So, I looked for the picture of the thing I wanted to have.  I am sure you have seen one before. I liked it because of its many features. It comes with a combination of the following: a sharpener, magnifying lens, thermometer, compass, mini calculator, and it also has plenty of compartments for other things you want to keep like NBA cards and stickers or cards showing your favorite animé characters.

You got it, I wanted a multi-featured pencil case.

I took that picture above at National Bookstore last June. These pencil cases caught my attention on my way to the counter and I felt the same envy I used to feel when I was in grade school.

Such a pencil case was like a status symbol back then. If you have it, then you’re in. I didn’t have one so I was not part of the “in” crowd.

My classmates used to have these kind of pencil case. I have one classmate whose pencil case had a compass but didn’t know how to use it. I tried to figure it out and when he was satisfied with what I told him about how it could help him if he ever gets lost, he let me use his pencil case for several days and I was like the happiest boy in the world.

I know you are going to deny it and you are going to say you are emotionally mature, but I believe that each one of us has, at one point in our lives, tried to catch someone or some people’s attention.

In my case, I do it all the time. I couldn’t just teach without getting my student’s attention. There is a circulating text joke about teachers being persons who could go on talking even if nobody listens. I can’t do that. Why would I waste my energy by doing that?

So I always have to make sure that my students are paying attention before I get on with my lesson. And how do I do that? Let me say, it’s just like wooing someone.

1. Get to know them. By that, I mean, each one of them. It’s my third year in teaching and I could attest to the fact that the concept of individual differences is real. It takes time before you can get to know someone very well. A peak at their Facebook accounts might help. But ultimately, get to know them at the personal level.

2. Know what they like. It’s quite difficult to really put yourself into their world but at least, attempt to be familiar with what makes them tick. If that means having to play the games they enjoy, watch TV series they like, knowing the personalities they adore, singing the music they listen to, then do so. That is not entirely a must, though. What is important is you know how they want to learn. You can capitalize on what they like and you can teach your lesson in the way that they could easily appreciate. It’s easier to learn when you feel happy, right?

3. Given them attention.  We call it reciprocity–or, in physics, the law of interaction. Like I said, everyone wants attention. Your students would like it of they say that you are paying attention to them. You would also get what you give them. How do you show that you are giving them attention? Exert effort in all the activities you give. Take an extra mile in preparing your PowerPoint presentations and in designing group dynamics. Look for other learning resources that will help them learn better. If you expect them to come up with good reports, you have to show them how you do it. That way, they will reciprocate your quality work with quality output. In other words, be what you expect them to be.

4. Be like Narcissus. Narcissus is identified with being self-centered. Paolo Coelho wrote beautifully about Narcissus in The Alchemist and I got an insight about it. Appreciate your own beauty that is reflected in your students. Note how you were to help them grow intellectually and emotionally. You would only be surprised that they, too, would appreciate their own beauty that is reflected in you.

5. Show them you love them. Show them you want them to learn. Show them that you care about them–that teaching is not merely a livelihood but a vocation. Doing this would not only help you get your students’ attention but as well as their love.

So far, I have never had classroom management problems with my students, which probably means that these strategies I employ are effective.

photo from here

I have known Cors online, about three years ago. She once commented on a blog post in my old blog. She used to blog, too. Exchange of comments ensued and we’ve become friends in different social networks.

Last weekend, she emailed me asking how safe GenSan is. Of course, I got an idea that she was coming. She said she was flying in from Dubai to settle POEA matters and she was going to GenSan to meet his Dad who is a seaman and whose ship happened to dock here in the south.

She stayed here for only a night and flew back to Manila the day after.

Despite the busy schedule, we agreed to meet. It’s really exciting to meet someone you have only known in cyberworld. I had an appointed that ended at nine, so she had to wait for me. After my appointment, I drove to the hotel where she was staying. She had been waiting at the lobby, when I arrived. It was not difficult to identify each other as we’ve got photos in each other’s profiles.

There was no need for introductions. It was like we knew each other so well already. We decided to have some drink at a bistro. And boy, was she a smooth talker?

We then decided to walk to Robinson’s Place. I took her to Piyesta, where we had gayuma and sisig. We talked about work, traveling, and some personal stuff.

I also asked her is she wanted coffee. I told her that Blugré serves Durian Coffee. She was excited about the idea and she did love the coffee.

We walked back to her hotel and bid each other goodbye.

I drove home still unbelieving that we have finally met. Surely, that brief encounter of ours is one I’ll always remember.

