Staff Blog

Just as the kids are finishing up summer activities and heading into the last three weeks of their summer break, the school staff is getting geared back up to kick off the new school year.  Whew!  Summer went by so fast!  The staff reports back on Monday, June 8 for two weeks of planning and preparation.  Six new people will join our staff this year, so we have lots to do to get ready for the kids on June 22.  Five of the new members are from Cebu or someplace nearby.  Each will bring a fresh set of skills, one is an elementary major, another is a math major and yet another is a special education major.  The sixth new person, Amanda, is from the US, just having completed her studies in science education.  It’s been a couple of years since we have had a teacher from North America, so we are looking forward to having a native English speaker on the staff full time. 

Amanda

More news of fun and learning will follow from the school halls in the weeks and months to come, but as we get ready for the kids, think of us and pray especially for the six new teachers, Alfie, Micillent, Lyrah, Amanda, Ethel and Ivy, who have committed to teaching at CCHS this year. 

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.     

Of course, most of the students at Cebu Children of Hope School are from the shelter since that is the main reason for the existence of our school.  However, over the years we have had a handful of community kids attend the school for varying amounts of time.  There was VJ, Andree Kaye, John Ray, Rufa Mae, Christian, and a few others.  CCHS is not big enough to be able to open its doors to the community at large, so we have always brought in community kids just by word of mouth.  It has usually been the case that a commmunity student attends CCHS because he cannot go to another school due to extenuating circumstances. 

For the past three years we have had our hands pretty full with the kids who need schooling from the shelter, but we had our eyes and ears open for a community child who may fit into our school.  Well, meet Lael.  Lael lives with his family nearby and his parents heard about CCHS from someone who works in their church.  Lael is eight years old and suffers from a rare syndrome called Lennox Gestaut Syndrome.  His mom and dad have been looking for a school where Lael can interact with other kids his age in a safe, caring environment. 

Last week Lael started attending CCHS for library and art classes two times a week.  It was a great start for everyone and we are excited to have a new student in our midst.  After all, we are Children of Hope for children of hope. 

Last week Laura came to visit us at school.  Laura taught at our school for six years as an instructional assistant, working mainly with preschoolers and individual students in one-on-one tutoring sessions.  Laura is a lady with a story to tell, a powerful story of transformation. 

When Laura first started at CCHS, she was shy and new to the world of teaching.  She gained confidence with experience and the encouragement of her colleagues.  Laura was a also a seeker, intrigued by the message of God as her personal saviour.  She asked a lot of questions and eventually sought to have Christ as the guiding force in her life.  This desire transformed Laura giving her new purpose and a confidence she had not had before. 

Serious trouble arose in February of 2012 when Laura was diagnosed with cancer.  She had surgery to remove as much of the cancer as possble, but she was also frightened of chemotherapy, so she chose to try alternative therapies in an attempt to arrest the spread of the disease.  When these therapies were not successful and she was again faced with the decision to try chemotherapy, Laura realized her fear of chemotherapy had been the driving force of her decisions rather than her faith in God's promises.

Laura decided to have chemotherapy and she is feeling better, but she is not cancer free.  However, Laura is the first to tell others the promises of God are true and right.  She is firm in her belief God will give her the strength she needs each day.  She is bold and confident.  She loves to tell her story of God's transforming power in her life, come what may.  

Last March the National Achievement Test (NAT) for Grade 6 was administered by the Department of Education.  This is a nation-wide test given to all students in their last year of elementary school.  This was the first time we had any of our students take the national test because we had been exempt from taking it in the past.  The rules changed recently so we had two students who qualified to take the test.  To be honest, we did not have a good feeling about what the results would be because of a planning glitch in the Department of Education.  We had not been informed of the exact day the test was going to be administered, so we had to scramble the day of the test. 

The results of the test did not come out until about 6 months after they were taken.   Cris Tabra, the principal of our school, was attending a private school administrators meeting a couple of weeks ago and she noticed one attendee looking at a print out of the results of the NAT.  She started looking at the back of the list of results for private schools in Cebu City.  When Cebu Children of Hope School did not appear on the back couple of pages, she kept turning forward to the first page.  There was the name of our school third on the list!  Our students had done well enough to rank third out of 98 private schools in the city.  Wow!

The girls were excited they had done so well.  Their efforts at school paid off in a big way.  The teachers might have been even more proud and excited than the girls.  What a great encouragement for all.  As teachers we are thankful for the children's achievement.  We are also very thankful for the reading and math curriculums we use.  Both programs expose the children to a broad knowledge base and prepare them to think critically.  Thank you for being a part of Cebu Children of Hope School, praying for the students and staff as we gather each day to learn and grow. 

Our Third Place Girls!