Staff Blog

With a house full of kids, what to do about haircuts?  The solution is simple.  Bring the barbershop to the house.

Many Saturday mornings at the shelter, a barber shop is set up somewhere near one of the homes.  A local barber brings his tools of the trade and spends the morning snipping, trimming, cutting, and buzzing.   This past Saturday the Duterte boys all got a trim.

The Christmas tree is up at the school.  The kids use their pictures to make star ornaments for the tree.  New and old ornaments hang and twist in the breeze.

The many pictures draw in the kids.  The kids like to see how they have changed and grown from their ornament pictures of past years.

On this one side of the tree there is a kid who has been at CSC 14 years, the next star ornament is a kid who arrived last month, and so many others in between.

The kids can see a part of their history on this tree. 

Teachers put in years of hard work learning in college to prepare themselves to step into the classroom to teach.  There are many attributes which can characterize a good teacher—knowledge, preparation, enthusiasm, connecting with the students, patience, and on and on.

The ability to learn is one of the attributes that can benefit any teacher.  There are new curriculums, methods, approaches, and theories.  And every year there are new students.

All students are different.  Some are similar in the ways they learn and how fast they understand and absorb knowledge.  Others have a different pace and others need alternate explanations.  A teacher’s ability to learn the best learning style, process, and pace for each student in the class is instrumental in helping the student understand the lesson.

The Children of Hope School teachers are impressive.  There is a range of learning styles represented in the student body and the teachers have been working hard at understanding each student.

Here is one example.  Wilmar is an active teenager who is still learning the sounds of each letter.  His focus is easily broken and he sometimes has a hard time sitting still. However, he is enthusiastic about most things and is great at memorizing melodies and lyrics of songs.   His confidence in front of a group of people has helped the adults around Wilmar to realize his learning capabilities and potential.

Wilmar’s class needed to put on a presentation for Buwan ng Wika, just like all the other classes.  They chose to do a dance.  Wilmar has trouble following set choreography and usually makes up his own moves.  How does a teacher handle a student who struggles to follow set steps of dance, but is great in musical settings?  Watch to see Teacher Alfie’s solution to help Wilmar’s class put on a good presentation with the participation of all students.

From big performances to basic classroom instructions, the teachers of Children of Hope School are meeting the students each and every day, learning how to guide them. 

Learning how to ride a bicycle is an early moment of accomplishment and freedom for a child.  It is difficult to balance and pedal all at once while steering to avoid obstacles and other people.  Of course a child will be proud of themselves when they learn how to put it all together to ride a bicycle down the driveway.  Guiding the bicycle where to go starts to give a child an idea of freedom. 

I enjoy riding a bicycle.  I must confess; I have more than one bicycle.  Watching a child wobbling along on two wheels finding their sense of balance brings a smile to my face.  When they finally get the hang of it I will shout for joy along with them. 

This little guy is learning how to balance without the complications of pedaling. 

This guy is hesitantly figuring out how to start from a stand still.

This young lady took a few pointers from me and in an afternoon put it all together.

It is so much riding around!  It is even more fun with puddles!

How do you get in the right mindset when you take on a task?  Teacher Cora’s class knows what to do.  When the students return to class after lunch they start with singing praises to the Lord.

Take some time before you start your next task to start with the right mindset.  Praise the Lord!