Success 101: The Definition of Success

Success is fundamental. To someone who works hard to achieve his dreams, success is ultimate. To someone whose life is geared towards success, it’s crucial to his existence. And to someone who dreams it, success is his life itself.

Success can be subjective. As a teacher, I witnessed how my students out-done themselves in terms of accomplishing their goals no matter how simple, small and irrelevant they were. I witnessed how their small achievements empowered them to work harder. And I witnessed too how failure to achieve their goals demoralized their weak souls.

As a teacher, I didn’t make “success” as part of my lesson plan. I didn’t teach success. I never taught them that success is synonymous to happiness. I never taught them that success is what life is all about. And I never taught them that success is the reward of education.

As a teacher, I taught them to live life to the fullest. I taught them to appreciate God’s blessing no matter how small they are. I just taught them how to dream “dreams”. But that lesson… is not strictly for my students only.

Ruthilicious... absent in the Classroom, present in the Chatroom. She blogs when she is NOT Facebooking doing chores and she blogs while she is ALSO Facebooking doing chores.

To read more about her Teaching-Learning Experience... Click HERE.

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Hindsight: No Kidding

I was watching the Today Show one day and one of the feature news is about No Kidding – a unique International non-profit organization devoted to singles and people who are “child-free by choice”. In simpler term… this is the organization for people who don’t only have any kids but they have no kids because they don’t want any, period!

Well, in our present imperfect society, we are all familiar with the typical nuclear family system which we all know has evolved into different categories in our now more complicated culture and altered social orientation. However, despite this truth, when we talk about family we always think that it is not complete without kids. Without kids… there is no such thing as family or so we think.

I am not a member of No Kidding or its British counterpart – Kidding Aside which is a more politically motivated movement on the other side of the planet nor have anything against having kids. In fact I do want to have a kid and almost had one until that fateful day in April of 2008. Since then, my desire to have kids have diminished but not totally forgotten. But given a choice, at my age which is both physical and psychological a disadvantage on my part and with my step-son’s Autism, my desire on having my own is taking a back seat until God decides on my future.

Working with kids for almost half of my life, I know I will make a good mom. Kids taught me compassion, patience, humility, commitment and endurance. Working with kids keeps me young and energetic. But like any other job, it is also exhausting, draining, and frustrating in some aspects.

Working with kids for the longest time now… experiencing their ups and downs… being able to survive each day without dealing with their tantrums and whatnots or without breaking down, I know I am done with kids. Hahahaha.

In my personal opinion, I find kids cute. They are adorable and charming but they can turn into little monsters given a particular time of the day or a specific trigger to activate an outburst. Their sweet little faces and fascinating innocence make me smile but their meltdown melts me down, literally. They are funny but messy and I hate cleaning up. And being able to see both sides of the coin I know that there are advantages and disadvantages of not having kids. To be able to send them back to their parents after the day or when things are not turning up well is just one advantages. [LOL] Needless to say, raising kids nowadays don’t only take a lot of courage, patience and understanding but financial consideration too. And I can go on and on - on almost all aspects but still, it everything is highly debate-able, isn't it? So why bother, anyway?

In my line of work, I somehow gained some expertise on kids. You don’t need to be a parent to be able to know if you can raise a child because I believe that not all parents are capable of raising one. Trust me! There are parents who should not have kids at all.

On the hindsight, I think that kids are cute up to 5 years old ONLY. When they grow older and begin to analyze things themselves and gain more independence and knowledge, they are not that cute anymore. If only they can be very independent and can start working for themselves at that age… they should move out and live on their own once they reached age 5. hahahaha AND YES... I AM JUST KIDDING, of course. The bottom line is - kids are amazingly-difficult-but-horrifyingly-adorable-god's-little-angels-who-can-magically-cast-a-witch's-evil-spell on anyone with their little sweet smile to get what they want. wink*

To those who do not want to have more kids or don’t really want any… working with them is the best Birth Control ever… no side effects! But kidding aside… a child is a blessing and this I still believe is – true, period!

