Posted by Teacher Ria in Teacher's Corner | 0 Comments

After Oprah…

A few months ago, I wrote about Oprah’s upcoming retirement and the end of a 25-season run of her syndicated talk show. I think the end will come sometime in September this year. Just a few days ago (before my TV conked out haha!) I saw trailers in one of the local channels about the last season of the show starting it’s run this April.

Like I had said in that previous post, I had always considered Oprah as one of my greatest teachers. I think I outlined my reasons pretty well already in that article, so I won’t say it again anymore. What I will miss, however, when the show goes off the air, is how I will no longer have the anecdotes to use in class! Haha. After all, it is through her that I got to learn about people like Dr. Phil who gave me interesting things to talk about in my Clinical Psych classes, and Nate Berkus who’s ability to make even the plainest and most boring door plates look pretty (and yes, I got to use this in decorating my preschool classrooms too).

Anyway, I’m sure her show will be sorely missed by her regular viewers and I don’t doubt that she will likewise miss doing that daily. In many ways, that’s still how I feel about having left the preschool. However, I am lucky that, like Oprah, I don’t have to leave that world completely. I can be a teacher, even outside that classroom after all, right?

If you found this post interesting, informative and educational, feel free to take home my notes by subscribing here.

Posted by Teacher Ria in Random Snappies, Teacher's Corner | 0 Comments

Today’s Random Snappy: Oh The Joy!

Yes, it makes me happy to know I am remembered

Posted by Teacher Ria in College, Reflections | 0 Comments

Higher Learning

As I was making my final exam for the developmental psychology class I am teaching this trimester, I was suddenly reminded of the movie Higher Learning. It’s been quite a long time since that film was released, but it dawned on me that the movie was still relevant to many of the concepts I was teaching.

The story revolved around three college freshmen who realized that going to school was more than just a quest to getting their college degrees, rather, it is really a stop in one’s life journey. The learned that the important lessons in life were not just taken from within the four walls of the classroom but that it really went beyond that.

In my class, we did talk about the changing dynamics of education, especially in the past few years. As an educator, I  have seen an influx of very, very young students in masters programs in various universities. In fact, some of my old students ask me to fill up endorsement forms and letters of recommendation for graduate school immediately after they graduate. This lead us to questioning how these decisions influence later life choices and developmental needs and goals. Suffice it to say, these class discussions have really given me a new perspective on the way my students think and how different things are from the time of the movie I mentioned earlier. While there may be differences, however, I think the core components of this life stage still remain: this is the period where adolescents and young adults really search for their identity and step on a path that leads them to their future.

If you found this post interesting, informative and educational, feel free to take home my notes by subscribing here.

Posted by Teacher Ria in Advocacies, Reflections | 0 Comments

No Hands Zone! Hisense Launches Multipoint Wireless Mobility

A few months ago I wrote a post about Justin Bieber and Charice signing the No Texting Zone Pact on the Oprah Winfrey show and so when I got an invitation to the launch of of Hisense Wireless Wonders headsets and Bluetooth accessories, I did not hesitate to attend. Being highly dependent on my mobile phone and given that my many jobs requires me to be out of the house for long periods of time, I thought it best to check out these new gadgets and to see if they will suit my busy lifestyle.

What exactly was launched during the event? Well, for one, we were introduced to the line of Multipoint Headsets and other Bluetooth Accessories that can make mobile connectivity simpler, quicker and most of all, safer. These devices allow you to pair multiple devices thus allowing you to connect hands-free with no hassles of having to pair and re-pair devices repeatedly. The multipoint feature of the Hisense HB200M headsets allow you to even connect simultaneously with two different phones, even if they are under different network providers. Thus, you are always ready to receive your calls with instant connectivity.

Hisense also introduced the HB650S Car kit (which I seriously wanted to win during the raffle, hehe!). Given that I spend so much time in my car, having this will definitely reduce risks as I take calls from time to time. Yes, I know we shouldn’t use the phone while driving, but…well, this definitely makes it safer, right? What’s good about the car kit is that it has a Smart TTS (Text to Speech) feature enables it to inform you who is calling, without you needing to check on the display.

Adding to the versatility of Hisense Bluetooth devices is the fact that it is designed for both fashion and functionality. Whether its for work or for play, these devices will definitely add some flair to wireless mobility.

If you found this post interesting, informative and educational, feel free to take home my notes by subscribing here.

