Staff Blog

During the summer months two retiring teachers and one charter school donated a BUNCH of books to the shelter and school. What a windfall! About 850 books (500 lbs!) were boxed and sent to Cebu in early August. All five boxes arrived intact at Children of Hope School in late September. We had a lot of excited kids and teachers when they saw all of the new (to us) books.  

About half of the books went into the house mini-libraries at the shelter so the kids have new books to read at home. One fourth were added to the mini-libraries in each of the classrooms at school for the kids to read during the school day. And one fourth were catalogued into the school library so the kids can check them out from the library.

We are so thankful to the individuals and school who thought of CSC and CCHS for their donations of all the great books. There are a lot of happy readers!

Hibiscus are blooming outside the school library windows.  Gold, yellow, red, pink, and white.  These vibrant tropical plants flourish in this hot, humid climate.  In colder environs like Minnesota where I live most of the year, some people buy potted hibiscus plants in the summer and nurture them along outside before maybe trying to keep them alive during the winter months inside.  But here in Cebu they grow like weeds into lush large plants that bloom almost constantly. 

I guess that is sort of like what we do with a lot of things in life.  We nurture some things along that need more attention and we leave other things alone.  And that changes over time.  People, projects, jobs.  

Sometimes it’s a bit tricky to know exactly how to tend to or nurture a person or situation.  It takes prayer, teamwork and wisdom.  Lately some kids have needed more attention during school hours as they wrestle with making choices in positive ways.  I guess that’s s bit like Uncle Al (in the green hat) tending to the hibiscus plants.  A little pruning here, a little pruning there.  Something we all need every now and then. 

  The night of the 23^rd day of September was a special one for everyone at Cebu Children of Hope School.  It was full of excitement and laughter.  Teachers and students gathered together at the shelter for the Reading Challenge Culminating Activity.  It started with games followed by the awarding of contest winners, s’mores-making and punch drinking. 

      The highlight of the event was the awarding time.  The winners received books as their prize and all the students who met the reading goals got to throw a whip cream pie at their teacher’s face.  It was REALLY fun for everyone, especially the students.  It was also a GREAT experience for the teachers.  This year’s Reading Challenge was a SUCCESS!  

Last month the Level A1 and A2 pupils went on a field trip to a couple of places related to their reading unit theme Animals and Camouflage.  It was a chance for hands-ons learning. 

The students went to Crocolandia, a zoo located  in Talisay City and Cebu Zoo located in Lahug.

They were very excited to see the different animals.  The kids wanted to know how the animals live, move and adapt to their environment.  

They kids enjoyed listening to a short lecture.  

They learned animals are important and people need to take good care of animals.  They heard that some animals have not been treated well and are endangered. 

After the lecture the students were allowed to touch some of the animals!

Everyone had a really good time and the kids want to visit the zoos again sometime.

We’re making some changes in preschool.  This is my third year as the preschool teacher aide but this school year is different.  One change is that we have a new main teacher, our principal.  Also, we are using the same lesson plans but taking a different approach when teaching lessons.  The schedule is also different:  the 5 and 6 year old students stay until 11:30 for additional lessons to prepare them for the next level and the 4 year old students go home at 10:15.  

This year I am teaching math for 45 minutes to five kids.  Our first topic was on sorting and classifying. The students enjoyed sorting through objects looking for common attributes like size or color.  One student kept asking, “Sorting ta, Teacher?”  (“Teacher, are we still sorting?”)  I said, “Yes, we are still sorting.”

We moved on to Topic 2 (patterns) and Topic 3 (Numbers 0-5) and he still wanted to know if we were working on sorting.   Every day he kept asking me the same question, “Sorting ta, Teacher?” and I replied the same, “No, we are now on a new lesson!”

Suddenly, one day that little guy asked me, “Patterns ta, Teacher?” (“Teacher, are we in patterns?”)  He had shifted his question! Unfortunately, I had to answer, “No, we are now on numbers”.  But the real thing that is amazing about these conversations is that he is asking the questions in the first place.   This little guy is the shiest of all the students and it has taken him quite a while to feel comfortable about being in school much less being able to ask questions.   I am so proud of how much he has grown.