Never allow Words to Limit You!

Hi, are you saying you’re DEPRESSED?

It wouldn’t really help to lock yourself up inside your [dark] room!  Why not look around, open your heart and divert your focus? Do something than allow Google and those gadgets to limit your productivity.

LOOK INSIDE!  — literally, inside your room – you might need to clean up some more!        — your cabinet, your study table, your bedsides, those corners, the under-bed — you might need to organize some more to give yourself the real “peace of mind” that you deserve. Get rid of those clutters that are adding up to create a clouded mind.  Go, get up & move, do yourself that big favor!

LOOK WITHIN! — literally, within the bounds of your home – there might be some tasks that are waiting for someone’s initiative since you might not have some helper and your mom just can’t do everything on her own.  Remember that being part of A HOME, you should take responsibility — not only on the basic chores.  There might be some areas in your home that might need your creative touches to get organized and spic and  span: in the den, or in the receiving area, or under the stairs, or in the powder room, or in the kitchen like the kitchen cabinets and lavatories, or in the garden, or might be in the garage too. Go, give out some willing amount of volunteerism, it will bless you more!

LOOK OUTSIDE!  — yes, literally outside the four corners of your room and of the ceilings and walls of your house! — you might need to see THE REALITY of how other people are living out a normal life OUTSIDE OF THEIR COMFORT ZONEs.

— out there, you will see how people are striving to walk from their house and get some ride with smile on their faces; some on a rush maybe, but you   will see how determined they are despite not having as yet the comforts of the car that would bring them where they have to make a living;

— out there, you will see how simple things are giving joy to people with simple           needs and you will be amazed at how thankful they are beyond happiness;

— out there, you will see how people are coping with some discomforts, yet they can manage to survive the day, simply grateful that they did.

— out there, you will see some sick people whose only choice is to HAVE A  LIFE, without allowing their illness to control how they should LIVE A LIFE TO THE            FULLEST. Go, do some observing, God brings significant messages through the people around us, it would help you a lot if you will strive to find God’s silent messages from the stories of those “others” whom you should find “significant” in one way or another or in any other way around.

Then, LOOK UP! — with your heart this time!

You need to see that God is just gazing at how you’re living your life right now.  You need to feel that God is quite sad that you’re not enjoying life as you should.  You need to hear God’s silent messages to you, through the closest people around you. Your humility to “listen with your heart” is all that it takes to discover and realize what those heartfelt messages are yearning to convey.

Pwede ka namang maglambing – it’s the simplest humility that you can extend even without saying a word. Sometimes it’s best to say nothing at all when we intend to just be meek and detach from our pride.

Sometimes, you’re just saying that you’re depressed – But the truth of the matter, alam mo kung ano? — Partly, it’s just your justifications that give you that kind of feeling.

Fact is, you just need to decide to be modest to look within, look around, look outside and finally look up, for you to realize that there are more to life than being limited by what words are dictating on you.

Have the will to LIVE OUT YOUR PURPOSE without being controlled by whatever situation you’re into. You can always prove that your will is bigger than your usual weakness.

You may BREATHE, yes tama ka, just breathe – but strive to find the right environment to breathe in.  Some places might be contaminated for you to get the right air kaya you still find it difficult to breathe; ‘di ka pa din makahinga like you wanted to — kasi, you need to humbly accept na meron ka pang mas dapat gawin kesa sa mas pinipili mong gawin as of now.

You’ve got to remember and recognize that “Blessings are to come and FLOW if you will first mend what you need to settle most importantly!

So what’s my point, my dear?  You’re not actually depressed — you are just being limited by the word itself.  Tell yourself you’re not, and you won’t be!

Take it from one who’s declaring that cancer is limited – and so it is!

 

 

 

 

 

If you only have 15 Dots …

How many times would you lift your pens up in connecting your available DOTS?

#Curriculum Making for Early Childhood Education

In "crafting", there are no mistakes; 
it is your own unique creation!

If you only have 15 dots, how would you connect each, to come up with something that would TELL WHAT YOU WANT?

What would each dot represent and how could it align with your Philosophy, Vision, Mission, Goals and Objectives?

