A Christmas Story

The music coming from the house

Paulo Coelho

On Christmas Eve, the king invited the prime minister to join him for their usual walk together. He enjoyed seeing the decorations in the streets, but since he didn’t want his subjects to spend too much money on these just to please him, the two men always disguised themselves as traders from some far distant land.
They walked through the centre of the city, admiring the lights, the Christmas trees, the candles burning on the steps of the houses, the stalls selling gifts, and the men, women and children hurrying off to celebrate a family Christmas around a table laden with food.
On the way back, they passed through a poorer area, where the atmosphere was quite different. There were no lights, no candles, no delicious smells of food about to be served. There was hardly a soul in the street, and, as he did every year, the king remarked to the prime minister that he really must pay more attention to the poor in his kingdom. The prime minister nodded, knowing that the matter would soon be forgotten again, buried beneath the day-to-day bureaucracy of budgets to be approved and discussions with foreign dignitaries.
Suddenly, they heard music coming from one of the poorest houses. The hut was so ramshackle and the rotten wooden timbers so full of cracks, that they were able to peer through and see what was happening inside. And what they saw was utterly absurd: an old man in a wheelchair apparently crying, a shaven-headed young woman dancing, and a young man with sad eyes shaking a tambourine and singing a folk song.
‘I’m going to find out what they’re up to,’ said the king.
He knocked. The music stopped, and the young man came to the door.
‘We are merchants in search of a place to sleep. We heard the music, saw that you were still awake, and wondered if we could spend the night here.’
‘You can find shelter in a hotel in the city. We, alas, cannot help you. Despite the music, this house is full of sadness and suffering.’
‘And may we know why?’
‘It’s all because of me.’ It was the old man in the wheelchair who spoke. ‘I’ve spent my life teaching my son calligraphy, so that he could one day get a job as a palace scribe. But the years have passed and no post has ever come up. And then, last night, I had a stupid dream: an angel appeared to me and asked me to buy a silver goblet because, the angel said, the king would be coming to visit me. He would drink from the goblet and give my son a job.
‘The angel was so persuasive that I decided to do as he said. Since we have no money, my daughter-in-law went to the market this morning to sell her hair so that we could buy that goblet over there. The two of them are doing their best to get me in the Christmas spirit by singing and dancing, but it’s no use.’
The king saw the silver goblet, asked to be given a little water to quench his thirst and, before leaving, said to the family:
‘Do you know, we were talking to the prime minister only today, and he told us that an opening for a palace scribe would be announced next week.’
The old man nodded, not really believing what he was hearing, and bade farewell to the strangers. The following morning, however, a royal proclamation was read out in all the city streets; a new scribe was needed at court. On the appointed day, the audience room at the palace was packed with people eager to compete for that much-sought-after post. The prime minister entered and asked everyone there to prepare their paper and pens:
‘Here is the subject of the composition: Why is an old man weeping, a shaven-headed woman dancing, and a sad young man singing?’
A murmur of disbelief went round the room. No one knew how to tell such a story, apart, that is, from the shabbily dressed young man sitting in one corner, who smiled broadly and began to write.

Based on an Indian story.


Translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa

Life Itself Will Let You Know By: Anthony Quinn and Charlie

My dearest fellow bloggers,
This song is dedicated to all of you who are always keeping their dreams alive...
This was the graduation song we sang during my elementary days.Be inspired!Keep on Dreaming!!!



Charlie: Are dreams just things that live inside you? Or do these dreams sometimes come true? And do the grown-ups have them too?

Anthony: Oh yes, my son, but you’re just at the beginning. Just follow your dreams wherever they go and life itself will let you know. (Chorus: And life itself will let you know.)

Charlie: And who will show me all the answers? Will someone help me understand? What will I be when I'm a man?

Anthony: That no one can tell. Tomorrow is a wishing well. You've got to live each moment, everyday.

Charlie: If I stumble and fall, please be there when I call. Will you give me your hand and show me the way?

Anthony: My son, you’re just at the beginning. Just follow your dreams wherever they go and life itself will let you know. Just be, be what you are. Reach out, reach out and take a star and I’ll be with you constantly.

Charlie: I will hold my head high. I’ll touch the sky. You’ll always be here with me. I know I’m just at the beginning…

Anthony: My son, my life is almost over…

Charlie: I’ll follow my dreams wherever they go…

Anthony: And yours has only just begun

Charlie: And life itself will let you know.

Anthony: Just remember, my son, I love you!

Chorus: I know I’m just at the beginning. I’ll follow my dreams wherever they go. And life itself will let you know…let you know…let you know…

Be A Smart in Math!!!

