On Using Poems to Develop Productive Skills

I found this article from the literature category of www.teachingenglish.org.uk. It exemplifies how teachers can use poems as a springboard of their day's lessons.

After reading the article, I have come to realized some reasons that students have very shallow appreciation and interpretation of literature. Teachers themselves who are supposed to encourage students to study literary texts only use them to teach "more important" subjects and consider the entire process as teaching literature.

Since my Undergraduate Degree is teaching English and my Masters is Literature, I have conflicting perspectives on this article. Being a language teacher, I agree that Poetries are authentic texts. They are pretty short and accessible. Some short poetries are easy enough for students to read. Because of internet, looking for extremely short poetries is easier. However, not all poetries can serve the same purpose any time. One example is the very short Haiku. According to our class, before teachers can discuss Haiku, they should discuss Japanese ideologies first. The authenticity of the Haikus can also be questioned as they have already been translated from Japanese to English. Haikus may be easy to read but very difficult to interpret. They may be short but that does not mean they possess the same grammatical structure as how we use English in conversations. Another point to consider is not all students enjoy reading poetries. Some may even find them boring as their content is not literally manifested just like in short stories or novels. It will be very difficult to use them as tools to teach English grammar or even productive skills when the students aren’t even motivated to study poetry yet.

As a Literature Major, I appreciate how we can expose learners to Literature when we use poems for our motivational activities. However, this exposure, I think,  is not sufficient to encourage students to  have a deeper understanding of the text, and go look for more literary pieces on their own. For several years, Language teachers have used Literature only as a tool to deliver their subjects well and have forsaken the interpretation of the masterpieces. What is worse is they label this teaching as teaching of literature. As a result, students become disinterested in reading because they already anticipate the grammar rules that will follow. Little exposure then means little interpretation and even less appreciation.

Even though the objective of the article is only to teach productive skills and even though it claims that one does not need to be a literature expert to use poems in the classroom, I still believe that it takes a good Literature teacher to deliver a great lesson using poetry. One cannot give what he doesn't have. Maybe this is the reason students only study literature for its grammatical components because their teachers can only do so much.

On Hollander's "Teach the Books, Touch the Heart"

From time to time, teachers feel the need to exert more effort in ensuring students' learning. A part of us believe that our success in teaching is measured not only through our students' scores but their lives. Our highest goal becomes making them apply what they learn from Literature to their daily lives because Literature is the study of life. However, this application of learning seem impossible to measure.

In her article Teach the Books, Touch the Heart, published in New York Times, Claire Hollander discusses the ambiguity of assessing students' literary aptitude through objective types of tests.

She summarizes this ambiguity in three points:

1. reading classic literature does not guarantee high scores in national exams

2. appreciation of literary materials needs reliable assessment

3. assessing students' literariness cannot be done through objective tests.

She concludes her article by pointing out that school administrators need to have “extensive written examinations”. This, in the Philippine setting, is not plausible.

I agree that we have to measure our students' learning in different ways apart from multiple choice examinations. I also agree that learners have various ways of interpreting texts and this may be measured by essays. However, essays are not at all reliable. It is considered to be the most subjective among all the tests.

There are so many things to consider in administering essays to students. Among them are the freedom of students to choose their literary texts, the partiality of the instructor toward the subject, and the number of texts a student has to read and analyze, and thus the number of essays teachers have to check within a grading period.

            What the author wants to promote is too idealistic. In the Philippines, teachers have to handle several classes, each of which has 40 + students. Let us say, there are at least three reading tasks, and each task is to be assessed through an essay, that will mean 120 essays in one class for one term. If a teacher has 4 classes in a term, that will be 480 essays to read with varied lengths. A teacher does not only read essays in a semester. He or she has to make other tests, read more books, organize more lessons, etc. With barely five months, how can he or she juggle his/her responsibilities with checking written examinations? Moreover, how can the teacher prove fairness in judging the exams when exhaustion and biases hover in the process even with rubrics at hand? Loving Literature is not tantamount to loving writing. Not everyone likes to write particularly as a requirement. Not everyone can write magnificently.

There is also an issue of grammar.

