Bayan Outreach.

This semester in Bayan, the learning community that I am a part of, one big part of the class is our community service project. Outreach is students from my English class doing different things like: visiting a high school to inform them about the Filipino American classes avaliable at Southwestern College (see Prezi above), being a mentor to a middle school student .. bringing them on campus to show them what college life is like, and finally a student symposium where each student or pair of students showcase something they learned in English that relates to the Filipino culture. 

All which teaches people about what Bayan is and inform them about the lack of Filipino studies in schools & showing them what Southwestern College has to offer.

KONY 2012: Make Kony Famous

"Filmmaker Jason Russell visited Africa in 2003 and returned with a story that made people ask what they could do to help. Jason co-founded the non-profit Invisible Children Inc. which is working to make the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, Joseph Kony of Uganda famous by raising support for his arrest. Kony’s arrest will save thousands of women and children allowing them to live a normal life without fear from the LRA rebels. Jason shares with us his friend Jacob, who after losing his brother and not having the opportunity to attend school Jacob would rather die than live. Unfortunately the ‘United States will not get involved if our National Security or Financial Interest aren’t at stake’. The issue to the US government is not important enough to get involved. So, the people have spoken and made it clear that they want to see something done. Invisible Children currently has 475,000 fans on Facebook and looking to increase that number before April 20th. On the night of April 20th, Kony 2012 crews will hit the streets to set up posters, with hopes of grabbing national attention to the issue. This 30 minute video will be the best thing you watch all week and you can help by spreading the word to get our government involved."

America is in the Heart.

In English class we're reading America is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan. America is in the Heart is a semi-autobiographical novel that depicts his life in the Philippines as a peasant through his life in America as a labor worker. Bulosan is a Filipino American immigrant, poet, writer, short story teller and activist.

He writes his novel though his own experiences in the Philippines and America and also writes through the experiences of all Filipinos and Filipino American immigrants. He does this so the his novel can share the stories of all Filipinos and Filipino American immigrants and included Philippine history as the base and support for those stories.

While reading the novel, I learned something new about the Filipino culture. Something that isn't common to where my family comes from in the Philippines. That was the virginal ritual that newlywed husbands and wives go through. It is a simple primitive ritual to find out whether or not the bride was virginal. If she was, black smoke would come out of the house and if she wasn't, no smoke would come out. If no smoke came out, that meant that the groom had been deceived and would return the bride to her people. It also meant that the woman could no longer marry. I thought that was interesting because it was something new.

Something I found interesting in the first part of the novel was, how Bulosan wrote about his life in different parts. By that I mean, as he was writing out his life experiences he said that it was either the "end" or "beginning" of a part of his life with his father, brothers, mother etc. To me, I felt that it was of some significance to notice those because those were the markers for the new chapters in his life.

Dahil sinabi ni Lola ..

This poem is dedicated to my Lola, who was the main person responsible for instilling the Filipino culture in me and also cooking and feeding our family with the food of our culture ever since I could remember. Maraming salamat po! 
Lumpia

   "sige kain na, marami yan"

Pancit
   "ang sarap ng luto ko!"

Adobo & Rice
   "kain na! sigurado gusto mo to"

Sinigang
   "dapat mas maasim ang timpla ko"

Dinuguan
   "kong ayaw mo, wag mong kainin"

Halo Halo
   "aba! ang sarap pero, ang tamis tamis!"

Salamat Lola, sa lahat na ginawa mo para sa akin. Mahal na mahal kita! :D .. (Thank you Lola, for everything that you have done for me. I love you.)

Listening to a Text .. Map

As one of our homework assignments for English class, Professor Aronson wanted us to map out a chapter out of the Reading Rhetorically book. The book that we're going to be using this semester to learn and understand rhetoric.

Below, is my pre of the Listening to a Text chapter from the book. A prezi is like a powerpoint, but with a prezi, you can make more interesting and kind of interactive presentation.

