"cleaners" and allergic rhinitis

eversince this 4-day work period started, janitors and janitress in our building stopped sweeping and cleaning the marbled floor in our office. now, everything is dusty and you can see footprints on the floor. they still mop it but only leaves dirty watermarks because as i've said earlier, nobody sweeps it anymore.

i remember when i was in high school we used to clean our room. i studied in a public school so we don't have janitors and janitress. our class was divided into five groups. the grouping was called "cleaners" and each group was called by the day of the week that we are scheduled to do the cleaning, like "friday group" for example.

i think that this "cleaners" thing is okay because students are trained to handle responsibilities, like maintaining the classroom clean for the whole day. students will feel what it is like to clean so they will try as much as possible not to make some mess in the classroom. but in high school, this thing does not apply to every student. most students in fact, try to make more mess when it's not their turn to clean. they do this for the mere fact of making the lives of the "cleaners" miserable. it's kinda funny how kids think.

eniweis, back to the friday group. this friday group has the hardest work and the most responsibilities of all the groups. Aside from dusting, sweeping and mopping, the Friday group (since it is the last day of the week) does the floor waxing and polishing. these two are definitely the hardest work to do in cleaning the classroom. unfortunately, i always ended up in this group.

since i have allergic rhinitis, every cleaning time on fridays i had unstoppable running nose, watery and tired eyes, and a headache. this haedache was my perpetual excuse not to do this and that. but of course my ever beloved groupmates wouldn't allow me to rest while they are cleaning. so i still got to do all the dirty work.

i didn't know then that dust and the smell of floorwax are my allergens. and i didn't realized that my allergy was causing my headache. and excuse letter for my case was not acceptable then. (people in my town were not open to ideas of deviations. today, this is still true to some people.)

so everytime my friends and i reminisce those memories, they always tease me with my forever favorite dialogue during cleaning time, "ka ethel, masakit ang ulo ko..."

belly dancing

last friday, April 15, 2005, i just had my first belly dancing lesson!

o diva! ang saya! hihihi. it was fun and i love it!



if you're interested to join, just text me. the class takes place at Tandang Sora ave. every friday morning, 8:30 am. =)

whew!

sa wakas! natapos ko din ang mga requirements ko sa MA. masarap mag-aral kasi nagagamit ko ang utak ko kaso nakakapagod pala kapag kasabay sa trabaho. lalo na kung 8 hours 5 days a week ang trabaho. idagdag pa na matrabaho ang napili kong graduate program. pagod talaga!

pero masaya. nadagdagan ang aking mga kaibigan. mas lumawak ang aking mundo...ang aking pananaw (maliban sa pulitika dahil kahit anong mangyari wala akong kahit katiting na interest sa bagay na iyan).

sa isang sem na inilagi ko sa eduk, natutunan ko ang mga tawag sa iba't-ibang kapansanan at ang mga programa para sa kanila. natutunan ko ang gumawa ng curriculum, curriculum benchmarks, subject map, weekly plan at detailed lesson plan. challenging ang pag-aaral ng kursong education. pipigain nito ang lahat ng creative juices sa utak mo.

natutunan kong teaching is an art. hindi ito nasasaklaw lamang ng siyensya. walang eksaktong pamamaraan ng pagtuturo. bawat estudyante sa isang klase ay may sari-sariling pangangailangan at kinakailangang malaman ito at magawan ng paraan ng isang guro. bawat estudyante ang kailangang isaalang-alang sa bawat leksiyon na ituturo. ang kakayahang matuto ng isang mag-aaral ay nakasalalay sa mga guro nito. mahirap pala ang maging guro dahil napakalaki ng responsibilidad na hawak nila.

pero umpisa pa lang pala ang mga iyan. dalawang taon o mahigit pa ang aking kailangang bunuin upang maging ganap na guro at upang lubos na maunawaan ang propesyon. sana lang manatiling matatag ang aking puso upang matapos ang aking nasimulan.