First Hand

     The story, news and updates on Yolanda's wrath is unending especially in the severely hit Tacloban but relief goods have not reached the farthest barangays in the those areas.  Like Leyte, Samar, Cebu and Capiz, the Northern part of Iloilo is already tired of waiting.  They are in dire need of food, medicines, materials for shelter and clothing.

           The news, the photos can somehow touch you to help, be it cash donations,  share goods, repack goods, include in prayers or personally deliver.  

THE NEED TO HELP

           The Iloilo National High School has been the drop point of donations from all over Iloilo for accepting, re-packing and delivering goods to Northern Iloilo.  INHS-School Of the Future students also shared a day of their baon for the victims and gave goods, such as noodles, canned goods, coffee, chocolate drink, rice, bottled water and clothing.  SOF teachers give in  money to purchase biscuits, With that unselfish act by these students (and teachers), I myself would like to deliver goods to the farthest part of Iloilo, Carles. The suggestion came from my Tita (a local of Isla Gigantes) that the residents have not receive any help only helicopters on aerial survey and news men to monitor the island.  People from the Islands not only are hungry but have lost their homes and motorboats or rowboats as well.  

THE RESPONSE TO THE NEED

         Early morning of November 17, 2013,  we (I, my aunt, 2 cousins and 4 of my students) rented a van to load 15 sacks of clothing, few boxes and sacks of goods (from the second floor of FJ building) to get us to Estancia wharf.  The loading and uloading of goods from a 2-motor engine to a smaller motorboat to get us to Sitio Danao-danao in Barangay Gabi, Isla Gigantes is tiring, but when we saw people gathering around us as we prepare for distribution is so overwhelming, we even forgot we have not taken our lunch!

THE MEDIA HYPE

      "They say" you put yourself in danger going to these affected areas, truckloads of relief goods have police/army escorts to go with them since recipients are like ravening wolves when they saw aid coming.  We came with goods together with our escort, our God and his army of angels! What a joy to see cooperative residents patiently waiting for their name to be called and be given goods we brought.  They say some of then ate coconuts for breakfast, lunch or dinner for a week of waiting for help.  

THE FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE

       I have heard stories of fellow teachers, friends, students of the their dreadful experience on Yolanda's wrath but to personally see what has happened is so sad.  You will see children along the road waiting for passerby to throw or drop coins to them, you will see signage "HELP, we need food and medicine" and even "Mapalad ka Napoles...", you will see damages to homes, trees and schools.   

       My cousins and Aunt drop by check on my Aunt in Ajuy.  She relates tearfully what she experienced during the typhoon, alone and scared. Crying as we travel to Sara up to Estancia, the more damages revealed in our sights. 2 hours of land travel is over and another 2 hours of water travel is waiting, waiting to unravel more of Yolanda's wrath!

        This first-hand experience of giving goods is so heart-warming.  As we hand in 1 pack of food and 2 packs of clothing, residents of Sitio Danao-danao responded with glee, the thank you, the handshake, the smiles are so memorable!

        

THE CHALLENGE

        The call for help is still up, you can still help! May it be in kind, cash or whisper a pray, the victims of Yolanda's wrath need that! The need to help and share is always there, go share your blessings and be blessed!

     

       

        

Teacher

    A teacher - one who talk a lot in the four corners of the classroom, one who let you do the talking, one who gives you a lot of burdens or demands, one who inspires you to be better, one who notices your faults, one who can be your mother, your friend...

  Whatever a teacher is to you, you will always remember a teacher. What you have learned and what you have become.

  As a teacher I would like to share an output written by a student in her chemistry journal just this first grading period (and expecting more in the next grading periods and the next years):

"Do you ever wonder what's the role of chemistry in our daily life? Why do we need to study it? What is there in chemistry that doesn't contain any other subject matters? Is chemistry really that important? We actually use or apply chemistry in our daily life, we just didn't recognized it. Like observing the people around you. That's part of a scientific method. Or burning a plastic. That's a chemical change. Breathing is also chemistry. All problems have answers and solutions. Believe it or not, it is simply chemistry.

