Loving

A polymorphism, expressed in different forms

With the structures around, always come with norms

Defined not only by types of feelings

But intended with right actions

An abstraction, represented with complexity

Unwanted characteristics are omitted to ensure its efficiency

Instantiated with a specific class and style

Avoiding extraneous possibilities that are hostile

An inheritance, featured with independence

Creating new ways governed with prudence

“Is a” relationship, basically coupling one another

A measure of how closely connected to each other

An encapsulation, associated with privacy

A fundamental mechanism of wrapping things privately

Building a protective barrier to keep the relationship burning brightly

Most significantly, working together to hold on strongly.

A Single Mom's Journey

Finally! After days of mind-boggling, I decided to write something which may not be applicable to you but to others it’s a YES! I will be writing about the exciting life of a single mom. Wait? What? Single mom? Yes! How come it’s exciting? It’s a big responsibility. Indeed, that was the first thing that came through my mind when I woke up one day and realized that I’m a single mom! But, as I get through it, It wasn’t that hard..IT’S HARDER and that begins my journey. To be able to discuss it clearly, I chunked my topic into three.
1. Single Mom Paranoia

It took me days, well months, to accept the fact that I have to take the responsibility of raising my daughter solely. Can I support her? What would her future be like? Is there strength left in me to carry my responsibilities? What will others say? Yes, a lot of questions! With these questions, I felt like I am losing touch with reality. There were moments that I locked myself in my room, trying to figure out what to do and how to answer these questions. One day isn’t enough to find the answers. You have to go through with it. I wasn’t prepared. I felt like I was sent to a battlefield with no weapon. But, all I got is the will to carry all these things! Can I support her? Yes! I just have to be a working mom. It’s not easy. I remember I was at work when Cecile called me that Shai had a high fever. I have deadlines to beat yet my kid is sick. Which should come first? My teaching job or my daughter? Having many absences might put my job at stake and losing it is like losing everything. After my first two subjects, I went home to check her and came back to school after she took her medicine. I just have to manage my time well! You too. Amazingly, I was able to pass my paperworks ahead of the deadlines. How about finances? I have to get back on my feet. I have to excel at work despite of everything to get a promotion or additional loads! Live in frugality! Forget the wants, prioritize the needs. What would her future be like? Of course, I don’t want her to experience what I’ve been through! Half of it maybe. With my help, she has to achieve her dreams. Finish a degree. Get a career she is passionate with. Have more skills. But before looking ahead, I have to provide a wonderful childhood she deserves. It was hard. I know it wasn’t just me that was hurt. Is there strength left in me? Think positive! I pray fervently to God asking Him to help me. What will others say? Nah, you can’t please everyone. Some are emotionally generous while others are too bitter. Fight for what you believe. As I grow older, I realized that its gonna be “always I”. Those people who came to help you or condemn you are all gifts. Some are wrapped so loosely while others are so tight. Some left you with kind words while others casted pain right though your heart. But those sweet and painful words gave me an opportunity to befriend MYSELF and GOD. See, you’ll get through it!

2. Her Tantrums and my Tantrums

Sole parenting is bittersweet. It’s twice the cry, twice the effort! Yet, in the end it’s twice the cuddles and love! Like every child, she has her tantrums! Since I was a working mom, and mostly I go home tired! Too tired to deal whenever she had her tantrums . As a result, I just ignore her. I will just wait until she stopped. At first, that strategy was effective. But when she learned that I will just ignore her, her tantrums seemed to last long and got worst, testing my patience and it’s thinning! I’m having tantrums too. She’s shouting while I locked myself in my room. It’s crazy and unhealthy! Thanks God, my parents and Google are there to help me. Yes! Tatay and mama never left us which somehow despite of everything, I am still lucky having them as my parents. To Google? Yeah, thank you! I saw some articles related to it but I couldn’t remember the links anymore. I read and applied some of them. There are three things I found effective to her. First, ignore her but don’t go anywhere. Don’t leave her. After few hours, she just stop crying and shouting. Second, if ignoring her doesn’t work, then cuddle her. Ask her what does she want? However, if she wants something that I couldn’t afford, I offer her choices that I can only give. At least, she’s making a choice and she like it. Lastly, if these two options won’t work, I ask her to go out with me. Change place, change the behavior! When she calms down, I started talking seriously to her. This caught her attention! My kid and I are like friends. I don’t spank her because I don’t use it as tool of disciplining her. I want her to be open to me. I’ve been telling her that I’m the first person to know everything. Parenting is a process. There’s no break. It never stop! Sometimes, I felt like I wanna escape from it. But I can’t! Especially now, the she is almost a teen. I have to understand the struggles of being a teenager. She has now her own stance. It brings me a lot of parenting challenges. Thus, it makes my life as a single mom much more exciting!

