PCS President Dr. Lemuel Brana on Net 25

Net 25 interviews PCS President Dr. Lemuel Brana, focusing on his stand on the Philippine Automated Elections.

Issues Related To Education

Summary

Acheving Excellence In The Teaching Profession

        “Every child needs and deserves dedicated and outstanding teachers, who know their subject matter, are effectively trained, and know how to teach to high standards and to make learning come alive for students,” President Bill Clinton September 1998. Teaching is the essential profession, the one that makes all other professions possible. Without well-qualified, caring, and committed teachers, neither improved curricula and assessments, nor safe schools--not even the highest standards in the world--will ensure that our children are prepared for the challenges and opportunities in America's third century. Teaching is the profession that is shaping this education and therefore America's future--molding the skills of our future workforce and laying the foundation for good citizenship and full participation in community and civic life. President Clinton declared improving education his first priority. In A Call to Action for American Education in the 21st Century he emphasizes the immediate need for talented and dedicated teachers in every classroom. To achieve this future, we must set high standards for all students and seek to develop their potential through high expectations, organized effort, caring, commitment, and talented teachers in every classroom. America's classrooms are serving more students and more diverse students--racially, culturally, and linguistically--than ever before. . Students with learning disabilities, physical impairments, and limited English proficiency are increasingly being served in regular education classrooms. Our schools must be safe havens of learning that help all children reach for high standards and acquire problem-solving skills in addition to instilling in them the core values of responsibility, hard work, and respect. With more people "thinking for a living," instructional practices are changing too. Societal changes are demanding more and more from our schools and teachers, recruiting and preparing the next generation of teachers present us with major challenges. The traditional response of districts facing an increased demand for teachers has been to lower its standards and hire less qualified teachers. Thus, shortages of teachers will not be shortages in quantity; schools will usually hire someone for the front of each classroom. The shortages will be in quality and in diversity. Shortages of qualified teachers have already reached critical proportions in our high-poverty communities; in many fields such as science, mathematics, bilingual education, and special education; in states experiencing the greatest population increases (for example, California, Nevada, Florida, and Texas, among others); and in the population of teachers from diverse racial, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds.  Quality teaching in the 21st century means bringing distinctive life experiences and perspectives in to the classroom; providing valuable role models for minority and non-minority students alike; enriching the curriculum, assessment, and school climate; and strengthening connections to parents and communities. A complex set of changes--changing demographics, changing education, societal, and economic forces, the need for many new recruits in the teaching force, and the need for improved teacher quality--does not have to spell disaster. http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/PromPractice/chapter1.html

Issues – implications to teaching

How Much Sleep Do You Need?

Average Sleep Needs
Age	Hours
Newborns (0-2 months)	12 - 18
Infants (3 months to 1 year)	14 - 15
Toddlers (1 to 3 years)	12 - 14
Preschoolers (3 to 5 years)	11 - 13
School-aged children (5 to 12 years)	10 - 11
Teens and preteens (12 to 18 years)	8.5 - 10
Adults (18+)	7.5 - 9

