Classroom Science Initiatives

I was hoping to be able to post this before midnight of the thirtieth, but since I went the way of Cinderella and didn’t get home before the last stroke of twelve, this post will have to be the earliest ever made in the day, before 1am.

The full time faculty members had an impromptu “workshop” today, such that classes were called off and will have to be made up. This was from 8am to 5pm.

Not for the first time, part time faculty members still pushed through with their classes.

Are faculty members’ weekends really so reserved for family affairs that the only way attendance can be assured for these sessions is to hold it on days when the teachers would normally be in school, which would require them to take extra time out of their schedules to compensate for. I’d rather hold it on a Saturday and leave the regular schedule of classes alone.

Anyway, afterwards, there was the culmination of the second college week celebration for this school year.

Kudos goes out to the OJT students and one of our board reviewers for showing up unexpected.

I would also like to commend all the batches for being game enough to join in the contests, as well as the students from the other courses that showed up, such as Student Council president Cedric, who also won in the Sudoku contest.

Congratulations also to sophomore Carlito for winning the Speed Calculation Battle, and Jerome A. for topping the Minesweeper Expert Challenge.

Last but not the least I would like to thank the organizers for all the preparations, including the food that, for the third year in a row, wasn’t lacking.

There’s also another game now added to the arsenal of culmination party classics, this one involving Arnis sticks and rolls of tissue paper. Good job also on the sponsors, so that other than for the shirt, the students didn’t shell out for anything.

This is just the first of several major events for the term, at least for the college.

Tomorrow is the Integrated School’s Family Day, and their Math and Science Week is on the second week of February, which I will have to have a hand in, but won’t be the last time there will be collaboration with the lower levels this year.

Using the elevator at around 730am yesterday, the lights inside were flickering. I thought it was a problem that was going to persist the entire day (not any reflection on my opinion of the physical facilities staff) just because I wanted to imagine the reactions of the students who would ride.

Admittedly, it was a fountain of imagination what could suddenly appear beside you between the moments of darkness in there.

@@ What if there was a contest for the best advertisement (well, there is, or are, but that’s not the hypothetical situation) and one of the awards went to an ad from an agency that has not yet come up with one ad that has actually been seen in public? Could that ad agency really still claim itself to be in the ad business? Theoretically, their designs are good, but if they don’t have any clients and what they submitted was actually just an idea or part of the portfolio of group for getting new clients, it actually doesn’t count does it? It lessens the significance of their winning.

@@ And what’s with someone bragging about being part of the dean’s list well after graduation when there are several degrees to this accomplishment, such as happening only once, or regularly, wherein the person would not leave out the word “consistent” before the claim?

@@ Today’s definition of irony are students who don’t consult when you want them to consult, and you’re surprised with the outcome (at the very least) and they are very dependent to the point of distraction when you expect them to be able to handle something very well on their own.

@@ Last night the idea was broached to me about climbing Mount Banahaw. This is something that I was supposed to have done in the mid nineties, but the time that we did, there was a typhoon and our advance scout who had gone up and back said that the winds were too strong at the peak and that we should put up our tents about two thirds up the mountain for the second night.

Now, a decade later, I will have a second chance. I have to be up to the challenge if it pushes through.

There are at least three months to get ready physically before this trek that will happen on Holy Week.

@@ A web search on the key words “Dilbert” and “meetings” reveals a lot of common sense strategies (phrased in the negative sense) as to how to find out if you’re not running a meeting effectively.

In other words, when is the meeting just the waste of several people’s time? Why not just post the agenda first – maybe email - then those who have concerns about the issues can reply and if anyone sees any portion that they may have a problem with they will voluntarily attend.

Everyone else who is okay with what’s going to be discussed or doesn’t give a damn can just skip it and do something more productive than sit helplessly while someone stands on their soapbox.

@@ Daily Leadership Lesson January 29: Your role as a leader is even more important than you might imagine. You have the power to help people become winners. – Ken Blanchard

Everyone is so last minute, even the people on the morning shuttle who wait until we’re near the gate of the school before they collect and hand in their payments.

@@ There’s also the dilemma of what to do when someone is late: do they wait for the person and risk everyone becoming late, or just leave the person behind and hope they learn their lesson about being on time? Which is more important: keeping in your companions’ good graces or you own convenience against expensive commutes?

@@ Interesting: when I looked up “inauguration speech” on net search, instead of that of the forty fourth president’s being on top, it was that of John F. Kennedy, as well as being peppered among the first page results; it’s that relevant huh.