Those Significant DOTS …

Yes, in crafting, there are no mistakes … but considering that when you “craft” in Curriculum-Making the  UNIQUE development of each CHILD” should be our “apple of the eye”, an educator’s COMMITMENT should then really matter the most.

TIMES may be tough and there may be VAGUE SPACES between dots YET, EVEN THE LIFTING OF OUR PENS would talk about our ADVOCACY while we DRAW OUR LINES so carefully so that our unique creativity will "not mark a mistake" in every child's life. 

“

Our Account-ability!

How you connect each dot, manifests YOU!

Master of Arts in Educational Management: EDM 505

If Life  is what we make it, DOTs are how we connect it! — what makes life the way it should be! 🙂

“What we do with what we see today” will make a lot of difference in the future which is yet near or far.  What might happen in the future would always depend upon how we “turn things today” no matter “how limited” opportunities or chances are.

The 21st Century has been pushing us to “LEVEL UP IN LIFE!” Exciting though, yet, some of us do not really have the “know how” — or better yet,  we seem to be unmindful of making ourselves ON-GUARD against the RISK OF UNCERTAINTY.  We may at  times claim to be “future-oriented”; yet we never really achieve as much — BUT WHY? … because “alternatives” just come and become waisted for the very simple reason that “we did not PLAN!”

“Failing to PLAN is PLANNING TO FAIL!”

Current trends suggest that we should NOW be STRATEGIC in our actions!  Educators as we are, we should already “mind-set” that the 21st Century Education is IN NEED of TEACHERS with INNOVATIVE IDEAS who could facilitate “wise decision-making and who has comprehensive understanding of his  “ACCOUNT-ABILITY” most significantly to himself !

What do your “connect-the-dots” tell? how much did you use your opportunities?

Scanning through the DOTS, coming up with something out of it, and giving our own interpretation of what we did would help us evaluate “where we are now, what we see and how we act today”

— Thing is, [1] could we then tell how much effort did we exert to be able to come up with something out of those dots that we only have? & [2] what does it tell about you and about what you want?

Having known that “we should make ourselves ENTREPRENEURS” at this POINT IN TIME,  how then should each educator gear towards a PARADIGM SHIFT? What measures should we personally implement so that we could SELL OURSELVES BEST? — and oh, “selling oneself”? — what does it indicate? what should we have and how should we go about it?

"Our failure to INVEST today is 
NOT making life the way it should be! --profgail

The Invisible Essential

Master of Arts in Early Childhood Education. 

ECE 111. Early Childhood Curriculum

Shall you have all the opportunity to CRAFT a Curriculum for the young generation, what would you be willing to GIVE?

It takes a happy heart to build a well-founded school
for our future generation.

The way we look at things are affected by the way we feel! …  Would you believe so?

‘Wanna try if such contention could be true?

What catches your attention first would determine how you feel at the moment!

Take a look at this picture … what then did you first see?; what element captured your attention at your first glance? … and doing some self-check of how you feel, what does your choice indicate?

Sometimes, we just can’t find enough motivation to find a spot for whatever emotion there is deep within us — thus, we need to identify: are we filled or drained? happy or sad? up or down? inspired or tired?

We may need to look around and find some sure identification of our state of emotion. Why? … because the way we feel would always affect the way we deal with others.  Our perspectives would more often than not be influenced by the kind of feeling that we have — and on the other hand, our emotion would moreso determine up to what extent we would work on the fulfilment of our Philosophy, Vision and Mission.

At a quite dangerous side, our undefined emotions may stagnate our supposedly  healthy perception of each child — to the point that we may misinterpret what we just see instead of appreciate and look into what we do not see.

What then is there to realize for us to be able to give the best that we could?

What then should we do to build a well-founded school for our future generation?

http://www.slideshare.net/GailMontero/m1-lesson-1-concepts-nature-purposes-of-curriculum

http://47inspired.blogspot.com/2014/01/what-can-happy-person-give.html

Waterproof Faith.

Yes #DearPopeFrancis, I am Personally ONE WITH YOU!

Please read: Mark 1: 14-2

IaMPOSSIBLE!

¹⁷ Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

¹⁸ Then they abandoned their nets and followed him.