   Many of us want to sleep as little as possible—or feel like we have to. There are so many things that seem more interesting or important than getting a few more hours of sleep. But just as exercise and nutrition are essential for optimal health and happiness, so is sleep. The quality of your sleep directly affects the quality of your waking life, including your mental sharpness, productivity, emotional balance, creativity, physical vitality, and even your weight. No other activity delivers so many benefits with so little effort! Without enough hours of restorative sleep, you’re like a car in need of an oil change. You won’t be able to work, learn, create, and communicate at a level even close to your true potential. . If you’re logging enough hours, you’ll feel energetic and alert all day long, from the moment you wake up until your regular bedtime. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco discovered that some people have a gene that enables them to do well on 6 hours of sleep a night. But the gene is very rare, appearing in less than 3% of the population. You may be sleep deprived if you; need an alarm clock in order to wake up on time, rely on the snooze button, have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning, feel sluggish in the afternoon, get sleepy in meetings, lectures, or warm rooms, get drowsy after heavy meals or when driving, need to nap to get through the day, fall asleep while watching TV or relaxing in the evening, feel the need to sleep in on weekends and fall asleep within five minutes of going to bed. The effects of sleep deprivation and chronic lack of sleep: fatigue, lethargy, and lack of motivation, moodiness and irritability, reduced creativity and problem-solving skills, inability to cope with stress, reduced immunity; frequent colds and infections,  concentration and memory problems, weight gain, impaired motor skills and increased risk of accidents, difficulty making decisions, increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and other health problems. In fact, sleep deprivation can affect you just as much as being drunk. REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep is when you do most active dreaming. Your eyes actually move back and forth during this stage, which is why it is called Rapid Eye Movement sleep. Each stage of sleep in the sleep cycle offers benefits to the sleeper. However, deep sleep (stages 3 and 4) and REM sleep are particularly important. . Deep sleep is a time when the body repairs itself and builds up energy for the day ahead. , REM sleep renews the mind. REM sleep plays a key role in learning and memory. . If you lose an hour of sleep, you must make up that extra hour somewhere down the line in order to bring your “account” back into balance. WWW.HELPGUIDE.ORG

Personal  reflections

Every child needs a teacher who is dedicated to their jobs. The teacher is the channel of learning of the students. If the teacher will be timid to teach, the students will be lazy and bored. The teacher is the model in the classroom wherein every student mimics, every move and language of them is essential. The pronunciation of the teacher is vital, they imitates whatever the teacher says. Sometimes the teacher is more dominant than the parents, for example the child heard to his teacher that the things to be brought is color blue but availability of that thing is not present, the child will insist his parents to buy that stuff and cry. The parents will explain that other color is capable but the child will contradict to them, therefore the parent will confer what their child wants. What we see in the community (pertaining to the different professions) are the results of teaching or teacher; doctors, engineers, pharmacists, actors, reporters and businessman. Teacher made an impact to those who dig a big name to their industries. How can we cope up to the flows of new era if the teacher is irresponsible and careless? How about those who want to learn but the teacher is contented to be in the side of the corner of the room? It is not bad to seat for the whole period, if she teach the student appropriately. If there is no syllabus or guide to study, how can we pinch the lesson? A good teacher scolds their students in a proper way and makes decision fairly (without bias). A teacher should not listen to the student summon abruptly instead she or he must investigate first to know what is real. She must consider our individual differences. In that article, it shows that United States has big priority to education. They don’t want anybody to be left behind (no child left behind). The shortages in teachers United States have no effect in education.

Summary:

        Cooperative learning refers to work done by student teams producing a product of some sort (such as a set of problem solutions, a laboratory or project report, or the design of a product or a process), under conditions that satisfy five criteria: (1) positive interdependence, (2) individual accountability, (3) face-to-face interaction for at least part of the work, (4) appropriate use of interpersonal skills, and (5) regular self – assessment of team functioning. Extensive research has shown that relative to traditional individual and competitive modes of instruction, properly implemented cooperative learning leads to greater learning and superior development of communication and teamwork skills (e.g. leaderships, project management, and conflict resolution skills). The technique has been used with considerable success in all scientific disciplines, including chemistry.

          The benefits of cooperative learning are not automatic, however, and if imperfectly implemented, the method can create considerable difficulties for instructors, most notably dysfunctional teams and student resistance or hostility to group work. This paper offers a number of suggestions for forming team, satisfying the five defining criteria of cooperative learning, and minimizing the problems. Instructors who have never used the approach are advised to move into it gradually rather than attempting a full-scale implementation on their first try, and to increase the level of implementation in subsequent course offerings. To an increasing extent, they should see the learning benefits promised by the research, and as their expertise and confidence in implementing the method continue to grow, student evaluations of the team expertise and confidence in implementing the method continue to grow, student evaluations of the team experience should improve concurrently. Most importantly, instructors who are successful in using cooperative learning in their classes will have the satisfaction of knowing that  they have significantly helped prepare their students for their professional careers.