3. A Beautiful Mess
To shoulder alone the day-to-day-responsibilities for your kids is hard enough even more if you are a working mom. How are you going to manage the demands from work and your child’s needs? Probably, you will end up juggling everything. There are times you came home late and you will see your daughter sleeping like a baby on a couch waiting for you to help her on her homework. There are nights that you need to sleep for an early class but your daughter is groaning from stomachache. Yes, you really have to be flexible because no matter how you plan your schedule there are unlikely events that come on your way. Plan everything. There must be plan A, B and C, or you could have all the letters in the alphabet. What does a single mom’s schedule look like? Mostly would say they have zero time for their social life or to get all the chores done. Truest! There are times you feel like shouting, “I don’t want to be a mommy today!” There are moments that you and your kid fight. But at the end of the day, it’s always a love story.

A Puddle of Happiness

It's raining since last night. As I looked at the window, I saw the cobbles were wet and puddled. Oh puddles! They remind me of my childhood days. After the rain, I used to go to the front yard to look for a puddle. In it, I could see the sky and my reflection. Then, I stamped on it with my feet alternately. Left and Right! Oh, I was so happy. With full of enthusiasm, I was like a little explorer that discovered a lake. I owned it and all I wanna do is to stamp on it, over and over again. It was a splash of huge happiness on a shallow water. Hmmmm, that's what kids are. They are markedly joyous. Back when we were kids,we giggled with our playmates while blowing bubbles, running around the house, jumping here and there, tagging each other and role playing (Ako si Nanay ikaw si Tatay) . It's amazing how we become so happy with simple things. As we got older, we realized that there are many things or other people that have become vital sources of our HAPPINESS. With the numbers and the degree, sometimes we don't even know how to find it. Perhaps, because we don't know its definition? Or we are too overwhelmed chasing it. It was so great that we tend to build intricate schemes around it. Where in life, problems and challenges, often go together. We overcome them in order to achieve happiness. However, we usually overlooked simple solutions and end up battling with something more complicated which definitely keeps us away from what we called happiness. The pursuit of it is like taking a maze instead of passing through a labyrinth. Does it? A wrong approach of achieving it? But how can we possibly go wrong if we know the meaning of it? Or do we really know?

Happiness? Any dictionary will tell you that it is a range of positive emotions conveyed from different experiences. Yeah! It's a state of being happy. And how to be happy? Is it collecting many keychains as you like? Or drinking your favorite whiskey? Perhaps earning more than 10k viewers on the vblog that you just recently uploaded? Receiving a Prada bag from an admirer? Replacing your old car with Lamborghini Aventador? Gaining thousands of likes from one of your FB posts? Building your dream house? Being emotionally reciprocated by the person you loved?Whatever it is, it is somewhat that gives us satisfaction, contentment and joy. And when we look back to it, it is something that gives us a smile, making us think repeatedly. However, pursuing it is not always straight roads. Most of it are rough. But don't worry, we are born to be happy. With it, we have the capacity to create and achieve it. How?

The following are some of the many ways to achieve it.

