Staff Blog

What do you do when there’s no water?

It was a very fine cold (relatively speaking, of course, because the temperature rarely gets below about 70 degrees) Tuesday morning at Cebu Children of Hope School.  Everyone was ready for their classes.  Later during our first morning class, one of the Level B2 students asked to go to the bathroom.  I said, “Can you wait until 9:25 at snack time?”  The student replied, “Yes teacher.”  So at 9:25 everyone left to use the bathroom and wash their hands before heading to the snack room.  Unfortunately, when they turned on the faucets, there wasn’t any water because one of the float switches wasn’t working.  

Instead of getting upset, the kids found other ways to wash their hands so they could eat their snacks. Thankfully we didn’t have to wait very long for the water problem to be fixed. 

Food is made up of nutrients that are very essential for our bodies. It is good to teach kids the importance of eating nutritious foods. 

Every July is Nutrition Month for all schools in the Philippines. On July 28 we had our culminating program for Nutrition Month. Lots of activities were prepared and the kids were very excited. There were coloring activities, preparing and cooking food and classifying pictures of different foods. The kids enjoyed the coloring activities. They also liked being involved in preparing and cooking food. The kids were divided into groups and each group was assigned a food to prepare and cook.  The different groups made garlic bread, chicken nuggets, fruit cocktail and calamansi juice.

During the classifying foods activity, the groups cut out pictures of different foods and classified them into three categories:  Go, Grow and Glow foods. Then they glued the pictures on a poster explained their work.

One of the students who was reporting for his group kept practicing his lines and asked, “Teacher, sakto ba ko? (Teacher, am I right?) Go foods give us energy, Grow foods give us protein and Glow foods give us vitamins and minerals.”  I answered him with a nod of my head and a thumbs up.

At the end of the program, the kids enjoyed eating the food they had prepared and cooked.  Yum! 

Reading is the complex cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning.  Through reading, you expose yourself to new things, new information, new ways to solve problems, and new ways to achieve things.  Who knows – you might find a new hobby.  Who knows – you might explore something you really like and it may end up becoming your career.  Exploration begins with reading and understanding.  Reading exposes you to a world of imagination, showing you nothing is impossible.  By reading, you can explore different ways to look at things and how different actions lead to different results. Books expand your imagination.  It’s like a huge spider web, where you link together things you know.  You also learn new things creating new solutions and answers.

Last week we had our Reading Challenge Kick-off, a six week reading contest, at Children of Hope School.  During this activity we encouraged the students to become broader readers and to appreciate how wonderful and amazing books are.

What struck me the most during the kick-off was the excitement on the faces of the students. Everybody wanted “in.”  No complaining here.  Instead the kids said, “Teacher, when can we check out books?”   “I will not play anymore, instead I’ll keep on reading to earn points.”  “I want to earn the highest points!”  “I want to read as many books as I can.”  These words amazed me because our children were really motivated to read.

Read, read, and read more to learn and explore the world around you.  Reading is fun!

“I’m just a kid and you are a teacher.” 

I laughed and I was amazed at the same time when I heard this statement from one of my students. We were doing our oral development activity when one of my students refused to make his own sentence using the new words we had learned that day.  Other students were thinking hard and constructing sentences using the words, but this student was struggling.  

I called on him and at first he was very hesitant to share because he was not ready. He hadn’t formulated even one sentence in his mind, so I gave him few more minutes to think.  The class discussion had been really good; other students were enjoying the activity and sharing their sentences.

Again I called on the student and I said, “Hey buddy, I think you’re ready to share your sentence with us. You look like you have been thinking hard.” He smiled and looked at his classmates.  They cheered for him and encouraged him by saying, “Try lang.” (English-Cebuano for “try please”)

I stood beside him, cheering him on and praising him as well.  He stared at me and said in a nervous voice, “Teacher, I’m just a kid and you are a teacher.”  I caught myself beginning to laugh when he uttered these words.

Then I stopped and told the student and all of his classmates, “Yes, you are all kids and you’re still young and I was once a kid too.  But let me ask you these questions:  Where are you right now?  Why are we here? Have you thought that maybe we both have the same goal and purpose?

We are here in school to study and to learn.  This doesn’t mean that I’m a teacher and I know everything.  It’s not as simple as that.  Learning is a two-way process.   You learn from me and I also learn from you.  I’m here to help, teach, guide and mold you to be a better person in the future.”

After our conversation, the student was able to formulate his own sentence and everybody clapped for him. In the back of my mind I told myself I’m lucky to be a teacher.  I may not be rich with jewels, but I’m rich with good and happy memories because of my experiences.  I have a lot of memories already to ponder in the future.

 A Day of Friendship

      Every 4^th of July is Friendship Day at Cebu Children of Hope School.  On this day, there is always a special time set aside for everyone to gather together and have fun.

       This year, the celebration was great.  Everybody, especially the students, had fun.  There were a lot of friendship games that taught them good values like cooperation and considering others.  The highlight of the celebration was a parade as a finale with candy tossed to the kids.  It was very special for the students.  They all had fun picking up the candies and sharing with each other.  It was a joyful celebration.