Thursday, September 6, 2007

REMINDERS TO VE011 STUDENTS

CLASS... I HOPE YOU'RE STILL CHECKING MY BLOG... IT'S NOT ENOUGH THAT YOU CREATE A BLOG IF IT DOESN'T HAVE ANY CONTENT OTHER THAN YOUR PROFILE, OKAY? THERE ARE STILL A LOT OF STUDENTS WHO HAVEN'T COMPLIED WITH THE REQUIREMENTS...

Thursday, August 30, 2007

TO MY DEAREST VE 011 STUDENTS

Hi guys! The trimester has almost ended. Despite the aching muscles and constant worries that I experienced during this first term of my teaching career, I will never trade having been one of the people who guided you on your first journey towards becoming full-pledged achievers and responsible citizens. It hasn't been easy guys. I have to be honest with you, as I think you were with me. Just like you, sometimes I felt like giving up. I was constanly wondering whether my students were getting the information they needed. Was I really pushing them to be their best? My greatest fear right now is having to fail some students. And I also don't know if I have enough stregnth to see through this. The spirit is strong, but sometimes the ephemeral body won't cooperate. But I have to hold on. Because I cannot preach what I don't practice. And as I want you to hold on to your dream as steadfastly as you could, inspite of the possible disappointments ahead, I'll try to do the same. I really believe that all of us is capable of greatness although there are limitations to what we can do at a single time. So even though I encourage you to do your very best, your health should always come first. Drink your vitamins, okay? And have enough rest. All the success you might achieve in the future will be useless if you won't be able to live to see it multiply, to see your success give birth to many more successes, perhaps through your future children or mentees.

You know what's the hardest thing for some teachers? It's having to fail students -- especially on their first year of teaching... But if we will merely let a student pass just because we pity him or her, we will be committing the same mistakes that the others before us did. All of us have to experience dying at some point in our lives, for us to be reborn and feel the rush of being able to breathe again.

I just want to thank you for at least going through this learning process with me. I was learning a lot as much as I hope you were. If in the future, it turns out that God has a different plan for me, perhaps through this blog, we can still keep in touch with each other. God bless! And I hope to bump against you in the future with contented smiles pasted on your faces which seem to say that, "Even if life isn't easy, I'm on the right track because my other hand is held by God."

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What you have to do for your blogs is show how values education has changed or improved you as a person. You can also illustrate there what you've become since you entered college. This is aside from the journal entries that you have not sumbitted to me... Take care!

Your last journal entry is supposed to be your reflection on relationships (between boyfriend and girlfriend or between friends). What lessons have you learned from your past experiences, if any? How do you make a relationship work? What advice can you give to people?

A short reminder: A person who really loves you will put your welfare first before his or hers. That person will also not lure you to destruction. Always make God the center of your lives. Don't make the same mistakes...

Thursday, August 23, 2007

VE011 - TALENT SHOW PIX

SORRY GUYS FOR UPLOADING THIS JUST NOW... ANYWAY, CONGRATULATIONS TO THOSE WHO DID WELL AND TOOK THE ACTIVITY SERIOUSLY. I ENJOYED WATCHING YOU GUYS PERFORM. GOD BLESS... ENJOY!!!

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BLOG/ JOURNAL ENTRY FOR THE 9TH/10TH MEETING - NEGATIVE PEER PRESSURE

1.Cite one experience wherein you have experienced negative peer pressure.
2.How did you react to it? Why?
3. How did you feel about your reaction/decision?
4. What have you learned/realized from your experience?

BLOG/JOURNAL ENTRY FOR 8TH MEETING - HONESTY

I. Challenge yourself
Choose a challenge:
a. Tell the truth
b. Return recovered things (personal items, money, etc)
c. Admit mistake
d. Return excess change
e. Avoid cheating
On your journal, process your experience with the aid of the following guide questions:
a. What challenge did you take?
b. Were you able to do the challenge? How did you feel about it?
c. What have you realized/learned from your experience?

