Brigada Eskwela: My Anime-Inspired Classroom

    It was a week after Brigada Eswkela 2015 that I decided to have a rigidon of my classroom. I didn't initially planned it since I am quite lazy due to the extreme heat of the summer, not to mention that the electrical line in my room is broken (I can't use the electric fan).
    As a teacher, I always believe that the physical structuring of the classroom greatly affects the learning of our students. A disorganized, untidy and congested classroom makes not a conducive learning environment. At the same time, as teachers, our classroom is our office. As much as possible, we want our workplace to be comfortable and quite homey for us. This makes our work efficient and less stressful amidst the tons of works we do everyday.
    Recently, the Department of Education released guidelines for classrooms. I don't know if there was a memo or something but I always hear these "guidelines" from the principals and other teachers. According to them, rooms should be painted with candle-light cream or light raw sienna. Other colors are not advisable. Second, bulletin boards and posters inside the classroom should be minimized if not removed. They wanted to make the room with less of these to avoid "distractions". Third, chairs should all face the chalkboard, so the use of other arrangements, like forming a U, chairs facing each other etc are not advisable. And wait, curtains are also not allowed.
    For me, these guidelines limit teachers to be creative with their classrooms. I know that there are colors which are not good for classroom uses but I think teachers should be given the freedom to design his or her classroom. I also am not a fan of rooms without anything on the walls. The bulletin boards reflect both the teacher and students' efforts to make the room lively and fun. That learning is "not boring". Frankly, the only place that I remember where pictures or anything on the walls are not allowed is the psychiatric ward, and our students are not pyschos right? I quite agree with the arrangement of chairs that it should be facing the chalkboard. I find the U-shaped arrangement where students face each other distracting. Students would have the chance to talk or do facial signals, thus would not listen to the teacher. However, sitting/chair arrangement should be flexible with respect to the objective or the activity of the day's lesson. About the curtains, I love having them in the classroom. It enhances the physical appearance of the classroom and at the same time regulates the amount of light in the classroom.
    Here are some snapshots in my classroom. As you can see, I am an otaku so you can see elements of anime 360 degrees...hehe...Obviously, you see some violations about the above-stated guidelines..and I don't care...hehehe

Hello Natsu!!!

Hi Alice!!!

Brigada Eskwela 2015

 
 
   May 18 to 23 is our annual School Maintenance Week, or more popularly known as Brigada Eskwela. During this week, we clean, renovate and prepare our school and classrooms for the opening of classes. This is done together with the parents, students and the community. Stakeholders are also included with the cooperation of government and non-government organizations, private and religious groups.

    Actually,  I wasn't able to clean my room that much because there was an issue with our electrical line. I can't stand staying at my room because of the heat. I can't use our electric fan and I don't want to bath in sweat. I was just thankful to my students who recently have graduated and whom I have contacted via Facebook that they helped clean the room. I was also glad that my students from two years back also were there who helped clean the computer room.

Here are some of the snapshots:

Students help cleaning up the Grade 2 area.

ALS or Alternative Learning System students helping out as well

Our mighty members of the Philippine National Police

Our friends from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who are very surprising to be fluent in our local dialect....

image source: courtesy of Maam Ramina Guevara, documentation committee

Enriching Mathematics Teaching through Problem Solving and Mathematical Investigation in the K-12 Mathematics Curriculum

 

   Last week, I attended a seminar entitled, "Enriching Mathematics Teaching through Problem Solving and Mathematical Investigation in the K-12 Mathematics Curriculum". I think this was conducted by our division and MTAP (Mathematics Teachers Association of the Philippines). I actually didn't know that I suppose to attend this seminar not until a coteacher of mine texted me that I was one of the participants. I was at the PRC to renew my license so I ended up rushing to the venue. Of course, renewing my license can be done in some other time, but I didn't want to lose the opportunity to learn.
 
   On the first two days of our seminar, we focused more on the problem solving. We solved a bunch of problems as a group and most of them were challenging. To be honest, it is a bit of shame that I forgot some of the Math topics that were in fact taught to me in college and that I tutored with my high school tutees before. I questioned myself if I got duller now that I became a teacher. hahaha...Anyway, I attended the seminar to learn and perhaps to refresh my stagnant brain. It also made me affirm my love for the subject because it is humbling. As I said before, I love math because I found the subject difficult, and that no matter how good you are there will always and always be a problem that you could not solve. That there are always a lot to learn and to never be complacent of one's self. That there is always a room for improvement.
 
   The rest of the days, we were taught about mathematical investigation, how it is different from just problem solving. Mathematical investigation is a divergent way of developing to our students their mathematical skills. It is more of giving the students the freedom to explore, to investigate, to examine questions they themselves formulated. It develops the higher order thinking skills of the students, letting them connect what they have learned, create meaning on their own and communicate these with others.

Teachers extracting their brain juices....yumyumyum...I'm a zombie you know...hahaha

   Of course, we were also given the chance to do a mathematical investigation as a group. My coteachers and I who belong to the same district formed as a group and we were assigned to investigate a certain mathematical situation. After all the "intellectual discussions", we have at least come up with our own conjectures and presented this to our the rest of the participants.
 
   To sum up my experience, I have enjoyed and learned a lot in this 4-day seminar. I also got the chance to rub elbows with teachers from other districts. The challenge for me is how I can implement these to my students whom mathematical skills are quite challenged. As always, I am positive that I can do this. Hopefully my students would be amazed on how math can be easy and fun just by finding patterns and hidden secrets that lie beneath the numbers through problem solving and mathematical investigation. I am looking forward to apply what I learned for the opening of the school year.

image source: courtesy of Ma'am Belleza of SPED-ISEC and Sir Renan of NJ Ingore ES, Iloilo City