Staff Blog

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.

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.”      Dr. Seuss

Kind, generous people send all sorts of needed things to the shelter and school.  Earlier in the summer a couple of boxes arrived with an assortment of clothes, toiletries, shoes, toys, books and more.  BOOKS!  We’re always happy to get books at school.  We were curious as to who sent the books since we had not been expecting lots of books.  We were told that, once again, a wonderful friend who is a media specialist in a school had “secretly” given the books.

The kids noticed the books up high on a shelf right away when they came for library and asked if they could check them out.  Since the books needed to be entered into the library system and the usual person who does that work was on maternity leave, the kids have had to wait a bit to check out the new books.  Well, the books are ready now!  Thank you for giving these beautiful books. We are so blessed to have tons and tons of books.

“There is more treasure in BOOKS than in all the PIRATES’ LOOT on Treasure Island.”  Walt Disney

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. 

Being a teacher is somewhat like feeding chickens.  When you’re feeding chickens, you have to make sure they eat the food given to them to get the right nutrients.  It’s disappointing if one of your chickens gets sick or dies.  You may get frustrated if the feed spoils or spills out of the container, wasting time, money, and effort.  To avoid this you should have the correct container and supplies for the chickens’ needs.  From time to time you might have to change the type of chicken feed to ensure the chickens will keep on eating.  

Like raising temperamental chickens, teachers also encounter various types of behaviors in students and this needs to be considered before implementing the lesson you are going to teach.  The lesson needs to be prepared properly so the students enjoy and understand the lesson.  Assessments need to be given to make sure the kids really understand the topic you have discussed.  

In my experience while teaching the kids at CCHS, I have undergone different emotions.  Sometimes I feel happy and sometimes I feel mad or even guilty, but I try to not let that be a hindrance.  I pray to the Lord that He will always guide me with the exact words and actions needed for the lesson I am going to share with my students. 

It has been a joy for me to teach science for the older students at the Children of Hope School. Having recently graduated college specializing in science education, it has been an exciting adventure to be able to teach what I love. The students' love for science only makes me love my job even more! Everyday, they ask me, "Teacher Amanda, can we do an experiment?!" Whenever I say "Yes", their eyes widen with an eagerness to learn.

One of our latest experiments was making "oobleck" to explore the properties of matter. Oobleck is made of just corn starch and water, but when the ingredients are mixed together, it carries the properties of both solids and liquids! The students had a chance to get messy, have fun, and engage in scientific inquiry at the same time. With oobleck dripping from their hands, smiles stretched across their faces, and lightbulbs lighting up as their minds participated in active learning, I would say that our experiment was a success! By the end of the lesson, the students asked me a new question, "Teacher Amanda, can we do an experiment again tomorrow?!" What a delight it is to share my love of science with these young, bright, eager minds!