Saturday, July 28, 2007

7TH MEETING VE011

7th Meeting
Part A. Respect for Physical/Mental Health

What's the big deal about 'under age' drinking?
Facts about alcohol. Alcohol is A drug that works directly on the central nervous system. Alcohol kills more male teenagers and young men than any other drug taken to affect mood and behavior. Most deaths and injury due to alcohol are caused by the way people behave when under its influence. Men fight more, drive more recklessly, and engage in more risky behaviors. Alcohol use is a leading risk factor for the three leading causes of death among youth: unintentional injuries (including motor vehicle crashes and drowning), suicides; and homicides. Alcohol also puts you at a greater risk to engage in sexual behavior which sometimes results to- a sexually transmitted disease or an unwanted pregnancy!

Alcohol intake and teen health

Because the body changes so much as we grow, the ability both to judge and cope with alcohol changes all the time. Everyone seems to know of someone who can drink booze by the bucket-load but this shouldn't be seen as something to aspire towards. Teens are the most likely group to have their stomachs pumped after excessive alcohol intake. At the end of the day, it has to be remembered that alcohol is a toxin.

Effects of excessive Alcohol on young bodies
- Youthful 'immature' organs can literally be poisoned by alcohol.
- The liver can be damaged. It takes a few days for it to recover and to get back to normal functioning after a 'session'.
- The heart can beat so irregularly that it can stop.
- The body can lose temperature causing hypothermia. Every year some teens die when they get drunk and pass out in the freezing cold.
- Too little sugar in the body can cause coma and seizures.
- Breathing can become so shallow or slow that it can stop.
- One of the most common ways in which teens (and adults) die from alcohol is by choking on their own vomit. If you vomit when you are unconscious you can easily breathe it in. If your body cannot get the oxygen it needs, brain damage or death results.

Knowing when to stop drinking alcohol

One of the dangers of drinking is not recognizing when you have had too much. Different drinks have varying alcohol content and the body reacts differently to alcohol according to whether or not you have eaten, how thirsty you are, or even what the time of day it is. Even if you stop drinking, the level of alcohol can continue increasing. No amount of coffee, cold baths, showers, or trying to walk it off will stop it. Taking a meal before drinking only slows the process. Once alcohol gets to the small intestine the effects kick in. The only thing that reverses the effect of alcohol is time.
Source: "Alcohol and Public Health." National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. 31 Jan 2005. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 29 Nov 2006

Research: Alcohol Damages the Teen-age Brain

June 2, 2000 -- Researchers have just come up with another reason to warn teen-agers not to drink alcohol: Specialized brain imaging studies have shown that teens and young adults, who drank heavily over long periods of time, showed shrinkage of an area of the brain that is responsible for memory and learning. This shrinkage was not seen in teens who did not drink.
The risk of this type of damage is greatest in those who begin drinking at a younger age and those who drink for longer periods of time, according to the study.
"Only in recent years have we have known the extent of brain development during adolescence," says co-author of the study, Duncan B. Clark, MD, PhD. "The hippocampus is one of the areas that's rapidly changing at this time and may be particularly affected by alcohol."
But Clark also suggests that the toxic effects of alcohol on the brain might be reversible, especially if the alcohol use is discontinued early.
Susan F. Tapert, PhD, a research scientist with the Veterans Medical Research Foundation and the University of California at San Diego, reviewed the study for WebMD. "We still need more studies, but it looks like there's a good possibility that drinking heavily during the teen-age years could affect your ability to remember things and learn new things," she says. "If you want to do well in school and be able to remember all kinds of things that you learn, it's best to avoid any kind of heavy drinking."
Many people may be surprised to learn that the brain is still developing during the teen years. "Adolescence is a period during which we now know the brain continues to rapidly develop," Clark says. "We know that alcohol can damage the brain. Adolescent alcohol abuse and dependence may have a damaging effect on adolescent brain development, and it is possible that these effects have lifelong adverse consequences.
In this report in the June issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, a special brain scan, called an MRI, was used to measure differences in the sizes of various brain regions in 12 adolescents and young adults who used alcohol excessively, and 24 healthy youngsters who had no drinking problems.
The researchers focused on measuring the size of an area of the brain, the hippocampus, which is known to be sensitive to the effects of alcohol in adults. The hippocampus is associated with learning and memory functions, Clark says. Two hippocampi are found in the brain, one on the right side and the other on the left side.
Both the right and left hippocampi were smaller in teens with drinking problems in comparison with the normal controls. "The difference was fairly substantial, about a 10% difference, which for this area of the brain is a major difference," Clark says. The shrinkage was limited to the hippocampus; no differences were found in other brain areas.
The shrinkage of the hippocampus was greatest in those who began drinking at an early age and in those individuals who were long-time abusers. The authors say the findings suggest that, during adolescence, the hippocampus may be particularly susceptible to the effects of alcohol.
Clark says that studies conducted in animals, as well as on adults with longstanding alcohol use disorders, suggest that alcohol consumption causes the brain damage. Other explanations, however, may be possible. For instance, the brain changes may have preceded the alcohol consumption and contributed to the onset of the alcohol abuse. Or another risk factor may have caused both the drinking behavior and brain changes.
Clark says that at this early stage, it is difficult to say whether brain changes or alcohol abuse come first. He says that longitudinal studies are needed to confirm and expand the findings.
(Source: WebMD Better Information. Better Health)

