I really have a difficult time deciding whether to buy this keyboard and iPad 2 dock. It is quite expensive but I think it was worth the purchase. My access to many of the important files, especially typing documents is now a blast!
I think iPad will continue to change the landscape of education and I believe the business industry as well. If using an iPad and being linked to the cloud is so easy, then, what else is next. You only carry the documents you need and store everything in the internet.
This again is stressing me because catching up with the even faster change of times is giving me an exhaustion though it is not physical but mental exhaustion.
In another perspective, these changes is good and I hope we can continue educating parents and students on the use of this tool in enhancing classroom learning. Learning has moved from the regular school hours to 24/7. Information is really at the fingertip of the everyone. I hope we can move this concept in the mindset of our students soon. They have to move out of the concept seeing this tool as only a gaming instrument.
Praise God for technology... and I am glad it existed in my generation... :D
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Friday, August 5, 2011
iPad Stress to Administrators
Our school has launched the use of iPad this school year. It has been very exciting for all of u.s as well as being too stressful. Sometimes people think that the stress is actually on the shoulders of our students or worse the teachers, who needs to spend so much time learning and searching and reinventing their curriculum. The truth is the burden on the administrators are even worse.
I am also stressed out preparing and teaching our faculty to effectively and maximize the usage of this technology. I am also stressed in trying to find the right apps for our students and teachers. We need to understand that iPad is only a tool and not education itself. And we have a responsibility to our students because we need to maximize their learning experience, parents who are paying for these expensive gadgets, the community who are on a wait and see mode and the whole learning community who are aggressively waiting for results and implications of education in our school.
If we are successful, we expect student population increase; if we fail, we expect a drop in our enrollment. The school is presently left hanging and we ourselves are in a wait and see mode, though we are in full diligence to make sure this innovation will be successful and inspire the rest of the learning community to innovate.
I am also stressed out preparing and teaching our faculty to effectively and maximize the usage of this technology. I am also stressed in trying to find the right apps for our students and teachers. We need to understand that iPad is only a tool and not education itself. And we have a responsibility to our students because we need to maximize their learning experience, parents who are paying for these expensive gadgets, the community who are on a wait and see mode and the whole learning community who are aggressively waiting for results and implications of education in our school.
If we are successful, we expect student population increase; if we fail, we expect a drop in our enrollment. The school is presently left hanging and we ourselves are in a wait and see mode, though we are in full diligence to make sure this innovation will be successful and inspire the rest of the learning community to innovate.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Exploring the Unknown
X generation individuals though easily adopt to the likes and dislikes of the Y generation or post-modern generation, continue to maintain their identity. We cannot fully cut and paste ourselves to the thinking of the next generation because we maintain our distinct identity.
X generation individual then to reach out successfully to them but in many areas, we can't. For example, e-learning is quite challenging for many of the Xers.
We easily get bored because of these e-learning stuffs, especially if it does not involve interactive activities. It is very stressful for some because this is the unknown. But we will go for the challenge and explore the unknown just to prove to them that we can easily adapt, sacrificing our own comfort zone.
X generation individuals are high achievers. We are babies of Star Trek whose task is to Explore the Unknown!
X generation individual then to reach out successfully to them but in many areas, we can't. For example, e-learning is quite challenging for many of the Xers.
We easily get bored because of these e-learning stuffs, especially if it does not involve interactive activities. It is very stressful for some because this is the unknown. But we will go for the challenge and explore the unknown just to prove to them that we can easily adapt, sacrificing our own comfort zone.
X generation individuals are high achievers. We are babies of Star Trek whose task is to Explore the Unknown!
Monday, April 5, 2010
Holy Week Procrastination
Besides last year where I was confined in the hospital, I think this would be my first time after more than a decade of joining camps that I stayed home to try to learn how to procrastinate.
Well, I would honestly say that I missed attending camp. It was so boring staying home trying to finish a serial of Chinese DVD. My whole body was aching just staying in bed for several days.
Yes, I was able to quiet and pray. I had my three day lunch fast just praying for the school. It seems age is really trying to catch up on me, as I start to love sleeping and sleeping....
