It’s a usual thing to commit mistakes. It is okay to be wrong in some of our decisions but we should do our best to change our wrong ways.

                This 3^rd grading period was indeed very challenging because of the new lessons that I learned. It was fun to learn how to create my own webpage using the application that our teachers introduced to us. It is called Microsoft Frontpage. I also enjoyed writing my blogs but the problem is that we don’t have steady internet connection at home. It is very hard because my posts were delayed but I still tried my best to be able to post them but there were still problems so I hope our teacher will understand.

                Studying is very hard but exciting. I always think that it’s very had to think that I was like a car racer circling around a race track for so many times in order to be closer to the finish line. If there were laps to go before I get to the end, for now, there is just one last lap to go! One last grading period then I can jump with joy because it will be graduation day. It’s just that I still have to do well and maybe better for the last grading period so that I’ll be happier during graduation.

Farewell 2012! Welcome 2013! Year 2012 bade us goodbye. As the New Year come, we should bid goodbye for the bad things or bad happenings in our life for 2012. Whatever bad things that happened last year, we should have new hope for this New Year. We should learn from our mistakes but it is also important that we should do better and make things right for us to have a better life for this New Year.

                Year 2012 has come! It is called as the year of the water snake. For this year, we should change our bad ways and try to seek for good things that we should do to make the year happy, prosperous and endearing for us. It was again celebrated around the globe and it’s again a big celebration. Tradition and beliefs again traced this season just like our belief that we should celebrate it with lots of noise. Most of us used fireworks and firecrackers to bring noise for the New Year. I really enjoyed the elegant and brilliant colors and light which the fireworks display during the New Year’s Eve had brought into the clear starry night sky. I also loved the foods displayed on the table for the medya noche. It was fun to be with our families, relatives and friends during the welcoming of the year 2013.

                May we all have a happy, overwhelming, prosperous and hopeful year 2013! The past years are just a part of our life and we cannot undo what we’ve done but we can change for the better and hope for better things to happen in our future. We just have to trust ourselves and be thankful for the blessings we received. Happy New Year to each and every one of us!!

          It's time to cheer and let's all be happy! It's time to wipe the tears and let's all be jolly! it's my favorite time of the year! Happy birthday Dear Jesus!

          For Roman Catholics, the 25th of December is considered as the Christmas Day. This is the season to be jolly and a season for us to give love and share our blessings.

          One song says, "Let's all give love on Christmas Day!" This is indeed true. Christmas is not just a time to make ourselves happy but it's also a time to give happiness to other people. We also have traditions for the Christmas. One is the blissful, bright, shimmering and wonderful blaze that the Christmas lights and other wonderful decorations which give us delight during this season. It was indeed very wonderful and amazing how these lights give us pleasures of happiness as we celebrate the Christmas Season. Many of us also enjoy singing carols to every house in our community. It really excites me as the season is fast-approaching. The most exciting part is the Christmas Eve and the noche buena!!! It's a tradition to most people around the world to prepare a simple yet enjoyable meal for this occasion. It is not important to prepare lots of foods as long as we are with our loved ones as we share our love with them. Christmas time is also a time of giving gifts and exchanging cards. It's not with the costs of these gifts but with how a giver gives it to the person with sincerity, and love with his/her whole-heart.

          Let's all celebrate the Christmas Day with love, happiness and thanks. We thank the Lord for the blessings he gave us and we should also ask forgiveness for the wrong things we did. We should feel the essence of Christmas which is LOVE-love for everybody and love for God.

          As part of a nation and the society, we have rights which are to be constituted properly to obtain UNITY, EQUALITY and STABILITY among us. We are all human beings and we should be treated equally and fairly whether we are poor or rich. In democratic countries like the Philippines, the rights of people are very important. We should all make a stand against DISCRIMINATION. We have our own strengths and weaknesses. We should accept this fact so we should respect our individual differences. There’s a need of the process of just fair, and humane transformation of our society in order to obtain genuine equality among men and women. During the early times, women are just stocked to do household chores but for this modern day, many have seen that women can also excel in the things that mostly men can do. We must realize that women as citizens, have the same rights as men and poor people has same rights with the rich and we must all give fair dignity and respect to every human as it was expected on us specially with nations leading through democracy. We all have our rights but in accordance to these rights, we also have our duties and responsibilities to obtain the equal development and transition of the society and so, we can all have equal opportunities to develop fairly in our own healthy ways. Let’s all take our counterparts to make a stand against discrimination so that we can all stand together through peace, and unite ourselves to attain equality in the society we live in.

