Thursday, July 2, 2015

I LOVE Filipino Students!


Wednesday Morning, July 1st  

 Yesterday was a low-key day, I didn't write a new blog.  I ate and did my first walking sightseeing tour.  Today, however, we started to present on where we were from and the schools we taught at.  I kicked it off with a short and sweet presentation on Chicago and Spry Elementary.  Since Filipino students love to dance, I thought I would teach them a few Mexican American dance step for the Bachata.  The thought to do that occurred to me the night before when I was trying to think of how I could get them to move around, we were told if at all possible to get the students up and moving around.

The kids welcomed the presentations and were very engaged and respectful.  At the end one student gave us each a gift, a beautiful necklace, Filipinos are so generous, they say what is theirs is also ours.  After getting a chance to do a little teaching we visited a science and Special Education classroom (which was such a treat for me)!  The students stood up and welcomed us as soon as we walked in.  Every classroom we've visited in the Philippines has stood up and welcomed us to their classroom, it's incredible that they all do this, and so warm.  Be on the lookout for a video of this later!



Most of the students were hearing impaired, and there was one student who had a visual impairment named Ella (the one in the front of the picture with the brace). They were so excited for our visit and welcomed us with open arms.  I spent a lot of time talking with Ella.  When I walked in to say hello I was pleasantly greeted by her, she shook my hand with confidence, smiled and said, "Hi, I'm Ella and I'm blind."  I was impressed with how well spoken she was and that she was aware of her disability yet very confident in herself, that was inspiring.  I quickly found her to be very bright and quick to answer, I could see she was a very hard worker and driven to be successful in school.  


We observed a science lesson and as I sat and watched the lesson I saw how the teacher who does sign language was signing for the students in the room with hearing impairments as the Science teacher was teaching, I thought that was pretty neat.  During that time I supported Ella by explaining to her what was happening and even had her verbalize her predictions about whether each substance would we a solvent in water.    However, once students wrote out their predictions we took a lunch break and enjoyed the food the special education department provided, as a host.  During that time I got to know Ella more and she asked if I would like to learn Braile and I said yes, she quickly got out her template and spelled out my name for me, then she wrote out the alphabet, it was really amazing! 








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