Posted by Teacher Ria in Teacher's Corner | 1 Comment

Sprucing up my classroom

Today I spent the whole morning browsing all sorts of scrapbooking programs and clip art collections we had installed in the school computer looking for inspiration to help me spruce up my classroom walls and windows. This year we decided to have our designs digitally printed with a tarpaulin instead of the usual paint and paper that we use. The last time I decorated my classroom wall, I probably spent a whole week painstakingly cutting out art paper to glue to the walls for my cutey-patootey garden. This is what it looked like:

not the best lighting for a photo, but you get the idea

Each flower petal and leaf was cut out individually. Wasn’t it cute? However, I realized that it’s not the most cost-efficient way of decorating my classroom walls, especially since the kids end up picking on it till it peels! To be fair, it lasted for 2 years so I guess it was worth the effort!

However, like I said, this year we decided to use tarpaulins for my new classroom for two reasons: it comes out more cost-effective and the classroom where I’ll be staying at this year is in the open-air section of the school. Sometimes, when it rains really hard and I forget to close the windows, the stuff gets wet! We also had leaking problems with the roof by the wall where I intend to decorate so if I used the usual paint-and-paper decors, that would be a nightmare.

I haven’t found my classroom design yet, but I think I’ve decided on a playground theme this year. I’ve done garden, city and sea in the past so for this next year, I’m excited about the play theme. Any suggestions? For the next two weeks I’ll be trying to compile photos or patterns to use for my design while the carpenters and technicians change the paint, fix the roof, install new light fixtures, a fire alarm and a door chime to replace the current one which seems to be grounded and has it’s wires sticking out. In the meantime, I will surf the web for more inspiration!

Posted by Teacher Ria in Teacher's Corner | 0 Comments

Remembering why I teach in the Philippines

On the way home tonight, I was listening to the radio and heard commentaries about teachers being disenfranchised in this 2010 elections. The way I understood it (pardon me, I wasn’t really listening very much because I was so exhausted!) some teachers discovered that their voters registration status was deactivated and some of them will not be able to cast their votes this year because of the new ruling of the Commission of Elections which does not allow them to vote in the precinct they are assigned in. This was quite disheartening because by doing their job, they lose their right to suffrage.

It’s sad to hear about the plight of teachers in our country. They work very hard to make a difference in the lives of the students they teach but they do not always receive the support they need from the government. This is just one example. There are so many opportunities for employment abroad but they’re still here. Teachers in the public school system also have to deal with so much politicking and red tape which can limit them from flourishing in their jobs. Another saddening fact is that while the teachers have the heart to teach, they lack resources such as classrooms and textbooks, to do so.

As for me, I still want to believe that teaching in the Philippines is a worthwhile profession.  It just gets harder and harder every year to remember why I keep holding on to teaching here when I see my counterparts succeeding financially by taking on teaching jobs in various parts of the world. Not only do they get paid better, they also have more resources within their reach. I guess one reason I still stay is because I really have been blessed by the institutions I work for, even though the compensation is much lower than if I taught in the US.

I pray that the next administration that will be elected this Monday will finally value edcation the way it should be valued. For now, I will still stay and pray hard that I can hold on to my determination to be a teacher here in the Philippines.

Posted by Teacher Ria in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

BC Blogging

The Accidental Teacher is jumping in the bandwagon! Wanna come?

Calling all bloggers who want to gain friends in the blogosphere and build links at the same time – BC Bloggers 3 is now open. To join just visit Mommy Diary, read the requirements, and fill out the Application Form.

Posted by Teacher Ria in Arts and Crafts, Tips and Tricks, Toys and Playthings | 0 Comments

Learning from scraps and household items

During the summer, it is customary in the preschool I work in to do a general cleaning where we get rid of all the old junk and make room for the new stuff that will come in for the upcoming school year. However, every year we seem to find more and more bits and pieces of scraps that we teachers can’t seem to let go off because we transform them into learning materials. We have a shelf-full of all sorts of odds and ends, from toilet paper rolls to old party hats, scraps of cloths and buttons, as well as all kinds of things you wouldn’t really think of keeping! Even old office papers find a home in our school. See that tall stack of white papers just waiting to become artworks?

Although it may look like a mess, this is a source of endless fun, adventure and learning, not just for the kids but even myself as their teacher! Teacher-made materials are excellent learning tools because you can design it to cater particular themes or needs your students have. Plus it can come out more cost-effective, especially if you teach in the Philippines where educational toys are quite expensive.

Here are some fun things my students and I have done with scraps and household items we’ve used as learning supplements in class:

Toilet Paper. I use these to measure my kids’ heights by taping to to the wall and counting how many squares tall they are. To further extend the lesson, we compare the number of each student then we put it in order from least to greatest. This teaches them sequencing, comparing greater and less than, and other math concepts

Gumamela flowers to make bubbles or other fallen flowers and leaves for drying or incorporating to handmade paper.  To make our handmade paper, we’ve used old window screens for straining and draining the paper pulp pressed together. Sometimes the paper comes out quite thick so we end up using this to make picture frames or other crafts.

Old water bottles are big favorites for kids! Whether its filling them up with colored water, stones or whatnot, they love shaking it around and are quite fascinated by what goes on inside the bottle! If you’re lucky, you can find those little connectors that allow you to put together two bottles to make one of these tornado bottles It works best though if the water bottle is the thicker kind of PET bottles.

Making Christmas crafts from leftover paper plates and cardboard is also a good way of harnessing a child’s creativity and fine-motor skills.

Wondering what to do with old tires? Make them into playground swings! A word of advise though: be careful when cutting the rubber because there are a lot of steel wires on the inside. We had this done by our school carpenter and he sanded down the wires and we wrapped them up in protective sealants before painting it.

Old egg trays or cartons can also be great ways to teach kids colors, one-to-one correspondence, matching and classification. This also helps stimulate a child’s thinking skills. For older kids, instead of using just colors, you can integrate other concepts to it. Ive also used old egg trays as 3D tic-tac-toe frames

Old newspapers and scratch papers are great for paper maché projects!

These are just a few things I’ve done (and have pictures to show of!) but there are so many other ideas to explore. One of my other favorite household trash items I love to use are toilet paper rolls!!! They’ve become musical instruments, bahay-bahayan toys and even presents made by the kids for mom and dad.

So, whenever you have trash at home, think twice about what can be done with these. Just be crafty!

Posted by Teacher Ria in Advocacies | 1 Comment

Rules are NOT Meant to be Broken

One of the things I most struggle with everyday is reconciling the fact that while many rules may seem irrelevant and at times, illogical, and the need to follow these rules.

My own sister often uses that as a weapon against me when we fight. She calls me a ‘goody-two-shoes’. However, while most people are okay with bending the rules, I still find it very difficult to do so. Let’s take driving rules for example. It really bothers me when people, especially motorcycles, continue to go forward even though there is a red light in front of them. For others, they rationalize that there’s no oncoming traffic anyway. I try my best to follow these rules even though it inconveniences me, but it’s hard to stick to it when every one else does not follow!

Another pet peeve of mine would be when people park by someone elses driveway. While that may not be a written rule, it is a basic social rule that should not need to be taught. Frustrating, right?!?

I think we would all live in a much better world if we all just try to follow rules a little better and remember, no matter how irrational it is, there must be a reason for it

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