1. Be thoughtful. Sometimes we are too busy and forget to be thoughtful. Greet your friends on their birthdays. Offer a small pack of biscuit to your officemate who is doing an OT or make a coffee with a sweet note to your husband before he gets to work. I remember, when I was working in a school I used to prepare my baon for dinner and whenever I have spare, I usually bring one for one of my co-teachers and she loved it. Once we do these, we get their smiles back. Such smiles are great sources of happiness.   

2. Be grateful. Everything you have is a blessing. Waking up in the morning is already a grace, God's grace and don't forget to thank Him first thing in the morning before you hook yourself in social media. Always say "Thank you" even to little things. If you think your adversities is eating you, look around you. You are blessed with your family and friends. Thus, people with grateful heart feels more happy with their lives.      

3. Be free from grudges. Life is too short for you to dwell on it. Easy to say but very hard to do. Indeed, so hard and it takes time. I suggest for you to be freed from it, you have to acknowledge its presence. Denial is no good. It will only prolong your agony. Accept it by identifying the outcome. Don't play as the victim of your circumstances. Stop being interfered by your past mistakes. Then, perform an act of forgiveness. Lastly, forget it. Let it go. As Confucius said, "To be wronged is nothing, unless you continue to remember it."  

4. Be fit. Take time to exercise. Dancing is good. Lock yourself in a room, play a loud music enough to move your body with the beat, wear your favorite night dress, face the mirror and dance crazily. Crazy idea? Yet it helps. Or do Yoga with a self-healing sound. If not, walk around the park, enjoy the scenery while playing your favorite music. Indeed, music makes you feel better. It does not just lift your spirit or soul. It also gives positive effect on your body. Try it, listening to a classic reggae while you are on the shore. Then, dance with your bare feet on the sand. Perfect happy scenario!

5. Be a collector of memories than things. Life is more than material things. They just give you a momentarily burst of joys. Yes, buying a new phone makes you happy but eventually you get bored with it. These memories I'm talking about are priceless and are not subject to taxation. No one can steal them from you not even Alzheimer's. Don't let yourself tied to what is temporary. Stop buying things that you do not need. Where did I learn this? 
- First, I learned it from a Filipino adage. It says, "If you make a habit of buying things you do not need, you will soon be selling things you do.” (becommingminimalist.com). Which is right. 
- Second, In Laudato Si, Pope Francis appealed to us to change our lifestyle in some of the little ways called the Laudatoway to save our planet. One of these ways is to change our habit of consumption such us buying things that we really don't need. Admit it, where do these things go of we don't use them anymore? To the trash bins? Such a throwaway perspective! He is trying also to tell us that to live life in abundance is not to live it with wordly materials. As simple as that, why do you have to buy more shoes if you can still use your 5 pairs of shoes?            

- Third, from the two special persons who greatly influenced my way of living, my lola and Tatay. I grew up with my Lola, she lived with us after my Lolo died. Everyday, she told me stories of her life. Mostly, it's about her struggles during the war, how she met my Lolo, how they raised their kids from scratch and how my Tatay met my Mama. It's all about love. With her stories, I was inspired to collect little things that remind me of my past experiences and tell stories about them. And my Tatay? He is a simple man yet I could tell he is smart. He is updated with recent news, both local and international. He likes to socialize and known to many as kind-hearted. With his simplicity, I learned that life is not defined by how cool your car is or how expensive your clothes are. Life is living with your passion such passion he has for the people in his baranggay. I know he cares too much for them which somehow makes me proud of him.   
- Lastly, from the schools I attended. Holy Cross taught me simplicity, to see beyond wordly things, that life here on is temporary and one must live his life to the fullest by acknowledging His presence. While Ateneo taught me to excel in life's challenges with strong faith (Fortes in Fide). Explore life and learn. Travel and be a storyteller to inspire others. 
  

