Staff Blog

You might be wondering what this picture is all about! 

Each morning I have the privilege of meeting with this boy for 30 minutes of speech therapy exercises.  Because of his cleft palate, he needs additional help with pronunciation and confidence with his speaking skills.

There are many activities that we do each day, but Jeepers Peepers is the last activity (and the funnest)!  The rules of the game are as follows: one player at a time wears the “magic” glasses with a picture of an unknown object attached.  The one wearing the glasses can ask as many questions as needed to identify the object, but they can only be “yes” or “no” questions.

Most of the time, this game involves quite a few giggles!  At times, he asks for clues to help him guess.  For instance, for this particular object, he asked if it was something his caregivers would use.  When told that they would, he asked if the picture was of an umbrella.  He is quite observant because umbrellas are a daily accessory for his caregivers; they of course use umbrellas when it’s raining but they also use umbrellas to protect them from the heat of the sun. 

It’s amazing how good he is now at asking questions.  He usually correctly guesses half of the pictures given to him, and the questions he asks are much more appropriate and on the right track.  Also, this kid has such an upbeat personality---even if he doesn’t get it right, he still enjoys the game!

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. 

Individualized Instruction (II) at CCHS is an intervention that helps students improve their academic skills, especially in reading.  But teaching II with Group 1 has been a bit different since it is a group of lively little girls rather than a one-on-one session.  They practice their beginning reading skills by reviewing their story selections and high frequency words.  After that they choose a book from the classroom mini-library and I read it to them.  The girls take turns choosing the book for the day.  Recently one of the girls chose the book Why? by Miriam Frost.  This book is full of “why” questions, so it’s perfect for building reading comprehension skills.  

The conversation while reading the book with the girls went something like this:

Question:  Why is the snow cold and not warm?

Answer:  Because it’s ice.

Question:  Why do we fall down but not up?

Answer:  Because we slide.

Question:  Why do bats sleep upside down but not right side up?

Answer:  Because the bats don’t have hands to hold. That’s why he sleeps that way.

Question:  Why do we stand on our feet but not on our hands?

Answer:  Alangan! matumba manta if mag tindog sa atong kamot. (English translation:  We will fall down if we use our hands.)  This was said in a tone of voice implying, oh come on teacher, you know the answer!

The girls are very cute!  My prayer is that they will continue to love and value books as they grow up.

Friday was an exciting day at Cebu Children of Hope School!  The kids got to travel to Russia, Spain, Albania, Ireland, and England.  They presented their passport and had to answer questions in order to enter each country.  Once admitted into the country they learned about their culture, famous attractions, did an art activity and sampled a food from that country. 

In the afternoon two representatives from each country dressed in their countries native attire. They were asked to give a greeting from their country and answer questions in front of the audience. Select students performed dances from some of the various countries. At the end of the day the representatives from Russia were crowned Mister and Miss United Nations 2015. 

Creepy, crawly creatures are everywhere here in this tropical climate.  And everything that crawls seems to come in gigantic versions; big moths, big spiders, big geckos.  The kids (OK it's mostly the boys) are fascinated with bugs and seem to go in seasonal cycles playing with different insects as the bugs hatch and find homes in the vegetation. 

Recently spiders were all the rage with the boys collecting certain kinds and then conducting spider fights on the bristles of brooms.  One day I drove by a large group of school kids at a roadside vendor who was selling something in plastic bags about the size of rulers with something small and black in each bag.  The kids were buying the fighting spiders on their way home from school!

For the last couple of weeks the boys gravitate to the flowering plants as they enter the school gate in the morning.  Praying mantises have been emerging and the kids want to see how many they can find.  They don't use them to fight (thankfully), but are eager to carry the cool looking bugs around during the day. Impromptu mini-science lessons have happened with the appearance of these green creatures like learning that the female mantis eats the head off the male!  

So if you are into bugs, Cebu is the place to be.  Hang out with the kids for a while and you'll learn new and creative ways to play with bugs.