Bisaya Bloggers

I’ve missed blogging.  I can’t remember how long it has been since my last post.  The pace at work has been so fast that I hardly have time for my kids, much less for blogging.  But anyway, many things have happened to me and I’d like to keep on blogging, if not to let my blogosphere up to date, at least to give me the chance to release some stress through my writing.

Anyway, here goes…

I’m doing a million things all at the same time again.  Aside from my full-time teaching job and my Ph.D. studies, I have also taken on two rackets - both heavy research work - and still many other small-time rackets.  The two research works I just couldn’t let go because one is an institutional (aka, university-funded) study on values and the other is a UP study on aging.  I didn’t want to miss the opportunity of working with UP so I just had to take on the challenge even though I have a full work-load in school.

Right now, I have a Ph.D. class starting in about 10 minutes.  The class is Financial Management - so not my expertise - and I’m going to give a report!!! Aaarrggghhh!! Lord, help me get through this.

That’s all for now… More updates later.  

I can’t remember when I last posted in my blog. It’s been quite a while.  Life has been pretty hectic here in La Salle.  I’m now on my second year as probationary faculty and I’ve been given some new responsibilities other than teaching. 

Right now, I’m working with a team on a research about the prevailing values of college students here in La Salle.  We have a new president who is keen on research and values formation.  He wants us to come up with baseline data about the values of kids nowadays. 

There was a study done by McCann-Erickson about the values system of Filipino teenagers now and what they found out was quite disturbing.  Many teens nowadays do not think that pre-marital sex is a sin.  They don’t think cheating in class is wrong, but cheating on one’s boyfriend/girlfriend is.  Well, our president wanted to confirm these findings with our kids here in La Salle.  The McCann-Erickson study was done in Manila so we’re expecting some differences in the views of teenagers from the province.

I’m all excited about the study because it’s an institutional research and I get to play a role in the formulation of plans and programs for the entire university.  My only concern is that I have to teach at the same time.  But, this is precisely what teaching in a university is all about - one cannot be a good classroom teacher only, one has to be good in research, too.  And I’m hoping I can be both. :) 

Last week was my personal hell week.  Let me tell you why…

Monday - Had a 26-item all computation assignment in Statistics, which I did in the afternoon after my four-hour class in the morning

Tuesday - Had a four-hour class, started working on my report for my Organizational Development class

Wednesday - Got another set of problems and exercises for my Statistics class (I’m the student here, not the teacher!)

Thursday - Went to Iloilo in the afternoon with the kids in tow.  We had to attend a cousin’s wedding…Enzo was the coin bearer

Thursday night - Worked on a friend’s thesis revisions.  Stayed up late again because I needed to send the file to Bacolod early the next morning because it was already due!!

Friday morning - Woke up early and went to the pier to send the CD to Bacolod on the first trip.  In the afternoon, we also went home to Bacolod because I had a report the following day.

Friday night - Stayed up late again to finish my report.  I was too tired to put all the animations in my powerpoint presentation.  Good thing Dean was willing to animate my slides.  (Thank you langga! Mwah!) 

Saturday - Woke up early, went to school early, only to find out that the teacher was late and we were just going to have film showing and lecture in the morning and the reports were to be given in the afternoon pa.  Ka inis!  But, my report went well.

Saturday evening - Started work on my latest research project, but could not proceed because the data was incomplete.  Had to contact the people who hired me since they were the ones who gathered the data…we decided to meet the next day to settle the problem.

Sunday - Heard Mass with Dean and the kids (as usual, they were kulit) and then went to SM.  While the kids played, I met with the project coordinator and we agreed to put the data analysis on hold while they looked for the missing questionnaires.  After our meeting, I started working on my Stat assignment for Monday.  Aarrgh!!

Now it’s Labor Day and I’m at an Internet cafe.  I woke up very early this morning to work on my data analysis for the research project I committed to do.  I just gave my preliminary results to the project coordinator BUT I still need to do some work.  And when I get home I have to make my midterm exam (for my students naman) which will be on Thursday.  Hay, naku!  This is truly a LABOR day for me!

I’m going back to school this summer.  Nope, I’m not taking Nursing or some other health-related, in-demand course.  I’ve decided to finish my Ph.D. in Education.  The only motivation is money, of course.  And I’m not ashamed to say that!  After all, one needs to be practical these days when every centavo counts.

I actually started taking Ph.D. right after I finished my masters in 2002.  But I’ve taken several semesters off when I got married, got pregnant, when Nanay had her stroke, and when I transferred jobs.  Now, 4 years later (when most of my classmates have already finished) I’m back and I’m here to finish what I started.

At first, I really didn’t want to take the course because it’s not my field of specialization.  I would have wanted to take something close to my master’s degree (measurement and evaluation) or to my undegrad (Statistics).  Unfortunately, that would mean studying in Manila or abroad and being away from my family.  I don’t want to miss my kids’ first solid food, first tooth, first steps, first day of school,  and many other firsts.  So, I had no choice but to take the only available Ph.D. course in La Salle Bacolod at that time - Educational Management.  I don’t know if I’m going to be a school administrator in the future, but I do know that having a Ph.D. translates to an additional basic salary of about Php4k+ and that’s enough motivation for me. 

Anyway, I just hope I get enough drive and I don’t get lazy in the process.  I hope to finish all course requirements by end of SY 2007-2008, and hopefully, next school year I can work on my dissertation and graduate by March 2009.  I can only keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.  Wish me luck!

I haven’t blogged for over a month because of work.  Last October, the work just piled up that I couldn’t spare even an hour to check mails, surf, and blog.  It was the end of the first semester and it was hell month for me.  I had to check papers, make exams, check more papers, compute grades, and meet our deadlines.  I hardly had time to sleep and rest. 

I think I said in one of the last entries I posted that I was going to enjoy my two week vacation and I had a lot of activities lined up.  But I never did get to do any of them - well, except spending more time with the kids.  I still had to go back to school almost everyday because I’m coaching some students for an inter-school statistics quiz and we had to review over the semestral break. 

Now, the second semester has just started and already my paper works are starting to pile up.  With 8 sections to handle (average of 45 students per class) and I have no choice but to give tests and assignments, there’s just no escaping the mountain of papers that I have to plow through everyday. 

But, hey, I’m not complaining.  I love what I do and at the end of the day, that is what matters most.  I would still be in teaching, no matter how much papers I have to mark and grade.

I’m thinking of coming up with a math blog for my students. I’ve been surfing the net for some materials on trigonometric functions and I came up with hits from math blogs. The idea has actually been brewing in my mind for a few months now, but because of my work load, I haven’t had time to really sit down and create a blog.  I thought of making a statistics blog, but this is just one of the subjects I teach. So maybe I should make just one blog for all my classes that students can visit and leave comments - and maybe ask some questions on topics they find confusing but are too shy or ashamed or scared to ask about in class.

The semester is ending, though, so it’s too late to do it with my current classes - maybe next semester (which starts in November).  I guess this is one way for me to get feedback from students about my teaching.  Sometimes I feel that I’m not getting to them, that they are still lost in space no matter how many times I explain the lesson (and sometimes I have to explain in the vernacular so that they would understand).  I get all sorts of students.  There are those who really listen and are diligent enough to work the assigned problems.  But most of them are really lazy, especially when it comes to math subjects, so I have to work extra hard on motivating them.  I’m hoping that the blog will be one way to encourage them to think about my subject not just within the confines of the classroom, but also when they are outside.

Anyway, I’m still thinking of titles for this blog.  Any ideas anyone?