6. Be kind. Yes, especially to those people who cannot repay you. Even if you don't have money you can still be kind by simply holding the door for the person. Perhaps, compliment your loved ones by letting them know how they look great today. Then, smile. Or if someone hits you a stone, hit them with a freshly baked rye bread. It means that if someone shows you rudeness, treat them with kindness. Not fair though? Perhaps, but if you look at it on the other side of the ridge, you are teaching the person to be kind. Sadly, some people tend to abuse this line. They like to cast stones because they know they'll gonna get bread (LOL). Lastly, SMILE. Some would say Smile is said to be the most beautiful gesture one could have. While others would say it is the most powerful weapon that one can break an ice with it (figuratively). As for me, smile is like a chocolate, it induces pleasure. It generates positive emotions. It keeps you younger. It's not a hard thing to do and it's contagious. When you smile to others, they return the favor too. 
According to Connie Stevens, "Nothing you wear is more important than your smile." 

Aren't these things make you happy?

Thus, happiness is like finding these puddles of experiences emanating from great challenges of life. No matter what don't give up. Hold on to it. 

Spread happiness this 2017!

       

How It All Started

Love, felt by someone with a strong constant affection
Cocooned with ardent devotion
Started from exchanging of sweet notes
Intensified by warm touches

Hatred, regarded someone with disdain
Muffled with voices of pain
Began from rumors and false stories
Exasperated by violent actions

Happiness, afflicted someone with gladness
Plunged into a paradise of blissfulness
Startled with sweet smiles
Ingrained by heaven-sent deeds

Success, when someone's dream came true
Cobbled with great sacrifices where desires grew
It came from hurting experiences
Amplified by life's challenges

Unfaithfulness, a pin pricking someone's raft
Ripping one's heart in half
Embarked from chains of doubtful little acts
Thinning one's forbearance

Jealousy, an old familiar sharp pain
Digging a hole in one's heart and brain
Sparked from childish impulses
Aggravated by stories with no assured resources

Trust, a belief that someone is honest
Blended with warm attachment
Sprung from companionship
That through outrageous misfortunes, bloomed a stronger friendship

The Complexities of Love

I was in the bed. I tried to close my eyes to get a good nap yet my mind keeps telling me get up and write something. I blamed the light roasted coffee. Though it gets me butterflies in my stomach, still I can't resist its delicious aroma especially when it is freshly brewed. Anyway, I am not here to give you some impractical stuff about coffee. I am writing to evoke interest mostly about love between two people. I'm not gonna give you any utopian principles or ideas about it. Trust me, mine is imperfect. Such imperfections mesmerized me to hold on to it.

So let's start from my childhood concepts about it. When I was a kid, I used to believe in fairy tales. My mother doesn't read me those kind of stories every night. Instead, my lola used to tell me stories about monsters (aswang, white lady, kapre and duwende) hunting little naughty kids at night. About the fairy tales, I read them from the school library every afternoon. That's because we don't have fairy tale books at home. Why? Purely economy. No enough money to spare for buying books. It's not a priority. Okay lets go further. So what's with these fairy tales. Like little kids, I dreamed of being a pretty little princess wearing a perfect classic pink gown embroidered with sequins to make it more glittery and with a hair style fit for royalty. Sadly, I was captured by foul scary huge dragon and waited for my prince, my knight in shining armor, to rescue me. But the thing is, it took him so long to come and blamed his tardiness for some imaginary car accidents along the road. The underlying funny statement I had in this story is that every princess has a prince and there is happily-ever after in life. I think we ought to love to live our life happily ever after.

