62nd year old Teacher teaches herself to keep teaching . . .
0 comments Posted by Malaybalay Blogger at 4:18 PM
What a way to say, 62nd year old teacher teacher herself to to keep on teaching but really she must because the challenging of being a senior citizen and a teacher at the same time is taking its toll. If you visit her other blog, Elderly Blues and Blows, you can sense that she sleeps on a rocking chair to make her fall asleep and when morning comes, wake up and be ready for school!
This scenario is sometimes a cause of worry for her children because her bed is ready for her but then she prefers the rocking chair because it lulls her to sleep at the same time allows her to view her favorite television shows and facilitates early wake up time ready for school.
Now, more and more, Teacher's teacher is teaching herself to keep teaching perhaps for a year or two and then decide to "retire". She is mustering this strength to keep up with the routine that goes with active living.
Anyone out there who has the same dilemma? What are some tips to improve the way to overcome? In the meantime, this 62nd year old Teacher will keep teaching herself to keep teaching for sanity and purpose.
A teacher all her life, Malaybalayan claims that even at 62, life teaches her the most. In this instance of her natal day, her life is made complete with her grown children: Ayeng, Ben, Chev and Bon greeting her Happy Birthday, at the earliest opportunity when July 1 came to light. Family relatives and Friends called, twitted, blogged to greet her too. She offered mass at Cagayan de Oro Cathedral, Northern Mindanao, Philippines and received Holy Communion.
Teachers are persons with simple needs and so it does not come into the picture whether the food to be served consists of lechon and the like or just beef ribs, fried fish, avocado salad and Selecta Happy Birthday P125.00 half gallon. Happiness really stems from the people who care and pray that the birthday is a blessing for more birthdays and healthy times with loved ones.
So this Teacher turned 62, senior citizen and all but at heart, a young and happy person. thanks everyone, the world and God!
Weekend gone and school days are here again . . .
0 comments Posted by Malaybalay Blogger at 6:45 AM
For teachers who have been in the job for more than four decades,teaching is a vocation. Still a weekend is a reprieve from a week's activity-filled set of days. Like this weekend, it is gone so tomorrow, Monday is the first day of a week filled with varied sessions.
Yet every semester is never the same even if the subjects being taught are the same. Of course one reason is because the students are as unique one person is from the other. Another is the different time frame that makes all the other days in the past just that and another week of the present time is the time to reckon with. Then of course there is the teacher who comes in with a rejuvenated enthusiasm especially if she just came from a good summer vacation, like me!
How I wish teachers are given more opportunities to have vacations that not only pamper them but give them the time of their life - island-hopping, dinner at top Marco Polo, swimming in Maribago, coffee in Waterfront and church visits and in between shopping spree . . .
In the meantime, just for this weekend, it is gone and tomorrow, back to earth . . . back to school once again.
Every moment of our life is a teaching moment . . .
0 comments Posted by Malaybalay Blogger at 7:53 PM
Many moments transpire in a day or so. Multiply this in a day or week or month or year and the challenge becomes gargantuan. Recently, I went to Cebu, Philippines to spend few days of summer vacation with my son and daughter. Other than the good moments came the sad moments when "melancholia" became real for me. I even came to the realization again and again when in fact it is almost a given: Every moment of our life is a teaching moment. This melancholia I refer to points to this almost uncontrollable feeling of sadness and loneliness when loved ones are not with me. More and more I pray to overcome it and as I say, learn from this moment.
Jerry Sandusky, called a child predator, was convicted by a jury of his peers, 45 out of 48 sex counts; a priest accused of molesting an altar boy and many other related cases make us even sadder. May there be more moments that will make us smile and rejoice that life is good.
May this realization begin with our own families and ultimately with our own self. God bless!!!
June 13 is formal first day of classes: welcome guys!
0 comments Posted by Malaybalay Blogger at 10:58 PM
My teaching load consists of 3 Education 108 classes (Intro. to Guidance & Counseling including Special Education), 2 Education 137 classes (Values Education) and 2 English 134 classes (English for Specific Purposes). I met the two classes and the feeling of seeing young people is the same as ever: fresh faces, eager eyes and so truly I told them: Welcome guys!
Most of the students who take these subjects are in their third and fourth year levels but their attitude is basically the same: openness to new ideas which always reminds me why I am still teaching although physically and emotionally the desire is too strong to retire.
Expect pictures of these young minds who always make teachers young and ever energetic to communicate and hopefully share ideas that make these future mentors better equipped once they become teachers themselves!
American Idol is a great tv program. It makes us dream to become a singer one day and if not, at least just sing, hopefully with the correct tune!