Ms Hollander writes from a point of view of a Literature teacher handling only a handful of students. Her ideas are idealistic and they drive us back to our original objective of making students learn and love literature and not only pass standardized exams. However, in reality, true appreciation of literature is exhibited in different forms that are difficult to assess. One thing that makes testing easier is the presence of objective exams.

On Teaching Literature (I. Cruz) and Teaching Classic Literature Classically (A. Kurn)

In his article, Teaching Classic Literature Classically, Andrew Kurn summarizes the classical process of teaching in four stages: clarifying the purpose, deliberating materials, reading contemplatively, and teaching intentionally.

Kurn believes that the ultimate purpose of a literature teacher is to cultivate wisdom and virtue and I acknowledge this. The other stages however have triggered numerous questions and reactions in my mind.

Kurn says that teachers must select books with ‘virtues to imitate.’ I don’t exactly agree on this as I think that the preference of materials must reflect the purpose of teaching. If the purpose is to magnify beauty and goodness, then choose works with heroes and their extraordinarily good deeds. If the goal is to open the learners' minds to reality, choose pieces that don’t hold bars. As teachers, we often want students to learn morals from texts but we have to remember that many great literary pieces were not written with the same purpose. We cannot assume and we must not teach students to assume that writers always want to instill lessons in their works.

Kurn continues that educators can choose between didactic (contemplating models) and Socrates (exploring opinions) approaches, both of which are done inside the four corners of the classroom. This raises another question: if we are teaching our students about the study of life, why are we boxing their literary lives in the classroom?

Students respond to technology. They are more likely to read Facebook status and ‘like’ Instagram photos rather than listen to ala-Socrates teachers sharing knowledge in masterpieces of the past. They are more into seeing movie versions of the great novels rather than read the book themselves. How are teachers going to cope up with this budding need to be educated and entertained at the same time?

I have expected the article to enlighten me on making classic literature less boring for learners, given the advance technological age that we are in. However, it sticks to the traditional way of teaching literature as it has promised in its title Teaching Classic Literature Classically the last word now reads as ‘conventionally’. In this Digital Age, when telephone companies and gadget manufacturers release new phones, computers, softwares, and applications every week, and even a five-year-old kid knows how to use iPad, Kurn’s idea of teaching Classic Literature the classic way seems remotely outdated.

Apart from having classic books downloadable as ebooks in iPhone, how else can classic literature invade our learners’ lives?

 “The world has changed, the world is changing, the world will change. The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Isagani Cruz explains this in his article, Teaching Literature in The Philippine Star. Since the teaching of literature is a very old specialization, instead of trying to come up with ‘new’ techniques, educators can improve old techniques that are uploaded in the World Wide Web. What he does in his lectures is not very far from what Kurn has mentioned in his article. Cruz has come up with his own class paradigm called FREE (Feeding the text, Reading the text, Enhancing the text, and Enjoying the text). He improves the ‘classic’ teaching by showing different videos in class. He also divides the time allotted for Socrates-discussion so learners will have enough time to discuss their opinions in class, the author can ‘talk’ through the texts, and leaves 10 % of his time for discussion. Most importantly, he emphasizes that ‘good literature teachers always relate a literary text, no matter how old or foreign, to today’s newspaper headlines.’

Students can be asked to ‘tweet’ significant lines from novels. They can be asked to blog about their reactions on poetries. They can be asked to show photos that capture themes of short stories.

Literature is a study of life. Educators must not only aim to successfully deliver their literary lessons to students. Their goal must be to let Literature influence the lives of the learners. As Victor Ordoñez said, “We cannot equip the youth of the future with the tools of the past.” The classic way of teaching is not totally bad but it needs enhancement. If educators won’t be updated with the latest trends in teaching Literature, students won’t find time to squeeze in ‘boring’ classics in their fast paced, technology-packed, highly interactive lives even when their gadgets are practically full of Classic Literature ebooks.

let's VOLT in

I have been using my notebook for about two years and two months now so it is but natural that it begins showing some signs of aging. Also, it has gone through a lot from my mom's Zuma adventure, my father's chess tournament (himself vs. the computer), my brothers' sounds and games, and my consistent web surfing and blogging. I am not worried about its system breaking down any minute since Russ is there to help me any time. What I am worried about are the external devices of my computer because no matter how much I take care of them, they deteriorate. An example of which is the charger.