          There is nothing permanent in the world we live in except CHANGE. Everything changes. In our society today, we can't deny the fact that we are facing or adapting into lots of changes. In our environment or within the place we live in, we can now observe what we call, CLIMATE CHANGE.

          The melting of icebergs in the North and South poles of the globe is one evidence of the sudden change of the weather conditions not just in our own country but also in the different regions of the world. It is one effect of the rise in the average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans or what we call, global warming. Can't we observe that even though it's still early morning, we can now feel the burning heat of the sun that goes through our skin?Climate  is really changing. It is the effect of the increasing emission of particular gases into the earth's atmosphere that leads to changing weather patterns around the globe. WE SHOULD ACT AS EARLY AS NOW! We shouldn't wait that Mother Earth would vanish and we will just suffer. Let's restore our Mother Earth's wellness  so that we can preserve it for the future generation. Let's all be in this together! 

LET'S ALL SAVE THE WORLD FROM CLIMATE CHANGE!

          Another grading period has ended. More days to come and it will be again our periodical test. With the past weeks and days, I have learned a lot of things, not only in terms of our lessons in school but also some lessons in life specifically, my study habits. In ICT IV, I have learned a lot. I really enjoyed our lessons about the web. I am glad that I learned about making a html document and how to make it more attractive when it is viewed on the web. I have learned how to make alignments in an html document, applying font attributes and more about creating and designing a web page.

          With this second grading, I encountered some problems specially on how to budget my time in doing all the requirements for school. I spend most of my time at home in front of my computer. I felt like I am going to die but I'm glad that I survived. Despite of the sleepless nights and stressful days, I was able to learn successfully my lessons in school. I also learned a lesson for my study habits. I should do more important things than being deceived with internet applications. Moving on, I should be more responsible with my actions and I should do better in participating with our class discussions.

          The English language is not new to us as our universal language or the language spoken worldwide. It is our choice of what language we would use but I tell you, it is better to decide practicing your speaking ability and usage of the English language. It is not necessary that we have the complete ability to use the language exactly as a native speaker does. The more important thing is for us to learn on how to use the language correctly and appropriately to accomplish and maintain communication goals. We learn the language to communicate effectively and efficiently. It is not to forget our own and native language and dialects but just to use it in communicating especially when we are outside our country. With the goal of the language learning process which is COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE, it is made up of four areas-linguistic, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic. The first one which is linguistic competence tells us to know how to use grammar, syntax and vocabulary of the language. It is the ability of a person to know words in English and learn how to create or use them in phrases and sentences. Next is the sociolinguistic competence which is somehow similar to the first one. It shows us the knowledge on how to use and respond with the language appropriately, given the setting, the topic, and the relationship among the people communicating. It is the ability to use appropriate words to say to people you are talking with respect to what kind of relationship you have whether you were friends, rivals or you are to give them words of courtesy. In short, it is the ability of a person to know and find the words to say when communicating. The third one is the discourse competence. It is to know how to interpret the larger context and how to construct longer stretches of the language to create conversations, speeches, messages and articles. Lastly, strategic competence is the knowledge on how to recognize and repair communication breakdowns, how to work around gaps in ones’ knowledge of language, and how to learn more about the language and in the context. One should know how to do strategies when he/she lack of words to say so that the one he/she is talking to will not misunderstood. These strategies are very useful to recognize and manage communication breakdowns.

            Learning the language may not be easy but we should at least try. We cannot practice and learn it if we will not try. We can say, “I cannot speak in English“ but we should not forget its continuation-yet. As early as now, we should learn the language to develop the English proficiency in the country to maintain or uplift our communicative competence with the universal language. LEARN IT NOW, PRACTICE IT, and DEVELOP SUCCESS FOR THE FUTURE !#