May 15 (Post-Assessment)

I partnered with Gin and Kathleen for the post-assessment. It’s also a good thing that we saw Jake again since it’s easier to teach someone you already know.

For the oral language and book orientation assessment, he did good. He was able to answer our questions and do what we told him to do. However, he was still a little bit shy talking to us.

He was also knowledgeable in the naming and sounding of the letters. He just had difficulty in distinguishing the letters I and E, since he often interchange them. His handwriting was readable and understandable too.

In the free writing assessment, he drew a robot again, which I heard from Kat that is the same from his pre-assessment. When we asked questions about it, he was willing to engage with us. He even said that the robot’s name is JP, and when we asked him why, he said, “Yun pangalan ko eh. Tanong mo kay papa.” He’s cute. :))

He also did well in the syllable tapping test. In fact, he answered them fast. However, he kind of had a difficulty in the phoneme tapping assessment. He did well for his age though.

He liked the ones with pictures very much. He was able to recognize them (Smart, Sardines, Alaska, etc.). We also asked what his favorite was among the ten pictures, and he immediately answered (he was giggling even) that his all-time favorite is Jollibee.. of course.

We read Kristine Canon’s Bakit Matagal Ang Sundo Ko?. He really enjoyed the illustrations. He was able to answer our questions again, though I noticed that he was a little distracted now as he wanted our session to end quickly for him to play. We also asked him if he were in the same position with the female child in the story about what he would also do. He said that he would do the same, just sit in the “bangko” and wait for his mom.

Overall, since it’s the last day, I had fun. I enjoyed this NSTP even though I’m struggling with six majors this semester. At least even in my busy days, I was able to impart my time, teach kids, and have a lot of fun.

April 24 and May 8

Absent.

LP 8 (April 17)

Me and my friend decided to teach together. We got another boy. His name is Justin.

This one’s very different from Jake. He’s more outspoken, easily distracted, and willing to trade anything for games.

We started with making him guess the different sounds of animals. It was fun, really. He also imitated us after that. We kind of had a hard time telling the story of Teresa because he was slow to grasp what we were saying. We adjusted and slowed it down for him. He was also slow in matching the photos and the words. He had difficulty in differentiating the letters i and e and their sounds (ex. he spelled mais with maes, atis with ates). However, I think he really enjoyed the matching part though he was a bit overwhelmed with the number of pictures so we decided to reduce it instead.

He had a hard time focusing. He kept looking at his friend and giving signals for them to play later. However, I believe that he has a creative spirit within him, since I noticed that he loved drawing and coloring.

 

LP 6 and 7 (April 3)

I think it’s because it’s already summer break that a lot of the students, including Miles, were not already going to their school.

However, it’s a good thing that I saw Jake, my friend’s tutee, so I decided to teach him instead along with another student (I forgot her name, though still we still smile to each other whenever we meet at Pavilion Hall).

Jake is a smart kid ever since. He was quick to distinguish the images and words that I let him answer. He is shy just like Miles, but he’s a fast learner, even my friends noticed that. He enjoyed the pares-pares activity. Actually, he enjoyed anything with pictures. He even got the “vague” pictures right, especially the “sama” picture, so I figured, maybe he has already established ease in figuring out and learning patterns (since all the words started with S.) He was also fast, though a bit shy, in telling the story of “Ang Pusa sa Loob ng Bahay”.

Moreover, what I really like about him is that he listens to every word I say when there’s a story. So, whenever I ask him a question related to the story/sentence cards, he also gets it right. He’s a very cute kid too.

LP 4 and 5

I was absent again for the same reason.

LP 3

I wasn’t feeling well this day but thankfully, Miles still remembered me!

I noticed that she really enjoys it whenever there’s a song activity prepared by us, especially when we both sang, “Kung Ikaw Ay Masaya.” She was still very shy, but I could notice her giggling in between her shyness. She also liked the letter “M” activities (saying Maan, mangga, maya, etc.). She was quick to note that, “Ay bakit puro letter M ate?” Moreover, she enjoyed very much identifying the photos and matching them with their names. She still had a hard time spelling, but I think with more teaching, she can do it well enough soon.

 

(Ps. I think I forgot to sign the attendance sheet this day since I hurried to Marikina for a medical appointment.)

LP 2

I was absent on this day for I suffered from a couple of panic attacks (due to a mental problem). However, I asked my friend, Ralph, to look over Miles and make sure to have her taught by him or by someone else. He told me his friend taught her. I was glad about that.