Ruthilicious... absent in the Classroom, present in the Chatroom. She blogs when she is NOT Facebooking doing chores and she blogs while she is ALSO Facebooking doing chores.

To read more about her Teaching-Learning Experience... Click HERE.

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Subject Matter: Boring Subject

I taught Asian History in High School.

History is not the kind of subject that kids would usually find interesting. I hated that subject myself when I was in High School. And little did I know that I will become a teacher someday… much less a History teacher for that matter.

History is the kind of subject that you always find so relaxing… so calming… so comforting because you tend to fall asleep during this period. I usually get reprimanded by my History teacher back in High School because she always caught me sleeping on my desk in the middle of the discussion.

History is the kind of subject that kids would usually skip… play hookie… or drop out because it’s boring. I usually got an F on tests and quizzes because I can’t memorize important dates, events and significant people who made significant impact in history.

And so I taught History subject in High School.

Equipped with my personal bitter-and-not-so-promising-nor-noteworthy experience with the infamous subject, I tried to innovate. I tried to make learning History fun and interesting. I was able to make it more interactive and exciting. I made it more enjoyable for fear that my students would also fall asleep in the middle of my discussion. I can’t afford to give Karma a chance in my class.

One of the innovations that I injected in my lesson planning is the Election Season. I let my students have a mock election as an activity where they were able to experience how to register as voters, campaign as political candidates, count votes as election staffers, and stay vigilant as citizens waiting for the result of the election.

It was a learning experience for both my students and me. Looking back I remember that I always taught my students at the end of the culminating activity only one thing… “What you learned now is not just a lesson for today but rather, a preparation for the future.”

Our Youth is the future leaders of our nation. If we will be able to instill good values and well-grounded principles and ideals in their early age, we can be sure that we will have the best people to lead us. And History will no longer be just a boring subject but an important venue in creating an ideal society.

Ruthilicious... absent in the Classroom, present in the Chatroom. She blogs when she is NOT Facebooking doing chores and she blogs while she is ALSO Facebooking doing chores.

To read more about her Teaching-Learning Experience... Click HERE.

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Subject Matter: Patience

One of the best lessons I learned from my students is patience. I had to admit “Patience” is not my middle name. It has never been and [I thought] it will never be. But surprise… surprise… who could have thought that one day I would wake up to a brand new day with the word ‘patience’ written all over my forehead?

Teaching is a continuous and endless lesson of patience, so to speak. Trying to understand teaching in that context, the teaching profession is for the patient and gifted people with compassion for kids who are both patient and impatient. They say that the teaching profession is a noble vocation but they did not say that you should be a saint to be one. However, you are considered a good person if you are a teacher because patience is a virtue. And that virtue it is enough to be able to handle kids with great compassion. So, “Why did I become a teacher?”… You would ask. “I don’t know.”… I would reply back.

Here is the thing. My reasons may be shallow and selfish but somehow along the way I have realized that they are the only way I could make that drastic decision to change career and see the teaching profession in an entirely different light. My reasons are too shallow that looking back now, I could just give a shrug and laugh about it. My reasons are shallow alright but they are my redeeming factor to change my middle name to “Patience”.

It was not that easy. Being used to my old ways, it was not easy to make some changes to become an effective teacher. I had to admit I failed a lot of times. But I am also proud that I always stood back up each time that I fell. And for those 11 long years of dealing with patience and self-control, I had to admit I become the person that I thought I’ll never be. And for that… I have my students to thank for.

Now that I am no longer in the classroom and don’t have to deal with students, still… “Patience” works well with me. I am now using my acquired “middle name” to deal with my daily routine. I use my middle name to deal with my Hubby and my 9-year old step-son who is diagnosed with autism spectrum. My middle name helps me deal with my new life out of my comfort zone… with my new found family… with the culture shock… and with my future as an out-of-school teacher.

Ruthilicious... absent in the Classroom, present in the Chatroom. She blogs when she is NOT Facebooking doing chores and she blogs while she is ALSO Facebooking doing chores.

To read more about her Teaching-Learning Experience... Click HERE.

Read more...