Cigarette Smoking

Health Effects of Smoking
Each year, a staggering 440,000 people die in the US from tobacco use. Nearly 1 of every 5 deaths is related to smoking. Cigarettes kill more Americans than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide, and illegal drugs combined.
Cigarette smoking accounts for at least 30% of all cancer deaths. It is a major cause of cancers of the lung, larynx (voice box), oral cavity, pharynx (throat), and esophagus, and is a contributing cause in the development of cancers of the bladder, pancreas, liver, uterine cervix, kidney, stomach, colon and rectum, and some leukemia.
About 87% of lung cancer deaths are caused by smoking. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women, and is one of the most difficult cancers to treat. It is very hard to detect when it is in the earliest, most treatable stage. Fortunately, lung cancer is largely a preventable disease. Groups that promote nonsmoking as part of their religion, such as Mormons and Seventh-day Adventists, has much lower rates of lung cancer and other smoking-related cancers.
But cancers account for only about half of the deaths related to smoking. Smoking is also a major cause of heart disease, bronchitis, emphysema, and stroke, and contributes to the severity of pneumonia. Tobacco has a damaging affect on women's reproductive health and is associated with increased risk of miscarriage, early delivery (prematurity), stillbirth, infant death, and is a cause of low birth weight in infants. Furthermore, the smoke from cigarettes has a harmful health effect on those around the smoke.
Based on data collected from 1995 to 1999, the CDC estimated that adult male smokers lost an average of 13.2 years of life and female smokers lost 14.5 years of life because of smoking.
But not all of the health problems related to smoking result in deaths. In the year 2000, about 8.6 million people were suffering from at least one chronic disease due to current or former smoking, according to the CDC. Many of these people were suffering from more than one smoking-related condition. The diseases occurring most often were chronic bronchitis, emphysema, heart attacks, strokes, and cancer.
Cigarettes, cigars, and smokeless and pipe tobacco consist of dried tobacco leaves, as well as ingredients added for flavor and other properties. More than 4,000 individual compounds have been identified in tobacco and tobacco smoke. Among these are more than 60 compounds that are known carcinogens (cancer-causing agents).
Health Benefits of Smoking Cessation (Quitting)
In September 1990, the US Surgeon General outlined the benefits of smoking cessation:
Smoking cessation has major and immediate health benefits for men and women of all ages. Benefits apply to persons with and without smoking-related disease.
Former smokers live longer than continuing smokers. For example, persons who quit smoking before age 50 have one-half the risk of dying in the next 15 years compared with continuing smokers.
Smoking cessation decreases the risk of lung cancer, other cancers, heart attack, stroke, and chronic lung disease.
Women who stop smoking before pregnancy or during the first 3 to 4 months of pregnancy reduce their risk of having a low birth weight baby to that of women who never smoked.
The health benefits of smoking cessation far exceed any risks from the average 5-pound (2.3-kg) weight gain or any adverse psychological effects that may follow quitting.
The risk of having lung cancer and other smoking-related cancers is related to total lifetime exposure to cigarette smoke, as measured by the number of cigarettes smoked each day, the age at which smoking began, and the number of years a person has smoked.
The risk of having lung cancer and other cancers can be reduced by quitting. The risk of lung cancer is less in people who quit smoking than in people who continue to smoke the same number of cigarettes per day, and the risk decreases as the number of years since quitting increases.
People who stop smoking at younger ages experience the greatest health benefits from quitting. Those who quit by age 35 avoid 90% of the risk due to tobacco use. However, even smokers who quit after age 50 substantially reduce their risk of dying early. The argument that it is too late to quit smoking because the damage is already done is not true.

