A Great Poem

I came across this poem by Constantine Cavafy while reading Paulo Coelho's "The Zahir".



ITHACA

As you set out for Ithaca
hope that your journey is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon-don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare sensation
touches your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon-you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope that your journey is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and learn again from those who know.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so that you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.
Ithaca gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would have not set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithacas mean.

Gregorc's Learning Style Model

According to Anthony Gregorc, learning styles may be analyzed along two dimensions, namely, perceptual quality(concrete or abstract) and ordering ability (random or sequential). Along perceptual quality, the concrete type registers information through the five senses, whereas the abstract type tries to understand ideas, qualities, and concepts which cannot be seen. Along ordering abilities, the sequential type organizes information in a linear, logical way, whereas the random type organizes information in bits and in no specific sequence. Analyzing learning style along these dimensions results to the following types of learners.

Abstract Sequential (AS)	Concrete Sequential (CS)
Abstract Random (AR)	Concrete Random (CR)

Four Huge Gaps

I've read from the February 24 and March 9 issues of 2401(the official newsletter of DLSU) the full text of the speech delivered by former education undersecretary Victor Ordoñez last January 26 when he was conferred Doctor of Humanities (honoris causa) by DLSU.

Dr. Ordoñez mentioned four areas of concern in education:

1. the gap between research and policy
   
2. the gap between the disenfranchised illiterates and the rest of the world
   
3. the gap between schools' program of study and the world of work
   
4. the gap between education and the need to develop a sustainable, peaceful world
   

Expounding on the third gap, he cited statistics based on an "8-minute" Youtube video. The video below is probably a shorter version of what he was refering to.

Pi Day

Pi Day and Pi Approximation Day are two holidays held to celebrate the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is observed on March 14 (3/14), due to π being roughly equal to 3.14. Pi Approximation Day is observed on July 22, due to π being roughly equal to 22/7.

Pi Minute is also sometimes celebrated on March 14 at 1:59 p.m. If π is truncated to seven decimal places, it becomes 3.1415926, making March 14 at 1:59:26 p.m., Pi Second (or sometimes March 14, 1592 at 6:53:58 a.m.).

The first Pi Day celebration was held at the San Francisco Exploratorium in 1988, with staff and public marching around one of its circular spaces, and then consuming fruit pies; the museum has since added pizza pies to its Pi Day menu. The founder of Pi Day was Larry Shaw,a now retired physicist at the Exploratorium who still helps out with the celebrations.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology often mails out its acceptance letters to be delivered to prospective students on Pi Day.

Some also celebrate Pi Approximation Day in addition to Pi Day, which can fall on any of several dates:

April 26: The Earth has traveled two radians of its orbit by this day (April 25th in leap years); thus the entire orbit divided by the distance traveled equals pi.

July 22: 22/7 in the more common day/month date format, an ancient approximation of pi.

November 10: The 314th day of the year (November 9 in leap years).

December 21, 1:13 p.m.: The 355th day of the year (December 20 in leap years), celebrated at 1:13 for the Chinese approximation 355/113.

On Pi Day, 2004, Daniel Tammet calculated and recited 22,514 decimal digits of pi.

The U.S. Congress recognized March 14, 2009 as "National Pi Day".

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi_Day

Filipino Women Are Better than Men in Math

Trends in International Science and Mathematics Study (TIMSS) data in 1999 and 2003 consistently showed that second year high school female students (Grade 8) in the Philippines "performed significantly better" than male students "overall, and in the items on Number, Algebra, and Data."

These findings differ from international studies which reveal that male students are better in mathematics than females, except in algebra.

Read the full article here.

Cognitive Apprenticeship

I watched this video a year ago and it inspired me to conduct a research on Cognitive Apprenticeship. Check this out to know what Cognitive Apprenticeship is.



Source: changelearning by John Abbot

Rice fields

These photos were taken when I went to our farm two days ago.

A Slight Difference May Mean a Lot

"What many young people fail to realize is the fact that you don't have to be much better than most others in order to do well. Only a slight superiority may be enough to make a vast difference.

Most of the people we call successful are not twice as smart, or twice as able, as the rest of the field. Indeed, if they are only 10 percent more proficient, this is generally more than enough to give them a consistent edge.

In sports, for instance, the best batting or passing records are not a great deal higher than the average. In field or track the differences are even smaller: a fraction of an inch or a fraction of a second may distinguish the winner from the also-rans...

If you can average 5 to 10 percent better - no more - than others in your field, the rewards can be 100 percent greater; this is the compounding effect of achievement over a period of time...

You only have to be a little bit better than most in what you do. Just a little more energetic, or whatever other prime quality is demanded in your field. If successes admitted this, they would not have cause to feel so conceited; and if the aspirants recognized this, they would not have cause to feel so left behind at the starting line."

Sydney J. Harris as quoted by David Cavitch in Life Studies