… sana ganito din ang response ng mga tinatawag para sumama at makinig!

Sa totoong buhay kasi, HINDI MADALIng magyaya ng mga taong pwedeng maki-isa sayo –

not evenwithin the family – to be with you in the same net!

Despite some changing of minds & discouragements against my desire TO BE THERE in Luneta Park-Quirino Grandstand last Sunday, the ONLY CHOICE I HAD was to tell myself: “I AM POSSIBLE!” … until all by myself @ past 3am, I had to walk-through the re-routes along Roxas Boulevard back to Maria Orosa then to Taft Avenue for main entrance and stand-still among the approximately 6M people who desired to have a PERSONAL ENCOUNTER with our Dear Pope Francis for the concluding part of His Pastoral Journey. I was supposed to meet-up my younger sister & bro in law amidst that emerging sea of believers but network signal was cut-off just before we succeeded being together in one quadrant.

Sa totoong buhay, scenarios like these may discourage us. Of course, who would want to be alone in the middle of such a very big crowd, and who would boldly wait for hours while you’re nowhere to hide from the non-stop rain which didn’t give you the choice to remain seated for you’ll get so wet all over? And so true, there may be some speck of wanting to just give up & just go back home to your family – BUT THEN NO! – for in His message during the Meeting with Families in MOA Arena, our Holy Father urged that since there are many threats within the family:

“We must rise from our slumber! We must get up and act!”

He wants a sheep against the wolves that are approaching, particularly our tendency to get trapped in materialism which is destructive of family life. True enough, we may unawaringly experience “isolation and divisions” within our famiy; and sometimes, human and vulnerable as we are, we may just feel too weak to just “let things be”!

BUT THEN AGAIN NO! Lolo Kiko said that “The future passes from the family” & today’s gospel could be an affirmation of our responsibility that the very first place “to fish” is within our family. However, if we find it difficult, there’s got to be somebody to take the initiative to make the family protected against ideological colonization which may eventually separate us.

Reason may not understand what the heart perceives. YES, I “persisted” to be there not to make history with the 6M crowd with “waterproof faith” but to LISTEN UPCLOSE to God’s message through His Holiness & “offer my presence from dawn to sunset as an ounce of sacrifice for my family’s intentions” – for in my heart ¹⁵ “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” #sunset

Published in Light of Jesus’ “The Feast Bulletin CM Binan”

Cor Dei 03. 25 January 2015, Mark 1: 14-20, Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Series: BOLD! Dare To Ask God for The Impossible, Talk 2: Persistence

Waterproof Faith! by Gail Montero@TheFeastBulletin.

Metanoia

Please read: Mark 1:7-11

¹¹ And a voice came from heaven:

“You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

… ganon pala talaga … ikakasiya ng isang magulang ang anak na marunong magpakumbaba, umunawa, mag-sacrifice in cooperation with a goal for a common good and the most pleasing sa pakiramdam: “if a child LISTENS with the HEART” and manifests uprightness even beyond what’s told & expected.

For sure, having heard those lines from His Father, Jesus could’ve initially felt “accomplished” passing that test, when in all humility he submitted himself to be baptized by John who’s been proclaiming that after him comes “the one more powerful”–Mark 1:7.

Very ideal, isn’t it?

Though “sinless” he underwent “baptism” –- a symbolic breakthrough: an acceptance of “deviating from his private life” & “directing toward his public life” — to commence His sacrificial journey “as human like us” — to cooperate and to yield to His Father’s Will which He all willingly vowed to as a MISSION to TELL THE WORLD OF GOD’S LOVE, all the days of his life.

Pero ang tanong, KAYA din kaya natin maging isang “Jesus na anak”?Can we also GIVE-IN to our parents’ will – not really for their sake – but for the sake of “being baptized” in 2015?

If Jesus has been “human in nature: thought with a human mind, felt with a human heart, worked with human hands” – yet did not sin against his Father and kept his “willingness” focused on the “oneness” of his mission with that of his Father’s … WHY NOT na KAYA DIN NATIN?

