June and July
2:20 PM
So it's summer time in America, but for me in the Philippines summer is ending and school is starting again! School is back in full swing, which means I'm back to work. Since school started I was trying to decide what my project would be for the few months I have left at site. (Our official COS, close of service, date is Oct. 17th, 2012!) I really enjoyed my reading club last year, so I decided that I would continue working with those students. I decided to take a different approach though. Instead of working on their reading skills, I wanted to work on their listening and comprehension skills. To do this I went to the big city on our island, Tacloban, and bought a few small chapter books to read to the students. I found two of "The Littles" books, do you remember those? I loved them when I was younger and thought they would be fun to read with my 2nd year (13 yr. old) students. So far we have read a few chapters in the book and the students love it! I'm having them work on their imagination and comprehension skills by writing in a journal. I have had around 30-50 students each class, which is more than last year, so I'm thinking they really enjoy our "story time" (as they call it) :)
In June I also attended my last VAC meeting. It was strange knowing this would be my last time at this kind of meeting. This time we had our meeting at the US Embassy, which was a nice change and experience because I had never been inside the embassy. It was a really nice building and had a lot of history behind it. We were able to work out some issues and say our goodbye's as 269 VAC members. I was also able to buy a new camera while I was in Manila (Thanks mom and dad!), so I now I can take more pictures :)
At the end of June I was invited to join the department heads of my school in their trip to the Tacloban festival, Kasadayaan. Some of our students were preforming in the festival and they wanted me to experience this kind of festival. It was a great time. I got to bond with some of the teachers that I didn't know too well and also see our students preform. I thought the students did very well and wished that they would have placed higher, unfortunately they did not, but it was still a pleasant experience.
Ryan and I started up our puppet shows again. Man they are fun! It's so much fun seeing all the day care students reactions and how different each child reacts to the show. At one day care we had three eager little boys that couldn't get enough of the puppets. They couldn't contain themselves and kept running up to the front to touch the puppet and to try and figure out how all of this worked. We have also had a few students who start crying. These students have never experienced a puppet show before, so for some it's a scary thing. But other just can't stop laughing. They love when Kuya Philly laughs and when we teach them how to brush their teeth. They are even more excited when we let them try out the sea-life puppets. They enjoy being able to experience the puppets for themselves and trying to mimic our voices. Although it's exhausting, implementing these puppet shows have been one of my favorite things we have done at site!
July 4th- back home it's Independence Day, but in the Philippines it's Filipino-American Friendship Day, whew what a mouth full! So to celebrate I took some materials that my friend Tamra sent me to my classes. A while back Tamra sent me those plastic strings that you can make bracelets/keychains out of. Well I took those to my reading club and one of my classes and showed them how to make keychains. They loved it! They enjoyed learning the sometimes hard process and enjoyed showing off their finished products. They were also thrilled to celebrate this meaningful day together. Thanks Tamra!
As some of you know Ryan and I just got back from Thailand. We had an awesome time, but you will have to wait until the next blog to find out more... Take care, we love you all and miss you tons! Won't be too much longer now!!!
In June I also attended my last VAC meeting. It was strange knowing this would be my last time at this kind of meeting. This time we had our meeting at the US Embassy, which was a nice change and experience because I had never been inside the embassy. It was a really nice building and had a lot of history behind it. We were able to work out some issues and say our goodbye's as 269 VAC members. I was also able to buy a new camera while I was in Manila (Thanks mom and dad!), so I now I can take more pictures :)
At the end of June I was invited to join the department heads of my school in their trip to the Tacloban festival, Kasadayaan. Some of our students were preforming in the festival and they wanted me to experience this kind of festival. It was a great time. I got to bond with some of the teachers that I didn't know too well and also see our students preform. I thought the students did very well and wished that they would have placed higher, unfortunately they did not, but it was still a pleasant experience.
Ryan and I started up our puppet shows again. Man they are fun! It's so much fun seeing all the day care students reactions and how different each child reacts to the show. At one day care we had three eager little boys that couldn't get enough of the puppets. They couldn't contain themselves and kept running up to the front to touch the puppet and to try and figure out how all of this worked. We have also had a few students who start crying. These students have never experienced a puppet show before, so for some it's a scary thing. But other just can't stop laughing. They love when Kuya Philly laughs and when we teach them how to brush their teeth. They are even more excited when we let them try out the sea-life puppets. They enjoy being able to experience the puppets for themselves and trying to mimic our voices. Although it's exhausting, implementing these puppet shows have been one of my favorite things we have done at site!
July 4th- back home it's Independence Day, but in the Philippines it's Filipino-American Friendship Day, whew what a mouth full! So to celebrate I took some materials that my friend Tamra sent me to my classes. A while back Tamra sent me those plastic strings that you can make bracelets/keychains out of. Well I took those to my reading club and one of my classes and showed them how to make keychains. They loved it! They enjoyed learning the sometimes hard process and enjoyed showing off their finished products. They were also thrilled to celebrate this meaningful day together. Thanks Tamra!
As some of you know Ryan and I just got back from Thailand. We had an awesome time, but you will have to wait until the next blog to find out more... Take care, we love you all and miss you tons! Won't be too much longer now!!!