Posted by Teacher Ria in Reflections | 0 Comments

Part-time Woes

I have always loved the fact that I work part-time. I love the flexibility it gives me in terms of managing my schedule and allowing me to do many other things that I love, such as go to yoga, have my “me days” and just take it easy over the weekends. However, every once in a while I am reminded of the little hassles that come with a part-time position, especially now that it’s tax season and that the school year is ending. Yes, granted it’s not that hard to do, it’s still a hassle, right? Haha. Also, being in a part-time position means I have to do a lot of extra paperwork for application of, let’s say, medicare supplement plans. Unlike full time employees, it doesn’t come automatically, I have to file for it. To be fair, however, I get to enjoy the benefit as well, although not completely subsidized. Then again, it’s a small price to pay for all the other things I get to enjoy given my part-time position right?

Okay…I will stop complaining now and get back to work See ya peeps.

If you found this post interesting, informative and educational, feel free to take home my notes by subscribing here.

Posted by Teacher Ria in Arts and Crafts, Classroom Escapades, Teacher's Corner | 0 Comments

Creating Keepsakes and Cherishing Memories

It’s been almost a week since I hung up the Teacher Ria hat that I wore for almost twelve years. It was so bittersweet to close the door on a career that I had (and continue to, in fact) loved very much. For all intents and purposes, being a preschool teacher was really what allowed me to feel most free, deeply loved and full of joy. To this day I question if it was the right decision, but I believe deep down inside that despite the fear and uncertainty, there is a whole new world of learning, living and loving for me to explore.

It was so timely, I should say, that I was invited to Hallmark/All About Scrapbooking Scrap and Tell Blogger event last Sunday at the Filstar head office in Pasig. It was the perfect ending to my preschool teaching life.

To be honest, I tried to get out of going to the event because I was feeling very nostalgic and sentimental (sige na nga, sad na rin) about having had to say goodbye to being Teacher Ria and I just wanted to spend the day in my room moping and grieving this loss (yes, I think it’s still important to honor that, right?). However, my friend Jeman convinced me —errr coerced should I say! haha — me to come and so I did. Armed with several photos of my days as Teacher Ria, I headed off to the event.

Before the event, the days hosts gave us a brief introduction to what scrapbooking is, and explained the different techniques and procedures involved in the craft. They also showed us all the equipment available for the art of scrapbooking, and although this was nothing new to me, I couldn’t help but still be amazed at how much I still didn’t know about it!

After the demonstration and discussion, we were given our own kits to create our own keepsakes

photo taken by Jeman

Like I said, I thought I already knew how to scrapbook well enough, especially since this is something we often do in the preschool. I learned, however, that I can do so much more, such as how to create more nostalgic effects by rubbing sand paper on the colored sheets of paper to make it look old and frayed. An interesting bit of trivia I learned from the event was when you tear paper towards you, it gives you that “torn” texture to the page that is left behind but if you tear it away from you, it comes out more smooth and does not leave marks on it. Never knew that before!!! Haha.

Suffice it to say the event shoo-d away my sadness about leaving my job and left me with a happier sense of reminiscing the twelve years I spent with so many children, all of whom taught me the essentials in life. I think this says it all:

to love with no questions, to laugh with no fear, to try witout worries...all these i learned in kindergarten

Scrapbooking with Hallmark’s All about Scrapbooking line sure makes the craft so much easier. When I was first doing this for my students portfolios in the past, I had to cut out shapes individually, color them one by one and I wouldn’t have very nice materials for it. Now, it’s so much easier! The kits range from about Php 150-200 and the albums about Php 225. The stickers and accessories range from about Php 25-100, depending on the style, size and material. In my opinion,that’s quite affordable!

Although it may not be appropriate for very young children, kids of about age 7 and up can enjoy scrapbooking with mommies and daddies any time. This will be a fun way for them to create their own memories, not just with the photos they see but also with the journey they take while making these scrapbooks.

For me, that Sunday afternoon was well worth it, even though I got lost trying to find the venue! It made me cherish my time as Teacher Ria a little bit more and it gave me that sweet goodbye as I walk away from the preschool into the bigger world out there, knowing that anytime, I can take out that Scrap and Tell project I made and recall those days with fondness.

My Scrap and Tell Project as posted in the All About Scrapbooking Facebook Page

nicey, right? drop by All About Scrapbooking’s Facebook Page and Like my project!!!

Posted by Teacher Ria in Teacher's Corner | 0 Comments

Today’s Random Snappy: Psychic Rewards

Yes, I know I always say psychic rewards won’t pay the bills, but they sure can warm my heart Yesterday I picked up a letter from a dear friend and student. While he may have been my student in class, he definitely has taught me much, much more than I would have ever expected.

