Staff Blog

The final activity related to CCHS's Reading Challenge was a trip to the Cebu City Public Library, so the kids headed out to visit the library one day last week.  The trip was meant to be the kids' reward for doing such a great job during the Challenge, but another underlying purpose was to expose them to the idea of a public library.  Unlike most communities in the United States, the existence of public libraries in the Philippines is rare, so most people have little or no opportunity to avail themselves of the multitude of services public libraries provide.  The Cebu City Public Library is the only public library in the city of 870,000 people! 

When we got to the library, the head librarian welcomed us and explained what a public library is.  Then the kids were allowed to browse through the books in the children's section for about thirty minutes.  Great fun!  Most of our children have not had the opportunity to read books when they arrive at the shelter.  The idea of being able to look at and read books whenever they want is a foreign experience, so they thoroughly enjoy our school library and the mini-libraries in the classrooms and houses.  This was another chance to be exposed to books in a different environment. 

While we were at the library, we learned about a program to bring books into the communities in the city.  Books bags are distributed by the library to kindergarten and first grade students and their families for them to keep at their homes for one week.  The book bags are returned after a week and the family is given another bag for the next week.  It's sort of a creative revolving check-out system.  Coupled with the book bag distribution are sessions teaching the parents how to read with their children.  It was encouraging to hear the public library is reaching out into the communities in this way.

The kids are still pumped about reading and continue to challenge themselves by reading a lot.  Right now they are into book series and books related to what they are studying in science class.  Maybe that will shift to books about countries and people around the world since United Nations Day is coming up.  We'll see...

Last Friday was September 11, a pretty regular day at our school.  American Studies, a class for the students who are matched with their adoptive families, was a bit pathetic because we were missing some members due to an outbreak of sore eyes, the Filipino version of pink eye.  Since the numbers were down and we had a shortened class period for an all-school event in the afternoon, I was trying to decide how to spend the class time with only two students.  Continuing with our study of famous Americans didn't seem like the best option.  Teacher Amanda suggested maybe we should talk about 9/11 since it was the anniversary of the attack and it is a significant event the kids should at least be aware of.  I took Amanda up on her suggestion.  I already had material related to the topic and decided to read a realistic fiction story describing the event through the eyes of a young boy whose uncle was a NYC firefighter.  

As we read the story I tried to fill in details and put the event in some sort of context for the girls.  They barely know where New York is located much less anything that has happened there.  I wasn't exactly sure how much they were actually comprehending because they were kind of quiet, but this was understandable considering the topic.  I plowed ahead.  After we read the story, which concluded with thoughts on heroism, I asked the girls if there was anyone they thought of as their heroes; someone they looked up to or had helped them in a significant way.  Without much hesitation one of the girls said,"the aunties and uncles" and the other one said, "my mom and dad."  

Well, I guess they got it.  It was a bit hard not to cry right there, so I smiled.   

Erna Ahlmann is a former CSC resident who returned to CSC for the summer to work at Children of Hope School, filling in as an instructional assistant for a person who was on maternity leave.  Since Erna is an instructional assistant at an elementary school in Minnesota, this was a perfect fit.  A number of cool stories could be shared about Erna and her time in Cebu, so here is one story:

Actually this is going to be more about Tomas Marayan who is affectionately known as Bobong around school.  Bobong has worked as a maintenance man at the school since it opened in August of 1998!  He does pretty much any and everything related to taking care of the facilities.  If we have a question about anything at school, Bobong is the go-to guy.  He also does many tasks that are probably not really part of his job description like serving morning snacks to the kids.

Well, the first day Erna was at school and we introduced her to Bobong, he remembered her immediately!  I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised, but a lot of kids have come and gone over the years and Erna left more than 15 years ago.  But Bobong remembered Erna and he went on to tell her who her teacher had been (Teacher Grace) and where she sat in the classroom.  Wow! 

Later in the day, we had a problem with the laminator and Bobong was trying to fix it.  Erna jumped right in and helped Bobong, fanning him to stay cool and problem solving.  Right away it struck me how significant this day was with Bobong and Erna meeting each other again.  Erna went to Cebu to give back some of the kindness she had been shown.  Bobong had helped Erna when she was a very young girl and his heart is so big he even remembered her after all those years.  Here they were working together to help the children who are at the shelter now.  Priceless.

Teacher Cris’ class was working on ordering numbers in math class recently.  She had taken her students through the steps of comparing two three-digit numbers to figure out which one was the least and which one was the greatest.  They had worked on the skill together using many different number pairs.

Then when it came to independent practice, things got a bit more confusing.  Right away one student piped up and said, “The numbers are different!”  Teacher Cris reassured the student that the process was the same even if the numbers had changed.  She said, “Look at the numbers in the hundreds place value and see if they are the same or different.”  And so on. 

When Teacher Cris looked up next, the same student was clutching his paper to his chest, walking around the room and singing the worship song 10,000 Reasons:

Bless the Lord, O my soul

O my soul

Worship His holy name

Sing like never before

O my soul

I’ll worship His holy name.

He went back to his seat and continued to work on his math as he sang.  Teacher Cris was humbled by her student’s response to his problem.  What a sweet reminder to call on God when we need help. 

We have about forty-five minutes left in the first day of school.  Whew!  The kids came this morning with new hair cuts and new shoes, all spruced up for the occasion.  Of course, the kids were wondering who their teachers were going to be in the morning and afternoon classes.  "Who is Teacher Lyrah?"  "Who do I have for Civics?"  After the kids went home for lunch, the teachers breathed a collective sigh, thankful the morning had gone relatively well.  With six new teachers, that was a good sign.  The day has not been perfect with one minor disagreement between two boys and a couple of scheduling snafus, but everyone seems happy to be here.  Carpe diem!