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What I Learned in Ed Tech

By Rubie Ryan G. Cabigas

Hello, my fellow blog posters and readers. Your friendly author, Ryan. Today, I will share what I’ve learned in Educational Technology (Ed Tech, for short). You may be wondering why I’m sharing these things with you. Well, it is part of our subject’s requirements. So, bear with me. You might get some significant lessons or tips in your journey as an educator (if you are taking education-related courses).

Let me start with a flashback of why I got this subject. Before I took up the CPRT (also known as Certificate in Professional Teaching Program), I worked as an ESL (a.k.a English as Second Language) teacher and a tutor for a Filipino-owned ESL company. The owner of the company saw my potential as an educator. He gave me the idea of taking up CPRT to learn how to become a legitimate teacher because it will help me in case I want to work in Japan. And so, here I am. I took the course and am currently a freshman (I don’t look so fresh in person). That’s the end of my flashback. Now, we will move on to our main topic. Sorry about that.

This is what I learned in my Ed Tech. Technology is an important part of our educational system, not just in our country, but also worldwide. Technology not only helps the educator by the ease of discussing topics that are hard to explain lessons, but it also helps the learners understand those topics and concepts through visual and auditory senses. I was able to experience these firsthand in my ESL job when I was handling children who were around elementary age. This subject also taught me when and how to use educational technologies and teaching techniques effectively.

So, that’s it, folks. That’s what I learned in my Ed Tech subject. I hope you didn’t get bored by it and got some significant lessons from this blog post. Before I end this blog post, I want to thank our professor, Ma’am Boransing, for all the knowledge and advice she gave us during our class and her patience in teaching us. And that’s all. Thanks, guys and have a great day ahead.

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Social Issues in the Philippines and Why are We Still Suffering From Them

By Rubie Ryan G. Cabigas

Hi guys. It’s me again, the author of the blog posts entitled “A Day In My Life” and “What I Learned in ED Tech.” Today, we will be talking about a topic that hits and rubs us in the wrong way. Our case will focus on our country's most common, redundant, and tragic social issues that have been with us since immemorial. And these social issues are also constantly evolving with time. I hope you are all prepared to get triggered and hit with all I’m about to spill. These social issues are in no particular order since they are all interconnected. And I will tackle five social problems that are, in my opinion, the most crucial and needs immediate and lasting solutions.

The first one that we will discuss in this list of social problems, and the most “hard” to deal with, is poverty. We are all affected by this social issue. And it’s getting worse, especially with the rising inflation rate. You may be wondering (or maybe not) why this issue persists. The causes of poverty are so diverse, complex, and interconnected with one another. And because of this, many other social problems pop up and remain.

The second one is inequality. This social issue has been with us since the old times, and we haven’t got rid of it. It presents itself in many ways, but the most common and evident is the gap between the rich and the poor. Those who have monetary powers will receive privileges. And those who lack that power are usually exploited and given little to none pushing them to extreme and risky ways of survival.

The third one is the lack of access to education. It is one of the most crucial social issues in our country. It leaves our poor citizens at a disadvantage, especially in finding a good paying job, and they are prone to exploitation. Many Filipino children do not have access to education, and some are incapable of finishing elementary education. It is a consequence of several factors, including poverty and distance from schools. The lack of access to education leads to increased rates of unemployment (and poverty), as well as an increase in population (lack of sex education), decrease in life expectancy and increase in morbidity rates.

The fourth one is about crime. When I say criminal action, it is not just the big ones like murder or the illegal drug trade. It also includes petty crimes, like pickpocketing and stealing food from a grocery store. You see, people commit crimes for various reasons. One of the prominent reasons is poverty. Most of the suspects are usually people who are in the poverty line index in our society. The hungry ones, the desperate ones, and the ones who want “easy money” for their family, these people are the ones who are susceptible to exploitation and are “easy” to convict due to the lack of power and lack of access to true justice.

The last one on my list of social problems is corruption. Let’s admit that corruption is already a big part of our society (and ourselves) and one of the most difficult to address. It is evident in many ways, but the most visible is the disparity between rich and poor. Some rich people use their money to grow their influence and manipulate things around them, while the poor get exploited. This situation escalates tension, conflict, and desperation among those who feel their life will never improve. It also leads to mistrust towards the government and its institution, causing decreased efficiency and effectiveness.

