Work Adjustment

It has been months, since I last worked like a cow.

Yes!  I just got back to full work, and though my new workplace is not fully operational, it seems my youthful energy has been missing.  I have been exhausted daily and off to bed around 10 pm, which I felt that it was a miracle, since I usually slept 12 am since May.  Maybe this just goes to say that when God puts you on an assignment, He also provides all the necessities for you to be up to the challenge. 

I do praise God that after four days of work, I was never late and miraculously got up at 5 am for work.  My travel time from Binondo to Ortigas is a price I need to pay.  Actually, the worse part was the travel from Ortigas back to Manila, where the traffic was really hell and exhausting.  

I do enjoy this new work though there are some pressures because of new challenges especially with people but so far, God has been very patient with me in this opening journey.  

In just 4 days time, we were able to accomplished a lot and we had already prepared for next week's list of task.  

Is this really work adjustment?  Maybe not.  

When it is God's work, He adjusts everything for you!  Praise Him! From whom all blessings flow!  

APPOLICIOUS!!!

It was an APPOLICIOUS experience!

For the past years, I have been busy advocating and conducting faculty development trainings on the Apple product integration to the basic education curriculum, particularly the iPad.   And this has finally paid off today!

I praise God for the learning journey in integrating technology to our education curriculum in order to make learning more fun, exciting and most important of all, deeper for our students.  As we use technology integration in the different subject areas, it has allowed students to be keen on researching facts and data by themselves.  It has allowed students to become reflective learners, which results to better critical thinking skills, better opportunities for processing learning, and innovate with wonderful and creative outputs.

These years of advocacy has now been recognized by Apple as I receive their appointment as one of the official consultant for Apple Philippines on Educational Integration from the representative of Apple Singapore.   This involves free further trainings to even better equip myself in the conduct of professional development seminars for educators in our country and hopefully in other parts of Asia.  Though this would be another addition to my new responsibility as School Principal, I do believe it would better enhance myself as an educational leader as technology has started to reshape education in our present generation.

 I think the most important perks would be my designation is official and I am authorized to use the Apple logo with my name card... Now, that's COOL!  :D

Hitting the Lesson Target!

Learning objectives as I have personally observed are the most neglected area of the lesson plan.   Surprisingly, some teachers do not know how to write learning objectives and worse, they  do not even know why they were there in the first place or interprets such objectives in a wrong way.

Some teachers are so comfortable with customized lesson plans, which has been handed down or prepared by publishers that they would just jump to the content and the teaching strategy of the lesson without bothering to read and comprehend the learning objectives included in the lesson plan.

Learning objectives are actually guide for the teacher to deliver the precise content demanded by the lesson.  But when these objectives are neglected, there is a big possibility that the teacher would be teaching something that is not actually what the lesson is all about.  Or the teacher could be concluding the lesson with another idea rather than the real intention of the lesson.

Like a lesson about the story of David and Goliath.  Possible learning objectives can include bravery, trust in God, not to look down on young people, conquering your giants, God uses anyone He wants... and so forth.  You cannot target all of these possible learning objectives in a 20 or 30 minutes lesson, but instead, you need to pick only one that you would want your students to learn most.

A particular topic can have hundreds of possible learning objectives, but because of the limited amount of time and the target of the lesson, you cannot accommodate all the possible learning outcomes.   And that is the job of learning objectives, to point to that very objective what you want your students to learn from the lesson.

As many educators would say, objectives must be written in SMART format: Simple, Measurable, Attainable, Reasonable and Time-bounded.  It sounds easy, but actually, deeper thoughts are needed in formulating such learning objectives to come out with a precise learning target.

It is highly suggested that each lesson must include 3 learning objectives at most, and such objectives must include a progression in the thinking level of the students.

Learning Objectives help teachers hit the target!  So, when we give importance to the learning objectives of our lessons, we give importance to the life of the students we mold out of our lessons.

Sudden Peace

It has been a struggling week as it was off schedule for me to go for work.  My original plan was to get back to work around April or May.  But because of so many circumstances and I myself feeling bored, I was forced to make a decision to work or not to work, where to work and what kind of work? 

