The Learner is a Teacher (is a Learner)

June 22, 2009 not only marks the 25^th month anniversary of my boyfriend and I, it also marks the day that I start as a volunteer math tutor for third graders.

Teaching was never my calling. I didn’t have the expertise, nor did I have the patience to be one. If my parents asked me to teach them something with software, websites or electronic devices, I would oblige only once, and never again. I keep saying, “I already taught you that!” I have more patience with kids, though. For me they’re easier to handle and their immaturity is understandable as opposed to the childishness of some adults.

My dad volunteered last year for the tutorial program of our parish. He taught math and computer once a week to second graders. I assisted in his computer class once, and it was a nice experience. I can also see that he’s enjoying what he’s doing. So when he recruited me to volunteer this year, I couldn’t find a reason not to accept.

no, I haven’t stopped learning

In fact, I’ve been learning so much that my blogging couldn’t keep up! Since school has started all I’ve been writing about are my adventures there that I sort of forget or run out of time to write on this side of the globe. Hopefully that changes soon. Of course there are many other things in my life other than what I learn in class, but for now that’s my priority. So here’s where most of my updates come in: Estudyante Redux

teevee

Since I’ve gotten so much free time, most of it is spent online and in front of the TV. …or both at the same time. Haha. Of course that’s not all I do.. I eat and sleep too, you know. Anyway, here’s the shows that I found I look forward to watching:

a. Mythbusters (Discovery Channel) – It’s just amusing. And funny when they mess up. Sometimes I pick up a new concept, or learn a new explosive compound, but mostly it’s just fun to watch. 

just another environment docu? Watch and see

Whether you’re a believer, skeptic, activist, apprehensive, positivist….or not any of these, it’s worth watching, listening, considering. This is the Earth we’re talking about. And even if you couldn’t care less about climate change and ecology, the spectacular footage is well worth it.

WATCH.

(a word of warning, though. it’s 1 Hour and 33 Minutes long, so if your connection is slow and/or unstable, watch it somewhere else.)

websites: [1] [2]

the A to Z man

He is a singer, artist, writer, photographer, love-spreader–to say the least. Jason Mraz is awe-inspiring and it’s nice to know that a rockstar like him could be so human and beautiful. If you think his songs are lovely, wait ’til you read his blog! his writing reads as naturally and beautifully as a waterfall produces a rainbow in its mist. I could only dream of writing like him, although I still try.

I think I got the idea to write my learnings down because of him. Those who know me can testify that I can be as excited as hell when I discover something new or old or interesting or… anything, for that matter. Not that I jump around screaming, “OMG! It’s 10 in the morning! WOW!” What I meant was seeing a pattern in wet sand, or finding a flowering weed, or remembering something long-forgotten. The world gives us so many of these moments that it would be a shame to ignore them and just go on with our daily lives. Days would become boring, life would be a chore and burnout becomes inevitable. Mraz, through his songs and prose, breathes a freshness into things, dreary or not. And that’s what makes him great.

Jason Mraz is a wide-eyed spectator and participant to the wonderful world and tugs at our sleeves to show the beauty to all who are willing to see/hear/smell/feel/experience it with him.

Love in colour

If my love had a color palette, this would be it.

Subtle, simple, but can have a lasting impact. 🙂

COLOURlovers is ❤

banana love

I was channel surfing and I caught this Nigella Lawson show on Discovery Travel and Living channel. She took out a zip-lock bag with frozen bananas in it, and she was saying something about breakfast. Anyway, she put in in a blender with a bunch of other stuff (and I was drooling more by the second), blitzed the mush-up of ingredients, poured it into a thermos and ran out of the kitchen.

I couldn’t find the recipe from her own site, but I did find the name (Go Get ‘Em Smoothie) and a personalized version through google and this blog (it’s all the way down at the bottom of the post).

drum to infinity

I was researching on drumstick tips as reference for something I’m planning to make, so I went over to the Zildjian website and viewed their drumstick product line. According to the type of Tip, there were the following:

Name Game

I never thought it would be so difficult to choose a URL for a new wordpress blog. Believe me, before I finally settled to webthings.wordpress.com I had to try out (at least) FOURTEEN different names:

bananas
manamanah
manamana
jinternets
nuts
internuts
shrooms
mushy
searchbar
interwebs
internets
stuff
clutterbox
pandora

And I thought “manamanah” was obscure enough! The worst part about it is that most of these blogs have been unsused or just barely. What a waste of good names. But oh well, right? I guess I’ll have to accept my fate.

welcome to the Wonderful World of Everyday Bananas