CHOICES

From the moment we wake-up until we end the day at the comfort of our bed, we are inundated with choices which definitely influence every subsequent action in the verve of our existence. Some of them may sound insignificant but, in actual effect, every choice we make is a crucial decision that enormously defines the shape of our being. Every choice we make either brings us closer to or farther from our preferred destination.

In the course of our decision, we might have been wondering why we opted for a particular thing over the others. What are the reasons in every decision we make and what are the inner motivations that drive us towards a particular decision? Dr. William Glasser, a famous psychiatrist who coined the Choice Theory, identified the intrinsic needs of every human being which provide the foundation for all the motivations which compel us to decide on a particular choice. According to him, every human being calls for love and connection with others (relationship), a sense of competence and personal power (self-fulfillment), a certain degree of freedom and autonomy, joy and fun (happiness) and survival. People choose a particular choice not because of the external stimulus acting upon them but because of the intrinsic motivations which are associated with their inherent needs mentioned earlier. For example, a person would not cross the street on green lights because he knows that people need to stop on green lights but because he has the inner drive that he might be hit by a vehicle when he would decide to cross. It’s not the light that makes the person stop but the fear that he might lose his life when he decides to cross the street. Therefore, motivation is internal. That is why I love to call great speakers as inspirational rather than motivational. There are speakers who could inspire us to do something but the motivation is in us. If one of our needs has been hit, surely we would do something.

Indisputably, our genetic supremacy to pick out a particular choice over the others is the very thing that lies in the narrow line that distinguishes human beings from animals. Whatever we are today, these are all outcomes of the decisions we made before. No one needs to be blamed for we are all responsible of our own actions. We’ve been given the choices and the freedom to choose and it’s our response to those choices that highly matters.

EARTH HOUR 2010

Vote for the Earth, show your support and join this year's Earth Hour by turning off your lights on March 27, 2010 at 8:30 PM.

It's time to take your stand against climate change. Show to the world that you care. Click the banner on the left sidebar of this blog for more information on how you can cast your support for Earth Hour 2010.

Bangkok International Book Fair 2010

It's feast day for book aficionados once more as the 38th National Book Fair and 8th Bangkok International Book Fair would soon unwrap on 26 March to 6 April, 2010 at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, Bangkok, Thailand. Publishers from Thailand and abroad would gather for this big event which would surely be patronized by the locals and expatiates in Thailand. Last year's book fair gathered 42 exhibitors and 1,300,000 visitors.

Aside from huge book exhibition, there would also be seminars and other stage activities to highlight the event. This year's exhibition would be having Japan as the guest of honor so we could expect Japanese culture to be highlighted in the event. It would be a great way to explore Japan without spending much for airfare and hotel accommodation. As this year's theme suggests, "Open a book, Open the world."

For more information of the event, click HERE.

The Real Challenge in Teaching

Recently, I realized that the most challenging part of my career as a teacher does not lie in my students' diverse attitude and behavior but in the type of institution where I belong. I am talking about the personal and professional support that I get from the school. The success of every teacher usually draws inspiration from the support they get from the parents, administrators and other education stakeholders coupled with trust and confidence. I believe there's no teacher who would come inside a classroom with a hope of destructing the students' lives. Every teacher hopes to improve the life of every student he/she encounters that's why providing support to teachers is an imperative since the support that a teacher would get would also support the development of the learners. I extremely feel disheartened to learn that there are education stakeholders who still look at teachers as mere individuals who need to follow what they want for the learners and not as professionals who deserve trust and respect for upbringing the society where we live in. My professor in the graduate school of education once cited an anecdote which tickled both my mind and my heart. According to him, when we notice that our children become physically ill, we immediately run to the doctor to seek advice or treatment for our children. Nobody would usually run to a doctor to dictate the professional what type of medicine should be prescribed. In short, we entrust our children to the doctors. The same thing we do to lawyers when we have legal problems.

As a teacher, it's very rude to you as a professional when you notice that somebody else is doing the job which should have been done by you. It seems like you are the worst professional in the world who is not entrusted of anything. If you implement activities in the classroom, people around start to criticize what you are doing. I am not wondering why a Filipino celebrity once commented that teachers are mere repeaters. "They just repeat what they have learned." Well, teachers would become repeaters if they would not be given the chance to become more innovative just because some officials in the education sector and even in the government as a whole seem to be more knowledgeable than them.

For teachers, starting a project or introducing something new in the classroom is usually a problem especially when you are surrounded by pessimistic individuals who seem to be very satisfied for what they are and objectionably think that innovations are nothing but new problems which would only disturb their practical routines. Sometimes, parents would come to you and tell you that what you are trying to do is just a waste of time and besides their children still have lots of things to do at home. There are also times when administrators disapprove you plans and proposals just because they do not coincide with theirs.

As for me, I know where I stand and I stand to the belief that I know my students more than anybody else at school. I am with them everyday and I personally experience in my classroom the kind of attitudes and behavior they have. Nowadays, lots of teaching methods and strategies came out and all of them acclaimed effectiveness in the classroom. They normally add confusion to teachers as to which method or strategy to use for they all claim to be supported by research. However, the caution is in every teacher. We're the one who are staying inside the classroom and we know which method would work and would not work for our students.