Nino's Classrooms - Blog

So what have I been up to?

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 23:39:03 +0800

Nothing much except coping after being saddled again with an admin job, and that means taking every opportunity to enjoy the moment away from office tasks.

And coping usually takes the form of dining out with friends. One of our recent culinary forays was to the Tiny Kitchen where we pigged out on some paella negra (paella cooked in the black ooze of squid), callos and three kinds of dessert: sans rival cake, silvanas, and a three-layer cake made of brazo de mercedes on top of homemade chocolate ice cream and choco fudge. Here are some photos of that gastronomic adventure:

Another time we found ourselves in Tagum City, about an hour's drive away from Davao City. There we each had a rack of sumptuous baby back ribs for lunch at Miko's Brew, and for only 180 pesos per plate.

Mouth-watering, right? So okay, I'll update this blog if just to share these gustatory delights.

New look

Mon, 30 May 2011 13:19:44 +0800

Vacation's over. It's back to school for me. Duty calls for this week's registration period. So what else is new?

This is what's new here at UP Mindanao, paved road from the National Highway up to the Oblation Park fronting the Administration Building.

Antichrist

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 03:23:10 +0800

I couldn't breathe during the movie's climactic scenes. I also had to look away because of some gruesome images. I don't usually react this way, however violent the movie.

But what did I expect from a Lars von Trier film, anyway?

And judging from reviews, quite a number share my experience. So where do I side with the movie's polarized audience? Do I agree with the director's fans who praise von Trier for challenging what is cinematically acceptable? Or do I throw in my hat among those who proclaim that von Trier has gone mad?

All I can say is that this movie's scenes are forever seared in my brain. It's not farfetched to speculate that my unconscious has gained a new vocabulary for my nightmares. And if that is what von Trier intended, to provoke our deepest thoughts about our faith and our existence, then this movie has successfully provoked that in me. A day after watching it, I still can't get it out of my mind.

Run of the mill

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 00:23:45 +0800

So we've graduated another batch of students who are ready to take on the world. And we wish them good luck. Meanwhile, it's back to the grindstone for us.

Okay, not really the grindstone as we're given about a month on a so-called vacation. Really more like a reprieve from the regular classroom sessions and student consultations, and less like the vacation in a tropical paradise we had in mind, because we're supposed to spend that month preparing for another year of courses to manage. But still, we can turn that month into a busman's holiday. Nobody is stopping us from working on next term's syllabi while lounging on a beach chair and sipping some piña coladas.

Which horizontal position and perhaps slightly inebriated condition might be the best state to ponder Sir Ken Robinson's "Changing Education Paradigms" as illustrated by RSA Animate.

Which RSA Animate video really had me thinking after my former mentor emailed me its link. What bothered me most was how this change in education paradigm can be operationalized when you work in a system that Sir Ken Robinson describes as one modeled on industrialization. Let's be real here, a colleague might remind me, we still have to measure student learning in terms of standardized tests.

So I was stumped. How do I encourage divergent and creative thinking in my classes, what methods and techniques should I adopt, how do I incorporate such an approach in my syllabi, and how do I ensure that students still get the regular "standardized" lessons they expect plus the value-added features I want to put in?

Then I found a possible answer while tweaking this site. I clicked on the Weebly for Education link and realized that this site can be transformed into something more than just a personal website. By migrating to Weebly for Education, I'm no longer limited to just posting my lecture notes for my students to read. They can actually participate in my site by putting up their own sites/blogs in an environment I can manage. And because I have a Pro account, they can share in the multimedia features for free - they can post video and audio files and embed documents in their own sites/blogs.

And how is this an answer to my dilemma, you may ask? Think about it. My site wouldn't just be my lectures posted online. It can also be my students' sites/blogs managed by me (just like how a classroom works), but with students given the space and the tools to be more creative and imaginative in their assignments.

So this is how I will change my education paradigm next term. Let's see how it will turn out.

Vacation

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 15:17:35 +0800

Classes and exams done. Grades turned in. Beaches beckon.

But where to go? Back home where the sea is just a few steps away from my lola's backyard?

