ariellalisan.org – Homeward Bound

TEACHERS IN the country may enjoy treats from any Jollibee stores nationwide starting today, October 5, 2008 until October 10th as Jollibee takes part in the celebration of World Teachers’ Day.

However, it is public knowledge that teachers do not need a treat from Jollibee because they need more than that. Nevertheless, we say thanks to Jollibee for thinking about the teachers. I wonder what is GSIS’ participation in this year’s celebration — setting us free, maybe, from all the anomalies some people in the agancy are allegedly doing.

There are some good news for teachers, though, like the 6-hour teaching load, setting the maximum number of classroom teaching to only six hours, and the proposed staggered salary increases. The government must be afraid that our good teachers will all fly to where milk and honey flows.

By the way, October 5 is set by the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a day to honor our teachers who are the ones who help shape the future of the world. Support must be given to the teachers to help them perform their duties well.

LIFE INDEED is a cycle. A few months ago, I’ve been feeling so low because it seems like everything I do fails. First, the blogging seminar we orgnanized was postponed. Of course, I’ve already put a lot into it. I also suferred some depression after the great deception. I thought it was just nothing. I thought that it would easily slip off my head. But that trauma I experienced was quite too grave that it affected my work.

NO, I am not currently in conflict with anyone at work and I hope it will be like that for the rest of my stay here.

I’d just like to write now about how I was able to avoid conflicts with my co-teachers in my first year of teaching. Here are the five thoughts I always keep in my mind:

1. Know where you stand. I have to always keep in mind that I am a newly hired member of the faculty, which means, I should not assume that I know the subculture within the group. I should listen to my superiors and be always willing to learn. Later on, I could start making a difference once I am able to establish my identity.

WHAT A creative title! (Harhar!) But that is exactly what this post is about. Let me tell you what I’m into these days.

THE BLOGGING SEMINAR. It’s still not very clear up to this day. Loreen and I are working hard for this in preparation for the Mindanao Bloggers Summit 2, which will be held in GenSan on October 25. What is good is that we’ve now found a partner organization. However, our contact person is not as enthusiastic as we are about this project. He’s quite hesitant and pessimistic. But, of course, we won’t allow to be influenced. We will influence him, instead. There are plenty of problems like venue and availability of speakers. But we hope to settle things as soon as possible.

THE CHOIR COMPETITION. I attended our practice this afternoon. Yes, our church choir is joining a competition, which is part of my town’s (Alabel, Sarangani Province) 37th Foundation Anniversary, called Kasadyaan Festival.

IT COULD just be paranoia but we could never risk the safety of our children.

12:52 PM Our principal called for an emergency meeting, the second meeting we had today that zeroed in on matters of safety and security. The schools has received calls that messages were circulating about schools in General Santos City whose students and teachers were hostaged. We were not very sure of the report but for the reason that we have to secure the safety of our students, we have decided to send them home.