If ever I wouldn't be able to beat my blogging record in February last year, I would be blaming my nice little charger. It has not been working properly for days and last Tuesday it completely has stopped working. I have tried all that I could for it including talking to it-yes I have!—and putting rubber bands on it so the cable would stay in place. All my efforts have been rendered futile. Now, I am anxious since I have a total of seven blog posts last year in February and this year, I haven't even blogged about my brother's wedding, my anxiety for our first concert, my newly bought cactus, and the condition of my boyfriend. It's all because of the blasted charger and its inconsistencies.

I have lots of deadlines including the finalization of the playlist my club is going to use for the concert, the grades I am supposed to pass this Saturday and other things I need to attend to this month. This condition of my charger adds up to my stress. The fact that the salary is a week way does not help.

 I am just blessed that I have somebody who is always there to help. With the permission of his parents, Russ has lent me his family’s notebook. This is what I am using for making the grades and I am proud to say that I have been able to finish computing the grades of my students in one day. I am still in the middle of encoding them. I have been able to publish one blog post for February and this will be the second one. I have to be more responsible in using this computer since this is not mine and that means finishing my requirements before the time. Thanks to Russ and his notebook, I am able to accomplish these things.

Hopefully, I will be able to have my notebook up and running again after a week. It is really difficult not having it around since I use it every day. My only resolution right now is to take care of my charger well. Perhaps it will last longer, even by day.

Stalky & Co.-Defying 'Three is a Crowd'

Thursday, January 19, 2012

1:33 PM

3 is not my favorite number. Whenever I am asked to give a number out of the recesses of my subconscious, I often say seven and not three. But quite inexplicably, the digit 3 has become a part of my life.

For one, three is the most abused number in English. Most people particularly those whose mother tongue is not English, this number is often times read, said, blurted out as 'tree.' As a language teacher, it has been my responsibility and, lately, my goal, to correct this mispronunciation.

Secondly, my closest friends usually come in threes or we make up a group of three. When I was in high school I used to write this story/drama/novel (depending on what I wanted to call it when I was young) about my circle of friends who I thought would be with me to the ends of the Earth. Both of them  were smart (forgive me for the use of the past tense since I could not speak for their current capabilities)--one was good in Math, the other in subjects related to memorizing things. I did not excel in neither, just the average but I can I say I started to show my aptitude in languages back then. Right now, I don't even know where they are and I don't seem to care much about their activities.

When I got to the University, my closest friends came from a different batch, different majorship that at first it was most unlikely that we would stick together for a very long time. I am glad to note that they remain my closest friends, Kath and Grace. We got closer because of our school organization, PNU-SG Commission on Elections. I can say that we were the pillars of that organization when we were still in school. We underwent series of trials, hardening questions, harboring grudges and all but we stood tall. Eventually we became friends.

When I started working, I hung out with Louie and Edison, technically my seniors in the University and in the workplace. One would think there would be a gap among us but I am glad to say there was none. They were the reasons why the workplace seemed less stressful for me.

Working for Korean companies, I met friends who shared the same behavior and ideas. If my  memory serves me right, I have written things about them in my blog before and our adventure still goes on. One of the groups I belonged to was EpFour, established to divert my friends and my attention from our depressing work area. Our life then seemed to be so routinary and boring that we looked forward to our after-work meetings. Aside from that, the four of us, Maria, Maiden, Jaina and I, had the same drama and anime addictions. We even had characters that fit our attitude well. The next group I belonged in the same workplace was the Hyotei group, consisted of fanfiction writers that have developed a similar liking for a club in Prince of Tennis, Hyotei. I do not consider it as my favorite team but one of my favorite characters comes from that group. I call Maria Atobe until now because of her similarity with the Hyotei King. Instead of calling Cheska Kabaji, I call her Chezuka because she also has an attachment to the Seigaku leader but in the Hyotei Gakuen, she prefers to be called Kaba-chan because she has a stronger preference for brawny characters than bespectacled ones. As for me, in Hyotei Gakuen, I am Oshitari, the sarcastic "soft-spoken" tensai who never fails to contradict Atobe. Outside of the group, I am either called FujiEiji or Niou.

