We're Going on an Exposure Trip!

I apologize for my late update, school has kept me busy, and tonight is a sudden respite from my projects.

This happened two Mondays ago, on the 11th. It was officially the first day of classes for me, classes having been suspended due to the supertyphoon which hit several areas in the Visayas and Mindanao areas of the Philippines. If you'd like to donate to the victims, please do contact your local government officials on how to help. I made a three-part blog entry on how to help, which may be accessed here, here, and here.

On to the blog proper

That Monday morning was filled with excitement. I woke up earlier than usual, which is to say a lot, since I have a very intimate relationship with my bed. I was excited to finally visit our teaching sites for the Literacy Training Service (LTS) Program, which we were grouped and assigned to the previous semester.

A portion of the San Vicente group.
On our way to San Vicente elementary school via jeep!

Our group, the San Vicente group, wore white, while the other group, the Balara group, wore blue. Our group names were taken from the elementary schools we were assigned to. Our class then split up and made our way to our sites at around 9 in the morning.

A few of us San Vicentes got on a jeep and were actually surprised to find the rest of our team waiting for us outside the entrance!

The gates to San Vicente Elementary School.

We were really excited as we made our way into the school. We waited in the quadrangle with our professors while waiting for the school representatives to meet us there. A few minutes and a few careless shots later, the principal and head teacher came out to welcome us.

Inside the school quadrangle, waiting for the principal and head teacher to meet us.

The best shot I could get of my professors and the school representatives.
From left to right: Two of our professors, the principal, the head teacher, and our other professor.

After the representatives welcomed us and thanked us for volunteering in the LTS program, we were given a tour of the grade 2 classrooms. Each room had around 40 to 45 students. Our program will focus on the students of this year level, the students we will take on for the program will be determined by a screening test which we actually administered just this Monday. (Two weeks after this trip)

I will, I will.

We left the school after the tour. Too bad we didn't get the chance to take a group photo! Some of my classmates left immediately. One of these days, I will get a group photo. I will, I will.

Reactions IV

A 5-part blog entry

Up until last Monday, our Literacy Training Service (LTS) sessions consisted of seminars and activities. When I entered the classroom last Monday, though, the set-up baffled me. Our relatively large classroom was suddenly divided into smaller sections, with chairs and tables being set-up facing different directions. I doubled-back and checked if I had accidentally walked in on the wrong classroom, but I got the right one. Was there an event that coincided with our class? Were classes cancelled for the day and I had just forgotten to check my e-mail? Fortunately though one of the people setting up - my professors - sees me and with an amusing expression invites me in.

"Pick a spot," she urges me. I look closer at the room and quickly figure out that the room has been divided into three smaller sections, creating a simulation of classrooms. I chose one and sat down on one of the already-set chairs.

As my equally-confused classmates eventually came in and chose their own spot in their own "classroom", one of the women setting up approached each of us with a roll of masking tape and a marker, asking our names and making name tags for everyone.

Kid for a day

It turns out the women who were setting up were actually upperclassmen Education majors who volunteered to be our "kindergarten teachers". I can say it was amusing to play a kindergarten kid for a few hours. We had a very interactive story-telling and a few games and activities after that, like vocabulary exercises and fill-in-the-blank activity sheets and posters. You could really tell that our volunteer teacher put a lot of effort to make all the interactive objects and other teaching paraphernalia. I wish I had taken pictures of some of the simple string mechanisms she used in the vocabulary exercises.

Play time

The simulation ended and we rearranged the seats in our usual lecture set-up. Our professor then flashed pictures on the screen. They were traditional Filipino games, and she asked us to identify them. These games are commonly played by children in the street - patintero, luksong baka, luksong tinik, palo sebo and other games. But with the relatively recent iPads and smart phones, children are seldom seen outside playing with other children.

Our professor's point was that no matter what a child was playing, playing in itself is important for development. They help a child learn teamwork (more the traditional games than those on the phone), play by established rules, and overall, develop a child's sense of his own abilities.

It's interesting to note that she also pointed out how telling a child to keep silent, to sit erect, and to follow all that boring class decorum were actually unnatural for a child. It makes sense, though; not letting a child develop by being his natural (to an acceptable and reasonably tolerable point, of course) self and letting him explore is limiting him in an alien environment.

The four-pronged approach

What we experienced, continues our professor, was a combination of study and play: the Four-Pronged Approach. Simply put, said approach consists of four parts to encourage a child not only to read but to love to read. I found an interesting pdf online by Raidis Laudiano that describes it in detail: http://www.jeanettepatindol.com/uploads/3/5/3/0/353097/the_four-pronged_approach.pdf

1. Genuine Love for Reading: The first step is establishing an interest for a piece, say, a story, in a child. This stage is basically where you take the child on a very guided tour of the story and the words. Vocabulary, plot and other elements must be clearly detailed to the child.
2. Critical Thinking: The children are asked the motive question. From this, the discussion flows and explains the entire story, each time asking the child more questions until they fully grasp it.
3. Mastery of the Structures of the Language: In this third stage, vocabulary, attention span, and listening comprehension are developed. Vocabulary exercises are a perfect tool for grasping new words, while making it fun for the kids helps them focus more on the goal - appreciating the story.
4. Transfer Stage: This is a stage I like to refer to as a 'transcendence stage'. This is sort of a culmination of the approach. Worksheets are helpful in letting a child piece the story together according to how they understood it. It reflects how much a child has learned and, hopefully, will lead to the child learning to love to read.