Posted by Teacher Ria in Teacher's Corner | 0 Comments

PsychConsult Summer Workshops 2011

Just sharing with you dear readers

Here is a list of summer workshops that the clinic I am part of, PsycConsult Inc.,  will be holding over the summer. I’d give you the link to our website, but right now we’re in some sort of a transition, what with trying to find the best web hosting package for our company and while we’re trying to decide whether to get one of those managed hosting deals or what not.  I’m technically trying to figure things out, but there’s really so much I don’t understand yet about the whole process (what with me not understanding how these servers work, what colocation is and even how to back things up manually in a CPanel. Haha). If you can explain this to me, I’d greatly appreciate that.

Anyway, I’m rambling. Lemme get back to the point: here is a schedule of workshops you can check out:

• For therapists, counselors, teachers and other professionals:
  • A Writeshop on Psychological Report Writing, May 6-7, 2011, 8am-5pm
  • Suicide Risk in Psychotherapy: Assessment and Response, May 21, 2011, 8am-5pm
• For children and adolescents
  • Social Skills Workshop (for children/adolescents ages 8-16), April 26-29 and May 2-5, 9am-11am
• For adults
  • Expressive Pottery (for individuals 18 years old and up), may 9-13, 5:30-8:30 pm

I hope you can join in on any of those workshops. As for me, maybe I can find one that can teach me the ropes in this whole IT world that I try to live in…yes, please define HTML, CSS and all those other foreign sounding codes to me!!!

If you found this post interesting, informative and educational, feel free to take home my notes by subscribing here.

Posted by Teacher Ria in Random Snappies | 0 Comments

Today’s Random Snappy: Caught in the Middle

10 days and I find myself caught in the middle…I know I have to let go to soar, but right now, the fear of the unknown, the losing of the identity…it’s getting to me.

Posted by Teacher Ria in Reflections, Teacher's Corner | 0 Comments

No Students Allowed

Working with adolescents still surprise me, even if I have been working with them for the longest time. That’s one major reason why I don’t like adding them up on my social networking sites, although I do know that some of them do read my blogs. I’m afraid that something I say will be taken out of context and then before I know it, I get caught in something that was not meant to happen. For example, I do talk about a lot of personal things I like to do outside of my teaching life. I am, after all, still human, right? But it bothers me when they see pictures of me in compromising positions (errr…I just mean in a party where drinks are served, in the beach wearing a swimsuit etc.) and so I try to avoid allowing them access to that.

Also, I don’t want them to say that they learned something from me inadvertently. For example, what if I say something about an herbal supplement or a diet drink that I tried…then they do it too…and they say I was able to learn more about slimquick here (or whatever, you know what I mean!!!) and pastes the URL of my status message or Tweet to their own walls and whatnot. Dangerous grounds. Haha.

And so while I know there are ways around social media, I make it a point to try to keep my world as student free as possible, albeit I know impossible. I do, however, APPRECIATE IT SOOOOO VERY MUCH when my students drop by my blog and leave me comments or questions Twitter they’re welcome to, but Facebook and Plurk, for now, I will stand firm and say, no students allowed please

If you found this post interesting, informative and educational, feel free to take home my notes by subscribing here.

Posted by Teacher Ria in Random Snappies, Teacher's Corner | 0 Comments

Today’s Random Snappy: Bye-bye

In most of my blogs, I have a “series”  category. They’re kinda like memes, but these are not formal one’s in the sense that I’m the only one who does it, unlike memes where you follow each other and comment on each others posts. Well, I realized I don’t have one here and so I will start one today.

This is one of my favorite shots from one of our Halloween programs….today it kinda captures exactly how I am feeling….14 days to go Teacher Ria…14.

Posted by Teacher Ria in Lesson Plans, Teacher's Corner, Teaching Resources | 2 Comments

Tutorial and Review Resources

This morning I came across a post by a fellow blogger, Cookie,  where she was sharing a discovery she had made online: in her words, worksheet heaven. I quickly checked it out and by golly, it is indeed a treasure trove full of resources for mommies, those in early childhood education and teachers alike. It’s nice that these resources exist because teaching, both from a teacher and a parents standpoint, can get overwhelming at times. There are so many things more that have to be done so sometimes, setting aside time to make worksheets and reviewers have to be put on hold. This support system can truly make that part of the job much, much easier.

those in early childhood education

Posted by Teacher Ria in Advocacies, Reflections | 0 Comments

Media’s Mixed Messages to Teens

In my practice, both as a teacher and a clinician, I have worked with one too many girls who have struggled with weight and eating disorders. Sometimes it can be a challenge for me, especially since I myself struggle with weight, but I guess that’s really part of the process, right?