          Some years ago, one of us(RF) taught five chemical engineering courses in consecutive semesters to a cohort of students using cooperative learning. The superiority of their performance and attitudes relative to a comparison group that was taught traditionally was consistent with the many other results reported on earlier in this chapter. Five years after most of the students had graduated they were surveyed and asked to reflect on what in their undergraduate college experience best prepared them for their post-graduation careers. Of the 50 respondents, 25 mentioned the problem – solving and time management skills they acquired by working on so many long and difficult assignments, 23 mentioned a variety of benefits gained from working in teams on homework, and no other feature of the curriculum got more than eight mentions. In their open comments, almost every respondent spoke positively about group work, mentioning its learning benefits and/or the interactions with classmates that it fostered. For example, “I formed very close relationships with my group members that remain today. I realized that I wasn’t alone in struggling with new concepts and could garner support and help from teammates.” and “Being forced  to meet other students through required groupwork… kept me in the course long enough to develop the skills and self-confidence necessary to continue on in the CHE curriculum.” No one said anything negative about group work, although two respondents indicated that they disliked it initially and only later came to see its benefits. We don’t guarantee a retrospective evaluation this positive to everyone who used cooperative learning, but we believe the possibility of it makes the effort worthwhile (cooperative learning, Felder and Brent).

  

Issues – implications to teaching

Test Strategy

Before the Test, Stay up-to-date on assignments. Learn material and review as you go along. Make sure you understand the information as you are learning it. Read and study information in meaningful chunks (by chapters or units) so that you'll be able to "file" and "retrieve" information easily. At the end of each chapter or unit, identify the information that was most important. Make up "flash cards" on this information that you can easily carry and use for study on a regular basis. Analyze past tests to determine how you can improve test results. Get the big picture. Ask the instructor about the test. Map or outline the course contents if you haven't done so previously. Before a test or exam, break study sessions into manageable time segments and meaningful units. Practice answering essay questions BEFORE the test.. Use mnemonic techniques to memorize lists, definitions, and other specific kinds of information. Maintain healthy living habits. Get a good night's sleep before the test. Get to the test site early so you can select a seat, organize your materials, and get relaxed. Be prepared with pencils, paper, calculator, books (if appropriate), etc .Take a few deep breaths and to relax tense muscles. When you receive your test paper, go over it to determine areas of strength and weakness in your test-taking skills. If you have done poorly, learn from your mistakes! Always analyze your tests to determine how you can improve future test results. (I forgot to get the URL but this is the author’s address keeleym@bucks.edu)

My reflection:

          From the word collaboration meaning interaction with people who can help him in certain matter. As a teacher, must make a way how we can cluster our students for gaining self – esteem and knowledge from each other. We ought to know how they interact with each other, how they treat each other and they take the responsibility. Teaching each other is a sign of collaboration, transferring all the knowledge they know and make it a piece of armor. They must respect each answer and rectify properly. We don’t know everything, there are times that our classmates have the knowledge, we never encounter, hence we shouldn’t be belittled them. We learn from books, radio and teacher, but can we intensify our learning. We can put our knowledge in long term memory thru talking with others which is related to the topic. Learning is fun, but there are times that it made us sad because of the things we need to catch.

          As a teacher, we must teach our pupils how to review to pass the examination. Teachers used to get over, different tasks they oversee. We must tell tips and techniques in learning the area. For sped majors, we know how to determine their capabilities through F.R.I.C.S., by using what we perceived in our class. We must not ignore our pupils because some of them tend to know what to do and how. But some are wasting their chances for learning that we may use in the future. After graduation, they are fights we must endure, it is achieving our profession. Passing their expectations is a sign of persuasiveness in learning even we are not gifted. All we have to get is passion for what we are doing.