I found this information from The Composed Gentleman’s blog. Such a disorder is called Histrionic Personality Disorder. It is characterized by the following symptoms:

• Acting or looking overly seductive – Not guilty. Whatever I do, I could never be seductive. Haha.
• Being easily influenced by other people – Not guilty. I’m hardheaded and I usually take the path less taken.
• Being overly concerned with their looks – Not guilty. I’m concerned with how I look. Given this face, you really have to care. But not too much.
• Being overly dramatic and emotional – Guilty. But I do it only when alone.
• Being overly sensitive to criticism or disapproval – Not guilty Guilty. Guilty sometimes. Well, it depends. I accept criticisms but I long for approval. I am paranoid when someone disapproves of me.
• Believing that relationships are more intimate than they actually are – Guilty. No comment. Lol.
• Blaming failure or disappointment on others – Not guilty. I take responsibility for my own failures.
• Constantly seeking reassurance or approval - Guilty. Who isn’t? Raise your hands.
• Having a low tolerance for frustration or delayed gratification – Not guilty.
• Needing to be the center of attention (self-centered) – Guilty on being self-centered. I often make myself the reference point but not the center of attention.
• Quickly changing emotions, which may seem shallow to others – Guilty. But I know how to hold back.

How about you?

Histrionic Personality Disorder may have complications but it can be treated. You can find more information about histrionic personality disorder here.

I had a good laugh after realizing what these three pictures have in common:

Same Face

Sir Nerpy is very like Kaiser and vice versa. They are alike in many ways that students can’t help but notice. Looking and dressing alike is one amusing fact. Kaiser’s impersonation of Sir Nerpy is icing on the cake. Seeing them together in almost the same shirt color and wearing a mailman’s bag in a similar fashion is worth taking a pic.

Same Name

Teacher Eljay is a cam-whore. My folders are filled with her outrageous and emotion-packed poses. But this one is a rare shot, where she is joined by our students, whose name happens to be the same as hers.

Same Size

We didn’t see anything funny when Sir Jasper volunteered to drive for Precious to take care of some important need for a competition she participated in — not until they mounted that poor thing.

We are lucky today that technology has enabled us to take, keep, and share snapshots of events (whether spectacular or mundane), people (whether special to you or simply passers by), and place (whether the usual hangouts or some paradise). We can now make a chronology of our own (or other people’s) life story in photos, which is a treasure chest of memories, we would always wish to revisit.

I have one sad realization, though — memories can only be looked back at; some things can never be the same again.

Image from aclworld.wordpress.com

A few minutes ago, Aethen asked me to view his wall post. He wrote something about taking roads. It said:

Choosing one path means abandoning others – if you try to follow every possible path you will end up following none (I followed many paths in my “younger and more vulnerable years”. But when you are young this attitude is a blessing – if you know when to stop) *reflective mode*

This was my reply:

That’s right. Taking many paths means seeing the world at several standpoints. The more paths you take, the more things you see, the better you learn. But when you discover which path can really make you–and the people you care about–happy, that’s the time you stop exploring and start following that one path. Life isn’t about how many things you’ve accomplished but how well you did what you were supposed to do.

Allow me to share some insights I have learned about taking roads.

Choices

Life offers us a myriad of options. However, we don’t have sufficient time to try all these, so we have to rank these options and do only that which are most important to us. The choices we make are very crucial–they shape our future. What we do today will greatly affect what we will become in the future.

Sometimes, you have to let go of something no matter how much you want it because not all that you want would be helpful in achieving your goals. Having a personal vision would help you decide on which options to prioritize.

Personal Vision

I have always believed that the most successful people in the world today are those who can clearly envision what they want to become in the future. In class, I would ask my students to sit comfortably and imagine how they would look, what they would do, and whom they would work with 10 years from now. I would also tell them: if your personal vision is clear, there is a greater probability that you will attain it. With clear goals, you can make bake better decisions.

Listening

God is communicating with us in so many ways. He uses people and events to tell us His message. This might sound fatalistic but I believe that God is communicating with us through signs and that our senses should be open to listen to God’s voice in everything that we encounter.

In my life, I have never insisted on what I want. I listened. And I am thankful to God for bringing me here.

Patience

Waiting is such a taxing thing to do. I am often compulsive but I know how to wait. It takes time before my patience reaches its elastic limit.

A lot of us grow tired after several failures. Others stop pursuing an endeavor too early because they expect to see the results of their efforts instantly. But life is not like that. There’s a right time for everything.

Defining SUCCESS in your own context

Success is not something generic. There is not one definition of success that fits us all.  Just us we have a unique mix of abilities and interests, we should also be assessed differently. Sometimes, people think of themselves as a big failure because they measure their achievements based on other people’s definition of success. That way, they allow other people to enclose them in a box, which can either be to big or too small for their abilities.

Thanks for reading this post. God bless you in your studies, career, lovelife, business, and in all your endeavors.

A signage along National Highway, GenSan

Let me share some insights I have learned from being a stickler for perfection.

Lesson #1: Do it only to close friends.

Our English teacher in high school taught us that it is normal for Filipinos like us to commit mistakes in using the English language because it is not our mother tongue, so we should not laugh at other people’s mistakes. We can’t help it, though–my classmates were so used to poke fun at errors we notice. We laugh at each other’s errors. It then became a habit for us to always watch out for errors and laugh. Because we are not offended when others laugh at our mistakes, we assumed that others would not be hurt, too, when the same is done to them. We met not just one trouble because of that assumption. There are some things that you better keep to yourself, or to your close friends only.

