How to Get ''A'' Grades in School: A Proven 10-Tickler Formula for Smart Learning

By Angel N. Pagaduan

For its self-effusing utilitarian value and global appeal as a pragmatic guide to productive learning that resulted from a 30-year cumulative teaching exposure to almost every nature of all-grade-level classroom situations, this book is of a kind every home will particularly want to have. Even at the time of its writing, students eager to peek outright into its pivotally-concocted, stimuli-rich recipe for successful learning interestedly reacted, commenting It has many good points!, Theres none like it!, Its very helpful!, and Ill buy it! Friends had intimated that the book could well be treasured as a resource useful not only to students but also to parents and budding/novice teachers worldwide who desire to help youngsters become better learners. How-to-learn-well guide materials in varying forms exist in schools, but their separately organized, non-motivational, or invariably monotonous tone sounds to be all but effectively inspirational. Fundamentally an incidental consolidation of the guiding shades of such materials, this book dovetails into their supposed common end objective of effecting fruitful learningbut by a particular way designed to comprehensively instill in students psyche a viably lasting learning interest expected to systematically evolved into an inveterate spirit of self-motivated/-inspired study habit. That it is capsulatedcompositely from hands-on perspectives based on work experienced in all grade levels including preschool and classes organized primarily for adults into a compact but all-encompassing coverage of only some 70 pages conveniently digestible in just a few settings of purposeful reading adds weight to its behooving worth. Students reading it would metamorphose into A-1 learners not outright, but they would surely transform into being so once they start taking action with time all through it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 22, 2008
• ISBN: 9781469102009

Angel N. Pagaduan

Angel N. Pagaduan penned this book as a “lucky survivor” of a highly risky triple-bypass surgery. A perennial honor student and recipient of an “Outstanding Alumnus” award from Subic’s St. James High School in the Philippines, he was an associate editor of The Bay, his school literary organ. After over a dozen, variedly themed writings thru the years, he penned two other books: Subic (An Epochal Philippine Town the US Navy Helped Shape) in 2007 and How to Get “A” Grades in School in 2008— published respectively by PublishAmerica and Xlibris. He is a graduate of the University of the Philippines with a B.S.A. degree, major in economics, class ’54. After a 2-year stint with the (now defunct) Subic Bay U.S. Naval Base, he shifted to professional teaching spanning 11 years, followed by a longer tenure of economic research-oriented government work, which culminated with his retirement as comptroller in the Philippine National Bank in 1985. Giving up his interest in Subic politics’ open mayoral post of the time, he opted to immigrate instead to the U.S. in 1986. A CBEST-based substitute professional teaching credential holder, he retired from the Cal State Teachers Retirement System in 2004.

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How to Get "A’’ Grades in School

A Proven 10-Tickler Formula for Smart Learning

Angel N. Pagaduan

Copyright © 2008 by Angel N. Pagaduan.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in

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recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission

in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

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Contents

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Foreword

Even You Can Get High Grades in School!

Two Common Qualities We All Possess as Springboards to Smart Learning

Tickler # 1: Understand Fully and Always Remember the Real Purpose of Your Being Now in School

Tickler # 2: Decide Now As to Who Would You Like Yourself to Be on Your Future

Tickler #3: Conquer Classroom Boredom—Not the Other Way Around

Tickler # 4: Adopt and Practice the Two-Pronged Habit of Studiousness According as Discussed Starting with this Page

Tickler # 5: Always Observe and Follow Your School and/or Classroom Rules

Tickler # 6: Be Sure That Your Close Friends are Devoted to Their Studies as You Are

Tickler # 7: Be Sure to Always Do Your Work from the Standpoint of Your Supposed Preset Objective of Learning All About It, Not Just Completing It

Tickler # 8: Strive to Treat Your Homework as More of a Brain-Honing Routine, Rather Than Just a Daily Study Chore

Tickler # 9: You are Observant of SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) with Utmost Devotedness

Tickler # 10: Make it a Point to Give Outlet to Your Socialization Urges or Needs to Academically Oriented Ends

Summation In A Mnemonic Acronym Guide-Containing Poem

Easy-to-Understand Poems for Inspiring Youngsters’ Learning

Glossary

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to all readers who believe that while good learning primarily depends on good teaching in any school, everything else hinges on learners’ own mind set to face resolutely the myriad challenges and hard-work requisites of classroom responsibility.

