Staff Blog

One of the second grade classes at Cebu Children of Hope School has been working on subtraction in math class.  They've been trying to master that whole regrouping thing in double digit problems where you have to borrow a group of ten from the tens place value (the second column) and add it to the ones place value (the first column) because the bottom number in the ones is larger than the top number.  Remember?  The kids were working on the mechanics of the whole thing and also trying to actually understand what they were doing by using manipulatives, things like cubes and counters and a hundreds chart.  Fun stuff.  The trickiest part of the whole process was actually being able to explain what they were doing.  And for our kids they have to explain in their second language. 

Well, on this particular day they had pretty much mastered the process part of things and were completing some problems on their own.  The last question required them to explain in words when one would need to regroup in any given problem.  The short answer should have been something like, "When the bottom number is bigger than the top number in the ones column."  I am sure Teacher Cris would have accepted an even simpler answer like, "when the bottom number is bigger."  But the most creative answer to the question, "When do you have regroup?" wasn't anything like that.  One student just decided to put off the whole thing for a while.  Her answer to the question was "TOMORROW!"  Needless to say, Cris and I had a good laugh.     

This past Monday some of our kids got to experience a music event at CSC.  As I have mentioned in previous posts, for the past 4 months I have been teaching private voice and piano lessons to 8 talented CSC kids.  All of their hard work culminated into a special music recital.  For the past month or so, the 8 students had been working hard to make their 2-3 songs performance ready. I had been working equally as hard to prepare the setting for what I believed would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for some of them.

For the voice students (there are 6), Disney and Broadway songs have been the focus in our lessons.  Some of the songs performed included:  Part of your world - The Little Mermaid, Consider Yourself - Oliver,  I Could Have Danced All Night - My Fair Lady, Colors of the Wind - Pocahontas, Do Re Mi - The Sound of Music, and Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again - Phantom of the Opera.  As you can see, we had quite the selection! Considering the fact that most of their pieces were very theatrical songs, I decided that I would gather costumes for EACH of their songs. I really wanted the kids to have the chance to get in character, and perform in a more dramatic and theatrical way. In all honesty, the costumes actually helped them become better performers, because it helped them use better facial expressions and actions, so as to match their costumes. 

The piano students (2 of them) performed a mix of classical and contemporary pieces. Some of the selections included: Somewhere Over the Rainbow - The Wizard of Oz, Moonlight Sonata - Beethoven, Carol of the Bells, and A Whole New World - Aladdin. 

There was a lot of action building up to the performance. Besides finding all the costumes and fitting the kids, I had to coordinate helpers, set up the stage, create a picture board, make snacks, prepare a slide show, and coordinate group practices. Normally individual lessons take place after school each day, but the week before the performance all of the students stayed after school every day for group practices. It was a bit chaotic at first, trying to pull all the acts together, but at last I could see the big picture. On the Friday before the performance we had dress rehearsal. This was really fun for me (and the kids) because we could at last see all of our hard work coming together. It was also really exciting to see the songs put together with hair, makeup and costumes! 

The excitement of the kids was clearly building, both for the performers and for the other kids at CSC.  This recital was a bit different than other recitals, because it did not include every child at CSC.  The performers were each given 3 invitations to pass out to friends, so that in the end there would be a total of 25 children, along with house parents, teachers, counselors, staff and other outside guests (making the total around 80). The kids at the shelter could not wait to see what we had in store for them!

The day of the recital finally arrived, and the performers headed up to school around 3 for some last minute notes. At about 4:00 we started doing hair and makeup (without lipstick), because at 5:00 we had 2 3-foot pizzas delivered for dinner. No I am not joking, these pizzas were 3 feet in diameter!! It was crazy! After chowing down, we finally got everyone into their costumes in time to go out to the music room for warm ups before the show. The kids expressed that they were nervous, but very excited. After a short prayer we headed out to start the show.

Everything about the recital went just as I had planned - maybe even better! The kids really came through in their performances, and truly showcased how hard they had been working in the past 4 months.  It was exciting to see the performances come to life as the kids added their actions and personalities to the songs. I was particularly impressed by one of my student's performance. All throughout practicing and lessons she had quite a hard time learning and memorizing the words to her songs. Even all the way up to the day of the performance I was worried that she would not have the confidence to sing her songs completely.  I had been working with her so hard on building her confidence in herself, so despite my worries, was feeling hopeful for her performance. Boy was I surprised what she would bring to the floor!  Not only did she say the words better than she ever had in practice, she had strength in her voice and sang with confidence and accurate pitch! I felt so proud.

