Wala Na Sila :(

IT SUCKS WHEN PEOPLE LEAVE

I can't believe my family's vacation has already come and gone!  Like Mom and Dad mentioned, looking back today, it feels like the 3 weeks went fast... but multiple times on our vacation we remarked about how time must have been standing still here in the Philippines (it was a good thing).  Maybe it just felt like that when our days were so long after being woken up by roosters/cat fights/children/neighbor women/butikis/Bernardino at ridiculously early morning hours.

Either way, our fantastic 3 week trip came to an end earlier today when Bernardino and I accompanied my family to the airport to see them off to Manila.

As you can probably tell if you've been keeping up with the blog, we had a fabulous time and got to visit some beautiful places.  If I had to choose, I would say my favorite part of our trip was the week my parents and KT spent living at my house in Magarao.  It's one thing to travel around my adopted country and show them the sights, but it's something completely different to have them live here.  I loved introducing them to everyone I know in my little community and I loved having other people with me for the kids (and adults) to stare at instead.  Some of them were completely fascinated by the "yellow hairs".  I loved taking the 'yellow hairs' and the 'no hair' on their first jeepney and trike rides and noticing their disbelieving and confused reactions as they realized people were still squeezing themselves into our already overcrowded vehicles.

One of my favorite parts of my favorite week was how much my family bonded with my newest family member, Bernardino!  I've never known my mom to love on dogs or seem like a dog person, but she definitely fell in love with Bern this week.  (She claims it's because she's never had a dog like Bernardino!)

The bonding was definitely mutual since Bern didn't sleep with me at all--as he usually does--and instead chose to little spoon KT or cuddle up at Dad's side all night.

My (all of a sudden) shy neighbor boy, Adonis, hiding from Dad's camera

Cool new sitting area my neighbor's just installed in front of my house

I'm happy to have school starting up to take my mind off of my family's absence and the quietness in my house now!  The school year started on Monday but is still gearing up and we haven't really gotten into legit lessons yet.  Our class is still finishing up pre-tests and housekeeping stuff (handing out books, filling out -forms, etc).

Over the summer as I thought about this coming school year, I was thinking about all the things I was going to try to introduce in the classroom and all the ideas I was going to suggest to improve teaching practices.  One thing I considered was classroom management.  At our training in April, someone mentioned that some teachers in the States recommend "not smiling" in front of the class until December.  That way, the students know the teacher is not just a buddy in the classroom and the aim is that students will respect the teacher and the classroom routines/rules.  After December, you can loosen up a bit.

I considered it.

It's not me.

On the first day, I was just as excited as the students were to get to know each other and couldn't help but smile at them and be the same old "nice teacher" I've been for my whole (2 years) teaching career.  I also decided that I'm terrible at classroom management and have a hard time implementing anything I've learned about.

That being realized, I've decided to focus on things I'm good at and things I enjoy.

I'm good at making connections with kids and giving them agency.

I enjoy writing.

That being realized, I've decided to introduce 'dialogue journals' to my class.  The aim is to have the kids write to me and I'll respond to them about once a week.  This tool will--ideally--create an informal atmosphere where the kids will feel comfortable to practice writing... and there will hopefully be some cultural sharing in there, too.  The students' entries will not be edited by anyone but when I respond, I will be able to model correct grammar, punctuation, etc.  With 45 kids in our class, I realize it's going to take a lot of time to respond to each kid, but I think it will be worth it in the end.  From what I've seen, the kids don't get much quality writing practice and as a result, they don't like to write because they struggle with it.  

I'm hoping to change that--at least for my 45 students!

*Side note: Speaking of class sizes... one grade 2 class I visited the other day has 60+ students!  Can you imagine being the ONLY teacher for 60+ 7 year olds in a room that is too small and lacking enough desks and chairs for all the kids??