Answer the following math and logic problems. Show your solutions! : )

1. Two mothers and two daughters ate 3 slices of bread for breakfast, each eating exactly one slice of bread. How could that be?
2. Find the 105th term of the arithmetic sequence: 5, 3, 1, -1, -3…
3. The sum of three numbers is 40. The second is 5 more than the first. The third is twice the first. What are the three numbers?
4. Find the slope of the line passing through the pair of points P1(1.5, 5) and P2(2.5, 2.5).
5. Fuji is 9 times as old as his sister. In 5 years he will be 5 times as old as her sister. How old is he now?
6. Simplify the expression: MathSmart Problem
7. Factor the expression completely: 4x2 – 14x + 12.
8. In an Algebra test, the highest grade is 30 points more than the lowest grade. The sum of the two grades is 162. Hazel’s score is 13 more than the lowest grade. What is Hazel’s score?
9. The perimeter of a rectangle is 74cm. The length is one more twice its width. Find the area of the rectangle.
10. Solve the triangles: MathSmart Triangles

Submit your answers including your complete name, school, designation (year level), and contact number to smartschools@smart.com.ph on or before October 23, 2008.

Ten (10) MathSmarts will win a gift from Smart so send your entries now!

Learning English via Youtube

Hey People!
View our videos via youtube justy type lornabeduya in the search area and you can view our videos...write your comments and suggestions through our official web blog over blogger.com

Thanks!
Ma'am Lorns

REASONS WHY THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IS HARD TO LEARN ...shared by my friend Robert Deustch

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) After a number of injections my jaw got number.
19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, that you comb through annals of history but not a single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another?

Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable? And where are all those people who ARE spring chickens or who would ACTUALLY hurt a fly?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible. However, when the lights are out, they are invisible. Why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I
end it.

Mandaue City Comprehensive NHS is nominated for Smartschools' Website of the Month.....Please Vote!!!!

To all friendships and Fellow Comprehensians....
PLs. vote our school's website as it has been nominated for this week.Visit:www.smartschools.ph... to vote for Mandaue City Comprehensive National HS.Let's support our school and make it win!!!

Thank you for your Support!!!!
LORNA BEDUYA
Mccnhs Smartschools DPSA Coordinator

I am Yours

I’m Yours - Jason Mraz Music Code

On- Line Project for First Grading

Questions:
1. Give at least two indicators of Global Warming.
2. What is known as the biggest glacier in Europe? Where is it located and what happens to this glacier now?
3. What is the cause of the melting of ice caps and raising of the sea level?
4. What is the effect of the disappearance of a massive ice floe in Iceland?
5. What is known as the Little Ice Age?
How many said YES to the poll/survey on Global Warming?
6. With the discussion and comments as your guide, Give your own understanding about this saying: " Ice melts faster when it is warmer."
7. How can computer technology help scientists in understanding the Earth's climate?
8. How do scientists determine climatic changes/ differences?
9. How do scientists discover information/ data that will determine the history of natural resources that were buried hundreds and thousand years ago?
10. Is Global Warming for Real? Explain and Justify your answer by giving/citing two valid websites(not similar websites you opened here) with legitimate web addresses.
E-mail questions with answers to my yahoo mail add:annex1shama@yahoo.com

Saving The Great Mother

We call her Gaea. The Great Mother, and it's never too late to save her.
From her, all things in the Universe including our beloved planet came into existence.Beauty, Dance, Music, Flowers, Center, Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, Heart...

Click the highlighted words found in this post to be guided on our topics for this week's lesson.
Enjoy, Reflect, Learn and Make a Difference!

Travelling In Cyberspace..by Paulo Coelho

I copied this text from the blog of my favorite author.It is my intention to post this here in order for all of us to learn the lessons.Dear readers,please do make copies and send this as a gift or for own personal reflections.

This text, which I found on the Internet, is I think worth reproducing here:

I have learned (author unknown)

