life is bununus, b-u-n-u-n-u-s

March 3, 2011

Chalk one up to cultural differences, they’ve helped me through many a lesson.

-lesson on cause and effect, cue There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

-lesson on onomatopoeias, cue Old McDonald Had a Farm

-the kids have been sitting in their seats for 45 minutes of English class and still have another 55 to go, cue The Hokey Pokey

Not going to lie, life has been hard lately (don’t cue the freak out stateside).

On my end there is little to do on my library. The main building of my school is very old. One teacher says 100 years, but she also says the materials are still in good shape (has she not seen the library I sit in). I’m thinking more like 60 years old. DepEd knows the materials are not in good shape, they also know they don’t want to tear the building down. Apparently it is the only structure of its kind in Region 8, which means preserve. Which to my schools credit, it is doing. They got the money and now they are working. In the process, classrooms have been scattered. The canteen is now a classroom, as well as my library. However, my school has not lost their enthusiasm for my project, or for any of my summer projects. I just need to sit down with my supervisor and finalize logistics. Which is hard when she is not around that often.

This is my non-functioning library. Look at that rot!

School wise, things are basically done. March is the last month of school and the focus is so much on NAT tests that most everything else is just for show. Cue other tricks. In the past couple weeks I’ve taught my kids all those games and songs that are just innate to American public education students. When it is my turn to lead the study session we play Around the World. Which is a huge success. They are addicted to Head’s Up 7 Up. I just taught them Apples and Bananas, and my Grade 6 boys go into hysterics thinking about it. Yesterday I taught them Red Light Green Light. They were sweating and complaining about the heat (it feels like August out there and it is still not the hot season) but would not stop playing.

The kids playing Red Light Green Light in front of my one of a kind school.

My Grade 5 class was glued to the windows watching. When I walked by they asked why they didn’t get to play games. I was honest and said they didn’t behave well enough. At the risk of sounding very Filipino, this class is very naughty. Which is a major frustration of mine. Not so much that they are naughty, (which is the perfect way to describe it because they are not malicious or mean but just being kids) but because it is soo ok. The way these kids behave would not fly in a classroom at home, but the teachers have classroom management strategies. Here it is very much a turn the other cheek policy, but how am I suppose to ignore 25 of 36 students?

Luckily next year I’ll be here the whole school year, so I can establish how kids behave when I’m teaching, then move onto the lighter side of education. It will be good for so many reasons. I can be busy again, and not deal with the feeling of I could be doing nothing at home. Which has been a haunt of mine recently. I did get to teach a lesson this week, and it felt good. Hooray for teaching a lot more next year.

Also, hooray for still having a bag of tricks for next year. Because my grade 5 is naughty, and because I have them again next year I can use those games and have them be brand new! Heck yes!