THE FILIPINO BIOLOGY TEACHER

A total of 17,816 elementary teachers out of 58,471 examinees and 18,801 secondary teachers out of 53,195 examinees have successfully passed the Licensure Examination for Teachers given by the Board of Professional Teachers in September this year, the Professional Regulation Commission has announced. In a statement, the PRC added, however, that the results for three examinees have been withheld "pending final determination of their liabilities under the rules and regulations governing licensure examinations." The Board for Professional Teachers is composed of Dr. Brenda B. Corpuz, officer-in-charge; Dr. Josefina T. Cunanan, vice-chairperson, Dr. Flordeliza P. Mayari and Dr. Norma A. Adamos (members)Registration for the issuance of the Professional Identification Card and Certificate of Registration will be announced later, the PRC said. Click here to view elementary teachers' results Click here to view secondary teachers' results Click here to view full PRC statement ...

So imagine how a comment would brighten up my day. Since the other day, I have been dying to see my wife and kids before all these academic stuffs begin. Early today I was lining up again at the cashier’s office (so far the longest queue of people I had been) and was chasing against time to be done before 12 noon. True enough. It was exactly 12 noon. I was just requested by my cousin though. So I still waited until 1 pm when I had her OR presented at Vinzon's. And the next thing was a real ‘speed story’. My goal was to be at Batangas Port in the soonest possible time. I boarded a Katipunan-bound jeepney. It was barely empty so I dismounted. I hailed a taxi to send me to Cubao Bus Station. When I asked at what time it would arrive in Batangas, the driver was uncertain if he could make it before 5. So I hailed another taxi towards the nearest LRT station, Gilmore, to Recto, to Gil Puyat… the mecca of bus stations to the south. I was holding my breath hopeful that I could hear from th...

I thought of myself as invincibly affected by distance not until this morning when I was lining up for a prerog of any available subject at IB. It was a circumstance-driven nostalgia which I wasn’t able to resist. I just broke into silent tears. While I was waiting for my turn (there’s such indeed a never ending queue in that building), the guard ushered me in a big room towards the far end. As I looked around, there was not a single note of familiarity. I quietly sat down and waited for my turn. Being a first timer and obviously the eldest in a batch of students (almost undergrad) waiting in that room, echoes interfering one over the other brought a lot of discomfort in my already uncomfortable state. The two ladies behind me were talking about their grades… their regrets why they didn’t study harder. The other two English speaking young men seemed to be discussing social issues. Others were reading. Some were having fun. And the rest were oblivious, like me. The November chill unmist...

These pictures of my kids are taken separatey when they were of the same age (around 8 months). This reminded me of how genetics played a role in diversity. I remembered the class website of Miss Stacy Baker doing the meiosis dance, with emphasis on crossing over during prophase I in a process called synapsis. Interestingly, after attending an international conference in math and science education, my desire to learn more about molecular biology and genetics has been burning much. I am particularly curious about the chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA. While what I presently know is that apart from the nucleus the chloropolast and mitochondrion of the cell have their own DNAs, I know nothing much deeper than that. But it was an eye opener to me that I met a scientist telling me that what constitutes the DNA of our children are mine and my wife's but as to their mitochondrial DNAs, they are all their mom's. This indeed has a far-reaching implication in forensic science. And since ...

I received an e-mail from a UP NISMED staff. Apparently she was surprised that this is a pioneering work in biology education in the Philippines. So far, I don't know of any Filipino teacher blog of this content. As I reviewed various blogs in education around the world , there was not a single mention of a Filipino blog. There was one named siyensiya (see my blogroll) but it is managed by an American teacher. The picture above was taken two years ago. It was a mini-forest project initiated by my brothers and me in support of education for sustainable development. For knowledge of content will be futile if this will not be put into action. The simple idea of planting trees is almost preached by many teachers (particularly those in the biology stream) but how many of them are taking this sermon by heart? We did not own a piece of land. My parents are tenants of a mountainous area and that is where we are planting trees since 1990s. So far, we have already harvested a number of pape...

