There must be something about the rain that triggers me to write even before the 43rd-week deadline of the Weekly Content Challenge 2021. Honestly, I felt giving up on this challenge because of so many things going-on in my life. This year is a challenging year for me, and I think this is also true for all of us. However, I looked back at the challenges I endured from the past years (and the greatest one was the Physical and Emotional Abuse Case I faced from my ex-fiance circa 2015). Okay, let me not ruin my day remembering those heartaches.
As of the moment, I changed my work-from-home set-up. I am now facing the window while watching delivery drivers come by from time-to-time in our block. My fingers are in prompt whether to follow the background classical music tempo (starting with the emotional and slow Moonlight Sonata, then to slow-fast melody of Fur Elise and now listening to the fast notes and jolly Turkish March). My mind is compartmentalizing which Project Proposal I should read first to create an acceptable Activity Plan while preparing myself for a series of meeting in the afternoon.
How I Relax These Days
Maybe some of you who are following my articles on social development work would know how I expressed my exhaustion doing the mentorship session. It was even yesterday I burst into tears how tired I am following one activity after another. It was not my nature to give up and cry over work. But yesterday was my first time I dealt with my emotional distress, mental and physical exhaustion. Literally, I just cried.
What truly helped was the moment I finished the mentorship session. My community volunteer advised me to relax and chill for a moment. She recommended a place for me where I could unwind a bit and cooldown. True enough, I found myself in a solitary bliss when I was hugging the cool sea breeze while feeling the sand on my feet and the seawater washing those weary feeling (Liszt's Lento Placido Music in background ATM).
When I went home, I turned the volume a bit higher of my piano keyboard while playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (First Movement) for several times. Then I continued with his Fur Elise while ending my night with Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go (my first piano piece I learned). I have been playing the keyboard for quite sometime now but I am not really good at it yet. At least in my level, playing music helps me relax and forget everything. Indeed, playing music helps me focus on the piece and perfecting it means being emotionally indulged into it.
Resort Hopping for a Meal
Strategically speaking, I live nearby resorts in Mactan Island. One day, when I felt that my WFH set-up is no longer inspiring me I decided to have my breakfast at White Sands Beach Resort. The elegance of my meal is incomparable from the peace and quite of the place. I enjoyed watching the beach and the blue skies. I love looking at the white clouds as if telling me that every burden I am carrying at the moment will disperse and disappear. I love the sunlight - it keeps me alive. It always manifest hope and a grand new day.
The following day, I decided to take my lunch at Solea. The resort was busy. I could see local tourists taking photos everywhere, some were swimming and others dined-in. Just like the old days - nobody feared about a deadly virus. No pandemic. Only fun and the sun. This retrospection brought me in times when I had a good drink with my only sister, while sharing secrets and crushes. Right at the very spot where I dine-in at the Earth Restaurant in Solea.
The next afternoon, I asked my brother to drive me to Sherriff's Grill at Looc. Her girlfriend recommended the place so even if don't eat meat, I went to the place anyway and just check out what I could get from there. It was one solemn supper before I headed back home for an evening IELTS lesson.
On Reflective Teaching and Mentoring
I could still remember in 2018 when I was invited to give training to young teachers. It was an in-service training when I opted to teach them about Reflective Teaching. I also learned this when I attended a seminar-workshop in 2017, and decided to mirror my experience to them.
In background, I have been teaching for quite sometime since 2005. I started young as a facilitator in a university for 5-years before I switched to being a Special Education Teacher which only lasted for a year because I then volunteered as a nurse in a hospital. But of course, I ended up traveling for a medical cause - as far as Quezon Province, Pangasinan, Olongapo City, and Davao City.
After, I went to being an ESL Teacher while learning the French and German languages. The language experiences fueled my love of teaching so I decided to be steady in life - jumping in as a Public School Teacher. I never expected that I ranked 2nd among the other teachers who applied in DepEd Lapu-Lapu (with only 0.2 difference in scoring because of my lack of NC II Certificate).
A discouraging event opted me to resign from public teaching but immediately became the Academic Coordinator and later on became the Vice-Principal in a private school. But of course that was a short-lived career. I was only 29 and I thought of that moment that I still have so many things to learn and venture other than heading a school. I resigned after I had my trip in Batanes in 2019.
It was during that time when I received a lucrative offer as an IELTS Trainer. I accepted it not only because of the pay it came with it but the fact of staying in Mindanao. It was a chance of a lifetime to be living and breathing the Mindanao air. For a person who is so adventurous and easy-going, I would rather find me a job or a career where I could definitely enjoy all my life.