I attend the one hour Maundy Thursday Communion Service of NMEC. I even forgot to take a bath last Friday. It was only Saturday night, when Jason pulled me out of the house to eat at King One and watch Clash of the Titans. It was a good movie, though I wonder how come many people gave it a poor rating. Maybe it lacks the modern sci-fi thing that is unreal, which I believe is the strong influence of post-modern thinking.
Pace started to catch up as I kept myself busy yesterday. After the worship service, I went for lunch at Old Spaghetti House, coffee at Coffee Bean to read my book. I was glad, I finished one whole book. Went to Powerbooks and stroll around the mall for a few minutes. I decided to go back home and found out that we have a brownout since 12 pm.
I got bored, so took my swimming trunks and went for a dip in our pool. Afterwards, I waited until 3 am before electricity came back. My goodness!!! All my rest went to waste, waiting for the electricity to come back. It was so hot, and again I am back to my pre-holy week feelings - restless, worn out and stressed.
What a Holy Week-end... Praise the Lord!!!
Well, I would honestly say that I missed attending camp. It was so boring staying home trying to finish a serial of Chinese DVD. My whole body was aching just staying in bed for several days.
Yes, I was able to quiet and pray. I had my three day lunch fast just praying for the school. It seems age is really trying to catch up on me, as I start to love sleeping and sleeping....
I attend the one hour Maundy Thursday Communion Service of NMEC. I even forgot to take a bath last Friday. It was only Saturday night, when Jason pulled me out of the house to eat at King One and watch Clash of the Titans. It was a good movie, though I wonder how come many people gave it a poor rating. Maybe it lacks the modern sci-fi thing that is unreal, which I believe is the strong influence of post-modern thinking.
Pace started to catch up as I kept myself busy yesterday. After the worship service, I went for lunch at Old Spaghetti House, coffee at Coffee Bean to read my book. I was glad, I finished one whole book. Went to Powerbooks and stroll around the mall for a few minutes. I decided to go back home and found out that we have a brownout since 12 pm.
I got bored, so took my swimming trunks and went for a dip in our pool. Afterwards, I waited until 3 am before electricity came back. My goodness!!! All my rest went to waste, waiting for the electricity to come back. It was so hot, and again I am back to my pre-holy week feelings - restless, worn out and stressed.
What a Holy Week-end... Praise the Lord!!!
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Difficulty in Blogging
It has been quite sometime already that I have stopped blogging. Blogging is really an opportunity to reflect learning and re-learn newly learned stuffs. According to study, reflection is the best andragogy. It allows adults to create synthesis of new learnings. Blogging is a form of reflection, not only just posting your personal thoughts to shout out your innermost thoughts, but allows us to value and understand ourselves and our new ideas better.
But assuming a new role in the school, has made me careful and at times becoming too careful for what I post. Since becoming a principal, it has become so difficult to express myself because blogs can give readers a lot of meanings beside my real intent. Though blogging involves freedom to express oneself, it is also an open door to be quoted and attacked by people who would try to find your fault. Actually, blogs can be true and can be false. But with my position posting things that are false might affect my integrity.
But still I opted to blog again, though I need to be careful but more important is to be able to express myself.
But assuming a new role in the school, has made me careful and at times becoming too careful for what I post. Since becoming a principal, it has become so difficult to express myself because blogs can give readers a lot of meanings beside my real intent. Though blogging involves freedom to express oneself, it is also an open door to be quoted and attacked by people who would try to find your fault. Actually, blogs can be true and can be false. But with my position posting things that are false might affect my integrity.
But still I opted to blog again, though I need to be careful but more important is to be able to express myself.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
New Pastoral Challenge
After being involved with the education ministry for the past four months, I am even more convinced that the church and the whole pastoral ministry is faced with a new challenge especially in educating the new generation of young people in our church.
I have always believed that in order to effectively educate and minister our youth today, we need to learn how teachers teach, as well as how learners learn. I believe this concept is key to effectively present the gospel to the ever changing young people. Youth culture is actively changing as the world continues to gear itself towards globalization and internationalization.
