Our internet connection is back! Yey!
My kids were well-behaved today. I’m enjoying being their teacher more and more each day.
I had ice cream for dinner.
And my Montessori MA class professor assigned a really cool essay homework. The topic: My Favorite Teacher. The problem is, I don’t have one. Lagot.
Hello.
Yep, this blog is still alive. Very quiet in the past weeks, but still very much alive. Been internet-less in the past two weeks and for how much longer, I am uncertain. Anyway,
…I am now living the truth about teaching. I often said, prior to going back to teaching this year, that I looked at the teaching vocation as something fun, no pressure, very easy and just plain happy and enjoyable. The honest, cold truth is that teaching is a vocation that requires dedication, hard work and commitment, and it’s not all fun all the time. Quite hard to admit but I’m honestly not enjoying teaching right now as much as I would have wanted or expected. The past six weeks have been one hell of a bumpy, mind-boggling, catastrophic and down right physically exhausting ride. The moment I got in and landed my job as class adviser of my Kinder 2 class, I thought I knew what I was getting into, but I was wrong. Being the teacher of thirty-six 4-5 year old little girls is the most challenging task that I’ve ever faced in my entire life. Plus there’s that awful masteral studies schedule I brought upon myself that I also have to deal with. Plus a course that I regret taking up because I don’t like the subject. I should have enrolled in a reading course instead. Hay, the consequences of poor adult decision-making.
…Anyway, I asked a good, good friend just recently (wink, yes you) if this was normal, to be doing something that you really love but not really enjoying it and she said yes, and that it’s a lot like having a relationship – you don’t always feel the love for the person but that doesn’t mean you love the person less (not her exact words pero ganyan ka-drama yung message…haha :P). So, doing what I love to do but not necessarily enjoying every moment is normal after all. At one point I was scared and doubtful about the decisions that I made recently. I would just like to believe that this is what people normally call the adjustment phase and that soon it’ll pass. I’m looking forward to August. Hopefully by then I would’ve been back to enjoying everything about what I love doing.
I miss blogging. I hope to do this more often. After two weeks, and counting, of being internet-less, I feel so detached from the “real” world. Lecheng pldt. (sorry! just had to get that out. hehe.)
…because a three and a half year old Kinder 1 student is scared of “big eyes” and refused to stop crying until the teachers “blindfolded” the eyes of the chickens and horse. Ang kulit! Most kids are scared of bugs or moomoos or thunder but never have I seen a child who’s scared of big eyes until two days ago. This is the highlight of my first week as crabby pee. =) We all wonder until when the blindfolds will be up. We hope it’s not going to take a long time because the Kinder 1 teachers really did a great job with their room decors.The animals look really cute, especially their big, round eyes. Hehe.
It’s Friday! I had a really tiring but happy first week. I’m looking forward to resting and planning my classes next week. Classes formally start, it’s the beginning of another fun ride! Have a great weekend everyone!
Children are little bursts of happiness. I don’t know how they do it but they are just bundles of happiness in cute, little bodies.
My smallest 4-year old student K (in terms of height) walked up to me today and whispered, “Teacher, I have a new trick.” and proceeded to showing me how she could jump as she held on to the edge of a table. And she was so proud of herself!
And then later on, I overheard this conversation between her and a classmate, after watching a little bird hopping:
K: Do you know what sound a bird makes?
C: Yes. Tweet, tweet, tweet.
K: No, a bird goes (and she whistles, long and strong, just like what you’d hear from a grown-up man, seriously!)
Amazed, I walked up to her after class, carried her in my arms and asked,
Me: How do you do that? How do you whistle?
K: Teacher, you just form a little circle with your mouth and then you blow.
Me: (tried to whistle but no sound came out, she laughed) But I can’t do it. What’s your secret? How do you do it?
K: Teacher, you have to have broken teeth just like me.
And the she gave me a huge smile, revealing a toothless uppergum. (four of her front teeth were missing)
Ayun naman pala ang sikreto. 
