FEATURE WRITING

By Christiana Verzo

Last August 13, 2013, the students of Sophomore E had an inspiring outreach in Gawad Kalinga, El Dorado. All of their eyes were opened to the situations of others.

Sophomore E made their way on bus to Gawad Kalinga El Dorado in the morning. Upon getting there, we were briefed on the activities for the day and introduced to the families we were going to get to interact with. We then got settled in our respective families' homes. Our parents for the day began talking to us and describing their daily lives. Nanay Paz, a woman who recently moved into a new house in Gawad Kalinga, particularly emphasized the importance of God in our lives. She enlightened us about her strong faith. She also told us about the struggle of trying to have just one child, particularly her nephew, go to school.

In the afternoon, we all gathered in the multi-purpose hall. Our class was divided into three groups: those who were to build houses, those who facilitated games for the kids and those who taught arts and crafts. These were all good ways to interact with the people we got to know. The kids thoroughly enjoyed the time they spent playing musical chairs; it showed on their faces. Pictures were taken, prizes were given, music was played. As the day dwindled down, we sat beside our companions and got to share our experiences with the class. Some were funny, others leaned on the more inspirational side. Not only did we learn about the lives of our brothers and sisters, but we got to share a bit of our lives with them as well.

This was truly an outreach for the books.

FEATURE WRITING

THE FILIPINO SPIRIT by CLAUDIA LIWANAG

The five levels of the high school department is actively involved with their yearly grand oral presentation for Filipino. The 8th grade had their Awitan, Tulaan, Sayawan. The Freshmen and Juniors have their Sabayang Pagbigkas. The Seniors have their Sayaw Pilipinas, while the Sophomores have their Tele Dula. The Awitan, Tulaan and Sayawan is a showcase of the combination of a song, poetry and a dance within 5-8 minutes. The Sabayang Pagbigkas is the artistic or creative and simultaneous oration of a poem by an entire class. The Sayaw Pilipinas is a manifestation of patterning a dance after a certain Filipino festival. The Tele Dula which are teleserye or drama films of 5-7 minutes are produced from groups in each class of the Sophomore year, but one teleserye is only chosen to be presented for each class so each student in the section will vote the best teleserye they have which will represent them in the batch contest. 

This as the first term Filipino project of all the students, were introduced to them in the beginning of the term. They were given enough time in preparation to be able to provide or put up a presentable and extremely good show for amongst each other. The 8th grade's  Awitan, Tulaan, Sayawan manifests the struggles of being poor.  The Freshmen's Sabayang Pagbigkas was entitled "Ako'y Wika" by Kiko Manalo, while the Juniors' was "Kultura" by Pat V Villafuerte. The theme of the Sophomore's Tele Dula was Asian Culture and each group per class was assigned to showcase the culture of Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Japan or Korea.

These exciting events of performances all took place in the Central of Performing Arts or the Sylvia P. Lina Theatre. Last Wednesday, September 4, 2013 was the Freshmen and Sophomores. Section A won as first place in the Freshmen batch, while section F won in the Sophomores batch with their interesting film entitled, "Mahulog Ka Man". Last Thursday, September 5, 2013 was the 8th grade and Seniors. Section A won in the grade 8 batch and section F won in the Senior's batch.

August 29, Thursday was the Juniors batch and section E won. These were all truly amazing to watch and all of it were such enjoying productions that represents the love for our culture. One of the things we look forward to every school year.

Sophomore Teledula competition

The teledula competition was held 2 days ago, Wednesday, September 4. It was a competition among the 9 sections in the sophomore level. There were 4-5 groups from each class and the best film from each class was chosen to represent their class.

There were good films. Some were really good, others not so, and others were just funny. In my opinion S-F's film was really good. Edited and directed by Therese Padilla. The video was very hi-def, the story was really good and so were the actors. Their film won first place and i think that they really deserved it.

After seeing their film i knew for sure that we couldn't get first place anymore. I was hoping, and i really thought my section, S-E, was going to get 2nd place at least. It was edited very well by my classmate, Pepeton Felipe, and was also directed very well by Claudia Liwanag. But when the announcements of the winner were said, we only got 3rd place. So sad.

But it was okay. Ms. Cruz was still proud and happy. S-C got 2nd place. I wasnt really expecting them to get 2nd, no offense. After all the films were shown, 2 singers with their bands, performed filipino songs. It was a great way to end the filming. The performances were very good and it was a good teledula competition.