It was a very difficult situation and decision that I have recently experienced, it was truly a crossroad, with many concerns actually piling up in my mnd, which include utmost care of relationships.  Accepting a ministry that can break relationships as other invitations need to be turned down.  

But eventually, I had to make a decision, factoring each area of finding God's will has put me on the spot, a decision that I have previously declined.  Well, after my last leg of struggle and surrender to what God wants.  I suddenly was filled with peace and ready for the challenge.   

This can be an example of a Jonah syndrome, where you know God wants you to do a particular ministry and you are lazy to do it because of different kind of fears that engulfs our presuppositions.  Anyway, as a fulltime minister of God, the boss is still God, there is no choice but to heed on His will since we always know that God knows what is best for us.  

I am ready for the challenge and let us get to work! 

The Fear of Growing Pains

Since last week, I felt my life has been a drag.  The cluttered mind needs unwinding for me to see clearly what God wants me to do next for Him.  

There are times, we just want to do things where we are comfortable already, but I was reminded the question, "am I relying on myself and my piled up skills more or am I relying more on God in faith?"  This struck me whether I am having a Jonah syndrome or not.  Even my interpretation of my devotion is siding with what I want rather than what God wants.  In the end, I know that I need to submit since my task is to follow my God. 

My dream to be rich and lazy or to be just a simple houseband someday seems to be so far away from my reality.  

With my previous ministry experiences, though I know my years in ministry were well blessed, there were also many growing pains.  Leaping in faith once again for a new journey makes me hesitant.  Am I really ready for the next challenge and set of growing pains?  

The preacher yesterday reminded me in Hebrews 11 about the list of faith stuffs, but what struck me most was that in verse 1, "by faith, we understand."  We are to have faith first and then understand... not the other way around.  By leaping in faith, and after leaping in faith where we will only understand and get answers to our questions.  Waiting for answers to our questions before acting in reliance on God is no longer faith.  

As I continue to journey this fulltime ministry... as I leap in faith for my next ministry... as I explore another level of faith...  All must continually be centered in God alone.  

God's Time is Right Time and Exact Time

God’s timing is perfect in everything. While you are waiting, perhaps wondering why God doesn’t seem to be acting on your behalf, remember that He’s working behind the scenes to prepare His moment of intervention at just the right time. Trust Him. He knows what time it is. - ODB

People are often impatient with so many things these days that even with our relationship with God, we would want it to be instant.  Many times, our limited thinking fails to understand God's timing.  Especially, when our presupposition dictates that we already lack the needed time to finish a certain task.  God's time is always perfect timing and He is always right on time.  We can think God is late and does last minute decisions, but these are only our perceptions because of our limitations as a man.  

God's timing is always to the dot.  It could be God waiting for us to finished His assigned lesson first that relates to the formation of our being before we are allowed to move on.  It could also be God testing our faith in Him, rather than faith on ourselves.  It could also be God allowing other things to unfold first in order to help us go through a smooth transition.  

No matter what, God's time is right and perfect.... and you will only realized this, when such right time has actually come.  

Blogging Again

It has been years since I stopped blogging.

After accepting the post as principal of Makati Hope Christian School, I prefer to stop blogging since a position such as principal carries a big responsibility on what I say and how I share my personal thoughts.  I could be a big influence positively and negatively to my students, teachers, parents and co-workers.  So, I prefer to keep my thoughts to myself in order to prevent people from using my post as attacks on me.

Some people in this world are fond of creating stories and adding exaggerated meaning to people's thoughts, and there are those around me who are such.  For the past two years alone, in my FaceBook timeline, there were at least 10 times, busy bodies called up my principal in Hope Christian High School accusing me that my posts were pertaining to her, wanting me and my principal to have misunderstandings and divisions.   There are too many busy bodies today and even has the guts to call themselves Christians.  Good thing, I had a very open communication with my principal.

Blogging is actually a good exercise to review and reflect, which is the best method in adult learning. Blogging allows us to internalize things and internalize our thoughts.  I am going back to blogging because I do believe that it would continue to help me improve myself as a person.  I could also focus my blog in educating people.

Lastly, I am teaching my students in Asian Theological Seminary the importance of blogging.  So, I need to join them in their learning journey in quest for deeper understanding in dissecting our thoughts, experiences and  lessons.