My wife and I have a unique way of celebrating the first of November, the worldwide day of our dead because this happened to be among all dates, our engagement day, the very first time I opened up my feelings to her which she accepted. My wife was the very first person who took patience in listening to my 'whys'. In 1999, I was at that point of falling in love with science so everytime there were things my eyes caught and wanted to know WHY such thing happened, she was there to give me answers. Sometimes, her logic was sound and it convinced me. She is also inclined in sciences upon her parents' prodding (a licensed Pharmacist) but when she was on her own, she took BS Accountancy. There in her second course, she became my student (oddly in an English class). And the rest is history. She is now a CPA and the head of the accountancy department in our school. She is presently working towards her Master's in Business Administration degree. Yesterday, she sent me this messa...

Worried to teach invertebrates? Coelenterates, sponges, mollusks, arthropods and many more? There's an effective and enjoyable solution to that. Bring your students in a coral reef or in a marine sanctuary. The first picture was taken when I brought my students in Agpudlos reef while the next picture was in a marine sanctuary. Very few students in our province knew, that in Romblon we have a wonderful view down there and that this sanctuary in Looc Bay has been earning national attention and recognition. Look at me, I got that big smile after discovering the magnificent world under. So relaxing!

There was a semester when I already finished the course syllabus in Biological Science (a general education subject) and the class had nothing more to do. I asked this non-education students what activity they wished to do. Thus, the above picture. The students caught frogs (in ricefields and creeks) and brought them to school. I borrowed the high school biology laboratory for the dissection activities. And they just enjoyed it. They told me that during high school, their teacher just instructed them to dissect any frog without structuring guides to do so. Guess what? These are accountancy students.

In the school where I teach, our microscopic investigation is very limited to the use of compound light microscope only. So as a jumpstart of kindling students' interest in Biology, I am bringing them out to a nature trip. This picture for example was taken when my education students in Biology went to Agpudlos to gather plant specimens for herbarium preparation. As a reflection, it is only when you take your students out for a meaningful activity and you take time to be with them that you truly understand what kind of learners do you have.

As opposed to most traditional forms of testing, performance assessment does not have clear-cut or wrong answers. Rather there are degrees to which a student is successful or unsuccessful. This can be accomplished by creating rubrics. Airasian, (1991) Popham, (1995) and Stiggins, 1994) were cited by Brualdi (2000) on their definition of rubric as a rating system by which teachers can determine at what level of proficiency a student is able to perform a task or display knowledge of a concept. With rubrics, the different levels of proficiency for each criterion can be defined. Scoring rubrics are descriptive scoring schemes that are developed by teachers or other evaluators to guide the analysis of the products or processes of students’ efforts (Brookhart, 1999). Scoring rubrics are typically employed when a judgment of quality is required and maybe used to evaluate broad range of subjects. In the article by Heidi Goodrich Andrade published in American Leadership in 1999, he defined rubr...

Assessment of student performance is emerging as a crucial ingredient in the recipe for on-going improvement of school science. As programmatic change is occurring, there is a need to align student assessment practices with curricular aims, instructional practices, and performance standards. In the words of Iris Carl (1993), “What we teach must be valued; what we test is what must be taught.” Before considering alternative approaches to assessing student performance, it is important to consider the various functions that assessment serves. Various reasons for assessing student performance have been described in both specific and general terms, with distinctions being made between assessment for reporting purposes and for purposes of diagnosis and program evaluation. On assessment in the service of instruction, its purpose is to help students, teachers and parents monitor learning (Haury, 1993). Assessment plays an important part in the learning process, having both formative and summat...

I used rubrics in my classes foremost because in 2002 when I was having my Master's degree in Science Education that was the buzz word. I was not intelligent enough to investigate the downside of them until lately when I realized the need to address some silent issues about this assessment procedure. Silent because most teachers are using templates prepared by committees without considering factors that are teacher, student or classroom related. In my literature reviews, (which I failed to include in my final manuscript because disclosing problems and limitations of rubrics might weaken my study) there were some issues raised about the use of rubrics in science education. First was the validity and reliability of the rubrics; time issue, constructing one takes a longer time; and for the Filipino teacher, the transmutation issue. Those were indeed some of the many problems I faced when I first employed rubrics in my class. But I got over them. In order for the construction of rubri...