and create new jobs somewhere else”.

President Obama addressed the issue of “many hundreds of thousands of talented, hardworking students in this country …who aren’t yet American citizens. Many were brought here as small children.” They are “through and through” Americans but faces the threat of deportation. His argument for illegal children is that they get an education here in the US and are faced with an uncertain future.

He challenged the Congress to pass legislation paving the way for the above to get citizenship. In an election year, it is anyone’s guess what the Congress will do. But no matter what, this issue will get ample attention in coming months.