Breaking Barriers Philippine Blog Tour Featured Chapter: Chapter 7 Taking a Knee

Cris Tanjutco Ngo over at Teacher's Pet posted a chapter review of Breaking Barriers: How to Knock Out Adversity and Live Life as a Champion by John Couret (Write Hook Media, LLC, 2016) .

She said in her blog:

While I read each chapter, I felt like I was going through a quick huddle with a coach. It gave me just enough time to regroup, think things over or get that much needed burst of adrenaline.

Click the link to Cris Tanjutco Ngo's blog post and discover how wonderfully John Couret made her reckon to try boxing again. What's more, this particular chapter in the book allowed Cris Tanjutco to ruminate about grit, taking stock, pacing one's moves and reflecting on one's strengths and weaknesses before making a crucial move or decision in life.

July 3 - Introduction of the Breaking Barriers: How to Knockout Adversity and Live Life as a Champion Blog Tour 

July 4 - About Write Hook Media 

July 5 - Cris Tanjutco Ngo of Teacher's Pet Featured Chapter: Chapter 7 Taking a Knee (Knowing When to Regroup) 

July 7 - Zarah Gagatiga's Featured Chapter: Chapter 8  Fighting Against All Odds (Serious Health Issues) 

July 9 - Book Reviews, Featured Chapter & Author Interview by Xi Zuq's Nook,  Foster Carry and tsa-tsub!

Ang Tunay na Love Team na Tunay na Book Lovers Part 2

Narito na ang ikalawang bahagi ng interview nina Cris at Galvin Ngo, ang husband and wife team na may pakana ng Give Your Books A Second Chance: A Book Drive for a Cause.

What makes Give Your Books A Second Chance different from last year’s campaign?

Cris: Last year’s That Thing Called Reading was more of a simple mixer activity. We just wanted people to share about their favorite books.

This year, we thought about the spirit behind IBGD. Since it’s about sharing the love for reading through book giving, having a book drive seemed like the most appropriate idea. We've realized that we have to go beyond our partnership (the 2 of us) if we want to reach a wider reading community. This is the reason why we tapped different groups like Bookbed, poets, musicians and Tweedle Book Cafe. We hope that this starts bringing in more readers together to form a community.

Galvin: Last year was a trial for us. We wanted to try to bring together book lovers, so we just hosted a simple blind book dating activity in Habi Education Lab’s Open Love Event. It was fun so we thought of making it an annual thing.

While planning for what to do this year, and in line with using famous romantic movies as a theme, we came across A Second Chance...and I guess that was the inspiration. Since this also a celebration of international book giving day, it fit quite well!

This year we are lucky to have met new partners!-namely, Bookbed and Tweedle book cafe, as well as other friends who will be helping out just for fun:) It’s pretty exciting-we’ll still have the blind book dating-(℅ book bed), plus an acoustic performance by a group of teachers, spoken word, a few games, and it’s gonna be held in a wine cellar at platform 9 ¾!

What is the book you fell head over heels in love with?why?

Cris: Secret Letter from O to 10 by Susie Morgenstern. It's a children's book from France. I just fell in love with the characters! The simplicity of the descriptions and metaphors used in the story will surely tug at your heartstrings - just like a Jerry Spinelli novel.

Galvin: Mine would be scarlet letters from 0 to 10. It will always be a special book because it’s one of those books that my wife, Cris, “bullied” me into reading. (Just kidding:)) Though the story was pretty simple(no spoilers here), it came at a time when Cris and I were beginning to write our own story together. I guess there are books that just come to our lives at the right time:)  

Ang Tunay na Love Team na Tunay na Book Lovers Part 1

Tapos na ang Valentine's Day pero nagaalab pa rin ang pagmamahal nina Cris at Galvin Ngo, ang cute couple (na hindi pabebe), hindi lamang sa isa't isa, kundi sa mga aklat at sa pagbabasa.

Book lovers in real life, Cris and Galvin have been doing reading campaigns and book drives since last year's book and reading event, That Thing Called Reading. Another brainchild of theirs is Every Teacher A Reader a reading advocacy to encourage teachers to grow professionally through reading.

Sa blog interview na ito, ibinahagi ni Cris at Galvin ang dahilan sa pagbuo nila ng Every Teacher A Reader. Mababasa rin sa post na ito ang bago nilang book drive at reading campaign na Give Your Books A Second Chance. 

What is love?

Cris:  Love is, like what Fr. Arrupe, SJ, says, “what seizes your imagination... It will decide what will get you out of bed in the mornings, what you will do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.”

Galvin: Love is deciding to journey with someone.

Why Every Teacher A Reader?

Cris: The original intention behind Every Teacher A Reader is that we wanted to turn more teacher into nerds! Haha! But seriously, we’re quite passionate about professional development for educators. We think that reading is an excellent way for teachers to learn new things. And maybe when their excitement awakens, they start exchanging ideas and this pushes more teachers to think about PD.

Right now, the first step towards this goal is to make reading more fun and enjoyable. This is why we try to come up with different and quirky gimmicks!

Galvin: Cris and I are both educators, and in our nerdy talks, we realized how reading more can help make us better teachers-not just to help inform our work but also to help us become more empathic people, most specially to our students. We think that more teachers should consider reading more, and so we thought of promoting this advocacy and building a community to nurture it.

 Part 2 of the interview will be posted tomorrow. Alamin kung saan mapupunta ang mga aklat na mabibigyan ng second chance para mabasa at mahalin!

Give Your Books A Second Chance