hello Christmas!
Article Continues...Sunday, September 5, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Suroy2x sa Mindanao
Studying language versus using language.
From elementary to high school to college we learn these over and over: subject-verb agreement, pronoun-antecedent agreement, dangling modifiers, misplaced modifiers, simple present tense, present progressive tense, past perfect tense, and so on. One sentence at a time. Or one paragraph at a time.
Not very useful when outside the classroom we have to write multiparagraph compositions in the form of emails, cover letters to resumes, letters to the editor, love letters and responses, auto/biographical essays and so on.
Student talk versus teacher talk.
Same thing. I've watched classes where during the entire period teachers ask all the questions and students respond with "Yes" and "No." There's no prodding, no analysis, no reflection. No small group work and pair work where students have 'real' conversations.
So you can imagine how happy I am to be part of a team that tries to shift teachers' paradigms: From teaching how language works. To teaching how to use language to carry out tasks. AUTHENTIC TASKS. (Not fill in the blanks with the correct verb that agrees with the subject. Or identifying the correct preposition from the list of choices. Or the craziest of all: labeling nouns. Is this a common noun? A pronoun? A count noun? A mass noun?)
A big part of the job is designing the curriculum and always finding better ways to reword it so that teachers can easily see the connection between the Students Books, the Teacher's Notes, the Workbooks, the independent studies, the discussion to the independent studies, the interview practice and the teacher/student reading/listening/writing/speaking assessments.
Six schools down. Seven more to go in October. Four in May 2011. And maybe 8 in October 2011. From Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, Cagayan, Iligan, Marawi, Bukidnon, Misamis Oriental, and Davao. All trained to use the Oxford and Cambridge instructional materials using communicative language teaching methods.
I love my job.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
The Soccer Coach from Ireland
On the first day of work, Stephen said he sang and danced for the kids. He also mentioned meeting a tomboy and was shocked she was so masculine. Stephen: "She really looks like a man!" So he lectured her about why it's better to go through life as a woman. And she (miraculously) had a change of heart.
I don't know if Stephen seriously thinks that pep talk really 'cured' the girl. Gullible to think so. I didn't have the energy to tell Stephen there's nothing wrong with being a homosexual. What held me back was that there are African countries where overt homosexuality is still a sin and people can be imprisoned for that. So sige nalang, I let the urge pass.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Sometimes shit happens
I was damn frank last week. Bumped into a former colleague who was wondering where I'm working now and why I didn't join the get togethers. Have they offended me in some way she asked? (Nalain ba ko sa ila.) Me: I've been busy with the house construction. But come to think of it, you did offend me in many ways when we were working together. So I gave her the specifics and ended with: In your next job be kind to your colleagues. (I'd rather not elaborate. Point is she was probably blown away by me ticking off all the things I didn't like about what she did.)
Same thing happened several years ago when I was still a new teacher. I had a super close colleague who I regularly went out dancing with. Suddenly she stopped talking to me. Just like that. After several attempts to try to get her to explain what was the matter, I gave up. Much later something she did made me so angry that I forced a confrontation. We sat down and I gave her a piece of my mind. That was great. Now she's about to give birth. Everything's forgiven but not forgotten.
Sometimes friends just need to be told shit.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
New Job
JEEP is an intensive two year course to help improve English proficiency of college students in schools all over Mindanao. It aims to sufficiently prepare students studying to become nurses, sailors, those wanting to join the travel and tourism industry, business process outsourcing, or those who simply want pass IELTS that's the usual requirement for work in an English speaking country.
The job as Curriculum Development Assistant seemed very exciting and challenging. I'd have to develop curricula, instructional materials, tests for monitoring and evaluation. A bit like teaching but not having to face students every day and never having to check compositions. Being able to directly influence what gets to go on inside the classrooms of tertiary schools is the kind of influence I have always wanted as an educator. Power to change people's lives.
So I set to work on my application letter. For two days I wrote, edited and rewrote till I felt I had said what I wanted to say in the best possible way. Catchy and convincing and appearing enthusiastic, driven and very qualified. The letter had to stand out. I attached 2 sample lesson plans and 2 commentaries on teaching. For good measure.
I e-mailed the documents to the address in the ad and personally delivered the hard copies to the office. Then called the Administrative Assistant who confirmed she got them. The next day, I got an email from the Curriculum Development Specialist herself asking for an interview the next week. I had 5 days to prepare. So I got out all my books from my graduate school days and started skimming like crazy. I wasn't sure what I'd be asked. I had to be ready.
The day of the interview came. I wore my painful but sophisticated platforms and some lipstick to look good. The questions were so practical that I almost felt foolish for over-reading content material. They just wanted to know what i thought my strengths and weaknesses were as an educator; how I make classroom activities communicative; my experience with materials design; my masters' thesis on grammar teaching, and so on. I was able to answer everything but wasn't too sure. That was Friday.
Monday, the Curriculum Development Specialist called to say the big boss wanted to talk to me about my application. I was in a meeting so we agreed on lunch time. Over pasta, chicken, a salad and a sandwich, Michael, Deb and Donna, informed me: "We like you. You're our unanimous choice over 240 applicants." I couldn't believe my ears. "And by the way, we changed your terms of reference Maya. You're to be the new Curriculum Development Associate." Sweet!
New house, new work, new life. :-)
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
My very own lunga
After months of canvassing, trips to buy cement, marble, wood, and so on, deliberating with masons, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, architects, engineers, arguing with the family about every little detail, I'm almost ready to move in!
Looking forward to being self-sufficient - paying for the water and electricity, going to Bankerohan and haggling with the vendors, experimenting with salads, pastas, hutsepots, miskipops, poetry reading with candles and incense, film viewing on a projector screen, doing the laundry with a high-tech washing machine, listening to funky, mellow, jazz, reggae and so on music coming from the speakers around the house, blogging without disturbance, friends visiting and sleeping over. These are the joys of a homeowner. Correction: of Maya the brandnew homeowner.
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