Third point why I say three has become part of my life, I have this inexplicable attachment to novels with three main characters such as Three Musketeers and Harry Potter. When I was in high school I have a lot of websites about Three Musketeers, I frequented the library for information about Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. Instead of reading pocketbooks like what my classmates used to read, I read, thought, and dreamed about my musketeers and how it would feel like living in France. In my addiction I even wrote an essay--not a good one, mind you--about Alexandre Dumas.

Though he doesn't exactly share his limelight, Harry Potter is often seen with his best friends Ron and Hermione. I have been addicted to them since high school. I have followed their adventure from Philosopher Stone to Deathly Hollows.

When I thought this subconscious addiction to three would stop there then comes the Trilogy of the Lord of the Rings. How crazy is that?

Just lately I buried my head in Rudyard Kipling's novel Stalky & Co. It took me a long while to finish that thin book. At first I could not get the hang of the dialogues in it but the setting of the story helped me a lot as it is a school. The story revolves around this three...I repeat...three boys who excel in different fields but do not run out of naughtiness. Stalky is the leader who can worm his way out of any trouble because of his expertise in spoken language. He is quite witty. M’Turk is a placid guy who storms up when triggered and he has a great aptitude in Latin. Beetle on the other hand is a poet who vents his emotions on paper or anything he can write his thoughts on.

 They, often reprimanded by the school masters and heads, are the pioneers of naughtiness and chaos in school. They don’t care much about rules and stuff. What they know is they have to go to school because their esteemed parents want them to in order for them to become good citizens of their country. As any other students, Stalky, M’Turk, and Beetle use the school as their playground instead.

The book reminded me of how I studied seriously in high school and not so seriously in college. How I made fun of the teachers I did not like particularly those who would just go to school, give us things to do without teaching us anything.

What is more is that the book finally solidified why three seems to be a good number for friends. I cannot imagine ‘Stalky and M’Turk’ tandem without missing Beetle, and it goes for any other tandem missing out a person. In the friendship of three, there may be a stronger bond between two friends, it won’t be the same as having all three together. What is more is there are times one finds himself extremely different from the other that there should be another person to smoothen the relationship. My friends and the books I have read prove this.

If Stalky, M’Turk and Beetle were alive, I would have thanked them. I haven’t examined my life from this angle until now. Who would have thought that the number three has been a very significant digit for me? Even though my favorite number will never be three, I will give more justice to it. Learning that I haven’t been a victim of “three is a crowd,” and I can’t remember a time when that number has done me wrong, I guess it is time for a different perspective. The proper way of putting it will be “the Power of Three.” 

Reading Goals and Resolution

Now that Shelfari has ceased being a boring "interactive" website and being just an online library, I am more encouraged to read. 


The website has a Reading Meter now depending on the goal that one sets. For example, my goal this year is to read 10 books (I saw the reading meter too late as in just last month). I have to update my Shelfari every now and then of what I have been reading and when I have finished any.


You might be wondering why I have only ready ten this year... I just cannot remember the other novels I have read and since I don't want to make a fool of myself enumerating the books that I have read years ago, I have only counted the ones I can remember.


My reading goal for next year will be 24 books. I hope I can accomplish it side by side my studies--I am continuing my Masters in summer. That will be hitting two birds with one stone, aye?

confessions of an ugly stepsister... the beginning.

When we grow up, we learn

that it’s far more common for human beings to turn into rats

I think  I have mentioned once that I choose contemporary books for light reading along side a very boring one. This way I can read two stories at the same time, finish one eventually if the other proves to be one for a person who doesn't do anything but read in his life. That is what I am doing right now. It has been a month since I have written that heart-wrenching thing about Hawthorne's novel. Until now I haven't finished the book. I have moved a couple of chapters though but I am still a loooooooooong way from finishing it. In fact, I am not even half-way through it.