I’ve learned that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them;
I’ve learned that no matter how much I care, some people just don’t care back;
I’ve learned that it takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it.
I’ve learned that it’s not what you have in your life but who you have in your life that counts;
I’ve learned that you can get by on charm, for about fifteen minutes. After that, you’d better know something;
I’ve learned that you shouldn’t compare yourself to the best others can do.
I’ve learned that you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life.
I’ve learned that it’s taking me a long time to become the person that I want to be.
I’ve learned that you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may b the last time you see them.
I’ve learned that you can keep going long after you can’t.
I’ve learned that we are responsible for all we do, no matter how we feel.
I’ve learned that either you control your attitude or it controls you.
I’ve learned that no matter how hot and steamy a relationship is at first, the passion fades and there had better be something else to take it’s place.
I’ve learned that heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.
I’ve learned that money is a lousy way of keeping score.
I’ve learned that my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and have the best time.
I’ve learned that sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you’re downhill are the ones to help you get back up.
I’ve learned that sometimes when I’m angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn’t give me the right to be cruel.
I’ve learned that true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. Same goes for true love.
I’ve learned that just because someone doesn’t love you the way you want them to doesn’t mean that they don’t love you with all they have.
I’ve learned that maturity had more to do with what types of experiences you’ve had and what you’ve learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you’ve celebrated.
I’ve learned that your family won’t always be there for you. It may seem funny, but people you aren’t related to can take care of you and love you and teach you to trust people again. Families aren’t biological.
I’ve learned that no matter how good a friend is, they’re going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.
I’ve learned that it isn’t always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you have to forgive yourself.
I’ve learned that no matter how bad your heart is broken, the world doesn’t stop for your grief.
I’ve learned that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.
I’ve learned that just because two people argue, it doesn’t mean they don’t love each other. And just because they don’t argue, it doesn’t mean they do.
I’ve learned that we don’t have to change friends if we understand that friends change.
I’ve learned that you shouldn’t be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life forever.
I’ve learned that two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.
I’ve learned that no matter how you try to protect your children, they will eventually get hurt and you will get hurt in the process.
I’ve learned that your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don’t even know you.
I’ve learned that even when you think you have no more to give, when a friend cries out to you, you will find the strength to help.
I’ve learned that credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being.
I’ve learned that the people you care about the most in life are taken from you too soon.
I’ve learned that it’s hard to determine where to draw the line between being nice and not hurting people’s feelings and standing up for what you believe.

ICT Integration Training Insights(Visayas)

Here's my post from my other personal blog on the ICT Training I attended last Summer.I wrote this last May 30,2008;and I am re-posting it here for the benefit of my students who are now experiencing the importance of ICT integration in learning English language.

Around forty eager teachers from the Visayas attended the ICT Integration Training on “Discovering and Creating Digital Learning Communities” held at the University of San Jose-Recoletos ,Basak Campus, Cebu City from May 26-28,2008.
As we disembark the school bus provided by USJ-R, I was excited. My mission just started as I scanned the faces of my co-participants coming from Iloilo, Leyte, Guimaras, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental, Eastern Samar, Siquijor, and Cebu. We were all there for one purpose…that is to create a different way of forming learning encounters with the use of technology.
Sir Dean Hermano and Sir Manuel Caberte were very supportive and really shared to us their expertise of the topics, challenges/activities were performed and objectives were met. The Net is not that new to us and yet, almost all of us agreed that we still have so many things to learn. I never expected that it would be enjoyable…using search engines effectively, scavenger hunting, and some of my favorites the application of “Gamhanang Tulisok” (MMS Power Point), Photo Story, Web Blogging and Marvin Software…Wow!!! (“maka nose bleed ang sessions,hehehe.”)
I will never forget that encounter with Father Jomar Legaspi when he visited and shared his valuable and inspiring message for us. It made me realized that I have the power and that great Responsibility to be an agent of change in Education. The responsibility to be an effective instrument to create a globally competitive learning encounters with my students, an inspiration to my co- teachers and being one of those Filipino teachers across the country who is pro- innovation, transforming the face of public education despite of the many challenges we have.
In behalf of my friends/classmates/co- participants, we are always be thankful and grateful that we have met and we became a part of these dynamic people: Father Jomar Legaspi, President, learn.ph Foundation Inc., Ms. Mae Monjas of Philippine Business for Social Progress, to our dear trainors Mr. Dean Ernest Paul Hermano and Mr. Manuel Caberte and to the Department of Education, for giving us the opportunity to enhance our teaching skills and harnessing our potentials…igniting that flame of passion in teaching for the welfare of our students.
To my friends/co- participants…thank you so much for being so amiable, sweet, cool under pressure and for being true .You really know how to enjoy your Cebu Summer adventure! Until we meet again.

The Teacher as a Warrior of Light

You might all be surprised why your teacher is into advertising her favorite author and the book that goes with it.I fell in love with what Paulo Coelho is sharing with me and to the rest of the world who read his books.It was way back 2006 that I came to know him through his masterpiece The Alchemist; the author is telling the whole world what each one of us really wants to learn and to live life with meaning and embracing all that affect us to be the best of what we can get out of the Life we borrowed from the One who created us...
Here are some of my web collections of Reflections of the Warrior of Light from the blog of Paulo Coelho:

Through and beyond
A warrior of the light notices that certain moments repeat themselves.
He often finds himself faced with the same problems and situations as before.
He becomes depressed. He begins to think he is incapable of making progress in life, the difficult moments having returned.
“I’ve already been through this”, he complains to his heart.
“It is true, you have been through it”, replies the heart. “But you never went beyond it.”
The warrior then understands that the repetition of experiences have one single purpose: to teach him that he has not yet learned.
He begins to seek out a new solution for each repeated struggle - until he finds a way of conquering.

