Prayles Beyond the Propaganda

I grew up believing that the word prayle was synonymous to evil. This can be traced from my history lessons that depicted the prayle being always on the bad side of things: abuses, rapes, frowning faces, etc. About a year or two ago, I found one of Ambeth Ocampo's article: The Spanish Friar Beyond the Propaganda (click there please ;).

This gives light on how the Propaganda was the main source of anything friar (popularly at least) we have. Although I have my students hear Padre Botod and Lopez-Jaena's piece about Botod, I give them this right after so as to shed light into the stereotypical image we have of prayles.

Karaniwang Tao powerpoint

Some of us teachers visited Misamis Oriental jaust this May (2006). Imagine going through 5 provinces in 5 days! Crazy.

One of the highlights was a visit to the Talaandig tribe of Bukidnon. MAJESTIC VIEW, BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE, COLD CLIMATE!!! ;)

One of the things asked us by the school (it shouldered 75% of our expenses) was to come up with teaching materials from the experiences we had. (We're trying to do it ala Singapore where theall subjects' curriculum always use local examples ie, instead of using international volcanoes in science, they use local one for their examples, etc) .

One of the things I came up with is the presentation on the link: http://emc.hs.admu.edu.ph/ap/tao/pptao/tao.zip

It can be used as a reflection piece for your classes that talk about 1.) indigenous people, 2.) common people 3.) environment or what have you. I even use it as an ending prayer to some seminars I give to challenge the audience to offer their teaching to the Philippine common folk so as to uplift their current condition. It uses Joey Ayala's song Karaniwang Tao and has original pictures taken by us in misamis.

Hope someone gets to use it.

Walk on as Motivation Activity for Nationalism

I just introduced the concept of nationalism to my students. Before this year, we just tackled the definition of nationalism and then look at the factor which contributed to nationalism in the Philippines before the 1896 revolution.

This year though, I gave it a new twist, courtesy of a teacher I met in Baguio (forgot po his name though, sorry.).

In a talk I gave to teachers, I was talking about using media in teaching social studies and one of the materials I used was U2's Walk On song (check out that link, wink, wink).

As the one website puts it:

"if you see at the booklet, there's a note, were u2 says that this song is dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi, pronounced ( Ong San Soo Chee ), in some parts of the lyrics U2 mention the struggle of this woman to free her country. Burma, a country of 47 million people is ruled by fear. A military machine of 400.000 soldiers denies a whole nation its most basic rights. Aung San Suu Kyi, pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate, symbolises the struggle of Burma's people to be free. She has spent six years under house arrest, her movements are still severely restricted, her phone is frequently cut and she is prevented from seeing her family. Hundreds of her supporters are detained, many suffering torture and in some cases death. Her message is a simple one - that only by fighting fear can you truly be free - a message Burma's military fears and aims to silence." - http://hem.bredband.net/steverud/U2MoL/ATYCLB/walkon.html

During the talk I gave, I used it for application in Asian History. The teacher from Baguio said that it can actually be used for any lesson for nationalism. Voila! That's when I decided to use it to introduce nationalism.

How did I conduct the lesson? First, I asked students to listen to the song (with lyrics flashed, OF COURSE). But before asking them to do that I asked them to reflect on these questions (this served as my seatwork) :

1.) Sino ang katutubo o indio (wala pang Filipino noon) na pinakaposibleng kumata nito sa panahong ng hispanikong Pilipinas batay sa nabasang kabanata ukol sa Pagsibol ng Nasyonalismo sa Pilipinas? Bakit?
2.) Kanino niya ikinakanta ito?

Instead of asking them to just write the answers down, I also asked them to draw or make a visual representation of the answers. For me, this might stimulate their imaginations better.

Of course, after listening to it, we analyzed the song and looked at possible characters in the hispanic times that could have sang U2's song. (Possibilities are endless, just keep in mind that you'll have to channel the examples to nationalism.)I also explained to them that this was actually a song composed by Bono and dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi.

For their homework, I also asked them to select a song that would be appropriate for someone who would fight the Spaniards because of nationalism. I also asked them to include the lyrics and a short explanation of why they chose the song.

Oh yeah, I still gave them the definition of nationalism and the factors that contributed to the growing sense of it then.

Here are the Lyrics to the Song:

Walk On
By Bono
Performed by U2

And love is not the easy thing
The only baggage that you can bring
Love is not the easy thing
The only baggage you can bring
Is all that you can't leave behind...

And if the darkness is to keep us apart
And if the daylight feels like it's a long way off
And if your glass heart should crack
And for a second you turn back
Oh no, be strong

Oh, oh
Walk on, walk on
What you got, they can't steal it
No, they can't even feel it
Walk on, walk on
Stay safe tonight

You're packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been
A place that has to be believed, to be seen
You could have flown away
A singing bird in an open cage
Who will only fly, only fly, for freedom

Oh, oh
Walk on, walk on
What you got, they can't deny it
Can't sell it, or buy it
Walk on, walk on
You stay safe tonight

And I know it aches
How your heart, it breaks
You can only take so much

Walk on...
Walk on...

Home...
Hard to know what it is, if you never had one
Home...
I can't say where it is, but I know I'm going
Home...
That's where the hurt is...

