Staff Blog

School opening is one of the most exciting events of the school year after weeks of summer vacation. Teachers and students have been waiting for this day to come.

For the teachers, this day marks the new adventure they will have with their students. On day one the teachers try to present the new school year with enthusiasm and anticipation that the students will learn their lessons in school.

For the students this day will be the confirmation of who they think their teachers are and their classmates in the morning and afternoon sessions. For the younger students it’s time to remember where they are going and figure out what comes next.

Here is an experience of one of our students:

At 9:30 the bell rang when it was snack time. All of the students were in the snack room to eat their snack. A new student asked for more snacks, but the teacher explained to him that one helping of snack was enough.  So the student went to math class.  The next time the bell rang for the start of math class,  the new student asked, “Are we eating snack again?”  He'll get the hang of it and figure out there is only one snack time in the morning. 

The 2013-2014 school year came to a close at Children of Hope School, culminating with the graduation ceremony.  Four students graduated from preschool and are ready to move onto kindergarten and elementary school.  Three students graduated from sixth grade and now high school awaits them. 

Smiles were all around, teachers smiling because of all the hard work of the students, proud house parents smiling at the children, and students smiling because of a job well done.

Mitch Ohlendorf, CSC Executive Director, gave an inspiring speech to the graduates.  The sixth grade graduates performed a dance with four fifth grade students to the song, "Children of the Heavenly Father."  The preschool graduates were super cute as they performed to the song, "Come Young Citizens of the World." One fifth grade student even sang her own original composition, "Savior of All." 

The graduation was a great symbol of the great school year.   Now the students and teachers can take a break of a couple months before starting into the next school year.

I was rummaging through old files the other day and came across a file titled "CSC Kids' Work."  Inside I found a set of poems written by four CSC "kids" from the school year 2006-2007.  The four guys had each written a poem using the same format of a poem they had read in their reading material.  The title of their poems was the same, If You're Not From CSC..., but the content was original for each of the guys.  At the time the poems were written, the boys were actually young teenagers.  Since that time, three of the guys have been adopted and they have graduated from high school.  Julieto was one of the poem writers and  the last of them to graduate from high school just last Friday in Cebu.  Jules, as he is affectionately called, has gotten other press time recently, but after coming across those poems, I could not  pass up the opportunity to share his education story with you.  His story illustrates the miracle that takes place when some of the CSC kids graduate from high school. 

Julieto came to CSC when he was 10 years old.  He had never been to school, so he started off at the beginning of the learning continuum with letter recognition.  He attended Children of Hope School through the 2006-2007 school year and he was in fifth grade by that time.  He was also in his mid-teens and a bit tired of being in elementary school as a teenager.  He felt he needed to move on.  We cautioned him about not finishing elementary education, but he wanted to try something else.  So with help from some people at CSC, Jules got a job on the construction crew building the new Duterte home.  He loved the job and worked for a year and a half on the project.  By that time, Julieto had thought long and hard about his future and he decided he wanted to go to high school.  Well, he needed to finish elementary school first, so he returned to our school as an older teenager!  That in itself took a lot of courage.  After his final year at CCHS, Julieto started high school.  Four years later, he is a new high school graduate with plans for his future! 

What an incredible journey it has been.  Lots of people have been in on Jules' journey, encouraging, tutoring, advocating for him, but he is the one who has stuck with it.  Pretty miraculous!  Congratulations to Julieto and the other current and former CSC "kids" who are graduating from high schol this year. 

If you're Not from CSC...

By Julieto Sido

If you're not from CSC

You don't know Christmas

You just can't know Christmas.

                    Christmas is the best time for me.

                    I can dance, sing, and be happy as can be

                    With lots of gifts from foster friends and Santa Claus

                    And many parties in the house. 

                                       If you're not from CSC

                                       You don't know Christmas.

If you're not from CSC

You don't know discipline

You just can't know discipline.

                   In CSC we have rules to obey.

                   They are made to help us grow OKEY.

                   If we don't obey the staff will get sad

                   Because they don't want us to be bad.

                                      If you're not from CSC

                                      You don't know discipline.

If you're not from CSC

You don't know sports

You just can't know sports.

                    Sports is our way to have fun

                    We jump, we throw, and run.

                    Basketball, baseball, and soccer.

                    We play with one another.

                                       If you're not from CSC

                                       You don't know sports.

If you're not from CSC

You don't know kindness.

You just can't know kindness.

                    Kindness for me is to share and care.

                    That's what we do here.

                    Children share with each other

                    And the staff and house parents care for one another.

                                       If you're not from CSC

                                       You don't know kindness.

If you're not from CSC

You don't know ME.

You just can't know ME.

                    You have not experienced what I had

                    The fun, the laughter, the good, and the bad.

                    The kindness, the love, and the discipline I had here

                    Will stay with me even when I go somewhere.

                                        If you're not from CSC

                                        You don't know ME.

I just happened to be walking down the driveway of our compound earlier this week when I noticed small white bits floating through the air in front of me and they were blowing by my feet as well.  I, being a born and bred Minnesotan, first thought of snow (just for a split second, mind you).  I know this Winter has been hard for most and I feel for all of you who have struggled through the bitter cold and the seemingly endless snow.  I pray that Spring makes a glorious reveal in the NEAR future and that Summer and Fall are so wonderful that someday soon this past Winter is nothing but a faint memory.

But back to the white things---they, of course, were not snow!  It is the Philippines after all.  :)  After looking at the white things and hearing many giggles to my left, I decided to examine what that giggling group of small boys were doing.  They were making snow!  They had bits of styrofoam that they were rubbing against the bark of a tree and it was flying around like snow.

And they were SO happy about it---giddy even!  I couldn't help but smile.  If you ask any of our kids here---hands down the thing they are most interested in experiencing is SNOW!!!  It is a puzzling thing to them.  They can't understand frozen water and just how cold a place can be to have piles of it just lying around and not melting. Within minutes of a drink sitting out here, the ice is gone and the liquid is already starting to warm.  And a cold day here is 75 and cloudy (long sleeves are needed).  And that is all they have ever known.

I continued on my way, but I couldn't help but hum, "Let it snow!  Let it snow!  Let it snow!"  :)

God bless you all and stay warm!

The end of the school year is only one month away for the students of Children of Hope School.  They have worked hard and learned a ton of great things. 

Recently, they took some time to share some of the things they have learned.  During the math and science day, each level presented things they had studied.  Some of the Level B students have been learning about systems of the human body.  They explained the workings of the skeletal system and the digestive system to all the other students. They did a great job identifying the bones!

There were many highlights during the reading and writing day.  Many students shared stories and poems they had written.  Check out one of the students reciting the poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Wind.”

In between the presentation by students were games.  The tongue twister challenge was a blast.  See if you can do any better than the Children of Hope students!