(Source: American cancer Society Inc.)

Part 2: Care for Environment
Ten Basic Tips To Help Stop Global Warming
(Earth 911, What can I do to help prevent Global Warming?)

Don't have a lot of times, but want to take action? Here are ten, simple, everyday things each of us can do to help stop Global Warming. Pick one, some, or all. Every little effort helps and adds up to a whole lot of good.
1. Change a light. Replacing a regular light bulb with a compact fluorescent one saves 150 pounds of carbon dioxide each year.* Learn more about these bulbs and how to properly dispose of these bulbs when they do burn out.

2. Drive less. Walk, bike, carpool, take mass transit, and/or trip chain. All of these things can help reduce gas consumption and one pound of carbon dioxide for each mile you do not drive.


3. Recycle more and buy recycled. Save up to 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide each year just by recycling half of your household waste. By recycling and buying products with recycled content you also save energy, resources and landfill space!

4. Check your tires. Properly inflated tires mean good gas mileage. For each gallon of gas saved, 20 pounds of carbon dioxide are also never produced.
5. Use less hot water. It takes a lot of energy to heat water. Reducing the amount used means big savings in not only your energy bills, but also in carbon dioxide emissions. Using cold water for your wash saves 500 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, and using a low flow showerhead reduces 350 pounds of carbon dioxide. Make the most of your hot water by insulating your tank and keeping the temperature at or below 120.

6. Avoid products with a lot of packaging. Preventing waste from being created in the first place means that there is less energy wasted and fewer resources consumed. When you purchase products with the least amount of packaging, not only do you save money, but you also help the environment! Reducing your garbage by 10% reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 1,200 pounds.


7. Adjust your thermostat. Keeping your thermostat at 68 degrees in winter and 78 degrees in summer not only helps with your energy bills, but it can reduce carbon dioxide emissions as well. No matter where you set your dial, two degrees cooler in the winter or warmer in the summer can mean a reduction of 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

8. Plant a tree. A single tree can absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime.


9. Turn off electronic devices when not in use. Simply turning off your TV, VCR, computer and other electronic devices can save each household thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide each year.


10. Stay informed. Use the Earth 911 Web site to help stay informed about environmental issues, and share your knowledge with others. Together, we can and do Make Every Day Earth Day!

Self -evaluation
Review the results of your personal health assessment and write your realizations and plans about your health in your journal.

Reminders: Please bring 1 ½ x 1 ½ colored ID picture next meeting.

6TH MEETING JOURNAL ENTRY FOR VE011

Class, just to remind you, here is a list of the journal entries that you're supposed to have already written. Also, here is my e-mail address jdtoledo_5113@yahoo.com.ph. I normally access this address, so please e-mail your blog addresses to this one. Thank you. God Bless.

JOURNAL ENTRIES
1. How does Values Education work to your advantage? Describe your first few experiences at MCL.
2. How did you adjust to college life? What were the adjustments that you had to make?
3. What are the two values tht you practiced for two days? How did it go? Describe your experience during the Freshman Night or describe a significant classroom experience.
4. "Do unto others what you want others to do unto you." How would you like to be treated by others when you commit mistakes, voice out opinions or suggestions, and when you don't like to do what they re asking you to do?
5. Write an essay about the most challenging thing you've ever done.