Like us, chemistry had its own past. Aristotle became the most influential of the Greek philosophers, and he proposed that there were also four fundamental properties mainly hotness, coldness, dryness and wetness. From the beginning of the Christian Era to the 17th and 18th centuries was the period of chemistry known as Alchemy. It is the science concerned with transmutation of one element into another. Until the latter part of the 18th century, chemistry didn't evolve. Antoine Laurant ea Voisier was considered the father of modern chemistry. In the middle of the nineteenth century, only about sixty elements were known. The first periodic table was published by Dmitri Mendeleev.

Solving how many meters are there in one kilometer is also a part of chemistry. You use the DAM Conversion. You can also convert grams to kilograms, liters to milliliter and hours to seconds. If you have a fever, you can also convert your temperature. Try converting celsius into fahrenheit. Even though you're sick you can still apply the concept of chemistry. Mole Conversion, now that's another kind of conversion. You use the Avogadro's Number (6.02 × 1023) made by the Italian chemist, Amadeo Avogadro. Atoms are the smallest particle of an element. Inside an atom, you can find the nucleus. Inside the nucleus there is a proton and a neutron. The electrons are circling around the nucleus. Each with it's own charge, proton has a positive one, electrons have negative while the neutron has none. To be honest, in all of our lessons, I find the mole conversion hard.

The human eye observes changes in matter, but how to identify what type of change the matter underwent? Changes in matter occur every day. There are two types of ways how matter changes. First the Physical Change, like cutting a sheet of paper. It would still be paper however it would be a different shape. And second is the Chemical Change like burning the paper to ashes. You can't return ashes to paper, right? Matter is known to exist in three states; solid, liquid and gas. Solids have molecules that are near each other, that's why it has a definite shape and volume. The molecules of a liquid are not that far from each other but it only takes the shape of the container. While the molecules of gas are far away from each other. That's the reason why gas has no definite volume or shape.

Chemistry is a big part of our lives. You will find chemistry in our daily food. Your body is made up of chemical compounds. The emotions you feel like love, jealousy, envy, infatuation and infidelity all share a basis in chemistry. Everything in our world is made of chemicals. Now tell me, is chemistry not important?"

"Danielle cecilia Sulit"

and this one

http://chemistryandus.blogspot.com/2013/08/mole-conversion.html

 

Dealing with Numbers

     Numbers, whether we like or not, significant or not, important or not, we deal with it 24/7.

     Numbers are significant in sports to keep track of the standings, statistics, etc..The winning streak of an NBA team, the current standing of a favorite PBA team, the win-loss record of the sought after UFC fighter, the grand slams of the current top 5 in ATP ranking, the number of goals of the famous striker, numbers are important.

      Everyday as I go to school, in order to time in, we need numbers, withdrawing salary from ATM's personal identification numbers are needed.  Most of  Identification Cards in my wallet are coded with numbers.  Recently, as we are making school forms, LRN (Learners' Reference Number) are needed to be  included.  We just can't get away with numbers!  Call it crazy, scary or witty, numbers can say it all.

     Today, as I listen to 7 speakers of the 7 Last Words of Jesus on the cross, numbers still lodged in my head that one the speakers mentioned and I think is noteworthy.  Jesus Christ our redeemer, said 7 important words, hanged on 1 cross with 3 nails and 1 goal: that is to save us all!  Thank you,  Lord, for dying on the cross for the redemption of our sins! To God Be The Glory!

      .

Re:search

                                                             The image of  triumph!
                              Credits to my brother, for being a gracious, our guide, our photographer.


    After 3 regional contests, 1 division and 1 national level,  hopefully next school year researchers will repeat that which SOF SY 2012-2013 have been through.

    It's almost summer break, thinking already of travel, island hopping and burning my skin to the heat of the sun, but researches  is burning my gray matter already.  One advisee came to me and said we're starting to make a national-worth-research paper, hopefully we can come up with that!  But the saying "You can't teach what you don't have" is quite demeaning, got to search and re-search with my students so that I could re-search myself in this enjoyable summer break.  Refreshing waters, here I come!