As years passed, I was not too clingy anymore with princess-dragon-prince stories. My interest shifted to documentary movies mostly about history and science. My dreaminess about knight in shining armor faded because I was too overwhelmed with my academic performance. Bye to fairy tales, hello to textbooks. Yes, I had previous relationships but they never worked well because I was just too busy studying. I realized that to love someone is an obstacle to get your dreams and that there is more to explore than loving. With the subjects I had in high school, I came up with some concepts about love. Like in Math, love between two people involves different operations. Such love adds worries and happiness in your life, lessens your time supposedly allotted for your studies, multiplies your feelings each day and separates you somehow from your friends or family. How about history? History mostly talks about significant past events. Like History, love transcends you to the limit of time. Such famous person's love stories being told from one generation to another. In Theology?From the biblical text, I learned that love does not keep the records of wrong. When you love somebody you gotta love him or her even his negative tendencies. In Physics, I learned about Einstein's famous equation derived from his theory of relativity. It's the E=Mc2, where E refers to energy, m refers to mass (matter) and c pertains to speed of light (time). Love is a forceful energy that moves two people (matter) together unexpectedly (time). Actually, you can relate some equations to love but none of them can give you a derivation of it. Such forceful energy remains mysterious. In Literature? Oh, there's a lot of short stories that tell you about it. One of my favorites is the Wedding Dance by Amador Daguio. Now this story is an opposite of fairy tales. It never ended happily ever after. He talked about love strangled by cultural reality that resulted to the the unwoven marriage of Awiyao and Lumnay. Yes, unwoven! Awiyao was forced to leave his wife, Lumnay, because she cannot bear a child. With this, he has now to marry Madulimay. Yet, we could tell that he loves his wife dearly. Such situation both gave them a crushing heart. That's what love is, it comes with pain.

When I get to college, I was too lazy to exert extra efforts on my academic performance. Perhaps, I was bombarded with too many programming homework and projects. I was surrounded with pretty geeks and nerds. Unlike some college girls, we don't talk about boys in our vacant time. We talked about National Geographic, ancient time, Bermuda Triangle, The Lost City, The Holocaust, Confucius, Power Puff, Popeye, Harry Potter, WWII, C++, Visual Basic, Discrete Math and etc. We seldom talked about love not until when we were in fourth year college. I happened to like a guy from other university. But it never lasted because I had to focus on our thesis. I can't really tell something deeply about love in college. If I were to define it with programming, well it's like a complex source code. Such complexity has to be broken down to simplify everything especially the situation. You need to find the correct algorithm (strategies) to make it work, which requires more effort and time. With this complicated process, surely you will find some bugs (challenges) and you need to debug them otherwise you can't get your desired output (how your love story will be). One of the nerdy pick-up lines I found about it was from Sherly Wu. It says "Let's make like Dijkstra's and find the shortest path between you and me." By the way to those who have not undergone Data Structure, Dijkstra is an algorithm used to find the shortest path between nodes in the graph. Yeah, when we love someone we wanted to be closer to that person.

After college, I got a job. I have been into relationships and failed. Such failures left my family and friends confused. Honestly, I'm confused too. I guess my fairy tail concept about it was too impractical, my variety definitions on it when I was in high school were too narrow and my nerdy ideas about it makes it more unfathomable. You see, even how well you define it one can still never explain about love between two people. I guess the best way to define it is based on experiences. Let's see. Yeah, love is painful. Love hurts. We need to be broken for us to be whole again. We need to be hurt for us to learn and solemnly promise not to repeat the same mistakes anymore. But with love you can overcome all. It makes you strong. It makes you hold on to life. From my experiences, I happened to like 3 Japanese Proverbs. 1) Saru mo ki kara ochiru. It means even monkeys do fall. No matter how well versed you are in love, mistakes happen. It could be you have done something wrong or you were just in the wrong situation. But again, this line should not be made as an excuse to repeat mistakes. 2) Ishibashi wo tataite wataru. It means tap the stone bridge before crossing it. It's a wonderful proverb. It tells you about being careful in love. 3) I forgot its line in Japanese but it means "Burn not the house to get rid of the mouse." In love we encounter problems, this suggests that let us not make some drastic actions that will just worsen the problem. Also, I've read one of Shakira Sison's lines. She is a columnist and essayist in Rappler (I like her). It says "You need to be like Goldilocks and meet three lovers: 1) one that will be too hard, 2) one that will be too soft, and 3) one that is just right. You can't skip #1 and #2, because it's only after being with them that you will recognize #3." Literally speaking, this does not mean you have to go through all those numbers. If I have choices at first, I would go straight to 3. But you can't just make some eeny meeny miny mo and catch a tiger by tail. It's just telling you that finding love is not easy and it's all about at the right place, time and person.

