Staff Blog
Do you ever have those times at your job when you look around and you are simply amazed at all the wonderful things happening? When you see coworkers overcoming huge obstacles to continue to do their jobs with excellence? That is how I feel right now.
Amazed and thankful.
The teachers I have been fortunate enough to work with for the past three years are coming up on one year of being locked in at the shelter, one year of educating the CSC kids in the living rooms and offices scattered around the shelter. This is not easy but the teachers have not used this challenging time to complain or only give 50%. The opposite is true. These coworkers, my friends, have met this challenge with energy and dedication. They have helped me problem solve how to daily transform living rooms into classrooms and then back to living rooms, making sure that all the resources needed to help kids learn are present and mobile. They have supported each other when COVID or death has struck their family and they haven't been able to be present because of government restrictions.
They have thought of new ways to bring school lessons to life, enabling their students to understand concepts deeper through creative, hands on activities. As an example, last week our two third grade teachers worked together with their students to create the CCHS Mini Snack Bar. Their unit in math was on money and decimals. What better way to grasp these concepts than to run a little store for the day and interact with money in a real way?
Not only was this activity helpful for the third graders, but the other classes benefited by learning about money, making choices, practicing how to speak with confidence as they made their order, and understanding what you can buy with 5 or 10 pesos.
As schools all over the world are trying to decide how best to educate kids during this pandemic, be rest assured that the kids at CSC are continuing to make great gains and thriving largely in part to this amazing team of teachers. CSC is filled with these kinds of dedicated and knowledgeable people in every department!
The Sun
Every day at Cebu Children of Hope School (CCHS) we start our day with something called Morning Meeting. This is a "soft landing" time for our children which enables them to calm their bodies, practice social skills, and prepare for a great day of learning. Part of every Morning Meeting is a time for kids to share. Sometimes the question is about what they did over the weekend, sometimes the question is related to the day's lessons.
Teacher Chery and Teacher Mae lead the Morning Meeting for Level A1, our four energetic kindergarteners. Here is a conversation they recently had in their classroom, with the question relating to the day's science lesson.
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Teacher Mae asked, "Where do you think the sun will go during the night?"
Student 1: The sun goes under the sea at night because it goes under the line (he means the horizon).
Student 2: The sun is on the ground teacher.
Student 3: Hmmmmmm... the sun will go to bed and sleep.
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Even with their young minds, these children have great ideas that even surprise us adults at times. Each child at CCHS is surrounded by great teachers who have dedicated their lives to help enlighten and empower their students so they can understand everything from where the sun goes at night to understanding how the God who made the sun loves them unconditionally. Thank you for supporting the work that is happening every day at CCHS!
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Pag Ibig Award
Recently CSC received an award from the Pag-IBIG Fund, the Philippine government financial agency that is handling the mortgages for our 60 employees who are receiving Habitat for Humanity homes. The award recognizes the role of CSC in this project on behalf of our employees, who are all automatically members of Pag-Ibig.
This award is a testimony to the work of Paul Reasoner, who raised funds to help alieviate the financial burden for our workers and make their mortgages more affordable for them. We are an organization that values our employees and we have been concerned that they have decent housing. Many have lived in sub-standard houses prior to this project, and would not have had even the hope of having their own house and lot without the cooperative efforts of CSC, Pag-IBIG Fund and Habitat for Humanity. This award reflects that concern of CSC, and the partnership of the agencies who are all dedicated to getting deserving people into safe and affordable housing.
Pastor Fred Verdeflor, who is the husband of our CSC nurse Arlyn and President of the CSC Happy Homes homeowners association, went to Manila to accept the award on behalf of CSC.
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Life Cycles
All living things undergo different stages during their life. Some living things start as a seed, pollen, or spore. Other organisms such as animals start as a live young or an egg that sometimes needs to undergo the process of metamorphosis which completely changes their appearance.
In my Level B2 science class the students were able to witness the process of metamorphosis. We started in the caterpillar stage where the students saw how many leaves the caterpillar consumed. After several weeks it became a pupa. The students were very eager to look at the changes every day though it stunk when they opened the lid of the box. The day finally arrived when the caterpillar became a moth! We all went outside and set the moth free. The students were so excited to be a part of this process!
The whole activity took a lot of time and dedication but the result was very fulfilling. The students were able to learn not just how metamorphosis works but also about patience, perseverance, and having a love for nature.
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2018 Highlights
CSC Higlights of 2018
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Christmas 2018
Click to see pics of the different activities at CSC this Christmas. Our generous donors allow us to give lots of fun times to the children. God bless you all.
Junel's Box 2018 - Inayawan, Cebu City
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