We ended the recital with our surprise number "Let it Go". Once we finished, I felt instantly relieved, and I know the kids did too. It was a complete success, and I have never been more proud of my students!

“If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.

                                                                                                                      -Ignacio Estrada

Last December our topic in science was about the phases of the moon.  My science students were confused about how the moon changes during its phases. The phases of the moon depend upon its position in relation to the sun and earth. As the moon makes its way around the earth, we see the bright parts of the moon's surface at different angles. These are called "phases" of the moon.  Aside from discussing this, I wanted the students to understand through practical application, so I looked for an idea from the internet. We did an activity to illustrate the phases with the use of biscuits.

They were excited to eat the biscuits.

Another topic in science class was about water forms. Our activity for this was about plants in fresh water and plants in salt water. The students learned how some plants grow in fresh water and some grow in salt water. They learned about the differences between fresh and salt water.

They were happy to see their plants growing.

Learning and understanding takes place in the classroom setting and through experimentation and application.

-Rhasie Gantuangco, Instructional Assistant

Hi.  I am Junelyn T. Ababa, an assistant teacher in Preschool at Children of Hope School.  At the beginning of second quarter last September, we started our Pre- Kindergarten class for the kids who will graduate from preschool this school year.  This class prepares the children for the transition from preschool to kindergarten.  There are 6 kids in the class and I am one of the teachers in the Pre-K class.

The children learn pre-reading skills including print awareness and basic introduction to books and their parts such as front cover, back cover, title, table of contents, author and illustrator.  Basically, we talk about and point out these things every time I read a book to the children.  The kids have been able to memorize and master these concepts.  

Each day before we start our formal session, the kids have at least 5 minutes to browse books on their own.  The other day while they are browsing their books, all 6 of them turned their backs on me while each one was holding a book.  They started to act like the teacher saying, “This is the front cover. This is the back cover.”  They did this while pointing to each of the parts in their books.  I was amazed to see them doing this.  Since they can’t read, they just told the stories based on the pictures in the books they were holding.  It was so fun to watch and I chuckled to myself as they played teacher.

After being here just over a month I’ve learned a lot! And goodness, I have so much more to learn! I’ve learned and am still learning kids’ names, aunties’ names, rules about the individual houses, routines the kids have, how to ask questions, how to hail a taxi or jeepney, how to grocery shop and cook, how to drive a manual transmission car, what my role is as social work coordinator, the best way to cut and eat a mango, and on and on the list goes. It hasn’t been easy and the learning curve is steep, but I have seen and know God is directing my steps here, even if they’re tiny ones most days.

As I hear about the stories of some of the kiddos who live here, my heart just breaks for them. Here are these precious lives, created in the image of God and yet coming from some situations that may even make your stomach turn. They might never show it on their faces, but some of them have been through rough times. But maybe that’s what one expects when you work at an orphanage in a developing country...maybe it isn’t what you expect. I don’t know. I do know that God has lifted them out of their past, and has placed them at CSC for such a time as this. I get the goosebumps just thinking about that! God saw them through some pretty gruesome backgrounds, but protected them along the way to the point of where they could have a home, clothing, food, proper medical attention, a strategically created school to attend regularly, a safe playground to be silly on, a hug when they’re sad or hurt, a birthday song on their big day, a houseparent to model what it’s like to be a Christ-follower, and overall love.

Wow! What a change for some of these little ones! As I think about how all of these things are possible, I think about the many things that need to happen to make it possible to provide all of this. We need good, faithful caretakers, staff and teachers, as well as many material items to make all of these provisions available to the kids.

Today I was reading on the website about the many special projects CSC has implemented to provide for the kids. I’m not sure why I hadn’t seen this on the website earlier, but it was something I learned today! I learned you can help contribute to something unique, and yet very important to the everyday functioning of this organization. This idea seems pretty genius to me and I love it!

I’d encourage you to go onto the website and see what we have listed. http://www.cscshelter.org/projects It seems there’s something for every interest...from medicine to field trips to birthday party supplies and more. So what about you? What is it that you might be really interested in? If there’s something there that just really leaps off of the page to you, I’d encourage you to stop right now and pray about it. Is God calling YOU to provide for a specific special project? These gifts and donations bless the children here who have come from desperate situations to a life where their needs are met and they are growing in God’s grace and love. And you, as faithful donors and supporters are partnering with us to help provide basic things for the kids. THANK YOU!
I’ll let you know what else I learn along the way! :)