Why did I look up the speech? Because of the apparent allusion to our corrupt power clinger.

Ironically, I also learned that the local press secretary instead tried to divert attention from that by saying that the current government here and the new one there “share ideals”. Right.

@@ And speaking of abuse of power, is being allowed to be an exception to the rule enough of a reason to think that one is eligible be voted by the students?

Can that actually be a legal enticement for votes, that the candidate can allow you the same back doors being employed for using the loopholes in the system?

Shouldn’t the campaign be about making changes to the system so that there would be no more back doors and loopholes and that the process is the same for everybody?

And this is the same person who already routinely breaks other rules (without any special dispensation like with the rules mentioned above) such as not parking in the correct space.

If someone already does things like that for personal convenience or for the feeling of prestige even when not in power, how much more will it be abused when already in position?

@@ Daily Leadership Lesson January 25: A leader who can consistently do the right things, when they need to be done, is a leader with courage and integrity. - Christopher Hoenig

@@ January 26: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. - Matthew 5:6 NIV

@@ January 28: Without leaders, constituents have no energizer to ignite their passions, no exemplar to follow, no compass by which to be guided. - Kouzes and Posner

Since the start of the week I have been going to school taking the shuttle from the toll gate just south of Splash Island. It leaves at 645am and has passengers who are mostly scholars.

These are the students who live in and used to study in the public schools north of the industrial park.

Commuting from that side of the school either involves a long walk, which I’ve tried on clear Saturday mornings and there’s no rush to go to school, or a tricycle ride that costs seventy pesos.

So having a service that pays only twenty pesos and passes quickly through the roads inside the industrial park (because the owner of the shuttle service was able to get a sticker) is very convenient.

And the shuttle actually passes in front of the houses of several of the students along the route.

What surprised me about these students is that they seem to be carrying a minimum of three bags each going to school. What are their teachers requiring them to bring everyday?

So even though we’re talking about only fourteen students a day riding the cab, it’s still pretty crowded.

For me it costs less than thirty five pesos (the commute that includes the long walk costs less than twenty five) and doesn’t involve me having to wake up real early to avoid the traffic.

If I don’t take the shuttle from Paseo, riding the long way for me costs up to sixty five pesos, so this is a real money saver for me, and gets me to school early I get a lot of things done before 8am, although it’s just right for the grade school and high school.

But I haven’t tried the shuttle going back that way at the end of the day. The one to Pavilion at 620pm is still better for me, and I don’t have to rush to get things finished before leaving.

@@ Daily Leadership Lesson January 23: In leadership cleverness is not as important as content… Charisma and dash are not as vital as character and doctrine. - Neal A. Maxwell

@@ January 24: Leadership is based on truth and character. A leader must have the force of character necessary to inspire others to follow him with confidence. Character is knowing what you want to do and having the determination to do it, in a way which will inspire confidence in those around you or for whom you are responsible. - Anonymous

@@ January 27: All highly effective leaders have learned to respect the power of the present. They have discovered that analyzing the past and planning the future is not enough; they must also nurture the present and celebrate its victories. - Ken Blanchard

Here are some more reasons why I like the new retreat place for the college students, run by the Augustinian Sisters, better than the old one: first, it’s relatively closer.

I guess only about fifteen to twenty minutes were shaved off from the travel time, but it may be as much as thirty minutes; not much of a big deal, I admit.

Second, there are several dining areas. No more scheduling who gets to eat first if there is more than one group using the facilities, and no more possibility of running out of food.

Third, the view is better. Sure the previous place had wide open spaces that looked like it’s easy to roam around in, but here you don’t see he rolling hills because of it’s in a fenced in area, and only part of the sky is visible.

In the new place, there’s a great position for watching the sunrise, and the span of the sky that can be seen really shows that the clouds are closer at hand.

What’s better is that these can all be seen from the dining area. There’s even an option to use the tables that are in the open facing the magnificent view.

Consequently, I think the mountain winds are also more felt due to the open spaces.

Next, coffee, tea and chocolate drinks are available twenty four hours in the refectory.

No more having to make special arrangements to set up a hot water dispenser available during sleeping hours, because the dining area is never closed off!

One more, the sisters are very friendly, and so are the orphans. It really makes me want to go back more knowing that the money we pay them helps run the orphanage.

I’ll definitely consider holding the leadership camp in summer here, as well as make them the beneficiaries of the outreach programs of the student organizations.

I think it will also make a great immersion activity for the student leaders to spend one day in the company of the orphans before going into the qualities of a leader.