Or somewhere nearer my workplace, like Samal Island perhaps?

Hold on. This is getting to be such a chore, choosing where to relax. Chill.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 18:04:08 +0800

Here's a Christmas carol that's certain to bring out the cheer for the season. This is from North Point's iBand. Merry Christmas to everyone!

Besame Mucho by Cesaria Evora

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 02:12:35 +0800

Para kay B

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 00:37:12 +0800

Ricky Lee's Para Kay B (o Kung Paano Dinevastate ng Pag-ibig ang 4 Out of 5 sa Atin) (Loyola Heights, Quezon City: Writers Studio Philippines, 2008; 250 pages) had been gathering dust on my shelf a year after I bought it.

I had been putting off reading it because: (1) it is written in Filipino, and my colonial education goes into autopilot when it comes to choosing what book next to read; (2) I have been busy with teaching and administrative tasks, though that didn't stop me from reading Gina Apostol's The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata -- which is written in English and which I bought around the same time; (3) I harbored some doubts about Ricky Lee's first venture into the novel format, especially because I know him for his screenplays, reportage, short stories, and scriptwriting manual.

And what a surprise it was when I finally got around to reading it a few months back. Like what the film director Joyce Bernal says in her blurb for the novel, I read it cover to cover in just one sitting. Well, I have to admit that Ricky Lee writes very good characters in whatever format he chooses.

The novel tells the love stories of Irene, Sandra, Erica, Ester, and Bessie. As well as Lucas the writer, who is the meta-narrator as well as the author of the "Para Kay B" (that's what the photo of the brown envelope printed on the title page presumably contains). So who among these characters succeed in love?

There's Irene with the photographic memory, Sandra with the keenest sense for fairness, Erica from the place where people do not feel anything, Ester who discovers passion on a roof, and Bessie to whom the manuscript "Para kay B" is dedicated. And there's Lucas.

There'll be no spoilers here, so you might as well get yourself a copy and read who gets their true love. Knowing how the plot turns out is really just the icing on the cake. The novel is really more than just a series of love stories.

For one thing, the Taglish (it's not really Filipino we read here) makes the reading so easy. And, when you get to the last two chapters where the narrative threads tighten, you will feel your heart quicken. Especially that last chapter where the novel turns meta and Para Kay B becomes a quasi-treatise on writing and writing in a country where no one seems to read books.

Quite a challenging read it was. Can't wait for Ricky Lee's next novel Aswang, a sample of which can be found at the end of the book.

Mga Gerilya sa Powell Street

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 23:02:44 +0800

Benjamin Pimentel's Mga Gerilya sa Powell St. (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2007; 223 pp.) won the 2007 National Book Award for Fiction.

It tells the stories of Filipino WWII veterans who migrated to the US, hoping that they would live to see the day the Equity Bill would be enacted into law.

The novel follows the lives of Fidel, Ruben, and Ciriaco as they hang out near the BART station along Powell St. or in several parks around the city of San Francisco or in their tiny apartments when the weather gets so freezing cold for their Filipino hide. They pass the time joshing with each other or other Filipino veterans and homeless Americans or reminiscing about their lives back in the Philippines.

The novel, written in Filipino, is made up of four chapters and an epilogue. The first chapter, "Ang Makauwi nang Buo," sets up the novel's structure that revolves around the veterans' fear of being brought back to the Philippines in an urn -- and last three chapters narrate just that: the deaths and cremation of Ciriaco, Ruben, and Fidel. That seems to be the book's message: that these WWII veterans will have passed away before America makes good on its promise.

The novel, however, is not really just about the veterans' struggles for recognition. Rather, it presents the hardships these veterans face in America. Except for some fellow Filipino-Americans, like Atty. Anne Dizon, the veterans fall prey to the unscrupulous among their fellow Filipino immigrants (Rose for Ciriaco, and Mauricio and his wife for the Major). But most of all, what these veterans fear most in that alien place is loneliness. So they pass their time shooting the breeze or feeding the pigeons at Powell Street rather than be alone with their memories of the war of their home country.