Now that we have finished describing these social problems and their effects on us, I will now point out two main reasons (in my opinion) why we are still suffering from these:

Greed. Let’s admit it, we all have it inside of us. We are all controlled by it, ruled by it, and manipulated by it. We tend to choose the easy way out to achieve what we want, which results in our demise. Well, we all have our reasons to justify our greedy actions. Some do it for the sake of their families. Some do it for power and influence. The latter is the scumbag kind of people.

We never learn. Yup, you read it right. Even though we experienced being deceived and exploited, we tend to believe in lies that will do the “right” thing. Guess what? They’ve done it again while laughing at our faces saying, “Naniwala naman kayo?” We are easily swayed by their sweet words and false promises, only to end up in a messed-up situation.

Now that I have laid out all my opinions about these social problems and the reasons why we’re still suffering from them, I hope that this blog post of mine will open up your eyes and give you a couple of hints on how we, citizens of this country, can make a change. It doesn’t just involve the government and institutions. It needs us, citizens, to get involved and start the change within ourselves so that it will resonate with the people around us and be the agents of change in our country and society.

Before I end this blog post, I hope you learned something about these social problems from my point of view. Adios, my readers. Stay safe, and God bless you all.

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A Day in My Life

by Rubie Ryan G. Cabigas

Today is another day but nothing’s new in what I do every day. Everything in my life is like a programmed code for machines, it’s all the same. Well, it’s not like I am complaining about it but I do sometimes wish that something exciting happens in my life just to spice it up a bit.

Going back to the main topic, this is how I start my daily life. I wake up around 7 to 8 am and go to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I then go to my dogs’ little rooms and get them out one by one for them to have some exercise and defecate outside (don’t worry, I always clean up my dogs’ mess after they finished their business outside). After having a bit of exercise and defecating (obviously, not me but my dogs), I bring my dogs back to their little rooms and then I get my shovel, “walis ting-ting” and dustpan to clean up the mess done by my dogs. I sweep and then bury my dogs’ feces. Then, I will go and check my plants. My plants are onion chives, red bell pepper, lemongrass, aloe vera, and spinach. I create my own concoction of fertilizer by using organic materials that are in front of our house, like dead leaves and fruit peelings. After checking my plants and giving them liquid fertilizer, I will head out and buy some bread for our breakfast, and sometimes, I also buy some fish (rejects, “tamban” or “sigarilyo”) as viand for my pets (dogs and cats). I usually buy around 2 kilos of fish as long as it doesn’t exceed my budget (which is around 150 pesos) but if it exceeds my budget, I will only buy half a kilo of it. After purchasing bread and some fish, I and my mother will now have our breakfast which consists of bread and some hot drinks. My hot drink is semi-sweetened hot cocoa with a bit of coffee because if I don’t drink caffeinated drinks (especially coffee), I will experience another painful migraine that lasts a day. After having our breakfast, I will start my household chores which consist of removing the dust from the furniture and then sweeping the floor of our house. And that is the end of my chores for the first half of my day.

Before continuing to the second half of my boring daily life, I just want to tell you, my readers, that things are going to get more boring at this part. I hope you will stay and continue reading this.

For the second half of the day in my life, I start by preparing our lunch right after a few minutes of cleaning the house. We usually have our lunch around 12:45 pm, just in time before It’s Showtime starts on Youtube. After eating our lunch, I start preparing my pets’ food by mashing the fish into a paste before mixing it then to the cooked corn rice (bugas mais) so that my pets will eat everything instead of just eating the fish and leaving the rice. While they are eating, I will flush their pee out of their rooms to keep it clean. After flushing the urine away and after they finish eating their food, I will get their plates and wash them and leave them to dry. I will now then start working on my school requirements and my side hustles cryptocurrency mining sites and apps, and play-to-earn sites and apps). But most of the time, I just do my school requirements before the deadline because my laptop might not work again and cause me a lot of problems. Around 7 pm, I will temporarily stop doing my school requirements to prepare our dinner before my little sister arrives home from work. After our dinner, I will now prepare my pets’ dinner by doing the same thing I did for them during their lunchtime. After feeding and making sure that my pets will finish their food, I will get their plates and wash them. Then, I will now start washing our plates and the utensils that my little sister used in her work. After finishing my final household chore, I will continue working on my school requirements. I will then sleep around 2-3 am after finishing 60% of my requirements.

And that’s all folks, this is how a day in my life goes by. I know it’s kinda boring. Yeah, that’s what I also feel actually but it is better than doing nothing. I hope you “enjoyed” reading about how a day goes by in my life. Until next time, I guess. Bye and have a nice day ahead.