Thank you my dear Dad…
For nagging me to brush my teeth after every meal since I were little
For teaching me to pray with my hands clasped together and eyes closed
For forcing me to eat my vegetables and finish my food since I was five
For taking me and my brothers to the playground on a small pedicab
For letting me sleep on your tummy until I was three
For showering me with hugs and kisses every day until now
For teaching by example
For your witty sense of humor that never fails to me laugh until my cheeks hurt
For being a good citizen of this country
For reminding us that this world can also be “evil” so that we would know how to protect ourselves
For teaching us to care for the environment
For helping me realize and appreciate the beauty of a simple life
For being the most kind-hearted man I will ever know
For building us a secure, safe and happy family
For loving me unconditionally
And for treating me a “daddy’s little girl” even if sometimes I hate it.
I know you’re still strong but I promise to take care of you, in every way that I can as long as I can. You are one of life’s greatest blessings to me and to our family. I will eventually get old/er but I will always be your little girl and you will always be my Daduski.
I love you, Dad, very very much. And thank YOU for being the best daddy in the whole world. Happy Father’s Day!
Love always,
Your Ispatoto
“You’ve got a great eye. A good heart. And you believe in what you’re doing. You don’t need anything else.”
…which i got from one of my favorite daily reads shutter sisters. Because I don’t have strength anymore to talk about what I went through today - which can be summed up in these five words: pawis, inip, lamon, pagod at anghet.
One entire day with him again, after a long, long time. Seven years and ten months later, I am still the girl that gets butterflies in her stomach and cannot help but smile deep inside every time he holds my hand or hugs me. Every single day, I am grateful for him, for everything that we have been and will be going through, and for the faith that we both have in this relationship.
I’m a mommy again, this time to a second-hand, adopted Polaroid One Step Close-up camera! Photo is the actual unit. Another dream come true! =) Now, to get hold of pola hard-to-find films and start working on a beautiful project like this.
I’ve found inspiration in many simple things that came my way today. Sometimes I am awed by the beauty that this life has to offer.
A co-teacher of mine was talking about strategies that parents could use in developing reading or literacy in their children at home, during parent orientation. So yada-yada-yada, she presented one technique after another. She then came to this strategy of using a magnetic board and letters to encourage children to “play” with letters and read the formed word afterward. To illustrate what she was describing, she slowly brought out a magnetic board (with letters) out of her huge bayong. Lo and behold, the word that appeared on the board was “HELL” - in huge, magnetic blue and bright yellow letters, seen even fifteen meters away! All of us teachers were in utter (silent) shock! We slowly looked at each other, as if contemplating whether to panic or not. (P is a catholic school. We pray, a lot. We hear mass often. And that was one word a teacher isn’t supposed to show parents ever!) The teacher probably sensed that something was wrong so she looked at the board, surprised herself, panicked slightly, and rummaged through her bayong quickly - to bring out a single magnetic blue letter, that redeemed the whole preschool faculty: the letter O. HELLO.
We were all laughing sooo hard. I was in tears.What a gigantic difference a single letter makes!
I hate that I have fear of speaking before an audience. Today we held a parent’s orientation for our year level, Kinder 2. It was my chance to meet and talk with the parents of my students. I wanted to have fun and enjoy my moment with my parents sooo badly. But my fear got the best of me. It was so so strong, no strategy, no happy thought, no anything, could calm me. I’ve had a few of these speaking-in-public opportunities in PSRC and I expected that by now I should have overcome it, but no. The orientation itself was informal, the mood was relaxing, I was with our area coordinator who was there to “catch me,” the parents were smiling (although most had they poker face masks on), I was ready because I studied the manual very well and I knew everything by heart. So why was I scared to hell?! Do you have this too? How do you overcome it? Any tips? I didn’t enjoy the activity as much as I’d like to and I don’t want it to happen again. Help, anyone?
p.s. I’m just glad it’s over and I can start being excited about the start of classes. I met four of my students this morning. One was a lanky, mestiza little girl (a new student) who looked so so sweet. After the orientation, she walked up to me and asked me, “teacher?” After I smiled and nodded, she gave me a warm, little hug. it’s one of the best feelings in the world. =)
