Staff Blog
Last October we entered the Support Give-Away Contest for Resource Mate, the library automation program we use at Cebu Children of Hope School. It doesn't sound too glamorous, but we thought it would be worth it to submit the required essay to see if we could win a year of free tech support. The essay had to describe how Resource Mate helps impact our community. Well, we just found out we won the contest!!! Woo Hoo!!!
Here's the essay we submitted:
It’s library day and Eugene wants to check out the next book in the Ranger’s Apprentice series. He looks at the spine label and heads to the “Fla” part of the Fiction section. Juliet wants to check out a Clifford book. She read one in her class and is excited there are more books about Clifford. I help her look in the Easy section and we hunt for the spine labels that have “Bri.” Mary Grace is ready to tackle chapter books and wants to know where to look for ones for girls. I point her in the direction of the Fiction section of books with spine labels that read “Ame” for American Girl books. Maybe she’d like to try a Junie B. Jones book too. The Level B reading class is studying about camouflage. A bunch of the kids ask where to find books about animals that use camouflage. We brainstorm about how to do that and someone remembers that we should search on the Resource Mate computer using the keyword camouflage. The Reading Challenge contest is in full swing. Kids race into the library each day to return their books and check out a new stack to read at home. Teacher Amanda comes into the library looking for books on the theme of risks and consequences. She searches and finds a number of books she can check out and keep in the classroom for the kids to read while they are working on this topic. Teacher Alfie stops in right before leaving for the day to check out some books to read to his girls at home. Sounds like a pretty normal day in the life of a library.
But the library at Cebu Children of Hope School is anything but normal or typical in this city of 866,000 people with one public library. Our library serves the community of children who reside at Children’s Shelter of Cebu, an orphanage in Cebu City, Philippines and the staff who work with the children. All of the children who come to live at Children’s Shelter of Cebu are from the surrounding communities on the island of Cebu or neighboring islands. The vast majority of the children have either never attended school or have attended very little. When the children start attending school at Children of Hope School, they often do not know the letters of the alphabet much less how to read. Usually it is safe to say no one has ever had a book read to them. Needless to say, they have never seen a library.
The children are thrilled to learn what a
library is. No one has to convince them
how cool it is to browse the shelves of books and check out books to take home
to the shelter. Teachers have also often
never been inside a proper library. To
have an automated system and thousands of books at their fingertips is pretty
unbelievable. The children and teachers
are taught how to look for books in the library. They learn what spine labels and bar codes
are and how the books are organized on the shelves. They are taught how to search for books by
title, author, subject, or keyword. The
children hover around the Resource Mate computer in the library eager to have
their books scanned so they can start reading their selections.
Most of the children who come through the doors
of the shelter and school are adopted either locally or internationally. Currently the children have been adopted into
families in fourteen different countries around the world. The experience and knowledge gained at our
school and in our library goes with them to their new countries, communities,
and families.
On the surface, the little library at Cebu Children of Hope School seems pretty normal, but every day really is a little bit miraculous in our slice of the world on the tiny island of Cebu in the Pacific Ocean.
Morning Meeting: Risk and Consequence and Astronomy
The Level C1 students have been reading about risk and consequence while C2 class has been reading about astronomy. They came together to lead morning meeting. Each class helped the other to show the other students what they have been learning.
The highlights of the morning included reciting Bible verses which dealt with promises and consequences from God, reenacting the moon landing of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, and preforming the song “Outer Space” live—complete with guitars and puppets.
Check out the “Outer Space” song here.
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Future Leaders
“Train up a child in the way he should go
and when he is old he will not depart from them.”
Proverbs 22:6
Meet the future leaders and community helpers. Every day they come to school with fully charged energy, unstoppable curiosity, richly given ability, and a hungry desire to be trained.
Because they were blessed to have a chance to come to school and be given attention, with a big smile and with confidence, they say that in due time and with the Lord’s help they will be prepared to face life independently and be equipped to serve the community.
“When I grow up I want to be a teacher.” – Jennifer
“When I grow up I want to be a firefighter.” – Danilo
“When I grow up I want to be a police officer.” – Andrew
“When I grow up I want to be an army.” – Carlo
-Charis Adlawan, Level A Teacher
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Reading Challenge
Words and words, pages and pages, books and books! The Reading Challenge brought out the inner readers in all the students. They stepped up and buried their noses in books.
Classmates competed against each other. They worked hard, reading pages and pages. At the end of August the class winners were announced.
Each class was rewarded for their hard work with a new book. Teacher Cris’ class was so excited for the new book that they read it as soon as they got into their room.
The students learned a lot. Most of all, many students found joy in books. The number of pages will be forgotten, but the love of reading and learning will lead these students through life.
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Baking with Jules!
The other day, I had the great pleasure of learning how to make pan de munay, a Filipino baked delicacy. Jules, one of our Teen Home residents, recently completed a Bread and Pastry course. He is a certified baker now! Jules has long been interested in the Culinary Arts, but high school was long and difficult for him. Even so, he never gave up on himself or his dream! He graduated from high school this past April and he has been eager to pursue his desired field. Since becoming certified, he is baking up a storm. Each day trying something new! Those at the Teen Home are blessed to eat his daily creations and I know, I am excited whenever I visit for the chance to taste one of his products. For those of you interested in learning how pan de munay is made, check out Jules' step by step instructions in the pictures below. He was a great teacher for me and he even let me roll a few of them! :)
1. Cut the dough
2. Roll it
3. Stretch it
4. Oil the pan
5. Cut the dough
6. Fill with sugar. Yum!
7. Let rise
8. Bake, then let cool!
9. Enjoy! (Truthfully, I had intended to take pictures after each bite, but I was overtaken by the warm, buttery, sugary goodness and instead just focused on eating it!)
Thanks for tuning in to baking with Jules! Please keep him in your prayers as he continues to practice his skills and eventually looks for work as a baker. He is a great guy and we are proud of him!
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Toddler Day Program Kick-Off
September brings new excitement for the youngest in the CSC family. Since arriving in Cebu a month ago I (Grace) have been hard at work creating a new toddler curriculum. The toddler program occurs each weekday and lasts for about an hour. This past week we officially had our kick-off and boy, did the kids have fun!
The new toddler program is structured in a way that will be developmentally appropriate for the toddlers at CSC and will also help prepare them for preschool. Each week of the program is structured around a theme that will not only provide learning experiences, but fun as well! This week the toddlers had a blast learning about circles through activities and songs about bubbles and balls.
Right now we have a group of about 11 toddlers who are full of energy, laughter and curiosity. Each morning we gather together in one of the three homes and start with a morning meeting. The toddlers are learning recognition and routine through their personalized seat mats (mats with pictures of their faces on them). The first day the kids were so excited about the pictures that they could hardly sit on them. By the end of the first week the children were starting to understand the routine and would either sit on their mats or hold them in their laps. During the meeting we do things like working on name recognition, reading books and singing songs. So far, the favorite part of morning meeting is the singing. Thanks to our wonderful aunties the children of CSC start to appreciate and love music at an early age.
Other activities we have been doing this week are bubble blowing, bubble snakes, a ball pit and soccer. It has been such a joy to see the toddlers already making discoveries and having fun exploring the materials provided for them. To get a better idea of what the toddler program is like, take a look at these photos I took as well as a video created by Joel Reasoner!
Video: Toddler Time with Auntie Grace
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