God sees our heart & sees if we could have a change of heart

As the NEW Year has just started off with a “January” in reference to JANUS: the two-faced Roman god of doors who have the ability to turn one face to reflect upon the past and a yet another face freshly pointed upon the future, we’ve got to AFFIRM our humility to “assess our SELF & relationships” in 2014 and CLAIM THE POWER to be NEW & BETTER in 2015.

If upon reflection you’ve sensed that YOU would again be DEFENSELESS, then BE BOLD in STRIVING STILL! Dare To Ask God for The Impossible – by then, God will be pleased with you too – because your “striving for ways & means” is an indication that “you’ve already accomplished your “Metanoia” – a “change of heart” for God! 🙂 #sunset

Planning & Development: What would make the Difference!

So much has been told about the Philippine Planning Experiences during the 1st Development Decade in the 3rd World — this is 99.9% sure I SUPPOSE,  in almost all of the Graduate Classes for Masters & Doctorate Degrees from which most of the Stakeholders/Public Administrators in our Educational System commenced.

YET, why is it that UNITIL such a time as NOW, DEVELOPMENT is STILL LIMITED?

EDUCATIONAL PLANNING, as generally assumed is preparing the Education System to address what lies ahead — so as to achieve both short-&-long-term goals set by educational planners. The Introduction of Public Administration brought about various opportunities, expansion, mobilization of resources and a lot more attempts for TRANSFORMATION.

In the paper entitled “The Challenges to the Futures of Public Administration Education” presented by Maria Fe Villamejor-Mendoza, Professor of Public Administration and Public Policy, NCPAG, UP Diliman and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, UP Open University at the 2012 International Conference on “Public Administration and Governance: Tradition and Transformation” held at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel in June 2012, traces of transformation were revisited:

“Public Administration (PA) or the field of study and practice (Waldo 1955) intended to professionalize public practice, address development problems, reform societies, foster democracy and serve public interest and welfare, has undergone a number of transformations, shifts, movements and streams. In terms of sets of convergent concepts and approaches in the teaching, research and practice of Public Administration, which are dominant at particular periods, Carino (2008) mentioned four streams navigated by the discipline. These are: Traditional Public Administration (TPA), Development Administration (DevAd), New Public Administration (New PA), and Public Administration and Governance (PAG).

Brillantes, Jr. and Fernandez (2008) meanwhile divided the phases in the evolution of the field into only two: traditional or classical PA (from 1800s to 1950s) and modern PA (from 1950s to present). The latter includes DevAd, New PA, New Public Management (NPM), Reinventing Government, and PA as Governance.”  [http://ncpag.upd.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/The-Challenges-to-the-Futures-of-PA-Education-1-copy.pdf]

Above-mentioned successive shifts in concepts may have been regarded significant for we are currently experiencing “interrelated developments” [Mendoza, 2012] which include:

1)  The growth of transnational education (TNE) and the corollary advocacies for cross-border universal education, knowledge co-creation and sharing (e.g., education for all by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization or UNESCO, and open educational resources or OER); and

2)  The K-12 and moves toward international standardization.

However, considering for one, the commitment of Education For All [EFA] to dramatically expand educational opportunities for children, youth and adults by 2015 which, according to UNESCO 2013 Education For All Global Monitoring Report [http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/efareport/reports/] they will not realise , PLUS the current sudden implementation of the “K-12 Curriculum” which is yet unapproved & suspension of which is being sought by the Senate [http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2014/07/23/1349322/suspension-k-12-program-sought], Educational System & Administration may really be considered “at high risk” of excessive quantitative reinventions & orientations; over-centralisation of those who are in position within their term of service and to global and international collaborations, weakness in implementation and lack of evaluation aside from the fact that some stakeholders have just “embraced everything” without really looking into more important matters at hand — or if they do, they might at all be too hesitant to breakthrough “some steady walls”.

“Transnational education, open educational resources and K-12 are movements and norms that navigated across the globe and reached national borders. Depending on how we embrace them and value them as good or bad, would dictate the shape, structure and approaches of our ways of life, and in this case, our Public Administration.

