Beat the Rainy-Day Blues, Unlock Your Student’s Potential

Manila, Philippines – July 25, 2023 – The rainy season has officially arrived, as declared by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) last June. With heavy downpours becoming more frequent, students can expect challenges in maintaining motivation and focus or feeling the rainy-day blues. The combination of gloomy weather, the desire to stay cozy indoors, and the safety concerns posed by rainy conditions can make it difficult for students to attend classes and concentrate on their studies.

For teachers, extra attention is needed to inspire and motivate their students. Here are some effective strategies for keeping student motivation high, especially on rainy days, as recommended by Quipper, one of the best LMS in the Philippines.

Remind students to be prepared with proper rain gear. Coming to school can be a hassle and unsafe for students due to slippery roads, unexpected flooding, and increased risk of illnesses. As an educator, you must remind your students about the essential items to protect them during uncertain weather conditions. 

Encourage them always to bring an umbrella and consider having rain boots and raincoats for heavy rain. Additionally, emphasize the importance of using mosquito repellants to prevent diseases like Dengue, which are more prevalent during this season. Lastly, promote a healthy attitude and remind students to take their vitamins to boost their immune system.

Adjust your lesson plans to accommodate unexpected weather conditions. The unpredictable weather can result in class cancellations, disrupting the planned lessons for the day. However, educators should be prepared to continue learning even in the comfort of students' homes. 

Utilize tools like Quipper, which has a Q-Link (Quipper Link) feature to connect with your students virtually. Through this platform, you can send out lessons and assessments aligned with the K-12 curriculum mandated by the Department of Education (DepEd). Accessible learning materials, including editable lesson presentations, worksheets, and answer keys, allow you to customize lessons during unpredictable situations. The messaging feature lets you stay connected with your students and monitor their situation.

Create fun and educational indoor activities. The rainy season presents an excellent opportunity to engage students in group indoor activities. Conduct quiz bees to test their knowledge and foster competitiveness. Encourage students to present lessons creatively, enhancing their confidence while solidifying their understanding of the topics. And you can even use Quipper's wide range of learning materials on these group activities and customize them accordingly.

Discuss the realities of the rainy season. The rainy season in the country, characterized by intense Southwest Monsoon (Habagat) and frequent typhoons, results in heavy rains and potential flooding. It is essential to have open conversations with your students about these realities

Dedicate time to discuss the possible impacts of typhoons, flooding, and transportation difficulties they may encounter. Also, understanding your students' living conditions will allow you to address disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) in the classroom. By doing so, you are preparing students for any potential calamities. At the same time, acknowledging these realities can help teachers empathize with their students and create a supportive learning environment that considers their unique circumstances.

Despite the challenges posed by the rainy season, teachers can employ effective strategies to maintain student motivation and focus. Remember, as an educator, your role goes beyond teaching subjects—you have the power to create a supportive environment that helps students overcome obstacles and succeed, rain or shine. 

And Quipper is here to support educators with their challenges in the classroom. The LMS platform recognizes the teachers' struggle during unpredictable weather conditions and helps them foster students that will become lifelong learners.

To learn more about Quipper Philippines and its other programs and initiatives, visit https://www.quipper.com/ph/.  

ASUS PHILIPPINES, WITH SUPPORT FROM EDUKASYON.PH, LAUNCHES NEW PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMS FOR THE EDUCATION ECOSYSTEM

PASIG, Philippines, July, 2021 ASUS Philippines just launched their new partnership with Edukasyon.ph for their ASUS Education Partnership Program. This program aims to assist in the education sector to better equip and prepare them with the ongoing digital transformation of schools in the Philippines.

This initiative started with a live free webinar that happened last July 8, 2021. The event focused on ASUS education solutions, proper hosting and managing of learning management systems (LMS) and lastly a new program from ASUS that helps in bridging schools to have better access in modern technology.