In conclusion, love is complex. It has a sneaky way of making you happy when you are sad and sad when you are happy. Just keep loving, when it's too much and when you feel like you are losing both of yourselves in it, then stop. Martyrdom is for heroes.

Title credit: Leticia Palarca

Some of my realizations about teaching...

   

  Teaching is a simple word, yet vague. It can be defined in different perspectives. It can be described from one's view, outlook or stance. Plato always talked about knowledge and education in his works. He clearly demonstrated their significance from the Allegory of the Cave where the cave depicts the human condition and the sun symbolizes knowledge. With his so much discussion about it, we could really tell that he showed interest on education which he marked it with pedagogy, an art of teaching. Plato even suggested a systematic way of attaining it. According to him, one must begin at an early stage and that it can be taught through storytelling and poetry (Mondal 2014). Storytelling and poetry are examples of teaching strategies commonly used by the teachers. They have become part of teaching. But what is teaching actually?

     I was a teacher for 11 years and was thrown to different fields of it. With my experiences, I can tell you about my realizations about it and hopefully with those realizations you can formulate your own definition of it.

     First, there's a lot of pressure in it. But if you are 100% passionate about it, I don't think you'll consider the pressure. As a teacher you have to deal with constraints such things outside of your control. One of these is time. Time, it's always gold. (Oh how I wish I could bewitch it). Every minute matters so deal with it. There is a time for preparing lessons, studying the content (which is very crucial), practicing the delivery (which I consider at my early years of teaching) and conducting consultations with your students (mostly overlooked, limited but needed). Why prepare the lesson plan? Well, it is one of the significant components in teaching. With lesson plans, you will be on the right track. It helps you achieve your activities based on the outlined goals. The better prepared  you are the more you can handle yourself to some unexpected classroom events. Why study the content? Yes, there are some teachers laid well their lesson activities but during the actual teaching they failed to dig in the topic by citing scholarly works. The topic should not be coming from rumors or somebody's own opinion. Remember, knowing the content is mastering the subject. With this, you can formulate not just questions, but thought-provoking questions to reinforce the HOTS (High order thinking skills). As John Cotton Dana, a librarian, said, "Who dares to teach must never cease to learn." This of course does not refer to knowing the content alone. Teachers should engage themselves to professional development. If we want our students to learn, it should start from us. Why practice the delivery? Why not? Though you've been teaching the subject 10 times, this does not mean you can handle everything. You might encounter unlikely events. Even do monkeys fall. Rundown the lesson plans before plunging yourself into it. Toss yourself to what-if scenarios. Though practicing may cost extra time, yet, I'm telling you it's way better than seeing yourself as pathetic loser. Practicing may usually means failing in it for many times, but what comes next to it is not perfection but satisfaction. How about conducting consultations? Yes, I see it as part of teaching that requires time. Consultation, though done usually outside the classroom, is truly significant. In teaching, we are not just dealing with students who wanted to finish a degree. We are dealing with lifelong learners. Somehow this is the best part where we can touch them as mentioned by an unknown author "A teacher takes a hand, opens a mind and touches a heart." If we teach our students well, we get appreciation. Probably, they will say "Oh teacher, you explained clearly." But, if we reach out and touch their emotions, you will here them saying "Thank you miss." 5 years later, they may forget the lessons you taught to them but your touch will certainly not be forgotten. This is the very core of teaching, we touch lives. 