Philippine education has not defined a standard of pedagogy for all schools to follow. For years, each school is uniquely implementing a pedagogy that suits their needs and preference. This is already a big challenge for us.
Because of this challenge, I have always asked youth pastors to assess the youth's learning style to effectively present the gospel to them. And the best way to do this is to identify where majority of our youth is enrolled, and identify the pedagogy of such school. Since the youth is quite familiar with their school's pedagogy because this is how they are being taught and educated, using the same pedagogy would help them learn faster.
And now the bigger challenge would be the UBD. UBD or Understanding By Design is not a new pedagogy but a new strategy to be used with the preferred pedagogy in order to effect learning of our young people. The Department of Education has issued for its full implementation for all first year high school curriculum this coming school year. UBD is to be match with DI or Differentiated Instruction. Woo! This would even make teaching more complicated for pastors.
So, what is UBD and DI? UBD offers a three-stage, backward design process to assist teachers in centering their curriculum and assessments on big ideas, essential questions, and authentic performances (1). DI is to recognize students varying background and knowledge, readiness, language, preferences in learning, interest; and to react responsively. DI is a process to approach teaching and learning for students of differing abilities in the same class. The intent of DI is to maximize each student's growth and individual success by meeting each student where he or she is and assisting in the learning process. (2)
As I went through the seminar of UBD and DI last week, I felt this would really be hard work but very beneficial. UBD is understanding understanding. It is really understanding how our youth learn, providing the "big idea" that would make learning of new things relevant not just in one aspect of life but in all aspects of life; it is a multi-application learning, I supposed. We all have been wanting to make the Bible and Christ relevant in our congregation's life, and UBD and DI can be key to this desire. This is what all pastors are longing for... APPLICATION of what we have been teaching and preaching!!!
This new strategy is hard work. Unless we catch up to the latest trends on how our young people are learning today, it would be more and more difficult for them to accept the gospel because relevance is their learning key today. Unless we make the gospel relevant, they will have difficulty in accepting the teaching of the Scripture. We need to see the Big Idea in each passage we preach (UBD) and usher them to the Big Idea through teaching methodologies that are relevant to their individual learning style (DI).
I am not discounting the work of the Holy Spirit, but as they say, "the methods change but the Scripture remains the same." The world has changed and has continued to change. Too much noise are trying to get the attention of our youth today, unless you and I hit hard on how they learn today, the Scripture would become irrelevant to them.
This summer, all schools would be geared towards educating teachers on UBD and DI. I hope we would have the determination and hitch on their faculty training as an initial step of making the gospel relevant to today's youth by learning UBD and DI.
1 http://www.ascd.org/research_a_topic/Understanding_by_Design.aspx
2 http://www.cast.org/publications/ncac/ncac_diffinstruc.html
I have always believed that in order to effectively educate and minister our youth today, we need to learn how teachers teach, as well as how learners learn. I believe this concept is key to effectively present the gospel to the ever changing young people. Youth culture is actively changing as the world continues to gear itself towards globalization and internationalization.
Philippine education has not defined a standard of pedagogy for all schools to follow. For years, each school is uniquely implementing a pedagogy that suits their needs and preference. This is already a big challenge for us.
Because of this challenge, I have always asked youth pastors to assess the youth's learning style to effectively present the gospel to them. And the best way to do this is to identify where majority of our youth is enrolled, and identify the pedagogy of such school. Since the youth is quite familiar with their school's pedagogy because this is how they are being taught and educated, using the same pedagogy would help them learn faster.
And now the bigger challenge would be the UBD. UBD or Understanding By Design is not a new pedagogy but a new strategy to be used with the preferred pedagogy in order to effect learning of our young people. The Department of Education has issued for its full implementation for all first year high school curriculum this coming school year. UBD is to be match with DI or Differentiated Instruction. Woo! This would even make teaching more complicated for pastors.