“At ASUS, we are dedicated to solving the unique challenges faced by both students and educators today. We are here to help cultivate the minds of the next generation with a comprehensive, student-centered product portfolio, to help progressive and innovative learning in a fast-paced world.” said George Su, Country Manager of ASUS Philippines.

ASUS started the event with a talk on how ASUS Education has been in the forefront when providing solutions to schools, institutions, educators, and students in these digital times. These include the ASUS BR1100, the best K-12 laptop in education, the ASUS Chromebooks such as ASUS C436, C434, C425 and C223 which are geared towards to higher education and teachers and lastly the ASUS ExpertBook lineup, which includes the ASUS ExpertBook B9, B1, and P2. 

The ASUS BR1100 is affordable and easy to manage, ideal for schools who are on a minimal budget. With technology that transforms classrooms, they allow both students and educators to focus on personalized learning experiences that help enable better learning outcomes. The ASUS BR1100 comes in two variants: the ASUS BR1100C as the traditional clamshell and the ASUS BR1100F as the premium flip version with a touch display. Both features military-standard durability that is meant to last bumps, shocks, and on-the-move usage.

"Collaboration (with ASUS) is actually the key, so that we could really push for change and progress. Edukasyon.ph cannot do it alone that's one, and secondly the change cannot happen if it's just going to focused all to the students. That is why in this very initiative we are taking a focus on our IT partners from our schools because for this to be effective, digital literacy, digital empowerment should not just be happening amongst our students but also with our it partners in the schools." said Grace David, CEO of Edukasyon.ph.

"IT right now is actually a core essential to any business and even to education itself. We are very dependent on the technologies that we are running in now. Whether it be delivery of a service or even the way we consume our learning material now." said Raphael Quisumbing, Chief Technology Officer of Edukasyon.ph.

Edukasyon.ph shared with the audiences how their simple partnership with ASUS started way back 2017 with offline senior high school fairs and how it progressed over time to become one of the longtime trusted partners. Edukasyon.ph also said that they envision more collaborative efforts along with ASUS to future-proof the students and the education ecosystem.

Mr. Quisumbing, on the other hand, spearheaded the first webinar session with “Host, Maintain, and Grow Your LMS System” where the focus is on how to setup and manage the LMS, Moodle, over the cloud. He tackled important aspects such as introduction to Moodle, cloud computing, database, and Amazon Web Services to name a few.

“Aside from the products that ASUS offers, we recognize the education sector as one of the foundations in our country. With that in mind, we are excited to share our ongoing ASUS Edukasyon School Partner Program which aims to assist schools in modernization of their IT facilities and to support teachers and students so they can excel more both in teaching and in learning.” said Francis Avila, Business Lead of ASUS Philippines.

ASUS also highlighted their ASUS Edukasyon School Partner Program where its main goal is to help schools and learning institutions with a development funding. Schools can enjoy yearly school development funds, computer laboratory decorations and learning seminars from partners such as Microsoft and Google. Benefits for educators and students on the other hand include technological update seminars, excellence award for top educator and school valedictorian, and lastly internship opportunity for graduating students.

For more information regarding the partnership and the ASUS Edukasyon School Partner Program, you can head over at the microsite (https://asus.edukasyon.ph). Also stay tuned for more news on the incredible ASUS for Business products on the ASUS Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ASUSph/) and the ASUS for Business website (http://asus.com/ph/Business). For inquiries, you can also send us a message on ASUS for Business page (https://www.facebook.com/asusforbusinessph/).

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About ASUS

ASUS is a multinational company known for the world’s best motherboards, PCs, monitors, graphics cards and routers, and driven to become the most-admired innovative leading technology enterprise. With a global workforce that includes more than 5,000 R&D professionals, ASUS leads the industry through cutting-edge design and innovations made to create the most ubiquitous, intelligent, heartfelt and joyful smart life for everyone. Inspired by the In Search of Incredible brand spirit, ASUS won more than 11 prestigious awards every day in 2018 and ranked as one of Forbes’ Global 2000 Top Regarded Companies, Thomson Reuters’ Top 100 Global Tech Leaders and Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies. 