Basically, the map is divided into 4 "chunks" (as Professor Aronson likes to say), with subtitles or "chunkettes" of important things to get out of that section of the reading.

Writing as you read

• Taking notes as you read
• Reading Strategies focus on:

Preparing to read

• Identify your Purpose
• Background Information
• Planning & Predicting
• Reconstructing Rhetorical Texts
• Spot Reading

Listening as you read

• Organizational Signals
• Marking Unfamiliars
• Difficulty Points
• Visual to Verbal
• Annotating

Listening as you reread

• Mapping
• Outlining
• Composing a Summary
• Writing a Rhetorical Precis 

Barkada: Tagalog for "group of friends"

On Monday during class, we (the students) were placed into our new "Barkadas". Like the title points out, the meaning of the word barkada means "group of friends". Our new barkadas are going to be the people that we work with inside and even outside the classroom to get assignments and other things for English done. 

As we got called into our barkadas, we had to go to the middle of the room to do this balloon activity. Everyone in the group had to hold hands and we had to balance the balloons by working together. As Professor Abaun and Professor Aronson threw them in they were telling us what the balloon represented to our group. Those were things important things for our group to keep balanced, like work, homework, different schedules etc.

The exercise was a good metaphor for how we would work together to be successful. After all the balloon excitement we came into our groups and got to know each other. As our first assignment, we had to get together on campus and hangout together. For coffee, lunch or to even work on assignments for class. For my barkada, we met the next day at the new cafe. We worked on our essays that were due the next day. During us working on our essays and helping each other, I liked the vibe that I got from my group. Then when we came together in class the next day to do peer revisions, the good vibes from the group was still there even though one member was missing. I'm looking forward to working and hanging out more with my new barkada as the semester goes on.

Retreat Time !

Part of the class at the Breakfast Retreat .. Thank you
Fernando letting me steal this picture (x

On Friday (yesterday), Mr. Aronson and Ms. Abuan our Bayan counselor set up a breakfast retreat for the class. There were many purposes for this get-together, one mainly being .. to allow the members in the class to get to break the ice and to get to know one another. 

I was surprised that so many of us showed up, only because it was the first get together and I didn't think as many people would have shown up. Not only did a lot of the new Bayan members showed up but so did a lot of the members from last semester. And it was nice having everyone who was/is a part of Bayan there. During the retreat we ate breakfast, went over the big plans for this semester and participated in a few, I would call them, "getting to know each other" activities. 

One of the activites that I felt was most interesting was the "fishbowl" activity. That is where partners are seated face to face in two circles, one partner is on the inside of the circle and the other is on the outside. I liked doing this activity a little more than the other. The other being a "four corner" type of game, where the four corners had different titles that served as the answer to the question asked by the professors. So back to the fishbowl activity, I preferred this one a bit more over the other because I got to talk to other students one on one & getting to know a little bit more about them. 

A new chapter begins ..

Hellooo ! I'm Maria Delos Santos & currently in the second semester of my first year at Southwestern College. New year .. New semester .. New blog !

Like last semester, I am a part of the Bayan Learning Community. And this blog is a continuation (in a way) of my thoughts, feelings and new knowledge I pick up in my English 115 class. This a fresh start on a blog, so like my professor said .. It's a whole "new persona".

I come from a big Filipino family and I'm pretty proud to be a part of a diverse group of people. Growing up in a Filipino family gave me a different perspective of the things I do. By this I mean, I have those Filipino values (kapwa, hiya, pakiaksama and utang ng loob) instilled in me when I make certain decisions. So learning about them in a published book kind of validated what I already knew, that much more. Last semester, I learned a lot of new things about my culture and coming back into the community I'm eager to learn more.

The one thing I hope is that this semester, we can form that
family bond that was there in last semester's Bayan Family.
(Credits to Jennica for the picture)

Being back in Bayan feels familiar because of having Professor Aronson again and having familiar faces in the class.  But at the same time it feels new because there are so many new people in the class that I am looking forward to getting to know. And mostly excited to connect as a Bayan.