Posted by Teacher Ria in Advocacies, Teacher's Corner, Teaching Resources, The Library | 0 Comments

When Little Readers Grow

One of my major advocacies as a preschool teacher, despite the fact I don’t read as much as I used to anymore, is to foster a love for reading in my kids. I feel a little guilty, actually, that lately I am not as able to integrate stories to my lessons as much as I used to, or want to for that matter. Before I would have a story EVERY single day. However now, I tend to have about 2-3 a week. Sigh.

What I try to do, however, is set aside book time everyday for the kids to explore the different books in class. I allow them to have free reign of the books they would like to check out and read during this period. I go around and sit with them and together we go through the book. Often times the books that are in our booktime shelf are those that we had read already, so they are often familiar with the story line. However today, as I sat beside one of my little girls, I couldn’t help but be amazed at how far her reading skills have come

isn’t she so cute! hehe. yes, those are real prescription eyeglasses.

Although the book in the picture, I think, is being read from memory, she can now read longer words and has a better grasp over sight words. At times, however, she still relies too much on this, but that’s normal Her phonetic mastery is also something she is able to rely on in our spelling games. Scenes like these are definitely going to be among those I will miss a lot pretty soon

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Kiddie Proofing and Hidden Dangers

Meet one of my favorite safety precautions in the classroom!

I don’t really know what it’s called, but basically its a mesh net that goes around the electric fan in order to avoid getting little fingers caught in the blades accidentally. It also helps keep lots of other stuff out of the fan, like my hair haha! Seriously though, over the years I have had a number of accidents from these fans. Thankfully we’ve never had a serious problem, but as always, its better to be safe than sorry right?

Besides electric fans, there are a whole lot of other hidden dangers in the school (or home for that matter) setting.  This goes beyond the obvious, of course (i.e. electric sockets, scissors, chairs and tables, door jambs etc.) Other potential dangers I have encountered include the following:

• television stands without wheel locks
• scotch tape dispensers
• hot glue guns, even unplugged!
• rubber mats that have have no rubber grips (yes, those cheaper versions of the rubber mats that can be found in most department stores, not so good I tell ya!)
• shoelaces
• edges of books (ayayay…I’ve had bruises and bumps from these I tell ya!)

The biggest danger, however: the kids bags! I swear!!! These little kids are so tiny but for some reason, they have these huge ginormous bags. My toenails have been dead permanently since I started teaching preschoolers I tell ya! Now if you figure out a way to teacher-proof me from the kids, please do lemme know!!!!

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More on Picking the Right Shoes

I’ve written about this a number of times already in the past, but I think it deserves another post. Today in school, one of my kids was, once again, wearing shoes that were too big and grown up for her. Come playground time, she was tripping all over her “heels”. While these shoes may be pretty and may make the children feel special, it poses such a hazard for them. I keep telling my kids’ parents to make sure to make sure to pick age appropriate girls shoes and not tween-ish, teenager like heels already. They have the rest of their lives for that after all.

Other guidelines I remind parents about purchasing shoes are the following:

• Pick velcro type shoes over those that are laced up
• Rubber soles rather than the slippery ones
• Avoid worn-out hand-me-downs
• Pick the right size, even if the kids’ feet grow so quickly (you know how many parents opt for one or two sizes bigger so that there will be room to grow? tsk tsk…not too good I tell ya, not too good!)

Sometimes, however, I understand it’s hard to get the right measurements, especially if parents purchase shoes online or do not have their daughters along with them in the mall when shopping. Here’s a good video on how to measure their feet to get the right size easily:

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Classroom Escapades, Preschool, Teacher's Corner, Teaching Resources | 0 Comments

The Playschool Fire Safety Day

A couple of months ago, during our discussion about health and safety, we lucky enough to get our local fire department send over some firemen to share with the kids some fire safety measures and procedures. The kids loved the fact that they got to ride in the fire truck, “shoot” the fire hose, and some even got to put on the fireman’s uniform, complete with those giant boots or overshoes. Sadly, though, it was a rainy day when the firemen came to visit so they didn’t get to fully enjoy their ride on the truck.

It was quite easy enough to get our local barangay to send the firemen over to the school. We just made some simple requests and it was quickly granted. Part of the Fire Safety Program included teaching the kids about “stop, drop and roll”  as well interactive exercises about what to do during an emergency.

I strongly recommend that all preschools devote a day to this. After all, we do all sorts of fire drills and the like in elementary and high school, right? Preschoolers need to know this just as much!

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Schools and Online Protection

Looking at Facebook nowadays, I see so many profiles of preschools in it. My preschool has one, in fact, but I decided to make sure the privacy settings are for friends only. It’s a little dangerous, in my opinion, to leave it open for the whole world to see because I do post pictures of the kids in it. I think, however, the parents appreciate the Facebook pages because they can see what is happening with their kids.

Anyway, one of the things I have been pushing for is establishing a real website for the school. The problem we have with it, however, is not just finding the best web hosting package, it’s having someone maintain it and update it regularly because in all honesty, none of us has the time to do that anymore.

Some things I do, however, to protect the children’s privacy online are as follows (of course unless the parents decide to tag and identify the kids on their own)

• I do not post the full names of the kids, just their nicknames if ever
• I make sure no personal information is accessible in the photo (example: addresses which are often printed on their bag straps)
• I do not tag the photos to the kids FB profiles (yes, many of my kids have these)
• I control the privacy settings of the page and make sure only parents of the kids have access to it. From there they can save photos and share it with others on their own profiles.