Building a Brighter Future with Canvas

The world is getting smaller and smaller every day. In the age of social media and rapid advancements in digital communications, a new generation of students is growing up conscious of their connection with everybody else in the world. Reaching across geographical borders through the internet is now the way of life for most of the world, and we are already seeing advantages and disadvantages of living in a digital age.

The people behind Instructure saw an opportunity to build a learning platform that would make teaching and learning easier in today’s global village. They made Canvas, an open-source software and the only true native cloud learning management system (LMS). To further demonstrate the ways Canvas could empower students all over the globe to “change the world,” Instructure launched the very first “K12 Buddy System.”

The K12 Buddy System is a cross border project that demonstrates what can be achieved in a truly global classroom and a collaborative learning environment. Forty-five students, aged 15-16 years old, from De La Salle Lipa in the Philippines and Callaghan College in NSW, Australia were given a problem to work on together for eight weeks, from August 20 to October 24, using Canvas under the supervision of selected teachers. The problem they needed to solve is “The Culture of Throwaway Plastics.”

Despite living in two different continents and time zones, plastic pollution is a shared concern. The students, working in groups of four — two students representing each school — came up with three solutions to persuade people, businesses or the council in their local area to reduce their reliance on single use plastic. These solutions must be actionable, practical, and solve a specific problem concerning single use plastics. All actions must be backed up by research and strong rationale.

The top 10 submissions proceeded to the final round on October 24 where the teams presented their strongest solution to the judges from both the Philippines and Australia using a Canvas classroom in real time through video conference. The judges include Troy Martin, General Manager, APAC; the principals and project lead teachers from both De La Salle Lipa and Callaghan College; and Raf Dionisio a social and environmental entrepreneur and co-founder of The Plastics Solution volunteer movement.

The third place winner is Team Wallsend DLSL 6 composed of Olivia Staub, Jose Miguel S. Villegas, Edward Augustine O Tullao, Danya Best, and Isha Prasad. The team proposed a stricter implementation of zero-plastic policies by creating a watch group called “Guardians of the Plastic Bag.” The group will encourage people to use alternatives to the single-use plastic bag such as “bayong” which is a durable reusable shopping bag, beeswax wraps, newspapers, and banana leaves. Incentives will be offered to encourage more people to join the program.

Team Wallsend DLSL 8 with Keely Harris, Kim D. Ditan, Josh Aldrich P. De Villa, Olivia Beck, and Chloe Speering won second place with their proposal for an alternate material to plastic: Seaweed Bioplastic. It is a bioplastic that is a completely and easily biodegradable plastic with an environmentally friendly production process. Seaweed bioplastic is versatile and is already being produced in Indonesia has been proven to be both sustainable and profitable.

The first place winner is Team Waratah DLSL 2 made up of Danielle Lei R. Araez and Jesse A. Candelario. Their presentation to create eco bricks with single-use plastic waste won over the judges and the competition. Eco-bricks are plastic bottles stuffed solid with non-biodegradable waste to create building blocks that utilizes the longevity and durability of plastic. They seek to inspire local communities and institutions to see their trash as something that could be literally constructive. Eco bricks have been proven to be cheaper and safer than hollow blocks. Team Waratah has even included in their presentation solid and actionable plans to get schools and communities mobilized to realize their goals.

“The K12 Buddy System opens up a whole new horizon for learning for both students and teachers,” said Troy Martin. “And this is just the beginning! We hope to do more projects like this that pushes the boundaries of conventional education and encourages learning beyond the four walls of the classroom.”

Cross-cultural, transnational collaboration takes getting used to, but the students, through the competition, learned that with a shared goal, they can come up with ways that they could change the world. Canvas easily bridges the divide between the students living in different sides of the world through technology. Students are learning, as one teacher had put it, to be “locally competent and globally competitive,” and the world is all the more better for it.