World News These Days

Kate Middleton found her prince and the whole world watched the Royal Wedding of the Century yesterday. The British Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton paid tribute to Princes Diana's life and memory. The engagement ring he gave his then girlfriend was his mom's engagement ring. The historic church of Westminster Abbey was the same church where the groom's parents took their oath as husband and wife. It is also the same church where Prince William walked quietly behind Princes Diana in a coffin.

More about this here. Tiring it is to type such names with title as prince and princes, not to mention baroness, baron and duke.

The Philippines' beloved Pope, John Paul II will be beatified tomorrow in Rome and again the whole world will be watching. Canonization usually has a five-year waiting period but for Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI waived this waiting period.

And in Marakkech, Morocco, a deadly cafe bombing killed nineteen people,seventeen of which are tourists. Sad news indeed for this North African Islamic country that has avoided trouble with terrorism.

In America, tornadoes and hurricanes come and go leaving behind destructions, debris and lives lost.

Here in the Philippines, volcanoes are showing some activities but I do hope these Earth-holes do not spew magma's and ashes that will ruin livestock and peoples lives.

World news these days.

Chess Visualization Exercises

Beacon Chess Club is on its last few meetings before school is out. Yesterday was one of the better days in terms of learning the game with the members. My middle school students hates it when I bring in chess worksheets. They would often complain that they've had too much work for the whole day and that chess should not add to the stresses of schooling.

Yesterday was different.

Since I am a big fan of Jim Mitch's work, also known as Professor Chester Nuhmentz, Jr., I asked them to work on one of the visualization worksheets of Jim. I paired them and made the activity a contest. For an hour, I saw in them the determination to come up with the right checkmate position in a fun but competitive atmosphere.

I don't know with other chess coaches if they find time to ensure enjoyment of the game other than winning. Chess is surely a stressful game in the competitive level. But for club levels whose members are joining because they nothing much to do, or because they lack athleticism to join other physical sports, instilling in their young minds that chess is not a boring game must be the main objective of one's chess coaching.
As a chess club teacher or coach, I have always made sure that this goal is not forgotten or laid on th side for the gold medal. Success in tournaments will come later when the students learn to enjoy the game and self-propel to studying on their own.

Jim's chess workouts one of the best I've used and seen in the last nine years, not to mention the reasonable price he asks for the use of his works.

How to Capture Pilandok

Before the Holy Week break, I gave an assignment to the 6th graders in my Filipino Standard class on how to capture Pilandok. Pilandok has been the central figure in our class for the last 3 weeks and it helps a lot that Pilandok has been portrayed as wise, cunning and helpful. This Filipino Class I have is under the Languages Section of of the IB Curriculum grid so the main goal skill is Language Acquisition.

And here is one of the many diverse outputs I got this morning:

Visita Iglesia Online

Holy Week 2011 here in the Philippines is in full swing with the highlight to happen in Pampanga later today with the reenactment of crucifixion. The Filipinos' varied ways of celebrating and sharing Jesus Christ's passion is seen through the different lenses of expert photographers.

Boracay beach is one hell you wouldn't want to be in during Lent where you meet and see everyone from work.

For those who couldn't afford to do their Visita Iglesia on foot, you can still do it online at Visita Iglesia Online courtesy of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.


 

1st Bangkal Chairman Fermin Eusebio Rapid Chess Cup

The 1st Baranggay Bangkal Chairman Fermin T. Eusebio Rapid Chess Cup happened last weekend with the results posted below. Thanks to National Arbiter Gatz Luz!

BANGKAL NM Interim Ranking List

Free Workshop on Academic Writing for Educators

Hi there!

DIWA Asia Publishing will be offering its 2nd Summer Academic Writing Workshop for Educators. This is offered for FREE to educators from basic to tertiary levels who have at least three years of teaching experience in basic education and is wishing to pursue a career in educational publishing.

Details at the Official Website of DIWA Asia Publishing. For inquiries, please call Grace Silvela at 893-8501, 893-8506, 893-8516 local 247 and at 0908-8771597.

Nestle's 100 Years "Pag-Ibig"

This touched my soul and made me cry:



Thumbs up to director Stephen Ngo, Pabrika Production and Nestle Philippines for this nice commercial "Pag-Ibig".

Result of Alphaland Summer Youth Rapid Chess

We have an update for this and that is the addition of the results for the high school section of the tournament where MacDonald Dominique Lagula of Far Eastern University Chess Team won first place.

Yesterday was the inaugural of the Alphaland Summer Youth Rapid Chess Tournament held at the Alphaland Mall, Magallanes Makait City. There were two divisions, Elementary (Grade School) and High School (Secondary).

Here is the final standing of for the elementary division:

Alphaland Final Standing-Elem._list(1)


ALPHALAND Final Standing-HS

There was a young girl who played in the tournament yesterday that caught my attention. She was playing really well against much older, much taller opponents. Sadly, she is pressured too much by her dad/coach that each time she losses a game, she is berated by her dad.

On a positive note, bringing my players in tournaments allow me to reconnect with former acquaintance.

Gmail Motion Launched

Never mind the fact that Gmail Motion was launched on April Fool's 2011. Never mind the fact that it needs a built-in webcam to be used which runs contrary to the development of touch-screen technology. Never mind the things you think about all the bad things that could come out with this Google's latest innovation.

Never mind.

But do keep tab of what Google team had in mind when they worked on Gmail motion:

"In 1874 the QWERTY keyboard was invented. In 1963, the world was introduced to the mouse. Some 50 years later, we’ve seen the advent of microprocessors, high resolution webcams, and spatial tracking technology. But all the while we’ve continued to use outdated technology to interact with devices. Why?

This is a question that we’ve been thinking about a lot at Google, and we’re excited to introduce our first attempts at next generation human computer interaction: Gmail Motion. Gmail Motion allows you to control Gmail — composing and replying to messages — using your body."

So what's all this stuff got to do with special education, occupational therapy and chess which is three of the many topics you can find in this blog?

Gmail Motion will serve the physically handicapped, the computer users who need to move and the users who are kinesthetic by nature. Gmail motion can help too for chess players, no need to touch the screen or move the mouse?

Just joking regarding the chess part but who knows?

Here's  Paul MacDonald, product manager of Gmail:



By the way, here's something you can include in your daily workout:

Teaching Filipino as a Second Language

Today I taught Filipino as a Second Language (FSL) to sixth graders in my school. We reviewed the story Si Pilandok, ang Bantay ng Gubat by Victoria Anonuevo and illustrated by Kora D. Albano. Learning Filipino as a second language or any language must be guided by practicality . All theories about language learning will always have this ingredient as the common denominator.

Since this was my first day to teach FSL,  we watched the video I saw on YouTube:



I have always wondered why a lot of "learned" Filipinos require their children to speak in English even at home. Some even look down on others if they do not fluently speak English. If they can't see the practicality of knowing Filipino language while they're here, then pray their kids don't need to be lost somewhere during their malling.

Philippines for Filipinos! 

Documentary Film on the life of Bobby Fischer

Here's the first of a five-part video documentary of the late great world chess champion Robert "Bobby" Fischer:



Sadly, a genius is too dumb to fit in this world we live in.