LP 1

This day was really overwhelming so forgive me if I tend to overexpress or not sort my thoughts very well. All right, so here we go.

I was very excited and very nervious to go to the school we were assigned to. I like kids, but there are times when they’re too active and my energy can’t simply “compete” with theirs. I was too nervous to the point that I kept overthinking things. What if the student that I get is too /makulit/? What if he or she just won’t listen to me? And what if he or she would pick a fight on me? Ugh, I tried to brush these off and patiently anticipate for whatever’s going to happen.
When we arrived at the school we were supposed to teach in, the place actually reminded me of the public schools from my province. I can say it’s big, it’s colorful, and it’s almost alive. So many things were happening outside the school. There were people selling in their own stalls/houses, there were chickens everywhere too (reminds me of home!), and of course a lot of kids running around. It’s like it’s a community that never stays quiet! :))
When we chose the student that we’re going to teach for the whole sem, I picked someone who did not excell well in their exam and challenged myself to be a good teacher (at the very least). My tutee’s name is Miles Makiling and she’s in her second grade. I noticed that she’s softspoken and very shy. We exchanged our names and I really hope she’d remember me next week. As she seems kind of snob and distant, I had to double my efforts in making my lessons likeable and pleasing.
When she saw my Ang Pamilyang Ismid book, I noticed that she was really excited to read it. Because of this, I had to finish our lessons fast for us to proceed. In terms of her performance, she is smart. She already knew the basics (pronunciations of M and N) and she was kind of bored learning these again. She also answered fast in these parts. The only part that she answered with difficulty is in the syllabications of the words.
Perhaps my taking from this day is that I should be more enthusiastic especially when my student is very shy and make her feel that I enjoy our teaching session too. I should make our lessons more interesting so that her attention would not be divided because kids really have short attention span. And of course, I should make sure that she’s not the only learning from our session, but also myself. Exciting!

Always

From The Fault In Our Stars, a famous line there would be the “maybe okay will be our always”, I would have to say that in real life, being alert and ready should be our always.

No matter what we do, it’s inevitable that we always have to take into consideration our safety— basic survival instinct. A way to maintain our safety is to observe the proper disaster risk reduction strategies. These encompass a wide-ranging set of activities which help us and the whole community to prevent and mitigate disaster threats or hazards and most importantly, to conversely strengthen and diminish susceptibilities regarding our coping capacities to withstand the impacts of unpredictable disasters.

I wasn’t actually present that day because I was sick. I wasn’t able to hear the lecture but based on some information I already know, the best thing to do upon encountering a disaster or anything unpredictable is that we should not panic. Whatever happens, we should always think rationally and not let our emotions clog our minds so that we could do the next step easily and efficiently. The next thing that we should do perhaps is to act on our own as rational individuals depending on the situation. If it’s possible, maybe we could also inform the authority and seek  for help. I can’t really dig deeper on this but I believe that these strategies, whatever they are, serve as a response  to the rapidly changing environment as well as a greater comprehension between environmental change, and frequency and vulnerability to disasters.

Quoting Leonardo Dicaprio’s Oscar acceptance speech,

I just want to say this: Making The Revenant was about man’s relationship to the natural world. A world that we collectively felt in 2015 as the hottest year in recorded history. Our production needed to move to the southern tip of this planet just to be able to find snow. Climate change is real, it is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating. We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters, but who speak for all of humanity, for the indigenous people of the world, for the billions and billions of underprivileged people out there who would be most affected by this. For our children’s children, and for those people out there whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed. I thank you all for this amazing award tonight. Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take tonight for granted. 

It is already quite evident to us that we have to fully comprehend the current state of our environment. We have to be aware about its declining health. As Dicaprio has emphasized in front of million viewers, “climate change is real, it is happening right now,” we should take these observations, these obvious facts rather, into consideration. As a matter of fact, we went to UP Diliman Task Force on Solid Waste Management just a few blocks from my dorm. I was appalled and also enlightened by the statistics how prevalent really are the environmental problems in our community right now, especially in the campus. The lecturer gave us brief yet succinct details on these problems and I really learned a lot. He also emphasized the 4Rs. Well, the best thing that has happened this day was when they taught us how to recycle bottles for planting. Ah, I love recycling! ♥  It was really simple, no sweat needed even in this kind of weather we are experiencing. It reminded me of a saying by Vincent Van Gogh, “great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”  I hope that this collective action in our NSTP class would bring great change to our world. I’m positive.