Acknowledgements

The writing of this book was inspired by several institutions, whose role and commitment in public service made possible, directly or indirectly, the material’s production into its final form within a preset period. These institutions include the following:

California Commission on Teacher Credentialing

California State Teachers’ Retirement System

California Teachers Association-National Education Association

Fremont Unified School District Teachers Association

Oakland Unified School District

San Leandro Unified School District

San Lorenzo Unified School District

Hayward Unified School District

New Haven Unified School District

Newark Unified School District

Fremont Unified School District (where author sought reemployment)

County of Alameda Office of Education

US Department of Justice-Immigration & Naturalization Service

Social Security Administration

Alameda Alliance for Health

Kaiser Permanente Hospital

Saint Rose Hospital

California Department of Health Services

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

In particular, the author’s gratitude goes to Health Net Medicare. The book’s publication within a desired time became possible only because of approval, in his favor, of a triple bypass on April 11, 2008, that proved (circumstantially) providential. He emerged at the Washington Hospital Healthcare System, a week later, blessed with a new life. Greatly instrumental for this unforgettable episode are the following medical practitioners:

Kenneth T. Lee, WHHS Cardiac Surgeon, whose gift of expert professionalism is inspiring of patients’ spontaneous and full optimism;

Sang H. Lee, WHHS Cardiac Surgeon, whose own expertise is as inspiring;

Robert Hsu, MPAS, PA-C, WHHS Physician Assistant, who lent satisfying post-surgery care;

Gopala R. Kulloro, Hill Physicians Medical Group cardiologist, who adeptly did (prior) left-heart catheterization, including coronary X-ray, cardiac imaging, and post-hospitalization healthcare routines;

Generoso P. Porciuncola, Hill Physicians Medical Group, my regular HMO physician, who made every necessary recommendation that ultimately led to the bypass surgery as the only most reliable option; and

Hill Physicians Medical Group # 857.

There are some other healthcare teams—nurses, medical secretaries, respiratory and physical therapists, cardiac rehabilitation program workers, medical technicians, etc. to whom gratitude is owed as much.

Only by repeated contacts and shared calling cards, however, that the following remained to be the most memorable of them by name: Lani dela Rama, WHHS Cardiac Rehabilitation Clinician; Norie Ramirez, WHHS Nurse; and RN Terri Lane, PHCA Case Manager, who took charge of home-visit care.

And for their own concern and prayers as family friends, the author’s many thanks are due: Fr. Seamus Farrar, parish priest of Hayward’s St. Bede Catholic church, who visited and prayed for me twice at the hospital; Fr. Jun Manalo of the same church, a Filipino priest who visited me with his own engaging prayers; and Dr. and Mrs Glecy Garcia, Beth Licad, Ed and Rose Nazareno, Delia Alambat, Leny and Tom Ricafort, and Bert and Gilda Wong, some of whom visited me at the hospital and at home after release, or sent in well-wishing cards.

Lastly, in the 5th week of the author’s recovery from his triple bypass surgery, stoppage of his taking of a medicine called Lasix led to a sudden onset of edema (on the feet), accompanied by a tendency to tire easily and breathe with some difficulty. This constrained him to seek emergency attention at the St. Rose Hospital, the nearest to his home. Immediate care lent by the hospital’s ER (Emergency Room) resulted in findings that a mild CHF (Congestive Heart Failure) with some lung effusion was responsible, but not serious enough to be life-endangering. With continued Lasix recommended as a necessary remedy (was only on its 3rd day of resumption), everything returned to a satisfying, mind-easing normalcy. Then for his further relief, a thoracentesis (ultrasound-aided removal of excess fluid from his left lung), preceded days earlier by advised discontinuance of his medications Metoprolol and Amiodarone HCl (until further notice), was done on May 21, 2008, at the St. Rose radiology lab. For all this, the author’s gratitude is profusely due Dr. Jeremy Graff and his staff nurse for the day, Al Presto, as well as Dr. Michael Maiman, radiologist, who did the thoracentesis in his favor.

