Screening Test; a very Chinese day

If you recall my previous blog post, our group recently visited the sites we would teach in. There are two groups, or teams: Our group, the San Vicente group, would be teaching at the San Vicente Elementary School. The other group, the Balara group, would be teaching at the Balara Elementary School.

Some members of the San Vicente Team (in white)
and of the Balara Team (in blue) at the College of Education.

Some members of the San Vicente Team.

Kuya Chinese

Two Mondays after our visit, we administered screening tests to the students. We were grouped into pairs, and were further partnered with members of the Balara group. Our group had four volunteer tutors, and were assigned to the section II-Piña (Pineapple), consisting of 42 children. When I stepped in the room, I was greeted by such a wave of enthusiasm from the second-graders, some even calling me and asking if I was Chinese. Later they gave me a nickname of sorts, "Kuya Chinese" (the Filipino title 'Kuya' means 'big brother' in English).

The screening test was a simple diagnostic test, consisting of reading and writing exercises, reading comprehension parts and other similar activities. Since there were four of us, we were able to alternate administering the test, which on our part was mostly oral dictation.

Students from San Vicente Elementary School.
They are holding the screening test.

At around 11:30, we finished administering the screening test, and were about to leave when suddenly this mob of waist-high children surrounded me and were hugging and giving me high-fives. It was extremely touching, that just after two hours of handling them, they had taken to our group with such rapport. They told me, "Kuya, balik kayo ha!" (Kuya, come back soon!) and I assured them that I would be back.

Zai jian

Having lunch at McDonald's.

We left the site to have short lunch at McDonalds. We finished our lunches and left McDonalds at around 12, and made our way back to the home college of the Literacy Training Service (LTS) program, the College of Education. From there, we had a short orientation for our next site, Balara Elementary School.

The students in each classroom for this site were more compared to San Vicente, having around 60 in a room. Our group of four was assigned to II-Matulungin (Helpful). In under two hours, we finished administering the entire exam to the students. As we were about to leave the room, the students asked to learn "good bye" in Mandarin Chinese, and quickly I instructed them the pronunciation of 再見 (zai jian) and said that it wasn't exactly 'good bye', but 'see you soon', ending the day on a more positive note.