Am sure you agree that teachers are singers, yes? Sometimes it is facilitated by the requirements of effective teaching. Sometimes it is declared by the personalities of teachers who come in different shapes and colors but definitely always talented. Yes? YES! Teachers are singers and if you still do not know or you disagree, please check it out. Your mother is your first teacher and am sure you agree she is a great singer, YES? YES! Your elementary teacher teaches you nursery rhymes and definitely sings it first before you manage to imitate and sing it correctly well and correctly tuned too. Many more teachers come to your life and sometimes, these moments make you think so deeply you compose a song or a poem and if at all possible, a book.
Today, May 24, Thursday in the Philippines, at a time when American Idol is waiting who will become the next American Idol, a sixteen er is teaching us to love singing and one day use it to go to better opportunities to earn more or just love it for one's use.
Still, my theory is teachers are singers and great at it. Yes? YES!
It is really difficult to stop something if you enjoy doing it; still teach yourself to do better!
0 comments Posted by Malaybalay Blogger at 4:58 AM
There is one realization one has to come to grips with: how be financially stable and remain decent in your life till the end.
There are tests that all of us have difficulty overcoming because it is enjoyable to do it again and again. There are many opportunities that life offers to each of us to begin again every time we fail to do good. This is the beautiful part of life's promise: We can continuously teach ourselves to do better every time we fail. There are even instances when what matters alone is the time you stand up after a fall and move on.
The twist of life's twists is that there are not so good things we do and keep on doing because we enjoy doing it. there are even moments when you have to scold yourself for being weak and sometimes cry and curse if only to awaken and really do what is better than the best so far.
So when it seems you find this dilemma up front: do not be so hard on yourself. Life is short and smile over this failure. then teach yourself again and again, like a child who seems to be in exhaustively open to life,
Being alone moments teach you to learn more about life.
0 comments Posted by Malaybalay Blogger at 5:01 PM
Life as a whole is a learning moment for life. But it is when you are on your own, truly alone, that you face life's realities. Somehow, even the silence of the night and the noise that seems to become emboldened due to your "aloneness" in your own home that the teaching moments become so sharp and so deep to fathom.
Moment number one: When children get sick and you find you are alone in making them well. Other people are around but being the mom makes it seem so real that the children are yours to protect even from the inevitable sicknesses that every child faces all throughout their growing years. Yet with all the four children, these were the moments that made my existence meaningful and indispensable. The mom of course gets enough strength from her faith in God who is the source of all life.
Moment number two: When the children are grown and they begin to have their own niche. Time is viewed now in terms of quality not quantity. Even the distance makes it possible to treasure each other more. We have tried being together all the time and while it worked it is one fact of life that no one can stop, it is in letting your loved one be and go when he/she wills that then life is truly what it is meant to be. Being the mom who truly loves each of the grown children, even being alone is tolerable not because it is no longer painful but because it must be.So it is.
Moment number three: When alone moments teach you to learn about life that at the end of the day, every person is meant to be alone only to live more fully for as we came to this world alone we too have to go on alone but not necessarily physically alone. To life be the journey . . .
You can call it teaching moments because the bias is that of being a teacher but learning moments sound even better because all of us are learners since the topic deals with brownouts that really test your patience beyond compare.
Perhaps it is an exaggeration so let us settle with coping while the brownouts occur. One, you get inspired to reach for a book and with candle lit surrounding, you read: Good for your spirit and peace of mind. Two, you growl and gnash and pray for sanity while thinking about the incapacity of all the energy servers- for not upgrading enough to deal with climate change. Three, you congratulate yourself for accepting the travails of life and heaving a sigh, still smile once the lights are on! Four, you prepare for the next day's brownout and the next day's brownout and the next until one day, the brownouts get minimized and no more . . .
When it is ok to say it's only a house; it has always been it's a home!
0 comments Posted by Malaybalay Blogger at 3:02 PM
I was watching a replay of "The Firm" written by John Grisham chronicled by Channel AXN today, April 29 when it hit me, there is an instance when it is ok somehow it's only a house. The scenario was when one of the characters inherited a house and being a woman she wanted to in it. Since she was married to the other character who happened to be her companion in the Witness Protection Program he was adamant of the thought that not only was he married but now would be in a house. He did not like the idea but the lady said she wanted a home and so she wanted the house.
A movie is a movie is a movie so we could give it this context. We are saying and teaching that given the fiction part of it then perhaps the cast just acted it out so the whole thing is just a set up so what's the fuzz? However if it were a real life situation then the mechanics is completely changed. The parties would have given it much thought and the context of it all is love for family and what it stands for. then it is ok for the former to be understood why they may have a house but it is ok for the latter to understand why they need a home!
A house is only the physical set-up of a home. A home goes deeper than the material structure and the amenities that can be bought. At the center of the home is the love that binds the married coupe to a love blessed by God and man. It is a web of relationships that make every member of the home bear even the unbearable. In the ideal world, it is good to make a house a home!
This makes me think if after all the ups and downs we had gone through, we are a home. I say, humbly and hopefully in faith, we are.
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