This is true for Ruben who had to abandon his dead brother's body in the jungles so his troop could escape from the Japanese. This is also true for Fidel, whose son was falsely accused by his comrades for being a DPA (deep penetration agent) and was never seen again.

But the alternative, to go back to the homeland without the promised benefits of the Equity Bill, would also be another defeat for these veterans. For back home, the country is continually caught up in social, political, and economic disarray.

January 2009 staging by Tanghalang Pilipino, CCP

Despite the serious and depressing theme, Boying Pimentel is able to infuse a sense of hope for these cast of characters. It is in how Pimentel lets the characters speak for themselves that we see their resilience and unflagging optimisim (okay, every now and then they get depressed). Even Ruben, who seems inconsolable after Ciriaco's death, bounces back and finds himself an immigrant Russian woman for a girlfriend.

I would like to see Rody Vera's stage adaptation of the novel, seen here in Tanghalang Pilipino's restaging of the play in 2009 (thanks to Gibbs Cadiz's blog for the photo). While the novel was engaging, I think a stage adaptation would make Pimentel's characters more appealing. I can imagine how these characters on the page will banter onstage, or how they will grieve as they scatter the ashes of their buddies against a backdrop of the Golden Gate Bridge.

That is how I hear the novel onstage the theater in my head.

Mati trip

Sun, 12 Sep 2010 13:57:22 +0800

'Sleeping Dinosaur' by Ryan Songcayauon

YES was my quick reply to my colleague's question: was I interested to go to Mati for an UPCAT campaign? How often do I get to travel and explore Mindanao with my heavy workload? Now here was an opportunity to go on a busman's holiday, this time to spread the word to high school seniors about their future with UP Mindanao.

September 1, we took the scenic route along the coastal towns from Davao to Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley until we reached Davao Oriental. Our driver's wife's family lives in Mati, so he knew the scenery and stopped at a shoulder of the highway for a closer look at what locals call the "Sleeping Dinosaur" -- the silhouette of small hilly peninsula that resembles a dinosaur or dragon resting its head in the waters of Pujada Bay. And for souvenir shots as well.

Photo by Ryan Songcayauon

We agreed that it looked more like a giant sleeping pawikan than a dinosaur, though. As my colleagues were discussing this, I was imagining a story idea for a children's book about the last giant pawikan standing guard over Pujada Bay.

The scenery as we drove along the coastal roads from Davao dramatically changed soon as we passed the humongous Diosdado Macapagal Highway arch welcoming us to Davao Oriental. It seemed we had been transported to Cebu, particularly the seascape familiar to passengers taking the bus from Cebu City down south to Bato. Definitely, that "island" feeling with the sight of the sea surrounding you.

Mati, Davao Oriental

I might take the "fastcraft" ferry next time I travel to Mati. Because I definitely will be going back there for a real vacation in one of the resorts. There's a ferry that regularly ply the Davao City to Lupon route (from the town of Lupon, it's just a few minutes jeepney ride to Mati).

Mati is the capital of Davao Oriental, and was recently "downgraded" by a Supreme Court decision from being a city back to its municipality status. The city and provincial officials were cavalier about the recent turn of events. In the welcome dinner hosted by Vice Governor Mayo Almario (who organized the school fair), Mati "City" Mayor Michelle Rabat jokingly declared Mati as a Republic. The hopes for Mati becoming a city, as evident in this TV Patrol report on the plebiscite months back, apparently continue to run high.

That enthusiasm was what we witnessed the next day as the 2nd Davao Oriental School Fair opened its gates to around 6,000 high school seniors from the different schools in the province. It was actually a blast witnessing how these seniors eagerly ran from one booth to the next, listening to recruiters' spiels, collecting brochures, and generally having a great time. All photos below are by Ryan Songcayauon.

What capped each day of the two-day event, however, was the food our team had at La-ne's Kan-anan. Yummy, especially the halo-halo. Located near the seaside boulevard, La-ne's Kan-anan was recommended to us by our driver. It didn't disappoint with their big servings of inexpensive delicious Filipino cuisine.

Definitely a place to go back to when I visit Mati and Davao Oriental again.