What frustrates me about working with these issues and concerns is how difficult it is to maintain or reinforce what we are working with, especially given the mixed signals students (and all people in general I guess) get from various signals from all over. Although I will talk about media in this post, I recognize that they’re not the only culprit in this whole game. I want to make that clear after all

How does media influence an adolescents body image to begin with? Well, let’s face it: through television, magazines and the like, there really is a glorification of what is ” supposed”  to be beautiful. Although, yes, there are shows and the like that DO EMPHASIZE that there is more to a person than size, it is still very much overshadowed by many other signals being given to them. As such, they go on all sorts of diets and take all these diet pills that promise weight loss in just x number of days. Add to this the reinforcements of advertisements and so on and so forth. Sigh. It’s a vicious cycle I tell ya.

So, what’s the solution? I honestly don’t know. Granted that the need to fit in and to look a certain way is part of the developmental process, I think there should be clear-cut and more significant steps that need to be undertaken to make long-term change happen. As such, I applaud the efforts of shows like America’s Next Top Model (yes, even if it is a model search I appreciate how Tyra would always say beauty comes in all shapes, colors and sizes…although in that show we still can see a lot of the stereotypes, right?) and Glee as they try to make changes happen.

What else can we do? Drop me a line here and lets see where we can go

If you found this post interesting, informative and educational, feel free to take home my notes by subscribing here.

Posted by Teacher Ria in Teacher's Corner | 0 Comments

Even Teachers Looooove WIFI!!!

Um…just a disclaimer: when it comes to teaching, I don’t talk or write this way, but on my Facebook, I can be crazy goofy right? Haha….

Anyway, last Thursday when I got to school, I saw a super duper pleasant surprise when I switched on my lappy: a full WIFI signal. At first I couldn’t believe it (well, mainly because for the longest time I was hoping our department would get a wifi signal, after all, almost the entire campus is wifi enabled hehe). To be fair, we did have out local area network or LAN things working, but sometimes, I’d run out of an outlet. Sometimes too I’d end up with one of those cables that kinda would be wonky, so I’d be downloading something (errr…okay fine, I’d be Facebooking haha) between classes and I’d suddenly get disconnected. At least now, I don’t have to keep calling the ITC guys for a network cable tester or a replacement network cable for that matter! Woot. I’m soooo happy.

That should be good right??? After all, happy teachers make for happy teaching mwihihihi.

If you found this post interesting, informative and educational, feel free to take home my notes by subscribing here.

Posted by Teacher Ria in Teacher's Corner | 0 Comments

The World, All Grown Up

I am taking a break from my usual teacher posts and will just share with you a realization that hit me just a few minutes ago: the world I know has really grown up so much! Yes, I know that is part and parcel of life, but it just dawned on me how everyone around me has grown up so much and at times, I feel like I have forgotten to follow suit.

Where is this thought coming from? Well, for one, it dawned on me today because I’m kinda cash-strapped as I quit my job and realized: I forgot to save. Haha. Yes, I still live like money flows out of a tap and that it is an endless reservoir. And so I feel like a little girl waiting for my next allowance. Or the ax to fall, whichever comes first harhar.

Secondly, a school mate of mine from way back when (um…I was a graduating student and she was barely in high school if I remember it right) posted this wonderfully beautiful wedding portfolio in her photography website and I realized: gosh, these are the same little girls I used to go to school with and now look at them…brides and mothers! Yikes. Haha.

Lastly, it hit me that even my body is not as young as it used to be (duuuh!) haha. I remember back in the day when I would bounce back from long, sleepless nights cramming papers and what-not (lets not forget pumped up on adrenaline, junk food and the occasional happy juice). But now…I need afternoon naps and it takes me forever to get out of bed.

Yes, the world has indeed grown up. It’s good growing up, mind you, but today, it leaves me a wee bit nostalgic. It makes me want to take a time out from life as I know it, because it’s moving oh so fast. So, anybody wanna give me a weekend voucher to some swanky hotel or one of those good cruise deals so I can just be careless and free for a wee bit?

If you found this post interesting, informative and educational, feel free to take home my notes by subscribing here.

Posted by Teacher Ria in Classroom Escapades, Preschool, Teacher's Corner | 0 Comments

Field Trip Destination: Paradizoo Theme Farm

A few days ago our school took a field trip to Paradizoo in Tagaytay City.

The kids had so much fun in the vast open spaces of the farm. Bad teacher wasn’t paying attention to the tour guide so I cannot, for the life of me, remember how many hectares the farm is haha, but it took us about 45 minutes to tour the different areas in the venue. From the animal farm to the plants and vegetables, a butterfly sanctuary and a bee center, the different stops we took allowed the kids to see nature at its best.