The Flood that won't let Go

June, July, August...I can count the months, years and ages of agony with the wrath i receive each year of being a Teacher.Maybe, this is my reward and one of the greatest challenges I have. Testing my patience all the way to the wasteland of the dreams I built with my students who stayed with me each year in this forsaken,and hated classroom at the far end of the ground floor of the second year building of Mandaue City Comprehensive National High School- Annex Campus.

Another school year and counting...it is always a nightmare! I don't want to wake up if this dream/nightmare haunts me until the end of my days as a teacher. Throughout the course I bleed, and each year of sacrifice leaps the hearts of my students; leaving the room with dreadful memories like dengue and sanitation... scared and scarred them as they say goodbye to the "swimming pool room".

But mind you, the room where I stayed for nearly twelve years taught us a lot of lessons...and even built principles and life- changing values that have/had made me and my students realized; that Life is like living in a room full of water that cleanses and freshens us up every time we get Dirty....

Life's Reflections1

The Man Who Thinks He Can
If you think you're beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don't.
If you'd like to win, but think you can't,
It's almost a cinch you won't.
If you think you'll lose, you've lost;
For out in the world we find
Success being with a fellow's will;
It's all in the state of mind.If you think you're outclassed, you are;
You've got to think high to rise.
You've got to be sure of yourself
Before you can ever win a prize.
Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man;
But soon or late,
the one who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.

Food for Thought: "The one real object of education is to have a man in the condition of continually asking questions." -- Bishop Mandell Creighton

This is what I always expect to my students and anybody who is interested to learn.A continuous asking of questions; because you'll never get tired of learning.Learning is Life and it is the source of man's quest for that elusive thing he constantly in search for to make life worth living...it is what we called as Happiness.

Here are some of the lessons for this week2.Just click the links you'll be directed to our topics:http://www.prefixsuffix.com/affixes.php?navblks=1011000

http://www.prefixsuffix.com/rootwords.php?navblks=1011000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_tense

My First Day In School

June 08, 2008

Another school year opens... and for Mandaue City Comprehensive National High School, all systems go!!! Classrooms were cleaned, facilities were checked, schedules were set and minute details were all taken cared of.
I am sure my students are ready to face another challenging year of their so called "first day high"... As a teacher for almost twelve years, students, parents and my co- teachers have their ways of telling you what I am inside the classroom.
The teacher turned disciplinarian is always mistaken as the Terrorist inside the classroom.No, I am not. It is just a stereo type thing on how I manage my class. I lay down the rules and it is up to the student on how she/he conceives it; I am always fascinated the uniqueness of each being inside the four walls of my classroom...hungry for that quest for knowledge and some are just there in their seats; the minds are somewhere in their respective fantasy/dreamlands...
Wishful thinking, you might consider it, but don't do it inside my class! For I mean business! and I believe that those brains capable of being filled with knowledge and ideals are sure way capable of coming in contact with Alzheimer's, so students...find ways to cure it, ok?
Fill those tummies with proper nutrition, breakfast is the most important meal of the day! That's the basic thing to do before coming to school. Good grooming and healthy hygiene too.
Well... let's get to know each other better by doing your first assignment online...Follow the instructions! Web blogging is a way to open, and expressing your self in a very democratic manner of interactions and communication using the English Language. So, feel free to express them here...all you need to do are the ff:
1. Create your own blog through blogger.com
2. You must have an e-mail account before you can have your own blog.
3.log on to http://blogger.com
4.Post your first assginment,title it with My First day in School
4.1 Introduce yourself,like an autobiography/slumbook kind of a write up.Whichever way you consider it creative in telling us about you, more points will be given.
4.2Tell us your expectations...about: Yourself as a student,new teachers, new/old school, new year level, new subjects to take/ your new adviser, policies/rules and regulations...
4.3 Post your comments about the posts i have posted here in our blog: http://communicatinginenglish2.blogspot.com
5. Always visit your blogs and never forget to leave comments in our official blog.Refer to the URL/ address found on 4.3
6. Write your weekly Journals in your blogs...I'll check them everyday; of course you get your points every updates/ write-ups you'll be making.
7. Happy blogging.