Back in college, I was in a clique that had the same attitude as my classmates in high school. Errors have been our source of fun. Aethen, was not spared. He has along list of bloopers that we would always recall during our gatherings. Funny moments like that have even strengthened our friendship.

Lesson #2: Consider it an Opportunity to Learn.

Even until now, I still have the same attitude toward mistakes. I never take corrections negatively. I never take it against the person who points out my mistake. I take it as an opportunity to learn.

I consider Sir Gilbert as a mentor. He  was always one of our speakers in our journalism seminar in high school. Now, he is a fellow blogger and I still learn from him.  One particular instance was when we watched Shrek 3D together with SoCCSKSarGen Bloggers. There was a scene when the Pied Piper played a music that sounded familiar. I sang with it and my lyrics was, “Shake your booty, shake your booty, yeah yeah yeah. ” Sir Gilbert sang the correct lyrics, “Shake your groove thing, shake your groove thing, yeah yeah yeah.”

Lesson #3: Be the first to laugh.

I have had several Wow, Mali! episodes in class. There were times when I couldn’t stop laughing at my own mistakes. The kids, too, laugh until their stomachs hurt. Regardless of whether it’s you or them who noticed your mistake, be the first to laugh at it then all the negative feelings associated with hurt pride will be dissolved in laughter. There’s always a better way of saying correcting a mistake without offending the person concerned. Ending it with some laughter, most often avoids the buildup of tension.

I don’t find aiming for perfection bad. Although nobody is perfect, inching closer to perfection is better than staying behind, stagnating.

Photo Courtesy of Rencalago.com

Last week, a habal-habal (motrcycle-for-hire) driver from my hometown was reportedly killed by an unidentified man, who also stole the driver’s vehicle. When I heard about it, it was already the third case of the same crime that took place in a span of just one week. The crime was carried out in the outskirts of my hometown.

These people are just so heartless that they simply watch out for motorcycles that the drivers they victimized worked so hard for. Worse, they kill the drivers after getting what they want. What soulless creatures could do this?

What troubles my mother is that I pass by the area on my way to GenSan. I have to go down to GenSan two nights every week for some commitments and I could go home only after 10PM. Here in the province, 10 o’clock is already very late. You could count by your fingers the number vehicles you would meet along  the dark highway.

The local police have already acted on the series of assaults on the roads. On my way home tonight, I passed by two checkpoints–one was newly put up and the other was manned by more men than usual. They check on the registration papers of every motorcycle that passes by. I have also heard that they already have a lead on who the  suspects are.

I really hope and pray that this problem gets solved soon. Being the tyro driver that I am, I already take heed of the possible dangers of mishaps on the road. What more with this thought that someone might just be lurking somewhere along the road ready to assail you anytime? Nobody wants dangerous roads nor lives being put to waste. No one.

I was Black Ranger. I wanted to be Red Ranger, but because I don’t own the TV where we watched Power Rangers — I used to watch TV in my cousin’s house because theirs is a color TV and it sure wasn’t fun to watch Power Rangers in black-and-white — my cousin got to be the leader, Jason, and I had to be Zack.

At school, when our teacher had to do something else, she would ask us to have short program. We usually would try to remake the adventures of the Power Rangers, which usually follow this plot: The leader of the villain, Rita Repulsa, sends a monster. The Power Rangers learn about it and try to stop the menace. The villain then sends soldiers who fight against the Power Rangers but are always defeated. Rita then turns the monster into a giant, which then destroys buildings. To counter the giant, the Power Rangers call their Dinozords, which can combine to form Megazord, which always defeats the monster.

I remembered the Power Rangers because my graduate school classmates call me the Red Ranger (at last!) because of my red helmet and red windbreaker. It was also brought up in one of my phone conversations with a friend.

With the things going on in my life right now, I wish I’m really one of the Power Rangers and stand victorious amidst all adversities. I wish I could just say, “It’s Morphin’ Time!” and then I could just beat whatever villain comes my way. I wish I had fellow Power Rangers and Zords who would help me win the battle. Now, that’s a lot of wishful thinking.

If there’s one person whose travels make me envious, it’s Enrico Dee of Byahilo.com who gets to travel from one tourist destination to another.

SoCCSKSarGen bloggers got the chance to meet him in an event called Byahe Na! A Fireside Forum with Professional Travel Bloggers presented by GenSantos Online Magazine and GandaEverSoMuch.com at Little Dubai Kebab Grills last Wednesday night.

Photo Courtesy of Hector Miñoza

In a freewheeling forum, he shared some valuable tips and tricks about traveling and travel blogging.

Sinjin Pineda of Libotero.com also shared his passion about traveling and his desire to travel by himself.

I have been to several places, too, and most of those trips were all expense paid by the school. Those  trips, however, are official business trips so I don’t get to explore the places I went to. I am either limited by time or funds. Or, both.

After the meetup, I resolve to allot time and budget for some traveling this year. What would be my destination?