Values Education 1 / Sixth Meeting
Basic Focus Values: Excellence
Thoughts
Excellence is a process, a commitment and a challenge.
“Excellence is the gradual results of always striving to do
better.” Coach Pat Riley

Riley has served as the head coach of five championship teams and an assistant coach to another. He recently won the 2006 NBA Championship with the Miami Heat. Prior to his tenure in Miami, he served as head coach for the Los Angeles Lakers and the New York Knicks. He also played for the Los Angeles Lakers' championship team in 1972, which brings his personal total to seven NBA titles. He is also known for leading LA Lakers into back to back championship (1987-1988), the first team in 20 years to repeat as champions. Pat is widely regarded as one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time. (Wikipedia.org)

“I do the very best I know – the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.” US President Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States of America. As a child, he has to struggle for living and for learning. His family moved to Indiana when he was eight. He described their place as a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. But even so, he still managed to read, write and decipher. He made extraordinary effort to attain knowledge while working on a farm, splitting rails for fences, and keeping store at New Salem, Illinois. Later he found work as village postmaster and as a surveyor. In 1834 he won election to the state legislature, and after coming across the Commentaries on the Laws of England, he taught himself law. Lincoln became one of the most respected and successful lawyers in Illinois and grew steadily more prosperous. Lincoln served four successive terms in the Illinois House of Representatives, as a representative from Sangamon County, and became a leader of the Whig party in Illinois. In 1858, he ran against Stephen A. Douglas for Senator, however he lost the election, but in debating with Douglas he gained a national reputation that won him the Republican nomination for President in 1860. He was re-elected President in 1864. (Wikipedia.org)

“Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.” John W. Gardner

John William Gardner was the former President of Carnegie Corporation, and US Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under President Lyndon Johnson. He founded two influential national U.S. organizations, the Common Cause and Independent Sector. He also authored numerous books on improving leadership in American society and other subjects. Gardner received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964, (it is one of the two highest civilian awards in the United States and is bestowed by the US President). Gardner’s term as secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, was the height of Johnson’s Great Society domestic agenda. During this tenure, the Department undertook both the huge task of Launching Medicare, which brought quality health care for senior citizens, and oversaw a massive investment in education with the passage of federal role in education and targeted funding to poor students. Gardner also presided the creation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. (source: Wikipedia.org)

Excellence is a process, a commitment and a challenge.
Pat Riley, Abraham Lincoln and John Gardner have proven us that achieving excellence is not impossible. To be one of NBA greatest coaches of all time is a process. He sees every game like the “Game Seven of the NBA Finals”, and he takes every lost as a learning experience to improve his team’s weaknesses. Abraham Lincoln commits himself to deliver the best he knows and the best he can. This makes him one of the excellent US Presidents. For John Gardner, excellence can be achieved by doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. It’s not impossible but it’s not easy either. Gardner is able to win this challenge by finding new meaning and reasons in doing every task at hand.
To do good is innate among us. To do better, let’s explore our possibilities. Achieving excellence is a life time commitment to do the best we can.

V. Challenge yourself

1. For one week, challenge yourself to:
a. Get high score in a quiz or seatwork,
b. To recite in class at least once in any courses;
c. To submit a quality assignment or requirement

On your journal, process your experience with the aid of the following guide questions:
a. What challenge did you take?
b. Were you able to beat the challenge? How do you feel about it?
c. What have you realized/learned from your experience?

2. Assignment for next meeting
a. Read about the effects of smoking.
b. Watch the film “An Inconvenient Truth”, staring Al Gore and directed by Davis
Guggenheim.
On the journal, write your reaction to the movie:
- The most striking scene in the movie
- Your feelings and emotions while watching the movie
- Your realization after watching the movie
- The specific actions you can commit to take care of the environment




Center for Student Development