And I know it aches
And your heart, it breaks
And you can only take so much

Walk on...
(Hooo)

Leave it behind
You got to leave it behind
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you feel

All this you can leave behind

All that you reason, (it's only time)
(And I'll never fill up all I find)
All that you sense
All that you scheme
All you dress-up
All that you've seen
All you create
All that you wreck
All that you hate

Padre Botod (works best for Propagandists or Nationalism)

When Graciano Lopez Jaena wrote Padre Botod, who would have thought that the Jerks would turn it to a reggae inspired piece? ;) This musical piece is not just good for motiovation but can be used to discuss the period when the Propagandistas where writing here and there to effect change in the country. It would be good to have a copy of the original Padre Botod (excerpts at least) by Jaena and compare it to the song. To add more content to your lesson look at what concrete concepts the song is exposing (ie, polo, hacienda, etc). Now where would you get that rare The Jerks piece? Check out: http://shihman.multiply.com/music/item/20

FOR THE LYRICS: http://shihman.multiply.com/journal/item/4

As for the original Jaena piece? Check this out: http://shihman.multiply.com/journal/item/5

Student reflection on integrity and character

The town of Richmond Hill in Canada has an online newsletter (http://www.richmondhill.ca/documents/cc_enews_06_07.pdf) and in one of these, they define integrity:

What is Integrity?

Integrity is demonstarted by people who do the right thing, no matter what the circumstances may be. (It is doing) the right thing even if it isn't going to be easy for me or for others.

I gave this them to my students to reflect on and one of them (his name's Charles, I won't give his full name though) gave a wonderful reflection on integrity and character. I am uploading it without any editing. I chose to upload it here for two reasons:

1.) it is an original done by a freshman high school student and not just ripped off from the web; and
2.) it incorporates a story that was in the news a few days back. (part of our curriculum is to tackle news items)

Here is the reflection and I hope you get inspired by it and to further reflect on it, try answering the questions he poses at the end yourself. Whenever I hear these reflections, I get to affirm my belief that today's generation can still be depended on to help the Philippines out of its rut. Here it is:

Today I am going to give a reflection on character and integrity. The dictionary defines character as being a distinctive mark or quality, or the complex of mental and ethical traits making a person. Integrity, however, refers to your adherence to a code of values. I believe that you need to possess a good, strong character to have integrity. It all depends on your attitude towards life, and your passion to do good.

2 days ago, I saw a news feature on 2 high school boys who had found P100,000. They could have easily just kept the money, since they happened to be poor, but they chose to return it anyway. This story is a perfect example of integrity, doing the right thing no matter what the circumstance. Having integrity means sticking to your values even if there is a great temptation to do the wrong thing. All of us should strive and work hard to live out these values in our daily lives. We should try to develop a strong character, with good moral values, and to have the integrity that goes with it, for we should never lose our integrity.

Last year, our Filipino teacher told us this story about her former student who tried to kill himself just because his girlfriend broke up with him. In the end, our teacher advised us not to follow this person’s example. We should accept our problems and move on, for if we lose our integrity, it will become very difficult to get it back. As I end my reflection, I would like to ask you these questions:

1. Do I always strive to do the right thing no matter what?
2. If I always give in to temptation, what can I do to build up my integrity so that this can be avoided?

magellan and his band... ;)

In high school, I've never found Magellan's circumnavigation interesting. I only found out about the difficulties that his crew went through because of the need for me to read on his voyage when I started teaching. Here is a powerpoint presentation I use to teach about his adventure into the unknown... unknown because he was only guessing at that time that the world was round...;) I used a hilarious video clip set to yoyoy villame's march 16, 1521 song for motivation.

Please see the attachments for the powerpoint and also the flv video of mactan 1521. click on the title of this entry for the attachments at multiply.

Intramuros, bayan and bayang pueblo

It is interesting to note that Panama (picture above) has something like our Intramuros (on right, scanned from Kasaysayan: the Story of the Filipino People). It is also interestiing to note that the Spaniards used some sort of a blue print in building their towns. They always had the plaza vista complex (church, town hall, bahay na bato and the plaza) and had grid patterns for their roads. This is clearly illustrated in the painting at the bottom of old Cagayan de Oro (courtesy of Xavier University Museum).

It is interesting to note how the bayang pueblo is in stark contrast of how the bayan of the pre-hispanic Philipines was in terms of lay-out or planning as illustrated in the drawing at the bottom most (hypothetical settlement) which comes from the book Feasting, Raiding and Trading.

Limahong, Koxinga

Here are illustrations of Limahong
(done by National Artist Carlos "Botong"
Francisco) and Koxinga (on the right).



To give my students an idea of how the Philippines looked like on maps in the 1600's, I show them a drawing by Jean Mallat circa 1682 (bottom).

Alarums and Excursions (title by Nick Joaquin, Manila, My Manila)

Our lesson is currently on when China, Britain and Holland attempted to colonize the Philippines. It seems boring at first glance but if you come to think of the WHAT IFs, you'd appreciate the stories better. What if Limahong and his 5000+ contingent got to land in Manila and his forces NOT dispersed to Paranaque, siopaos and mami would be the upper class treat rtaher than paella. ;) The title of this post has a link to the chart I used as a supplement to the lesson. Just click. ;)

First Post

I've been trying to come up with a blog... This is the second one... I hope this will help out fellow Philippine History teachers out there. ;) I will be posting some of my lessons and materials which I use to teach Philippine History (for freshmen high school in the Philippines).

Since the medium of instruction in our school is Filipino/ Tagalog most, if not all of the materials will be in that language.

Feel free to email me at: tabonmanjournals@gmail.com