Dream

I’m happy for Claire and John, my colleagues at UP Mindanao, who will soon be leaving for The New School in New York City. Claire will be in the MA in Media Studies program, while John will be doing his MFA in Creative Writing. Both got Ford Fellowships to pursue their dreams. Good luck, guys!

Happy holidays!

Yesterday marked the last day of work for the year. Today, I’m on mandatory leave until the second day of January 2008 (not that you’d find me in the office if it weren’t mandatory). Then it’ll be back to the classroom and the office by the third. But the third of January is still a long way off in my calendar. And I’m determined to make the most out of this holiday break.

Actually, I have been on holiday and celebratory mode the past few days but have not really been able to enjoy all the Christmas parties and gift-giving since there were still last-minute year-end reports to accomplish. But that was ok as my upbeat mood pepped me up to finish the reports and urgent proposals a day or two ahead of the last work day.

My handy communication tool

No, it’s not my mobile phone or my PDA. It’s Em Griffin’s A First Look at Communication Theory (6th ed.; Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2006) that I use in my Comm. Arts 101/Introduction to Communication Theories class of first-year Comm. Arts students.

The search for what textbook to use as primary source for my students was almost a lost cause. Over the six years I’ve taught the course, my students would complain of how Stephen Littlejohn’s communication theory textbook was too dense and heavy going for them, or how Julia Wood’s textbook — while an easy read — would leave them hankering for more info. Of course, I would advise them to juggle the two so I’d get better responses during class discussions.