| Tammy's profileTeacher Tammy's BlogPhotosBlogLists |  Tools  Help |
|
October 25 This Week's HighlightsWhat a great week it was!
1. One day this week, my math class was working on a program on the internet. I explained that it was just the trial version because we would have to pay to have the full version. John Ray asked me how I would pay for it if I wanted it. When I told him "with a credit card", he responded with, "Where do you put it? In the printer?" I had to laugh- he thought I needed to run my credit card through the printer to pay for it. Funny!
2. On Friday, our school held our annual United Nations Day. The teachers split the school up into different countries and the children travel through them. The kids look forward to this every year! This year, they traveled through Egypt, Jamaica, Korea, Mexico, and Romania. Wrapping each other in toilet paper as mummies, breaking a pinata, and egg painting were just a few of the fun activities this year! Food is always a big hit and the kids got to sample everything from chips and salsa to mashed potatoes to a rice concotion wrapped in seaweed! The day ended with a game of Jeopardy that asked questions from each country. It was fun to see what the kids remembered! The last two days I have heard a lot of greetings in Spanish and Romanian and I have a feeling that will continue for a while!
3. Saturday was an important day at CSC. It was the day of the BIG move! Finally! The kids have been looking forward to this day for months. It started out with a walk through of the house...in each room we gave an orientation and then prayed over it! As soon as that was finished, all of the Eicher kids went tearing back to their house to grab their belongings and make the short trek to the new Duterte home! They were so excited! Smiles were everywhere and they practically ran back and forth grabbing more boxes to carry! Everyone pitched in- even the Cherne house kids. It was so fun to see the kids in their new rooms, checking out their new cubbies, and organizing their belongings! Even when it was time to play outside, many of the kids chose to sit in their new rooms or the living room and just ENJOY their new house. Many of them chose to take showers in the middle of the day just because they wanted to try out their cool new bathrooms! Here is a picture of Rafael and Jeffrey enjoying the new house!
 October 18 Julieto Today I want to tell you a little about one of my students- Julieto. Julieto is 19 years old and lives in our Teen Home. He has lived at CSC for almost 10 years. It has been amazing to see how much he has grown and changed in those years. Julieto was actually one of my students during my first two years of teaching here. School was really difficult for him and he ended up taking two years off to work. Last year he decided he wanted to go back to school to finish elementary and high school. In order to go to high school, he first needed to finish 6th grade at our school. So in June, Julieto once again began attending Children of Hope School and it has been so much fun having him back in my class! Despite the hardships of his childhood, not being adopted, and struggling with learning, Julieto has a very positive attitude towards life. His huge smile brightens up our room everyday and his sense of humor keeps us all laughing. Even when a concept is difficult, he tries his best and never gives up. He always makes sure he has his homework and loves sharing anything new that he has learned outside of school. This last week Julieto got up in front of our class and gave a short speech on Stonehenge. I was so proud of him! It is hard to get up in front of others, but he stood up their confidently and spoke clearly in English. Right now, Julieto's dream is to finish high school and maybe someday become a cook on a ship. While we don't know what the future holds for him, we know that whatever he ends up doing, it will be done with a big smile on his face and a positive attitude. Please pray for him as he continues on his journey through life. Pray that he will be able to grasp the concepts being learned in school. October 14 Baseball FeverBaseball fever has been running like wild through our older kids at the shelter. They were able to watch the Twins last game against the Tigers and parts of two of their games against the Yankees. Even though the Twins are now out of the race for the pennant, baseball talk is still one of the most popular subjects for conversation amongst our kids.
Baseball is not a very popular sport here in the Philippines. Before last week, most of our kids had never watched a major league baseball game. A few years ago, CSC had a team in a very small baseball league in Cebu. Besides that, the only baseball our kids have witnessed is in games they have played in the yard at the shelter. It was SO much fun watching baseball with the kids and seeing it through their eyes. They had so many questions. Their unique view of the game gave us all some laughs and I want to share some of their thoughts with you!