And for all his recommendations vital to my full recovery, the author’s gratitude is as well due Dr. Jason Chu of the Washington Township Medical Group, Inc. (it was he who graciously advised thoracentesis for me).

About the Author

After over a dozen published writings, Angel N. Pagaduan had come up with this book as his second, following Subic: an Epochal Philippine Town the US Navy Helped Shape, his first that saw print under ISBN 1-4241-8277-8 on July 2007 (available at Amazon.com/publishamerica.com/BarnesandNoble.com). Once a secondary student who began as a freshman repeater and appalled with a Failed grade in 1945, he rose to end up a perennial honor student and afterward a recipient of the St. James High School Outstanding Alumnus Award. Graduating from the University of the Philippines with a BSA degree in 1954, major in economics, he saw a 2-year stint at the Subic US Naval Base, and then went to teaching until absorbed by the Philippine National Bank, where he retired in 1985 as comptroller—with his innate writing propensity further honed. As immigrant ’86 to the US, he returned to teaching in 1989 via a California Basic Educational Skills Test-based professional substitute credential. Penned from a 30-year front-line work exposure to all-grade-level classroom situations, his book illustratively and comprehensively details how non-congenitally careless but ambitious learners can rewardingly train themselves towards up-to-standards academic performance—thru wise, pragmatic use of classroom time.

Foreword

By actual observations, the problem of deficient schooling arising when sapling students—supposedly for the rudiments of bridging knowledge and mastery of basics and subsequent application of these to higher learning—are crucially in their most idea-absorbent/-retentive years is a predisposition to further learning problems. By this is meant that when students, regardless of their group’s proportion to class size, fail to learn the fundamentals of what it takes to adequately cope with the academic requisites of post-grade six schooling, the result is anything but gladdening. Where this takes place, sad classroom scenarios of inattention, indiscipline, and—ultimately—further poor learning as a compounded problem ensue, with any teacher’s guiding effort, along with learning on the part of the rest of any given class, incidentally also affected. Expressed in another sense, the pristinely affected students almost always remain scholastically disconnected—with their minds predisposed to likelihoods of varyingly unfavorable modes of self-expression and comportment. And through passage of time some become relatively more susceptible to what often are seen as adolescents’ misguided societal ways, openly or in secret, that often warrant control measures ranging from misbehavior referral citations to suspension punishment, at times even necessitating law enforcement officers’ actions. Overall, parents and teachers—and right even society itself—become mal-affected as well!

As somehow an applicable analogy in this regard, let it be assumed: If students receive poor academic training in their early formative years of when, say, they are 6 to 12, they could be likened into electric bulbs devoid of such synthesis specifications as to well dovetail into a preset light circuit standard—where, naturally, they would appear not functioning or shining as brightly as the other properly crafted bulbs of the circuit. This serves to point out that the necessary task of tackling classroom responsibilities supposedly tailored only for pre-qualified secondary students becomes prone to remain an uphill academic struggle for those who have not adequately benefited from their kindergarten-to-grade-six levels of elementary schooling.

But this does not necessarily mean that the students who receive deficient training during their early formative years would remain permanently deprived of potential for continued, improved, or upgraded scholastic growth. How this is to be taken care of and consequently enjoy surer chances of positive result later is what this book is in essence all about, in particular. In general, it is intended and deemed ideal for use by secondary and college students, but it is expected to be indispensably handy as well for 4th-6th graders.

As a proven nugget of front line-gleaned experiences cumulatively spanning a 30-year teaching exposure to all-grade-level classroom situations that include preschool and classes organized primarily for adults, its guiding, referential merits are buttressed by no less than the actual case of a from-failed-to-raised exemplary academic performance achieved by the author himself when in high school. It is written and presented in the way it actually is, or with relevantly specified, multi-introductory topics, out of the expectation that, based on actual observations, the way it is thus done could better ensure and effectuate the nailing down of readers’ attention and interest relative to all the multi-faceted, easy-to-learn-and-apply lessons they would surely find in it.

A summation relatively in the