Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

There was another point of contention in the Recognized Student Organization meeting last Wednesday: Student Affairs Chief Ronnie had the idea of limiting the number of proposed new organizations based on his belief about how many different interests the current student population could maintain. Unfortunately, the number he arrived at was less than the figure I estimated, and apparently the students felt the same way, and they voiced their complaints, with the Student Council president (already standing and walking around listlessly) threatened to walk out.

Ronnie ended up finalizing the schedule without writing down the limit to the number of proposed organizations. After all, the number of proposed organizations will probably be different from the number who will be able to prepare for the recruitment, and it will also be different from the number who will get accredited, of which Ronnie can control the count internally.

Some professional quirks I heard about from other teachers: Maila is averse not only to teaching more than one section of the same subject, but also to teaching the same students more than once. That’s why she has always passed on the repeater sections to me in the past. That’s also the reason why she would rather get my TrigApp class (they are also engineering students by the way, her pet majors). She would in exchange pass one of her Math 1 sections to me. Doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen though.

There are some teachers who do not want to get the students’ pictures at the start of the term, no matter how big the class is, but turn out to be okay with the whole concept when the picture is attached to the class card and returned to the student when the grades are given out.

Maila, who may be leaving for further studies abroad next term, may or may not have told one of her higher math classes in jest that since she is leaving, they will all pass already. I know of at least one former co-teacher of mine who may have had those same words used against him when he was eventually let go by the university, despite being permanent.

I, on the other hand, would not hesitate to fail students before I leave (as long as I can leave all the paperwork of the students’ performance records in order) because it would prevent them from trailing me just to beg for reconsideration despite their poor test scores.

Talking to Nap, a former co-teacher and masters degree subject classmate of mine, over the weekend, he reminded me of something I said to him that I forgot one time that he was apprehensive about one of our open notes exams: that as a teacher he should already have some idea about what type of questions our own teacher would give in the exam. It turned to have helped him a lot during his doctoral studies as well.

He also mentioned something another classmate of his told him when he voiced his concern about having to prioritize time for preparing a lecture to his class and for his own studies: that whatever he told his students they would eventually forget, while the subjects he was trying to pass were a one-shot deal. This one I disagreed with: even before I decided to become a teacher, I was already very critical of teachers who came to class unprepared and wasted my own time with worthless activities.

I guess that shows what’s important to me as opposed to what’s important to him.