Andrei Carlos

Laziness of Students

You will often see students whining about the workload of projects that they have to do. With the new KPUP system, projects are now 30% of your final grade. Teachers will usually give the project during the second half of the term. With projects ranging from just writing an article to making an app, students are given enough time to work on them. Some, however, choose to not work on them and choose raise their rank up in League of Legends instead. This results in cramming and giving up. Students will say "Next week pa naman due eh" and continue with what they originally planned on doing and a day before the deadline they just don't care and choose not do it. Before, this wouldn't affect your grade as much as it does now. If you didn't do your project, the highest possible grade you can get is 70 assuming you get perfect in all your tests and submit all your assignments but we all know that's almost impossible. A student's laziness isn't only in submitting projects. It can also affect the way we do other tasks.

Having a "lazy" attitude can affect things other than schoolwork. The reason a student never does his projects is because he doesn't even think about it. When a student is given a task, he places it in some part of his brain and thinks about it when he needs to. A responsible student will think about his task whenever he has the time and finishes said task on time. Why? Because he takes time to think about it. A lazy student will only place the task in a certain part of his brain and just forgets about it until one or two days before it's due. This habit will stay with the student until the day he dies. For every day that he doesn't do anything about it, it will get worse. It might even reach to the point where it costs him his life. But until then, he will have to be lazy in work or when he gets married. Worst thing that can happen? You forget to pick up your bedridden child's medicine.

The solution? Set a goal. Setting a goal has helped me in remembering to do my  schoolwork. My previous goal was to get exempted every time (That isn't possible now). Whenever I think of my goal, it motivates me to do my schoolwork. Once I achieved my goal, it felt good. Why? Because I did all the things I was supposed to do without having any problems and even got something for my hard work.

-Ricardo Lapak

Sophomore-E reacts to the new KPUP grading system

With new changes comes mixed feedback. The new KPUP grading system, introduced to De La Salle Zobel and all schools by order of the Department of Education, is getting many mixed reactions. Many complain that it is difficult to earn high card grades even if the assessment and seatwork scores they get are above average. Others dislike how even minimal mistakes and very occasional low scores can easily pull down one's final grade. Probably the biggest argument of all is about how now it is projects, no longer end-term examinations, that comprise 30% of the students' grades.
When you ask Sophomore-E students what they feel about KPUP, you'll probably get negative remarks. "Failing just one skill in a test can pull your whole grade down." "It's not fair that projects are 30% of our grade now." "I have no motivation since there are no more third term exam exemptions." It's honestly hard to disagree.
We all need to learn to accept change, but we can't deny that it is difficult. I do find it more difficult to get high grades now because of the new system, and I dislike how the project is such a crucial part of our grade. Probably what I find most difficult to accept is that exemptions no longer exist.
However, there isn't anything we can do but adjust. With time, I'm sure that everyone can, and that this change could bring about good results in the future.

-Selena Coronel

The use of iPads in the classroom

Ever since last year, our batch has been using iPads in the classroom for educational purposes. It was introduced by our former Principal, Br. Dennis Magbanua, F.S.C. He believed it would help us improve but honestly, I have mixed feelings about it.

It is hard to find out if the iPad is useful in education or not. On one hand, its lightweight, allowing us to have lighter bags and it helps us gain access to all forms of information while on the other hand, it tempts students to visit other sites such as Facebook instead of listening to lessons.

Applications such as Evernote help us take down notes in simpler ways. While iPad applications are useful, people still play games. The school tries to find ways to prevent this but honestly, as long as people have a desire to do something else, they will always find ways to bypass these preventions.

In my opinion, sure, it is a good addition to education however, it is still up to the students themselves to decide if they want to be wise about using it or not. They can use their time at school wisely or they can just use it for faster internet for their social networking needs.




-Josh D.B

Dalton's Earth (Literary)

White clouds and blue sky;

Air smells of trash and dye.

Trees wither, plants die;

Falling to their good-byes.

Earth save ourselves;

Nothing we can do.

Embrace the changes;

Generations coming to shelves.

Wastes in the ocean;

We must make a notion.

But whatever we do,

It’ll just waste preparation.

Remember the days;

When we used to play:

With friends,

With family.

Hiding behind trees,

Watch the clouds,

The birds and bees-

Literally birds and bees.

Ibara Caranga, 6-SE