Given with these experiences in teaching and public service, I realize that what people need especially the children is empathy.
Empathy is one key aspect of Reflective Teaching. It is your emotional stability amid the ruckus in the classroom and the children's behavior. Kids remain kids. It is their nature and right to play. And telling them to stop playing in a commanding way is one red flag of depriving them their right to play.
So where is this statement leading to? I am one extreme advocate for education and when I hear teachers raising their voice and telling their students to get out of the session makes me spit fire. I don't want teachers to treat their students that way. Surely, there is one way to convince these children to behave and do their task and not the "high-tone" and "so-many-donts".
I don't want to create a classroom of tension. I want to create a classroom fun, play, and excitement. Just yesterday, I wanted to tell the mentor to be gentle with the girls. Before they began, she said a lot of rules and what struck me was the rule of "no talking, no movement," "kung sino ang hindi makikinig walang snacks," "kung hindi kayo makikinig umuwi nalang kayo". These words bear so much negativity. These words burden my heart. These words actually defeated the purpose of gathering these children.
I wish I could tell her to be gentle with these girls. She didn't know that these girls excused themselves from their busy household chores. The mentor didn't know that these girls were given ill-names by their parents themselves. These girls need to tend their younger siblings. Most especially these girls are made to help their parents financially. I could always contemplate. I could always reflect how I need to be gentle. How I need to protect these children. My 65 girls.
Realizations
While writing this article, a sudden realization swept in me. I am not truly physically burdened. I am emotionally burdened. This physical exhaustion is a manifestation of how mentally and emotionally invested I am to help and better the lives of these children. Then, I also realize that I am not alone and I am only human. This is the time when I need to unload and become the sun again - reflecting my radiance and positivity. But first, I need to regenerate.
If you are a teacher, tell me if you did these to your students:
- Taking the entire Grade 12 (112 students in a hike) for experiential learning about their P.E. Hiking lesson with special participation of my hiker friends and DRRMO.
- Playing "shatong" because you want to teach them about Velocity and Speed (I was a Physics Teacher then).
- Playing "lusot-lusot" and highjumps because you want them to realize what a wave looks like (the crest and the trough).
- Playing "Angry Birds" in a Projector because you want them to realize that Projectiles can also be digital.
- Bringing myself a "wild spider" when I had my lesson in Biology (nanung ko og kakaay sa akong student before I started my lesson).
- Bringing real rocks from different mountains I climbed and showing them photos of my hike specially in Mt. Kanlaon, Mt. Apo, Mt. Pulag and Mt. Iraya kay dili colored ang DepEd books. At least, telling them that the experience outdoor is more fulfilling than what you read in books.
- One Hundred Hearts Project with love hugots about Chemistry specifically on Elements and different kinds of bonding.
- Made a film (First time ever in Olango Island) about the life of a school boy working as a fisherman and doing extremely dangerous work as in "Moro Ami".
- Composed a song about the Islander life in Olango.
- Edited the School Paper Publication and using my original photos (questioned if I got it from Google). LOLZ. But I was declined to coach during the Press Conference because I was not an English Teacher but a Science teacher. (Almost a dealbreaker).
- Making 2 Strategic Intervention Materials (SIM) in Biology and Earth Science using my original materials (photos, facts and activities) and won Champion in Division level. Only to find out that I was not qualified to represent the Regional Level because I was a newbie teacher. My SIM was used by another teacher who represented the Regional level. (This was my dealbreaker in DepEd so I resigned. Corruption comes in different ways.)
(I could remember when we had our Valentine's Day Celebration in 2017, a student-host asked me: What to do after a broken heart?
I answered with Lessons on Bonding: When you feel that you are broken and all of your pieces are apart, always remember that a compound could not be created without an element. So, whatever bond you created, always remember that you are an element. You are one piece. You are one essential element with a place in a periodic table. You can not be taken from there. You are as important as the other elements.)
Hi, Ms Angel, you are so lucky to be living near these beach resorts you can have breakfast in one resort, lunch in other and dinner in yet another. You are correct about emotional and psychological exhaustion being mor difficult to deal than just plain physical exhaustion.
ReplyDeleteHow I wish you were my teacher in high school!!! I love your passion in what you do and congratulations in advance for surviving a whole year of intense blogging.
ReplyDeleteJust like you, I always love to distress in front of the beach because emotional and paychological stress is way different from Physical Stress. Love to have that beautiful view one of this days!
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