This is my attempt to get back on.
The last time I posted a blog entry I had just finished the incredibly satisfying tour de force that was the Faces of Tomorrow Cleft and Palate medical mission. It is now October, a full 9 months later and life is considerably different.
When I last wrote I was only 3 months into my volunteering (plus the 3 months of training), and still fairly figuring out what the heck was going to become of me and the looming 21 months ahead. Now that I find myself at the half term mark (less then 13.5 months to go) I can't help but wonder where all that time has gone.
I am now in my second (and only full) school year of teaching. It has gone a lot smoother mainly because last years juniors are this years seniors. Being able to teach students from the previous year is a lot easier then teaching new students not only do they ask more questions, but they also are a lot more comfortable around me and used to my American twang. My juniors are no less awesome. I have actually found that they are embracing me very quickly and love to ask me questions when they don't understand (Boy do I love it when I don't have to pull teeth*). Guess being with a class from the beginning of the school year does help. Other then teaching the students using the new DLP framework (insert exasperated sigh here, thanks for making my job harder), I have been working on scholarship and information collection for the different universities on my island/province. I along with a few other volunteers all over the Philippines are working on creating an online database that can be accessed by high school students with all the information. It is in the very rough stages at the moment, but with the information I have managed to collect over the last few months plans are in the works for a career planning/college information workshop for the entire senior class at my school, here's looking at December.
In an attempt to keep this post short(er)
School/life activities that keep me busy/entertain me...**
• Activity lesson corrections
• Curriculum planning
• Book donation hunting
• Dancing with faculty in front of 2,000 students and again in front of Dep Ed and government officials (think extreme aerobics with dark electronic music)
• Playing a female faculty vs. faculty game of basketball (in which half the players ran carrying the ball up and down the court)
• New volunteers (Two assigned to my town! Yay for new friends!)
• Reading, lots of reading
• Watching, lots of watching
• Biking, kayaking, getting scuba certified!
• Trips to visit my fellow Boholanos (aka my PCV family)
• Following up on Cleft/Palate patients (Amazing!)
There's a lot more that I can't quite remember and a lot coming up, but hopefully this is a good enough (re)start.
J
*Not literally (sarcasm intended, offensiveness be darned)
**These activities are from June 2011 on, anything between January and then has been lost in the craziness that is my brain.
Fun Fact:
This entire post was written while listening to the music of Shakira (pre-English crossover).
Wow Jessica. It's so interesting to hear of all your adventures abroad. It's quite satisfying to hear that you have such an active role over there. I was also teaching English last year at a high school in LA, but I'm sure it was far less involving than your class because I only had small groups for 2 hours each day. None the less, I can only imagine how attached you must feel to your students. It would be interesting to hear what your plans are for 14 months from now. Are you coming back here?
ReplyDeleteWishing you the best of luck and very proud of you,
Nelson Vaquerano
PS I'm. Super jealous that u got to go scuba diving. Maybe u can teach me to one day