Summary:

          Drama Therapy (written dramatherapy in the UK) is the use of theatre techniques to facilitate personal growth and promote mental health. Dramatherapy is used in a wide variety of settings, including hospitals, schools, mental health centers, prisons, and businesses. The field has expanded to allow many forms of theatrical interventions as therapy including role-play, theatre games, group-dynamic games, mime, puppetry, and other improvisational techniques. Often, "Drama Therapy" is utilized to help a client: solve a problem, achieve a catharsis, delve into truths about self, understand the meaning of personally resonant images and explore and transcend unhealthy personal patterns of behavior and interpersonal interaction. The theoretical foundation of "Drama Therapy" lies in drama, theater, psychology, psychotherapy, anthropology, play, and interactive and creative processes. Phil Jones has written in his book "Drama as Therapy, Theatre as Living" that there are 9 core processes at the heart of dramatherapy. These include projective identification and dramatic distancing. Projective identification is the process whereby a person feels the feelings that the other is unable to access themselves. Dramatic distancing refers to the way that emotional and psychological problems can be accessed easier through metaphor. Registered Drama Therapists hold a Masters degree from one of three institutions accredited by the National Association for Drama Therapy: New York University, the California Institute of Integral Studies, and Concordia University. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drama_therapy

Issue-implication to teaching:

          Writing therapy is a form of expressive therapy that uses the act of writing and processing the written word as therapy. Writing therapy posits that writing one's feelings gradually eases pain and strengthens the immune system. Writing therapy is adapted and used to work with a wide range of psychoneurotic illnesses including bereavement, desertion and abuse. Currently the most widely used mode of Internet writing therapy is via e-mail (see analytic psychotherapist Nathan Field's paper The Therapeutic Action of Writing in Self-Disclosure and Self-Expression). It is asynchronous; i.e. messages are passed between therapist and client within an agreed time frame, say one week, but at any time within that week. Where both parties remain anonymous the client benefits from the "disinhibition" effect; that is to say, feels freer to disclose memories, thoughts and feelings that they might withhold in a face-to-face situation. Both client and therapist have time for reflecting on the past and recapturing forgotten memories, time for privately processing their reactions and giving thought to their own responses. With e-therapy, space is eliminated and time expanded. The oldest and most widely practiced form of self-help through writing is that of keeping a personal journal (UK English) or diary (US English)—as distinct from a diary or calendar of daily appointments—in which the writer records their most meaningful thoughts and feelings. One individual benefit is that the act of writing puts a powerful brake on the torment of endlessly repeating troubled thoughts to which everyone is prone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing_therapy

My Reflection:

          Drama is a way of releasing emotion with co-actor. Artist who can perform well in drama has a root to dig wherein he burst his feelings for the sake of drama. But how can we apply drama therapy to our lesson? If we are handling a literature subject or English subject that contains story, we may put drama on it. We must assign everybody to participate, we must boost their confidence by telling to them that they can do that. They can release their hatred and bitterness thru drama, they can ease their burden they carry. When we cry, we lessen what is inside. When we laugh, we relieve tension and make our heart healthy.

                Writing therapy is another way of reducing stress and undesirable emotion. By writing, we can compose songs, poem and stories that make the world a place. What the writer feels might reflect to what he wrote. If he is inspired, the content of his piece is happiness. Because of writing, we can a song that chill us like chill-out music and lounge music. As a teacher, we must urge our students to write especially the grade school. Therefore, they can use it in their everyday lives. As an alternative of shouting or doing scandalous act, we ought to write to shun misunderstanding that may lead to rivalry. We must teach our students how to compose a song or a poem, hence they hidden will emerge. They will be thankful because they learn a lot from you but sometimes as a student, we feel boredom for doing things that assemble eye bags to us. But as time goes on, we realized that learning is crucial but this is for us, for us to have a good future someday. Just close our eyes and tell the word persistence.