@@ Besides that, there’s the outdoor science interaction this afternoon, after the opening ceremonies this morning. And there’s the seminar tomorrow.

I’m posting this from the second day of the first batch of the college retreat for this school year.

It’s not held in the Oasis of Prayer this time, but in the care of the Augustinian Sisters.

It’s also to the left of the turn of the road from Sta. Rosa, towards the People’s Park, and not to the right (towards the rotunda and the town proper) like the Oasis of Prayer. That means that it’s actually a shorter trip than to the other retreat house before; not that the students would notice.

Bro. Noel, the facilitator for the past three years, says that he likes sending business this way because it helps pay for the orphanage in the place.

Of the six babies that were in the news last December being smuggled by a Singaporean before he got caught, Bro. Noel said four are being taken care of here.

And surprisingly, the sisters here (so far) are not as strict or scary as those in the last retreat I mentioned, that was held for the faculty last year.

There are only nineteen students in this batch, with one of them arriving tomorrow.

I’ve given up on one of the two students who signed up but didn’t show, because it’s his second time not to attend, and this time instead of having a family emergency as an excuse, he even told one of the other students beforehand that he wasn’t going.

Well, I guess that means he’s not in a rush to graduate, as if he’s anywhere near completing.

We’re here with two batches of Grade Six or Grade Seven students from the nearby CSA, but they’ll be leaving midmorning, so lunch onwards we’ll have the place to ourselves.

Besides the dog (of course a retreat house should have a dog) this one is different from the Oasis of Prayer in that they also have a mynah bird that welcomed us after dinner with exclamations of how cold it is (it’s really not).

And there seems to also be a well stocked souvenir shop, besides selling frozen food items, some Valentine gift suggestions, as well as – get this -guinea pigs!

No daily leadership lesson today; I left the calendar in the faculty room. They’ll return Monday.

Greek mythology is full of stories of humans incurring the wrath of the gods for comparing themselves to the immortals.

Gods in those times knew their place, and they wanted humans to learn theirs.  So that having someone, like Cassiopeia, queen of Ethiopia at the time, be bereft of her daughter due to her self-righteousness and vanity in comparing herself to the daughters of Poseidon seems just.

There was an email circulating a few months back that said people who have taken the name of the Catholic God in vain have also been punished, such as John Lennon for saying the Beatles were “bigger than Jesus”.  Of course we all know this singer/songwriter’s final violent fate, but there’s the always the chance that it was human vengeance at work and not divine.

Anyway, the lesson we get here is that it’s risky to mention a deity and one’s self in the same sentence either in equal footing or where the human is superior.  It’s highly presumptuous.

@@ Am writing this in school today, and hope to have this posted before leaving, if the net doesn’t fail.

It’s promising to be a very busy next couple of days, so I think I better prepare for that in terms of when to write.

There’s the first batch of the graduating students’ retreat from Friday to Sunday, and a Catholic schools’ conference here tomorrow where there have been announcements from the brother president to use an alternative entrance to the central lobby in the morning, and not to go to the main building cafeteria at noon.

@@ Daily Leadership Lesson January 20: The primary biblical image of servant leadership is that of the shepherd, because the flock is not there for the sake of the shepherd; the shepherd is there for the sake of the flock. – Ken Blanchard

@@ January 21: If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. – Abraham Lincoln

@@ January 22: A leader’s private life must be above reproach.  The most powerful factor is the sincerity of the man, his example and influence.  If a man’s private life is not above reproach, those he leads will cease to respect him, will withdraw their confidence so that his leadership loses its effectiveness. – Anonymous

* The last one is very interesting.  It seems to assume that a leopard doesn’t change his spots.

I don’t think anyone who has ever wanted to be a leader has a spotless background.  Even saints weren’t always good.

I think it’s a matter of trust: that in spite of all the negative publicity against someone running for office, it’s still the conscience of the voter whether or not the candidate seems sincere.

And that the candidates will trust that the system will choose the right leader, and not resort to or accuse the winner of cheating.

I’m posting not in the office again. Very busy day (getting to be a regular excuse) today, that I hadn’t even sat in front of the computer long enough to post an entry before it was time to go home. Besides that, there was no net this afternoon.

That means that the topic I promised yesterday, which I had already typed out (loud? You decide) but had to leave in the hard disk without copying to a thumb drive because of time constraints, will be posted tomorrow instead.

There are several other topics to post anyway. Such as the most touching dedication I’ve ever seen.