What I am about to finish is the other novel, Magguire's Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. I have only started reading days ago when epiphany has dawned to me that it is stupid to bring a novel no matter how thick it is if I am not to read it. I have left The House of the Seven Gables at home and downloaded an ebook from my netbook and read the copy through my phone. This makes everything lighter and easier since I often look at my cellphone anyway.

As of the moment, the book hasn't gone below my expectations. In fact, it continues to amuse me with its charming descriptions and unpredictable story-line. Okay, that is waaay exaggerated. Since the novel is a "fanfiction" of a famous fairy tale "Cinderella," I already have a clue of what is going to happen. However, the creativity of the writer sifts pieces of ideas together and forms a plot that stands on its own--I am thinking of appropriately making a book review about it.

My goal is to finish it within two days. I still have to squeeze reading in my busy schedule. In school, I have my classes. At home, I mind the grades, papers to check, and my unfinished cross stitch. Besides, I also spend good time with my boyfriend or friends. How do I read? I only maximize the benefits of traffic by reading my ebook while aboard the cab.

I am not expecting a happy ending from the book. I only want to be satisfied with it and find myself having a happy ending by finishing it.

cheater

I believe that beautiful girls don't cheat. It takes craning of the neck, widening of eyes and dislocating a vertebrae to cheat and these three don't contribute in making a girl beautiful. Habitual doing of one thing makes it permanent or if not, almost close to it. If a girl has started cheating since first grade, it is almost impossible for her to remove cheating from her system, therefore impossible to stop herself from craning her neck, widening her eyes, and abusing  her spinal column to extend to the left, or right side. It will not be a wonder if she'll grow old disfigured. Pity.

WHAT STUDENTS SHOULD NOT DO IN GROUP REPORTS

1. Forget the group's index card-students taking up CS and EOC under my supervision know that I put their group grades in their respective index cards. These cards are my sole basis for computation of group recitation. NO INDEX CARD NO GRADE
2. Make fools of themselves by not showing mastery of the assigned topics-What is the report for if students only read their visual materials or handouts?
Who would want to listen to a discussion that is purely lifted from a textbook? This is one of the sins students commit in class. They are obviously not prepared for the report. They try to mask it by downloading things from the net 1 hour before the presentation. And it's all sugar-coated laziness.
3. Use visual materials that are hastily made--Teachers don't usually ask students to report immediately. I, for one, give students time to prepare from 15 minutes to one month. I abhor it when students given ample time to prepare present pieces of bond paper with undecipherable handwriting, post them on the board and force their classmates to follow what they are reporting.
4. Use crumpled pieces of paper as guides for reporting--crumpled paper goes to the trash. I haven't found someone educated who likes keeping trash in his or her bag for eons of years. If ever I would meet someone like that I am sure I would not like him or her…just a random thought. Point is, students who use crumpled paper look like beggars to me, I am sorry for the harsh word, and they don't have a space in my classroom. Wake up everyone.

Teachers have three reasons for assigning group reports:
1. To ensure that students also study on their own--some students don't study unless teachers tell them
2. For variation of discussions--some students get bored when teachers always discuss. And they don't listen. That's a fact.
3. For students to PREPARE--which is easier: an impromptu graded recitation or prepared report where they can be assured of getting good grades if they do their jobs right?
4. For students to practice exuding confidence(from sir Gozun)--"Students won't stay in classrooms forever. After graduating they will be talking to different kinds of people and the best preparation that they can have is speaking in class," Mr Simon Gozun shares. Need I say more?

Whether students believe it or not, teachers don't make grades. We only calculate. How in the world will we calculate from nothing? Sorry, I won't make an effort going to a different dimension just to look for floating figures. Besides I don't have the passport to go to another galaxy. If students don't comply to my standards then I guess I will keep on getting angry…but of course I have to stop somewhere. Yup, I consider zero as my period. Peace.

battle gear on

My CRIM1C students haven't  failed in exceeding my expectations and I hope they would keep it up until the end of the semester. I'll be even happier if they'll maintain their good performance until they finish their course in WCC. Also, I hope by their example, they'll be able to inspire and motivate students, criminology students or not, to do well in class. Full steam ahead, crim1c.