— Maria Fe Villamejor-Mendoza,                                                                                                                  Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, UP Open University

True, “It should not always be a shot from the outside!” [Mendoza, 2012]

We may have explored vast opportunities of collaborating with all sorts of transformation in our Educational System where we actually may have experienced different SEASONS of LIFE while along the way we’ve just allowed ourselves to get swayed by all sorts of weather and its various elements, some of which, we may have missed & did not recognise; and some, we’ve even misinterpreted — but HAVE WE REALLY IDENTIFIED OUR SIGNIFICANCE — the part we played?

It all boils down to ONE SIGNIFICANT SECRET!

The Weakness in our Educational System is not really in Implementation per se |pəː ˈseɪ| !

THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER IS — OUR ANSWER:

how much PLANNING have you done in your life?

Have you really PLANNED ENOUGH for yourSELF?

We could never do enough for others if we cannot even IMPLEMENT “PERSONAL” PLANNING & ADMINISTRATION!

SO, what are the things that you want to: KEEP, DROP & CHANGE [Trongco, 2013] in 2015?

Believe that this time YOU CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE!

Be that development that the 3rd World needs to “come up with something out of nothing or whatever is left”!

Trivia: Four Worlds

After World War II the world split into two large geopolitical blocs and spheres of influence with contrary views on government and the politically correct society:
1 – The bloc of democratic-industrial countries within the American influence sphere, the “First World”.
2 – The Eastern bloc of the communist-socialist states, the “Second World”.
3 – The remaining three-quarters of the world’s population, states not aligned with either bloc were regarded as the “Third World.”
4 – The term “Fourth World”, coined in the early 1970s by Shuswap Chief George Manuel, refers to widely unknown nations (cultural entities) of indigenous peoples, “First Nations” living within or across national state boundaries.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________Credits to:

http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/third_world_countries.htm

http://ncpag.upd.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/The-Challenges-to-the-Futures-of-PA-Education-1-copy.pdf

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/04/the-term-third-world-country-refers-to-the-politics-and-economic-structure-of-a-country-not-its-developmental-state-or-wealth/

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/efareport/reports/

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2014/07/23/1349322/suspension-k-12-program-sought

http://www.up.edu.ph/tag/k-12/

http://dailytwocents.com/philippine-senator-trillanes-wants-k-12-program-suspension-on-education/

http://dirp3.pids.gov.ph/ris/eid/pidseid1202.pdf

Strategic Planning in Education by Dr. Eusebio F. Miclat Jr.

Fundamentals of Management by Stephen P. Robbins et.al

Management in the Philippine Setting by Ernesto A. Franco

Let The Learner Love Learning

 

When we fail to “look-into” our Learners …

https://plus.google.com/111650383278180869270/posts/XCUL6BsHPLv

Would you mind taking into consideration that it would take … NOT THE BEST  — rather an “influential teacher” to make THE LEARNER LOVE “LEARNING”?

From SIMPLE TO COMPLEX, Psychological Foundation of Education suggests that there is the need to look-into THE LEARNER all throughout his levels of development  from Infancy  to Old-Age.

Probing into the fulfillment of his Biological & Physiological needs, The Learner should be provided various amounts of experiences to help him reach a certain level wherein he should be able to perform some developmental tasks until Maturation is  attained.

Although development could naturally be sequential/chronological, the rate of improvement could possibly be different in every individual due to Heredity and Environment — which brings about INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES.

However, despite such disparities, each Learner is  naturally endowed with Positive Attitude such as: Curiosity, Persistence & Responsibility coupled with their “innate” Ability, Aptitude, Attitude & Interest.

Danger is … when “The Teacher” is not equipped with some amount of CREATIVITY to address  certain difficult episodes — just because he did not take time to take into consideration his students’ individual characteristics and  differences in developmental levels.

As I’ve previously conceptualized,  “Not many would consider looking at the learner and its kind before going through the many strategies which a teacher can utilize.” Learning who the Learner Is”, should be an integral factor to consider for a teacher to succeed in the kind of experience he could create in each of his Learner! https://plus.google.com/111650383278180869270/posts/XCUL6BsHPLv  

Thus, we should, in one way or the other, help ourselves become “influential” by  “pondering-on” these:

Teachers should be the first “learners” — pondering on concepts like these!

How would you “influence” The Learner” NOT TO HATE SCHOOL?