So, what is UBD and DI? UBD offers a three-stage, backward design process to assist teachers in centering their curriculum and assessments on big ideas, essential questions, and authentic performances (1). DI is to recognize students varying background and knowledge, readiness, language, preferences in learning, interest; and to react responsively. DI is a process to approach teaching and learning for students of differing abilities in the same class. The intent of DI is to maximize each student's growth and individual success by meeting each student where he or she is and assisting in the learning process. (2)
As I went through the seminar of UBD and DI last week, I felt this would really be hard work but very beneficial. UBD is understanding understanding. It is really understanding how our youth learn, providing the "big idea" that would make learning of new things relevant not just in one aspect of life but in all aspects of life; it is a multi-application learning, I supposed. We all have been wanting to make the Bible and Christ relevant in our congregation's life, and UBD and DI can be key to this desire. This is what all pastors are longing for... APPLICATION of what we have been teaching and preaching!!!
This new strategy is hard work. Unless we catch up to the latest trends on how our young people are learning today, it would be more and more difficult for them to accept the gospel because relevance is their learning key today. Unless we make the gospel relevant, they will have difficulty in accepting the teaching of the Scripture. We need to see the Big Idea in each passage we preach (UBD) and usher them to the Big Idea through teaching methodologies that are relevant to their individual learning style (DI).
I am not discounting the work of the Holy Spirit, but as they say, "the methods change but the Scripture remains the same." The world has changed and has continued to change. Too much noise are trying to get the attention of our youth today, unless you and I hit hard on how they learn today, the Scripture would become irrelevant to them.
This summer, all schools would be geared towards educating teachers on UBD and DI. I hope we would have the determination and hitch on their faculty training as an initial step of making the gospel relevant to today's youth by learning UBD and DI.
1 http://www.ascd.org/research_a_topic/Understanding_by_Design.aspx
2 http://www.cast.org/publications/ncac/ncac_diffinstruc.html
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Makati Hope!!! The BEST!
Today, is the start of our three-day Understanding by Design (UBD) Seminar sponsored by Financial Assistance for Private Education (FAPE) in Manila Hotel. Ms. Aggabao and I are attending this seminar. UBD is the education strategy being pushed by the Department of Education ordering all schools in our country to implement UBD this coming school year for all first year high school curriculum (High 1 only).
Fortunately, through the academic leadership of Dr. Tiu and Ms. Aggabao (our Academic Head), our school has been implementing the UBD for the last two years, not only for first year high school curriculum but in all levels from Grade 1 to High 4, and this is being done in all subject areas. We are more advance actually than the rest of the schools in our country today.
I was able to talk to the speaker, Dr. Jeanne Vantour from the United States to help critic our school's work. This afternoon, some of our coordinators were able to bring our curriculum maps and lesson plans to Manila Hotel. We sat down to discuss with the speaker. The speaker gave her suggestions on how to improve what we have done but according to her, they are very minor.
Dr. Vantour was very very impressed with all praises and highly commends the work done by our faculty. I quote, "what you have done is even better than many schools in the United States," "your school should be a model for other schools in the Philippines to follow," "I will endorse this," and "your work might be able to help the Department of Education set the standards for UBD in the Philippines."
Let us continue to pray for our school as we further develop and improve our curriculum. If the Lord is willing, this might be a big contribution to the present Philippine Education.
To God be all the glory!!!
Fortunately, through the academic leadership of Dr. Tiu and Ms. Aggabao (our Academic Head), our school has been implementing the UBD for the last two years, not only for first year high school curriculum but in all levels from Grade 1 to High 4, and this is being done in all subject areas. We are more advance actually than the rest of the schools in our country today.
I was able to talk to the speaker, Dr. Jeanne Vantour from the United States to help critic our school's work. This afternoon, some of our coordinators were able to bring our curriculum maps and lesson plans to Manila Hotel. We sat down to discuss with the speaker. The speaker gave her suggestions on how to improve what we have done but according to her, they are very minor.
Dr. Vantour was very very impressed with all praises and highly commends the work done by our faculty. I quote, "what you have done is even better than many schools in the United States," "your school should be a model for other schools in the Philippines to follow," "I will endorse this," and "your work might be able to help the Department of Education set the standards for UBD in the Philippines."
Let us continue to pray for our school as we further develop and improve our curriculum. If the Lord is willing, this might be a big contribution to the present Philippine Education.
To God be all the glory!!!
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