Proud of my criminology1C Snipers. 

so much for june

add ons (they give my life a certain twist):

new workplace

new team

new family

new perspective

new relationship

hello work

started working on the syllabus yesterday. was able to finish it today. am going to present/defend it tomorrow. will they accept or reject my first sylla-baby. hehe.

nihonggo notes and osaka pen

While cleaning up, I saw some of my old notes including the one I used for my nihonggo self-study years ago, and a pen from Osaka University.

Going back to the Japanese study?

Nope, just getting back to anime addiction.

Aside from that, who needs self study when she has a friend who will soon translate the animations they watch together.

Hehe, gambatte  Maiden-sama/ yeobo/ Eejeong/ Ryoma…

…Is it gaMbatte or gaNbatte?

decisions: result

I wrote about my life changing decision here. It has been a year. I am still sitting in the same place, using the same computer. Nothing has changed except maybe for my haircut…and well, my clothes. However, mentally and socially, I think I have grown.

I have learned a different language. I can read and write Hangul now, can understand Korean dramas and correct some hastily made subs. In return, I have acquired a good amount of different culture and included it my daily life.

I have learned to criticize pieces of literature and art (mada mada dane: I still need to study though). I have read a good number of books, blogs, mangas, and yes, fanfictions. All these contribute to more writing styles for my part. I have learned to write more important things (yes, fanfiction IS important) than plain rants in my blog.

I have learned to criticize people under their very noses and get away unscathed. However, I also know now how to deal with different people.

I have learned how to be a better hypocrite. When before, I used to just be silent when I did not like something or somebody, right now, I can smile without giving any clue to what I really feel. How do I know this? Because people still keep coming, even if I don’t like some of them to. I have learned to adjust to what part of me they want to see, what reactions they want from me. I feel honored whenever my real friends point this out to me. At least, I still have that part of me that is human.

As I continue having a mask on, I have learned to be genuine. I have learned to show how happy, angry, and sad I am to people I choose. I speak openly when I am depressed. I clown around when I am happy. I destroy things, or mutter curses in the dark when I am angry.

I have learned to make, value, and keep not good, but great friends.

I have maintained a harmonious relationship with my family despite the randomness of my decisions.

You see, I have grown so much. I can’t say I regret making that decision a year ago. Far from it.

I am not disappointed… But I am also not satisfied…Those conditions are part of my standards of living after all.

For the meantime, I can say I am happy… I know however, that I can be happier.

This is the time that I know that I will make another decision.

2311 tips for writing- Holly Black

Hello…I received this peptalk weeks ago…I have just had the time to repost this. Credits to Holly Black.

1) No one can tell if the writing was fun or if it was hard. Trust me. I know it seems like writing that pours out of your brain in a passionate flood should be better than writing that comes slowly and miserably, but the only person who will ever know the difference is you. So no excuses—get the word count done. (I prefer saying “GET IT DONE”)


2) You don't have to believe you can; you just have to do it. I remember everyone telling me I had to think positive when I was writing my first book. If I believed I could do it, then I could! If I pictured myself published, then it was going to happen! Which sounded great, except...could I do it? If I didn't think I could, was I doomed to fail? What if I was almost totally sure I would fail? I am here to tell you—what matters is sticking with it… just get through today. Then get through tomorrow. Don't worry about the day after that, until it's today. Then you know what to do. (I used to always wish to see my name running along the spines of books in the library. This made me realize that if I would focus on that, I wouldn’t be able to write a book)


3) There aren't good books and bad books. There are finished books and books that still need more work. Please don't let wondering if there's a market for your book or wondering if the book you're writing is genius or evidence that you should be heavily medicated get in the way of the writing. Remember, right now you are not writing a good book, you are writing a good draft. Later, you will have lots of time to kill your darlings, make the suspense more suspenseful, to add foreshadowing and subplots. Later you will have time to change the beginning or change the ending or change the middle. Later, you will have time to cut and polish and engooden. For now, trust the process and write (that said, if you suddenly wake up in the middle of the night and realize what's wrong with Chapter 7, then by all means, jot that down for later). (this goes to those people, like me, who don’t like editing their works…hehe…)


4) Figure out what happens next. Some people swear by outlines; other writers are like to find the story along the way. Whether you're a plotter or a pantser, before you quit for the day, write a little bit of the next scene or a couple of lines on what you think will happen next. That way, you are never looking at a blank page. (“carry a notebook and pen wherever you go” may seem as cliché but remembering how J.K. Rowling drafted Harry Potter inspires me to write in any piece of paper I can put ink on.)


