Jandrea...so far

Dear Psych 124 and Psych 145 students, I’m sure you have heard about the BOR approval of the recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Council (PAC). Pending the issuance of the Implementing Procedures and Guidelines, the Psych department faculty will meet on April 22 to come up with measures that will take into utmost consideration the situation and sentiments of students!  Rest assured that your Psych teachers remain to be conscious of your needs during this period! These last few weeks has been difficult for me as well. Being a teacher is not the only role I have to play in this crisis situation. Every single day, I have to make a decision as to which role takes precedence over the others. Please pardon me if in the past few weeks, being a wife, mother, and household manager have been my priority. Sometimes, even the seemingly simple task of making sure of having food on our table takes most of my attention. I have also lost time and energy mourning the deaths of people I...

A day after two students of mine shamelessly conversed during class, sharing something on a mobile phone, I am still incesed with myself for not calling their attention in class.The other day, another student was readimg what looked like a pocketbook while I was talking about job satisfaction and organizational commitment before a class where most seemed to be as engaged as I was in the discussion. Again, I pretended not to have seen the errant act! After many years of teaching, I still don't know how to handle these things! Do I treat them like impolite children and scold them in front of everyone? Maybe if they were rambunctious or insolent, it would be so easy to take this step. But if they were not and they were just showing disinterest in what is transpiring in the classroom? Do I tolerate this form of disrespect, not only for me, but for their classmates who patiently sit through whatever I have to offer in class? The latter option, maybe. Not because I am intimidated ...

        We were going to talk about "Learning and Conditioning" in my General Psych class. As an introduction to the topic, I asked them to enumerate the things they have learned since childhood. As expected, they came up with answers like "reading, riding a bike, singing, cooking, writing a good paper, doing math, etc.".         I told them, "Good! But is that all? Are you sure you are not forgetting anything else?" I was hoping to get more answers that wouldn't fit into categories like abilities and skills and facts that they have learned from their more than ten years sitting inside a classroom. Silence.         And so I asked them, "Have you not learned other things from outside the classroom?" More Silence.  I proceeded to throw them a barrage of questions. How about the lessons you learned from your family - like loving and caring for others? From your mistakes, have you learned to rise above them so you ...

Psych best buddies             At 55, I am like a mother to this group of 20+ and 30+ year-olds. I do play that role to them sometimes but most often, I like believing that I'm just one of the gang. I hang out in the lounge in between and after classes and take long lunch breaks with them. Our tummy-aching laughter is our balm to our not-at-all humdrum life as teachers.  Trying to mold the lives (not only minds) of our students the best way we can gets tough sometimes. Avoiding being hit in the cross-fire or being the target itself in some skirmishes is a challenge we have to face, and it really, really helps that we can seek cover in each other's company. Getting our act together as decent human beings is a tad easier knowing that  with our slips and mistakes,  we will expect any of us to say "Tsk, Tsk, Tsk!"  but that same someone will lift us up, anyway.  Our seemingly mundane victories (ranging from completing a sylla...

Photo by Summer Parcon      Wishing everyone God's light in this world we have re-created in our fashion. In our quest to make lives better, we have succeeded in creating mind-boggling technology, new-fangled machines, and jaw-dropping know-how to control nature. We have learned to make use of the earth's resources to such extent that it is now gasping for breath, singing a plaintive woe to its impending demise.       Our hearts go out to the victims of the recent Typhoon Sendong. We scamper around trying to save their Present in hope of giving them a Future. Beyond that, the fury of the storm served to warn us of the devastation waiting to happen in other parts of the world if we don't get our acts together. The darkness slowly enveloping our planet and our country may be dispelled only if remember to bring back our lands, air and waters to their pristine state. It is our moral mandate to bring them back to the state when God first ga...

Tree in the Academic Oval For the last 17 years, I've been having a affair... with teaching... at UP. Being a teacher at UP has always made me feel like I'm in a forbidden romance. Many days, I  feel giddy just being here but for an equal amount of days, I feel unworthy to be part of such an illustrious institution.  As an undergraduate student,  I was in awe of my professors. There they were, up in the star-decked sky and I could only marvel at their brilliance from my place among the riffraff of the academic world. Although I grew up helping my teacher mother with her preparations for class,  entering the academe was never part of my plan on how to conquer the world. I admit, once in a while, I did imagine myself in front of the classroom but never actually believed I could do it in real life. It was like having a secret crush on that gentle-looking hunk in the library but knowing it would remain just that because he was someone else's boyfriend. And even i...

From http://postsecret.blogspot.com May sinulat ang aking kapwa-guro tungkol sa kanyang nararamdaman kapag may natutulog sa klase nya. Hindi raw sya natutuwa at hindi nya raw alam kung anong gagawin kapag may ganun na. Naku, ako rin! Tinatanong ko na  lang sa sarili ko kung gigisingin ko ba ito o hahayaan na lang? Kadalasan, hindi ko na lang pinapansin at iniisip ko na malamang hindi naman sya nananadya. Meron sigurong sapat na dahilan kung bakit pipiliin nyang hindi mapakinggan ang talakayan sa klase o kaya nama'y mapagalitan ng guro o mas kahiya-hiya, mapagtawanan ng buong klase. Eto ang Top 10 possible reasons:  1) Working student sya at katatapos lang ng shift nya  2) Pinagbantay sya sa ospital ng magulang na maysakit sa buong magdamag 3) Namatayan sila kaya naglamay siya 4) Varsity player sya at simula ng madaling araw ang practice nila araw-araw 5) May undiagnosed Narcolepsy sya since high school pa 6) Humahagok ang roommates n...

Feb 9, '08 10:04 PM UP Diliman Academic Oval      Most days, after rushing through the preparations for the day ahead, I take a 20-minute ride to an oasis. When I am met by this canopy of trees, it seems like breaking through an invisible barrier and being transported into a different world. It is as if a magic air envelops me and a promise of respite from the polluted jungle I have come from immediately follows.       Yes, these Acacia trees have been all these for me for many years. But they took on a new light about 2 years ago when during one ride with Papa (probably his last to the campus), he proudly proclaimed that he was one of those who planted those trees on that lane. He said that when they first moved to the new Diliman campus from the Manila campus around 1948, that space was devoid of those beautiful trees. They were asked to plant the seedlings then that would be 60 years later, these monuments to the pioneers of Diliman...

07/15/2007 02:18 pm   He was a quiet yet formidable presence. The lopsided smile. The secret behind the smile. The secret measuredly unveiled. The unhurried gait. The calm, never the storm. The wisdom and intellect in the words. I will always hold these in fond memory. Good-bye, Sir! See http://fgdavid.com