musings on growing older

they say that as you grow older, you become wiser. this should be true for teachers or you don't have any business being one.
as you grow older, the age gap between you and your students increases. you start finding ways to bridge the gap only to realize that you may be able to narrow it some but the gap would always be there.
as you grow older, you become softer but there are times when you have to stand firm and not give in to emotions. the world will never run short of sad stories. you have to listen to some but you can't listen to them all.
as you grow older, your wants are trumped by your needs. you may want to stay up late but you need to wake up early for tomorrow's responsibilities.
as you grow older, you will realize that you have to take care of yourself because you do not own yourself anymore.
as you grow older, you will find out that while it's ok to be angry at times, it's not healthy to be angry all the time.
as you grow older, you have to realize that you share the world with other people. what you do to yourself or to others will in some way affect a part of your world.

there's a limit for considerations

When a student fails, he blames everything but himself. Foremost, he would blame his professor for "failing him". While I admit that there are inconsiderate professors, most are not. But how far can a professor go in giving considerations to students? There must be a limit to it.

Let us take the case of Student M. To pass, Student M needed to score 117 out of a possible 100 in the final exam and he knew this. He knew that whether or not he takes the final exam, he will still fail.

If I were in his shoes, this is what I would have done: I would have studied hard for the final exam like I'm gonna die if I didn't and aimed for a perfect 100 (Yes, it's possible). Come exam time, I would have used the full two hours alloted to answer all questions, check and recheck my answers, and write my answers in an organized way. Maybe if get a high score, my professor will take notice and may consider passing me. If not, then I will vow to do better so as not to land in the same predicament next term.

There is a high probability that student M played DOTA or FB or got drunk the night before the final exam. Come exam time, he used a quarter-hour to play "the-proctor-is-not-looking-please-give-me-the-answers" with his classmates. When nobody bothered to play with him, he used another quarter hour to answer (or pretend to answer) the questions. Student M got a score of 15/100. The 15 points are consideration/effort points.

Forward to the next day after I have posted the results of the final exam. Student M came to me and asked for his status. Our conversation went like this.

Student M: Sir, can I verify my grade?
Mr. J: Have you seen the posted exam results?
SM: Yes sir.
Mr. J: What's to verify? You already know what your status is. You failed.
SM: Sir, can I ask for a special project?
Mr. J: There is no such thing as a special project.
SM: But Sir, this is my second time to fail in your class.
Mr. J: And it's my fault?
SM: Sir, I may be kicked out.
Mr. J: And it's my fault?
SM: Sir, you can ask me to do anything. You can ask me for anything.
Mr. J: Do not go down that path. It would be offending.

FACTS: Student M has a penchant for coming to class late and he never passed a quiz. His final average is 47.77 (the passing average is 70.00).

Am I inconsiderate?

The Other Victims of Ondoy

The past term (1st quarter 09-10) is unusual in the sense that it did not run its natural course. Classes were cut short by more or less 3 weeks due to a virus and a nationwide calamity that is Ondoy. In addition to the almost countless flood victims who were sent to evacuation centers, there were "other victims" of Ondoy - the students.
Ondoy's timing is terrible - it struck just before the final exams when every student is cramming to pass their subjects. But unlike the legit victims of Ondoy, there were no volunteers and relief goods in sight to help the students salvage their grades. Many were doomed to fail their subjects, but many were also silently thanking Ondoy for they had an instant excuse for failing.

One conversation with a student ran like this:

STUDENT: Sir, what's my grade?
ASTIGNAGURO: 5.00
S: 5.00?! (Showing an almost genuine sadness.) It's because of Ondoy.
A: Why, was your brain washed out by the floods? Your grade was already failing pre-Ondoy.
S: No sir, my notes got washed out by the floods! And I was not able to review for the finals.
A: A perfect score in the finals will get you a grade of ..... uhmmmm 5.00.
S: Is there anything I can do to pass? Special project? Removal exam?
A: Go ask Ondoy.

Considering that there are only about 11 weeks in a term, that means everything has to be crammed in the 8 weeks that were left. Because of the shorter term, there were less time for studying. Students will not sacrifice their DOTA time and Facebook time just to study. Are you kidding? They'd die of hunger first before you can rip their faces off the computer screen. A good number of students were logged in to Facebook the night before the final exams.
And these students were the other victims of Ondoy?

special students

another term is over. another batch of students slipped off the grips of the great equalizer called physics. some were not able to escape though. poor them. i have to admit, my students in the past four terms were special for many reasons. no, make that uberspecial. first, i followed them (although some followed, stalked me even) from 1st term in July 08 phy10.

in the succeeding terms, i made sure that i am going to teach the regular offering of physics. i wanted to find out who among these wide-eyed (steffi included) late teeners will be up to the challenges i was going to throw their laps. in the four terms that i had them under my spell, i got to know them so well that i can put each one in his/her own category.

THE SOURCE - this student has the brain the heart. he/she not only can easily get what i'm blabbering about in class (and therefore can easily ace the quizzes), but is also ready to share neurons (as well as answers to homeworks) to his/her not-so-brainiac classmates. GRADE RANGE: 1.50 - 1.00. christian c, mark, jessica t, gathe a., cabbage in phy10 and phy11, to name a few.

