Graduates of colleges and universities are getting  ready to face “the real world.”

High school graduates on the other hand, are hopeful that they have chosen the right career options.

Amidst the jubilation of course, there are those who can’t celebrate this milestone. Yet. I know three of them, and they are candidates for high school graduation. All three took entrance exams to prestigious universities but passed none.

Disheartening of course, not only to them who are just starting to build dreams, but to their parents too, who, despite this setback, are still by their side, cheering them, encouraging them and telling them that all is not lost.

As a parent and a teacher, I know this is extremely difficult to accept for this setback reflects back to them too.

But as I have explained to a case conference a few days ago, career options are not limited to being a doctor or a lawyer or an accountant or maybe even getting a criminal justice degree.

There are several career options that they can look to, do things that they are capable of doing, things that they feel happy to do. When that happens, no one can tell them that they are not successful. Success is relative and personal preferences dictate how we measure success, not through the standards set by others.

As I have written before, whatever it is that (our) children want to achieve, we should guide them towards more reachable goals.

A lot of professionals in this country are working overseas. Yes, these professionals teach, build structures, take care of the sick and the elderly as well as take care of other people’s children in foreign countries.

These kababayans are all over the world from New Zealand and Australia, other Asian countries,  to the Middle East to Europe to the Americas while others do New York job search.

As a parent and a teacher, I ask myself: Who are left to teach the children?

Truth is, this is one of the reasons why we homeschool, apart from the fact that we only pay half of how much we would when the children are enrolled in regular school.

photohunt

*kababayan = fellow country men

]]> http://teacherjulie.com/2010/03/05/where-are-the-teachers/feed/ 16 http://teacherjulie.com/2010/02/15/we-dont-have-cable-tv/ http://teacherjulie.com/2010/02/15/we-dont-have-cable-tv/#comments Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:46:14 +0000 julie http://teacherjulie.com/?p=4852 The love for reading books and spending time playing toys that are not battery-operated and/or plugged seem lost in this young generation because of the presence of tech gadgets and fast-paced television shows (ok then, web TV for some) which most of the time, occupy their spare time.

One of the reasons why we have decided to go cable tv-less is to minimize the TV viewing of the children so they have time to read books and play with their toys.

Yes, my kids  are missing out on some fad animation shows that “everyone was raving about”. So?

I know we miss a lot of great shows too.

The educational shows they can’t watch, we get the DVD.

The animation shows they don’t get to watch can also be watched in the web or again, DVD, at a controlled time, when they have finished their homeschooling tasks.

The breaking news can be watched through the news sites. (My Twitter feed is a wealth of breaking news by the way)

Not all catv channels are good anyway because there are some who just show ads about the latest fitness equipment, the best weight loss products and even the latest kitchen equipment. Yes, and if you call now, you will get a 10% discount

We are learning about animals, we watch one of our collections like the BBC documentaries on animals.

We are learning about the planets, we read “The Universe” book and look at planets taken from satellite images.

So  there, I don’t think they mind not having cable tv which is losing revenue due to web TV so the companies are now thinking of new ways to lure more/new customers.

No can do.

I agree with most of the points raised in the article. Learning about difficult concepts through interactive means is one of my “tools of the trade” when it comes to homeschooling my two younger children.

We have watched videos of blooming flowers, a spacecraft lifting off, looked at the photos of the different planets and learned about different historical places to visit in the country, among others.

Not only that, my youngest daughter learned to draw difficult figures otherwise not (normally) possible for children her age. Oh, she can now play difficult songs using her recorder whereas a few weeks ago, she was learning three-note songs

Thanks YouTube for having drawing and music teachers who are oh-so-patient.

The son, on the other hand is becoming more savvy with money matters, budgeting and calculating how much he will earn through his Cafe World. We have incorporated budgeting and mentally calculating how much we will pay when we check out items at the supermarket. He loves statistics which is a key factor with some of the game he loves playing with.

Despite these electronically-attached and internet-based learning, they still managed to play with things that are unplugged. Once a week ( i know, this should be more frequent) we de-stress by running.

And yes, we read books too, especially since they are required to do oral book report for the English subject.

Yes, we are running out of books to read as of the moment.

Tags: social gaming, internet, leaarning with internet, homeschooling

You want to know what I make?

I make kids wonder,
I make them question.
I make them criticize.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them write, write, write.
And then I make them read.
I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely
beautiful
over and over and over again until they will never misspell
either one of those words again.
I make them show all their work in math.
And hide it on their final drafts in English.
I make them understand that if you got this (brains)
then you follow this (heart) and if someone ever tries to judge you
by what you make, you give them this (the finger).

Read it all here. Watch the video here.

Thank you very much Myepinoy for sharing this video on Plurk.

She was able to learn how to play the recorder by just watching YouTube videos. She can also play the piano by ear. She can also draw well by following instructions from yes, YouTube videos. She has a hard time with mathematical problems though. Oh well..

Musician and/or graphic artist in the making? She says she wants to be a teacher. Ahem.

Our son on the other hand is great with numbers.

He is good with statistics and is quite interested in gathering data on things he find interesting like world population, areas of countries, top speed of exotic cars and even world records like tallest buildings.

This early I am thinking that he can do well in actuarial science, you know that discipline about statistics, economics and risk taking (read: life insurance policies among others).

Yes, I know I am getting ahead of time when I think about this since he always say he wants to be a chef. Ok then…

Our eldest daughter, on the other hand, wants to do something that is connected with designing.

Do you know what your children are good at? Do you know what they dream of becoming when they grow up?