Those are just a few of the comments the kids made. It was great seeing them gain a much better understanding of the game and really enjoying it too! They are already looking forward to the next year and hoping they will get to watch some more games! October 11 Yao MingEvery week the kids say things that make me laugh. They use English a little incorrectly or pronounce something funny. For example- one day this week, Leheca told me, “Jeneviev had her shirt on OUTSIDE IN.” I have heard many comments such as that over the last few years and they always make me smile. My favorite one this week came from Kyle. During reading class, he asked me, “Is Yao Ming North America?” I answered, “Well…I know he is from China, but he plays basketball in the United States.” Kyle shook his head and said again, “No, is YAO MING North America?” Confused, I responded with, “I’m not really sure which one you want- he lives in either China or the United States.” This time it was Kyle’s turn to look a little confused, “No Teacher Tammy, Yao Ming, the place. Where is it?” We continued like this back and forth a few times with me wracking my brain to try and come up with an answer about Yao Ming’s place that Kyle would accept and Kyle trying in vain to get me to understand what he meant. Finally he said, “The book says the Bighorn Mountains are in YAO MING.” Aha- the light bulb went on in my head…Kyle’s YAO MING was WYOMING! All along he wanted to know where Wyoming was, not where Yao Ming lived. My whole class got a good laugh out of it and a lesson on how to pronounce Wyoming! October 04 PrincessesLike most little girls, the girls at our shelter love princesses! They like to pretend to be them, draw pictures of them, and dress up in fancy "princess" outfits! Another of Jashly's older sisters, June, has really been into princesses lately! She absolutely LOVES them and is always talking about them. She likes to draw pictures of princesses and makes up imaginary stories. On Saturday she decided that I was going to be the princess. I was sitting on the edge of the sidewalk and she held a palm branch over my head to protect me from the sun. Then Juancho, Jocelyn, and Sheena decorated my hair with all kinds of "fancy" princess things (flowers and pieces of a palm branch). It was quite the interesting hairdo, but they loved it!  October 03 Field Day!A few weeks ago I wrote about how we are all a family here at CSC. I was reminded of that again today as all of the staff, houseparents, toddlers, and teachers came out to cheer on our kids during field day. Our P.E. teacher, Teacher Al, had organized for another school to come to CSC in the morning for running races and soccer games.
I arrived at the shelter at about 8 o'clock and the kids were so excited. They were jumping all over, cheering, and practicing for their events. They kept asking when the "enemy" was coming, and I kept trying to explain that you call them "opponents" and not the "enemy". They were very ready to get started...that is until the vehicles from the other school began arriving. As the vehicles kept pouring in our gate, several of them came up and grabbed ahold of my arm saying, "Teacher Tammy, they are MANY." They looked on in awe and a bit of shock as at least 70 strangers trooped out of the cars to meet them. But despite their initial shyness, the kids ended up having a great time!
The events started out with running races. The kids were split into age groups and about 5 kids ran at a time. We were so proud of them! They all tried hard and had fun doing it. June and Charydyn won their races by a landslide while Kyle, Nino, Angelica, Rafael, Christian A., Angillo, Bernardo, Andree Kaye, and Paula also all won first place in their heats! But as fun as that was to watch, my favorite part of the running came from the toddlers. All of the Cherne home toddlers had gathered in a Nipa hut next to where the older kids were running. They had a blast watching their older "brothers" and "sisters" race! Everytime a new group of kids came up to the starting line, the toddlers would begin chanting for the kids from their house. "Go Rael, go! Go Christian, go!" The cutest of all was Jovan. He began cheering for his brother Jonjon and he just kept calling out "Go Jonjon, go!" long after his brother had finished his race!
The running races were followed up by several soccer games, time for the kids to get to know eachother, and an awards ceremony. It was a great morning of fun, fellowship, and family!
 |
|
|