The session left a very deep impression on me. There was so much effort poured into a relatively small amount of time, but it would have a large impact on a child. I guess you could say this was an inspirational and re-affirmation point for me. Seeing how willing and enthusiastic our volunteer teachers were, and at the same time how fun the activity was, only deepened my desire to make a change in a child's future. And I guess that's why most of us become teachers - the desire to make a change and to empower a child with knowledge. It's a noble profession, yes. But it's sure to be a rewarding one.

Reflections III: Learning, Part II

A 5-part blog entry

Note: Pictures to follow!

As a college student, I can say one of the biggest reliefs of graduating high school was leaving behind physics. Don't get me wrong, as a high school student I loved the math and science subjects, I was even part of the Science club my entire high school life. The one science subject I just really didn't enjoy was physics. Having had to take it in my senior year, I can say that physics was one of the walls I had to break to graduate with honors. One of the 'initiation rites', if you will, in that course was the dreaded egg drop. You could just feel my excitement (or rather the absence thereof) when our professor for the Literacy Training Service (LTS) Program told us that was our next activity.

Whoop-de-do.

Not sure whether the prayers are for me or the egg.
From: supermemes.net

Collaboration

Thankfully this was a group work of three members, and collaboration for ideas was very effective! Another thing I was thankful for was the fact that while in high school we were only allowed to use straws to construct an egg chamber, for our LTS class we were allowed virtually any material we could get our hands on. And this is where being an arts student pays off.

Silicon, my friend.

Our plan seemed great. We would get a simple plastic jar, stuff it with newspaper and place the egg in. On one of our online meetings, I suggested using a silicon chamber to protect the egg and act as an additional cushion. I'm not sure why I suggested it in the first place. In hindsight, I'm not sure what purpose the silicon had - sure it would cushion the egg to some extent, but overall I think it was unnecessary.

Preparation

It was Sunday evening. LTS sessions were on Monday mornings. I quickly prepared the silicon casing (which was prepared days prior), set the container and stuffed it with crumpled balls of newspaper. I tried placing the silicon casing in, making sure it wouldn't be too loose inside. Once I was satisfied, I placed the egg in and closed the lid.

The following morning I arrived at the university. I wondered from which floor we would drop our egg chambers. In high school, we dropped the egg chambers from the 5th floor. That was 5 relatively-low floors. The College of Education, where the LTS Program was based, has 3 high floors. 3 intimidatingly-high floors. You could just imagine how nervous I felt when I realized this. The nervousness was compounded when I saw some of my classmates with BALLOONS attached to their egg chambers.

Eggs eggs eggs

Our professor asked for volunteers on which groups wanted to drop their chambers first - three groups of three members each in a batch; one to drop the chamber, one to act as a spotter on the ground floor, and the last member could go accompany any of the other two.

I wanted to see what would happen to the other groups, so I waited for the time being. The first batch of groups made their way to the third floor, and on our professors' count to three, each group dropped their chambers. Everyone held their breaths as each representative released their chambers and waited as each precious egg in their supposedly-protective cases dropped to the ground. Time seemed to stretch for those few seconds as we watched the chambers plummet to the ground. Lo and behold, the entire first batch was a success! Each of the three groups' eggs remained whole.

I wanted to get this over with and just drop the thing. So I volunteered to be part of the second batch and climbed to the third floor, clutching the newspaper-filled plastic container. I looked down and was extremely thankful I wasn't born an egg.

Our professor counted.

One.

Arms outstretched, fingers ready to let go of the container.

Two.

A gulp. Just let go.

Three.

Release.

I see the white blur of the plastic container fall to the ground.

A loud crack is heard. I hear it all the way in the third floor.

Oh shoot.

I see my group mates run over to the spot where our chamber landed, and I rush down the stairs to see the extent of the damage. The lid is broken and disregarded to one side, we slowly and carefully lift the silicon out of the container and open it, grimacing at what we knew was inside. And to our surprise, the egg is unscathed. We each sigh in relief as our professor takes pictures of our dumbstruck, relieved faces.

What happened next was a blur. More batches of groups dropped their egg chambers. Some as elaborate as being held by toothpicks and garter, some simple as a Manila-paper parachute and a bottle, and some as interesting as a tin can with cornstarch. Out of all 15 groups, though, only one egg broke because the chamber was dropped too far and bounced off a railing on the way down.

What and how

We were all eventually herded back to our classroom for a post-activity discussion, and we listened to an interesting lecture on looking not at what we learned, but instead focusing on how we learned. It was an important detail to point out. Most of us probably remember the joy of learning when we were in kindergarten. The way our teachers would make everything a game to make us learn a simple concept like addition or colors is always a happy recollection. But as we grow older most of us probably just learn to pass. The passion may still be there, but we are forced by limiting factors such as time constraints to just cram things in our minds.

Physics, for example. We memorize formulae, laws and constants and when the exams come, we apply them. But how much do we really know? The egg drop experiment (more then than now, to be honest) really helped us understand what we were doing. Practical application of basic laws was the key to hurling a chamber - from a three or five-storey building, it technically makes no difference - without damaging the egg inside. For a subject such as physics, these types of hands-on experiments are perfect.

Our professor stressed that working hands-on is important for grasping and applying concepts - this was a lesson that we as future teachers had to keep in mind. This coming Monday, we'll be visiting our assigned schools for the first time. The kids we'll be handling are in a very young and crucial stage of development. It's both a challenge and an honor to get to work with these kids. Hopefully, when we do meet the kids, we'll be able to give them a good time so they can enjoy learning just as much as we did when we were there age.

Looking forward to it!