5) Write for your reader self, not your writer self. You are the best audience for your own work. If you would absolutely love a character like the one you are writing about, if you adore books like the one you are working on, then you are going to know how to make the book appealing—write it like you were the person who was going to read it. Remember the fun bits, the juicy bits, the stuff you linger over in other books—the good stuff. (self-explanatory…hehe…I like the italicized part so much)


6) Talk it through. When you get stuck, sometimes it helps to talk through the book out loud—even if only your cat is listening. Sometimes hearing the plot is enough to engage a different part of your brain in solving the problem. (I know some people who talk to themselves while walking to and fro)


7) Give yourself regular rewards. A fresh cup of coffee (even if it is your 353rd) when you get to the end of a scene, an episode of your favorite show, a snack, a couple of minutes rearranging your My Book is Awesome mix—if you give yourself regular motivational rewards, you will have small goals to work toward. (I go to the movies alone to reward myself and get more ideas from the films)


Over the course of this November, you are going to feel frustrated, despairing, elated and exhausted. You will walk around in a foggy haze at your job or the bank or the supermarket. People will talk to you for twenty minutes and you won't have heard a word they said because you just thought of a fantastic new subplot. You will look up things on the internet that make you look like a serial killer. But it's good practice—just think, once you become a professional writer, that's how you'll behave all the time! 


Holly Black
Holly Black is the New York Times bestselling author of The Spiderwick Chronicles. 

*I cut some parts, thinking that her tips are applicable for all writers out there and not only those who are sweating their heads off this November (to the NaNoWriMo participants, Kudos!). The “bold” parts are mine…hehe. To be honest, I haven’t read any of her work yet(I have seen the film though) but I find her tips really informative and refreshing.

being proud

I have studied English for approximately 15 years. I have painstakingly undergone 1) loads of embarrassment whenever my mother talks to me in English, 2) tons of pressure in finishing homeworks and researches that my English teachers have given me (goodness knows how I have worked on them intensively and extensively), 3) buckets of challenges in understanding English movies, television series, and songs—not that I don’t enjoy them, in fact I really do. I think it is only fair that my efforts yield good results.

I find it surprising that some have the guts to tell me that I’m too proud of my English proficiency.  Why shouldn’t I be?

Come to think of it, if I were too proud indeed, I should have gone somewhere where my blessed skills would be more appreciated…

Tututut…

yahoo moment

One of the rewards in studying is being remembered by a 71-year old professor and that is exactly what I received last Saturday. I was able to answer questions about Pablo Neruda’s “ The United Fruit Company, Inc.” and Somerset Maugham’s “Rain.” At the end of that day Professor Venancio Mendiola finally remembered my name.

I consider it as a reward basically because he’s in his prime. Some people forget names easily and people in his age forget almost every thing. Secondly, he is a renowned professor in Literature and Translation and anybody whom he recognizes surely feels proud. Aside from that, I don’t think he still remembers me in my Undergraduate subject, Translation of Educational texts.

Thirdly and most importantly, it is a reward because it gives me the satisfaction of studying again. When I was in my undergraduate course, I made sure I recited every now and then and contributed something to the classroom discussions. In the first 2 weeks of my Masters’ classes, I found it hard to recite because I couldn’t relate. I knew already that Professor Mendiola speaks 5 languages but it was quite unnerving to feel that my classmates spoke in a jargon that I was quite unfamiliar of. Suffice it to say that I had felt quite insecure before I recited last Saturday.

After the classes I felt elevated that I found myself half heartedly sorry for having a field trip on the coming Saturday and not being able to participate in the next discussions. Those recitations did boost my confidence level. I am now more motivated than ever, to think that it is Mr. Mendiola’s class.