THE SERIOUS - maybe this student has a grade to maintain. maybe he/she just likes physics. maybe it's just his/her nature. i bet he/she burns the proverbial midnight candle on the night before an exam. on the exam day itself, he/she is the last one to pass the test booklet. well, it usually pays him/her huge dividends as he/she usually gets good grades. GRADE RANGE: 1.75 - 1.00
erika and josielle are the names that first come to mind.

THE GRADE - classmates and teachers usually call him/her "grade conscious" but i prefer to call him/her this. every quiz, this student utilizes everything in his/her arsenal to squeeze a point (bonus, effort, and pogi/ganda) from me. if all else fails, he/she will be on the verge of spraying me with tears in the hope that i'll give in. GRADE RANGE: it varies. usually better than 2.00. i'd rather not mention names to avoid self-incrimination

THE AVERAGE JOE/JANE - this student just sits there. he/she does what is asked of him/her and gives enough effort to pass. a notch or two above those who get 3.00 everytime. GRADE RANGE: 2.75 - 2.25. i'd rather not mention names to avoid hurting someone's feelings.

THE NONDESCRIPT - who are you? i can't even remember your name. and i'm good at remembering students' names! GRADE RANGE: are you my student? hmmm .... mr. trinidad and mr. soriano, you belong to this category (which one of you is trinidad?)

THE 3.00 - this student gets 3.00 every term. either out of pity or out of luck. he/she thinks that there are only two grades, 3.00 and 5.00. carlo and dexter best describe this category.

THE PET - i just love this student. he/she is the source of my (and everybody's) amusement in class. for whatever reason, this student never fails to make my day. he/she is usually cute. if you belong to this category, you're lucky. your name is forever etched in the trashbin of my brain. hannah my daughter outside, charles, and carlo (again!)

wherever you may fall in the above categories, if you have finished the 4 physics subjects required of you, then i salute you.

thank you for giving me the privilege of being your physics teacher.
thank you for giving me the privilege of becoming my student.

a teacher should learn as much as he teaches

wikipedia.org defines a teacher as 'a person who educates others'. the same website refers to education as any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character, or physical ability of an individual.

cutting through the smog, this simply means that if you are a teacher, someone has to learn something from you, and it better be good.

• a good teacher shares what he knows to his students. what he knows may be from his studies or from his own experiences.

• a better teacher does not stop there. he continues to learn more, learn new things, gather more experiences, and shares these to his students.
  

• better than the better teacher is one who after (or in the process) of learning new stuff, shares these not only to his students, but to his fellow teachers as well. this way, the transmission of the good stuff is more far reaching.

the day after tomorrow, i am going to give a talk to fellow physics teachers, which would me my nth time doing so.

not so fast with the applause. no, it does not make me a hotshot that i do this. no, it does not mean i am a better teacher than those in my audience (lots of them for sure are better than me).

what i actually do in these talks is just share with them the good stuff i have recently gained and hope that it helps them when they go back to their schools. it gives me immeasurable satisfaction thinking that students i don't even know would have me as their teacher by extension.

i am a teacher. i learn. i teach. i share.

am i defeating the purpose of my profession?

Another term is over (3rd Quarterm SY 2008-2009). The nth term in my nth year as a teacher. This past term is not quite like the other terms though. Did I hear you ask why? Ok. Here are the reasons.
First, let us group the students into "regulars" (batch 2007) and the "specials" (the rest). I had 159 lecture students last term. 100 regulars and 59 specials.
Although I never liked failing students ("failing" here is a verb and not an adjective), it is inevitable. I don't have a "quota" (I know some teachers must fail a certain percentage of their students to protect their "credibility"), but here are the stats:

• Around 20% of the regulars usually do not make it in my classes.
  
• More than 50% of the specials ALWAYS fail.

For the recent past term, here are the stats:

• Only 1% of the regulars failed. This means only one regular student failed.
  
• Only 15% of the specials failed. That's 9 of 59. And 2 of those 9 did not attend classes regularly. So technically, only 7 of 57 failed (12%).

What the hell happened? Did I become a better teacher? I doubt that. I was the same old fart who taught the same things and told the same jokes.
Did my students shower me with gifts that I passed them for it? I don't think so. Just the wayward chocolate bar and a bottle of scent were given to me. And even if a student gives me anything and then fails to turn in the minimum requirement, he/she would still fail.
Did the students wake up one morning liking physics and performed better? That's like running in a race with an in-grown toenail.
It's not like my students are complaining about the result, almost everybody passed afterall, but what really happened? Maybe I unconsciously changed. Whatever brought that change benefited my students. Did it? They may have to ask themselves the same after a year or so.
Am I defeating the purpose of my profession? If I am, then maybe it's time to retire.

it's been a year. now what?

it has been a year since i started this blog. some things changed. i turned a year older, lost a few thousand strands of hair, added a pound or so of mass in the middle, raised my BP (170/100 the last time i checked!), failed a few students, passed a few hundred of them, got a new ride, and the list goes on.
some things did not change. i still smoke. i still teach. i'm still cheerful (most of the time) and grumpy at times.
now what?
i want to do something new. whatever it is, i don't know yet. it has to be something i haven't done before. it has to be done before i lose the energy and the will.