My first two weeks back at school after Christmas break were
spent working on three applications for our school. The first, and most intense, application is
for a teacher training to be provided by a Filipino organization. Basically, I (and my team of teachers)
organize everything and they provide the facilitators to train participants in
a Read Aloud Program for elementary school children. In addition to inviting all the teachers at
Magarao Central School, we’re planning to invite the English Coordinators from
the other elementary schools, all the teachers from Hunter’s school, and some
other key community members. My project
proposal has acquired the signature of our Public Schools District Supervisor,
but I’m still waiting for the needed letters of support to accompany my
application.
The next application is for a grant to get sports equipment
and supplies through the International Alliance for Youth Sports. They also provide a curriculum to teach life
skills through sports. Our proposed
project is to run a Saturday morning Sports Club for grade 5 and 6 boys and
girls. Right now, we have zero sports
equipment available so any donation would be better than nothing. Ideally, we would get a bunch of different
things so we’d be able to introduce the kids to all kinds of sports. Secretly, I’m just hoping for a kickball
because I want to teach them my favorite childhood games: four square, kickball
and SPUD!
The other thing I’ve been working on is a book donation from
a program called Books Across the Seas.
It’s sponsored by the Rotary Club in Manila. They import all kinds of books from America
and disperse them to requesting schools around the country for a small donation
(5 pesos for each pamphlet, 10 pesos for each book). I’ve already polled the teachers about which
books they would like so my next step is to solicit a monetary donation from
our local Rotary Club in Naga to see if they’ll help us out. If so, I’ll be making a trip to Manila to go
pick up the books: it’ll be a lot cheaper than shipping them.
Since I’ve been kind of out of touch with classes in the
past few weeks, I agreed to sub for a teacher when she told me she’d be absent
in the morning. Normally, I wouldn’t,
because we are not here to be substitutes.
However, I was itching for something to do and, stupidly, agreed to fill
in. I had my lesson all ready and was
feeling good about it but those kids barely listened to a word I said the whole
morning. Subbing is difficult as it is:
you don’t have any knowledge of the kids or the classroom routines, you’re
unfamiliar with the lessons, etc. Throw
in the language barrier and you’ve got a disaster. The class was ~40 grade 2 students who either
didn’t want to listen or didn’t understand what I was saying. At one point, I told them I would leave since
they weren’t listening. I started
collecting my books and packing my bag, but none of them seemed to care. Basically, they called my bluff (or they
didn’t understand what I said). I ended
up redistributing the books and tried to teach again.
I started getting back into the classroom this week with one
of my co-teachers (grade 5). She asked
me to help improve the students’ writing so we gave them a writing prompt where
they had to write a short biography of one of their best friends. I tried to make it interesting by giving them
a few tips on how to spice up their writing.
The first tip was “Be Descriptive” and I gave the example “She has the
face of an angel” (because their go-to adjective is “beautiful”). As my co-teacher and I were reading the
biographies later in the day, she came across the writing of one student who
actually took my advice! The student
wrote, “My best friend has the face of a dog.”
We had a good chuckle about that!
My after lunch Remedial Reading class is back up and running
also. I’ve been having some
self-defeating thoughts lately, like How
the heck do you teach someone to read better?? And Is my class even helping them at all?? But I’ve put some thought
into it and I’ve decided to just focus on getting through one story: Cloudy
with a Chance of Meatballs. Since I see each class so infrequently, it’s
difficult to have good continuity. They
seem to enjoy the class and I know they’ve at least learned the word ‘glare’
since, after modeling a glare in class, most of the kids jokingly glare at me every
time they see me now.
Joseph has been going to school this week!! However, MakMak hasn’t because “he doesn’t
have clean clothes to wear” and neither has Marlon because his mother has been
sick and can’t take him to school in Naga.
But, YAY JOSEPH!
In other news, I found a house that I’m very seriously
considering moving into! It’s within
walking distance from my current house and the school. It’s a newly built, one bedroom house. The outside is bright yellow and the inside
ceiling is the native thatched roof!
It’s so cute and very spacious!
It even has a gated in front porch with is perfect for Bernardino! My RM will be coming soon to check it out and
make sure it’s acceptable and everything is in order. Fingers crossed! Now I just have to get the guts to tell Lola
I’m moving…. I know she’ll be sad but I have to do it.
I went to talk to the people who own the house again today,
and as always, I had my “bodyguards” with me (MakMak, Marlon, and
Bernardino). Marlon and MakMak had been
telling me all day about some heart necklace they wanted to buy for their mom
because tomorrow is her birthday. On the
way, we passed the market where the necklace was being sold for …. Drumroll… 10
pesos. I ended up giving each of the
boys 10 pesos and they each bought the same necklace to give to Lorena
tomorrow, along with the birthday cards we made for her on my lunch break
today. I’m hiding them in my room until
the boys wake up tomorrow morning.
Also on my lunch break today, I got some very sad news. I did not understand 100% of the
conversations, but Marlon and MakMak told me that Katrina (the kitten we found)
died earlier. Apparently she got run
over by a car on our road. The boys said
they dug a grave for her and made a cross to go on top. Poor kitten.
This weekend, I (probably stupidly again) agreed to fill in
for a teacher at the National Achievement Test Review session for grade 6 all
day Saturday. Not all that excited but
since Hunter has to go to Manila, it’ll give me something to do! Sunday should be fun, though! It’s the Sagrada festival (where Nancy lives)
and Rose’s (Nancy’s daughter-in-law) new son will be christened! Rose asked me to be the ninang (godmother)
back in December so I have to be present at the christening. (This is my third god-baby in 4 months!) There is a lot of preparation leading up to
this weekend so it should be fun!
I’ve been on a reading kick lately and I’ve got
a Barnes & Noble gift card (from the lovely Rosie V!) to buy new books on
my Nook. Sooooo, if anyone has any good
recommendations, please share! (Generally, I go for non-fiction, world
culture-y books) J
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