On the way to the office, one of the routes I take passes by this unoccupied lot beside the road.

In the mornings, I see someone pushing a wheelchair there where sits an old woman.

If it were a caretaker or any other person, I wouldn’t think any more about it.

But it’s an old man, presumably the woman’s husband, who himself struggles in pushing the wheelchair there and back everyday for his wife to catch the morning sun.

I wish to be able to make that kind of effort one day for the sake of a life-long love.

@@ Another story about my cousin’s new puppy. She likes hanging around the gate between our two properties, where the previous dog used to wait every morning for my mom to give her one piece of bread she’d savor for hours.

My uncle told my mom earlier that he had already locked up the puppy so that it wouldn’t stay at the gate anymore, which I know makes my mom somewhat sad.

The puppy probably smells the previous dog there, and finds it a safe place to stay but I guess now we won’t see a recurrence of that behavior until she’s all grown up.

@@ It’s graduation season again, and the former editor in chief of the Catalyst, Lauren, and I have already talked to Ms. Karen at the registrar’s office (since they are collecting the yearbook fee before they give the finishing students their clearance to have signed at the various required offices) about putting up announcements asking for volunteers to this year’s committee.

Those interested send a text to the number of the posters around campus.

My cousin Rainier has a new dog, a puppy actually that they got last Sunday.

Because of this (which was the feast of the Holy Child Jesus in a lot of parts of the country, including our neighborhood) the dog was named Niña.

That is, distinguishing it from the worship or adoration of the Holy Adult Jesus.

The last statement was sarcastic, by the way, in case it wasn’t obvious, on some of the particularly illogical aspects of Catholicism. And just because faith is separate from logic doesn’t mean that any belief has to be totally devoid of sound reasoning.

@@ Today is also the second Tuesday that the journal entry is posted so close to midnight.

Just that there were so many things to do in the day, from class preparation in the morning, to the actual lecture, to a meeting again during the U-break, traveling to my graduate studies class, and the actual three-hour class.

Maybe I’ll prevent this from recurring next week by writing today’s entry the night before. We’ll see.

@@ My mom told me today that my niece, taking up college in another school, has a subject where they’re supposed to buy things from an Avon catalog to pass.

This is highly questionable and the parents ought to complain about this. Any class where money, either from the students or from the people they sell to, ends up in someone else’s pocket translates to a passing grade, is suspect.

At least in our marketing classes, the money does not go to the teacher afterwards, although the teacher has to take the students’ word for it that they sold as much as they said they sold; there still has to be a way of checking that.

And even though my mom asked me to buy something from the catalog, I won’t, because I don’t approve of that kind of manipulation of students’ goals.

If my niece ends up failing in that subject because of what I didn’t do, then that should be enough cause for them to protest this kind of grade bribery.

@@ I’ll talk tomorrow about the tragedy in Greek mythology of humans comparing themselves to gods.

I’m double posting this to thoughts.com/typedoutloud, although I haven’t figured out yet how to go back in time and write the previous posts, so it’s not as complete since the collapse of the ‘Space as the one at thoughts dot com.

@@ Congratulations yesterday to Ms. Nesse on the baptism of her son. Sorry I couldn’t make it.

@@ I was here in school last Saturday morning, and the guard said the keys to the faculty room were with someone from the maintenance staff who was going to scrub the floors.

I waited several minutes outside the faculty room, since the keys had been checked out just ten minutes before, and it was locked. So I had to search for them.

I saw abandoned cleaning carts on the second floor outside the elevator and the west wing male restroom, so I came to the conclusion that they were on a break.

I found the maintenance personnel at the bottom of the east wing fire exit near the water tank.

I asked if any of them had the keys to the faculty room, and the guy was chided by his co-workers for not returning the key (well actually the neglect would be for getting the keys before going on his break, and assuming no one would need it).

@@ In line at the supermarket last Saturday, one guy sneaked into the line of the cashier beside me, smiling and indicating the fact that he only had two items to pay for.

Like that’s enough of a reason to cut in line. That’s what the express lanes are for.

And karma was a big payback anyway, because the customer before him used a credit card, and the cashier’s swipe machine wasn’t working. So she was actually gone for almost fifteen minutes before he could pay. What’s strange is that he waited, when I thought his kind would be so impatient that he would then look for another line he could try that tactic on and got out sooner.

@@ Daily Leadership Lesson January 18: Use power to help people. For we are given power not to advance our own purposes, nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power, and it is to serve people. – George Bush

@@ January 19: The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant. – Max DePree