     The second realization is that teaching is fun. When you teach, you interact with different students. There are students who are eager to listen, does not want to listen, too tired to listen and preoccupied to listen.That is why your lessons must be engaging. Why it has to be engaging? A teacher must teach to each individual learning style as mentioned by Howard Gardner, an American psychologist, in his theory of multiple intelligences. If we want our students to learn then we have to recognize their different personalities. Such recognition should be reflected in teaching. Explore to more effective methods of assessment. Probably, ask the students to express their ideas individually or by group. Have them show their thoughts through drawing, choir singing, poetry, role playing, making organizational charts and etc. As Benjamin Franklin said, "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." Get the students involve don't just do the talking. We are there not to tell them but to facilitate their learning process. In addition, the teacher must be equipped with wit and sense of humor. Yes, one must have keen intelligence to answer possible questions from the students. But of course, if you do not know the answers, don't trust your random guesses. Sense of humor! Certainly needed but not all the way through the lesson. The question is how do you bring humor in the classroom especially when your talking about the significant relationship between complex exponential to trigonometric functions. Does it make sense? It does. Humor, specifically the no-hurt humors, lighten the topic. Laughing relaxes your mind and your whole body as well. Clinically speaking, it releases endorphins. These are brain chemicals that help reduces the stress level. Thus, laughter is the best medicine. 

     Third, teaching requires passion. Yes. In teaching, content matters but what matters most is how you teach the content that the students will remember it meaningfully. Passion is defined as any compelling emotion or powerful feeling. How do you fused it in teaching? First of all, teaching is not a just a job. If you see it as a job only, then you are not into teaching. It's a calling that needs dedication. Somehow, it has to be developed in you with enthusiasm. It's like a dream come true. You have to love it. With such love you will be inspiring young minds. But how are you going to maintain passion if you are overloaded with paper works and if your classroom is like a hell? I guess overloaded with paper works is not a problem. It's a challenge and all you have to do is work with Mr. Time-Management. About the hell? Just say this all the time whenever you get there. "It's a beautiful morning to go to Hell." It's a matter of mindset. Instead of seeing your students as little devils devouring your interest in teaching, think of them as angels falling from the sky. Then, there is heaven! 

     Fourth, acting is an essential tool in teaching. Teachers should be trained like actors. The moment you get inside the classroom, you have to leave behind your problems. No matter how sad you are about your sick dog, well you really have to stand tall and smile as you get inside. Why? Because the future generation is waiting for you. But every performance requires practice so does in teaching. Furthermore, infuse some theatrical styles. How is this done? Do I have to dance? Why not? I tried this once in one of my lessons. I asked my students to stand and dance with the music I played. Of course, they won't do it unless you will start wiggling and so I did. Then, they followed. It was fun and was one of the good times I had in teaching. With theatrical styles, you have transformed the typical classroom set-up into a new learning environment as needed now in our evolving world. Gone are the days where the teacher will said on low-toned voice, "Okay class, open your book on page 20...." Acting will be even better if you add some voice projections. This does not mean you have to shout all day. Just know when to you use high and low pitch. In addition, voice projection is coupled with body actions. This is helpful too if you want to sustain classroom management.  

     Lastly, You don't get rich in teaching, but if you want to change the world, you teach.

Mondal, P. (2014). Plato's Theory of Education. Retrieved November 24, 2016, from http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/education/platos-theory-of-education/40135/

The Renaissance Man

In early modern period
Stood a man in duckbill shoes
With his myriad of influences
One could tell that he's cultured.

Yes, competent in variety of fields
Knowledgeable and truly educated
Such intellectual vitality can never be desiccated
Contributing significance to the society, not only in politics.

Like a knight, granted with honorary title
He is imbued with broad range of intellects
He had no better weapon than his great works
But praised by many for fighting a good battle.

Standing tall with his exquisitely designed clothing
Making his shoulder and chest noticeable
To many, his exceptional talents seemed to be deliberately visible
Indeed, measured by his ideas, oh so bold and daring.

A versatile artist, a prolific writer on philosophy
Regarded as one of the men with great minds
Admirably characterized by his keenness
Yes, a polymath! Stimulated by his curiosity

With his contributions to the world
He never been rendered as obsolete, he's not
Only when the young generation, remember not
Certainly not! He taught the young minds that there's more to unfold.