Productive. De-stressing by singing is productive. Here’s an email i sent this morning to class members on ways to decompress from the mid-term exams

Daily writing prompt

Do lazy days make you feel rested or unproductive?

ANSWER: Productive. De-stressing by singing is productive. Here’s an email i sent this morning to class members on ways to decompress from the mid-term exams:

“Good morning, everyone! Here’s another way to de-stress from your mid-term exams … Here’s that song that you weren’t able to hear yesterday during our game-based learning activity, the iconic Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa (Love for the Homeland). Poem by national hero Andres Bonifacio, Melody by Luis Jorque.

(blog admin’s note for this post: Long story short, the volunteer-singers said they would just READ ALOUD the song rather than sing it — the game-based learning activity with quiz questions is a modified “Everybody Sing” eme 😊 where YouTube videos of the songs are sent to volunteer-singers 2-3 days in advance; and during the game, quiz questions on topics taken up in class are thrown on-the-spot after each song… so i said : okay, choose na lang a song you know on the same theme — and they chose the rap piece Upuan (Chair) by rapper Gloc 9 instead).

Continuation of email to class members: “Here’s a background of the melody composed by Luis Jorque for the poem by national hero Andres Bonifacio poem, as narrated in an article/column written for the Philippine Star by Ed Maranan, March 5. 2012, excerpted paragraph: xxx “Sometime in 1977, the cultural committee of the political detainees in Bicutan (nb: detention center for political prisoners) decided to adapt the poem of Andres Bonifacio into a song for a special presentation. (We used to hold concerts or stage political plays for the benefit of relatives, friends, solidarity workers and foreign visitors.) Out of Bonifacio’s 28 stanzas, we selected six that we thought summed up the lofty sentiments of the Great Plebeian. We turned to our resident guitarist, accompanist and composer, Luis Jorque, for the melody, and thus was born the shortened song version of the Bonifacio poem, a song which became the anti-martial law anthem, in the same way that Bangon (from the Internationale) was the protest song of the First Quarter Storm, and Bayan Ko symbolized the spirit of the EDSA revolt.” (from Ed Maranan, Phil Star)

continuation of email: “Here it is, originally performed by Inang Laya (Becky Demetillo and Karina Constantino-David) just the audio at :