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Reflections | 0 Comments

When I Grow Up…

Today, being the first day back in class, I asked my kids to tell me about their vacations. We had a blast talking about their Christmas celebrations and their favorite presents from Santa when out of the blue, one of the kids started crying. Apparently his seatmate was explaining to him that Santa wasn’t real and it was just a man in a costume. Egaaad….

These are one of those few conversations I hate having to deal with. Although I never really grew up believing in Santa, I don’t want to be the one to rain on the kids’  parades, especially since I don’t know how their parents handle things like that. So what I did instead was to have the kids play pretend. I had them pretend what they wanted to be when they grew up and said that the Santas they saw in the malls were just like them as they put on the old white lab coats, fireman’s hats, and various types of uniforms (from baseball jerseys, to basketball shorts, even replicas of medical nursing uniforms as well). I explained that sometimes, the clothes we wear explain or define our jobs and roles, and that went for the mall Santa’s though. That helped pacify the little boy a bit but now I can’t help but wonder what his mom has to say about it Will find out in the morning!!!

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Countdown Begins

There’s a song in my head tonight and part of it goes:

Clean up clean up everybody everywhere. Clean up clean up everybody do your share.

Yes, that’s a Barney song right there, haha. Today we cleaned up the school in preparation for the last stretch of the school year and that song kinda got stuck in my head. It’s funny how I so hate that song,but I can’t stop singing it!!!

Once again, it’s a little bittersweet for me because as we spruced up the school and while dusting off those artificial flowers by the grotto I couldn’t help but think (in between my sneezing and scratching from all that cleaning) there’s just a few more weeks to go before it’s bye-bye Teacher Ria. Errr…50 days give or take….siiigh.

When I stop and think about it, albeit I am at peace with my decision to leave the preschool, I still feel a little tug of loneliness whenever I find myself in this spot. I have always loved my role as a preschool teacher, and I think I always will, but I have gotten to the point where I have to say I can no longer do the waking up every morning all bright and sunshiney for the children. I have difficulty bearing with the noise and bending over to pick things up and lift the kids when they’re owie because, um, I get all owie too! Yes, teacher has gotten older. However, I still wish I can lend a hand in terms of decorating the school and planning events and the like I remember one of the most fun things (errr….but admittedly painstakingly difficult and tiring!) was create a flower garden on my classroom wall. I took the inspiration from an arrangement of  tropical artificial flowers I saw in the mall once and I decided to use paper cut outs glued on the wall in a decoupage fashion It came out beautifully, I must say, but sadly, I don’t have photos of it. That, I think, I’d like to do more of

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

Welcome Back to School!

The whole holiday season seems to have passed by like a blur and in the next few days, most kids (preschoolers and other grades alike) will be trooping back to school. While I have the customary “gaaah…back to work” feeling, there’s a little part of me that has all sorts of mixed emotions. After all, I only have three months left with my preschoolers. It’s a happy and sad feeling, to say the least.

I do hope that before those three months are up I am able to accomplish the following, in terms of leaving behind something to the school that has been my home for such a long time.

1. I hope to be able to store my old activity outputs (i.e. the body cut-out we did showing the inside of the human body, storybooks written by the kids, etc) so that the next teachers can also use them too.
2. Have the school sound system replaced (well, shop for it at least haha). I’d love for them to have a good audio-visual system that works, complete with microphones,wireless speakers, and yes, even a projector.
3. Set up a system that works for the school library. For some reason, we can’t seem to get this right!
4. Clean up the art supply closet!!!
5. Laminate and repair all the teacher made materials, put them in boxes and label them neatly so these all can be maximized. Currently, its sadly underutilized.

The most important thing I want to do, however, of course besides get my kids ready for the big school, is to truly enjoy every last moment till it’s time to hang up my teachers hat for good. Wish me luck.

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Teacher’s Super Duper Happy Day

Last Sunday our school head sent me a text message asking me to come to school a wee bit earlier than usual. According to her, we needed to practice some new numbers for our program, so if I could, please try to be early. Errr….much as waking up in the mornings and dealing with traffic so early seems to have gotten much harder these past months, I readily complied, albeit with some struggling teeheeeheee…the upside, I was thinking, was that it was Monday and for the most part, Mondays are my Happy Days because it’s the one day in the week that I have the lightest load of work.

Little did I know that it was all a ruse…apparently, they had a surprise for me….

My little Cara came to visit!!! Well, she’s not so little anymore but she still is my adorable little cutiepatootey Cara

Happy, happy day And like I said in my Facebook page, despite the fact that I wasn’t all prettified the way I usually am (literally sans any makeup, hair in a bun and not dolled up at all!), and let’s say despite being all rested over the weekend, I was bloating like all hell because I ate a whole lotta stuff I shouldn’t thus the chubby cheeks and teeny tiny eyes, plus the fact that I wasn’t really looking forward to the rest of the days tasks because unlike other Mondays, I had to work, it truly was an extra special day for me

Um…I was soooo happy I fell of my chair. Ktnxbai

Posted by Teacher Ria in Classroom Escapades, Preschool, Teacher's Corner | 4 Comments

Term End Thank You’s!!!

It’s hard to believe how quickly the term has gone…it seems like only yesterday when I wrote my thank you post for the first trimester but here I am again, sitting and reflecting about what I am thankful for this term.

Admittedly, given the fact that this isn’t a very good day for me, and that this term has been, um…extremely challenging to say the least. After such a heart-warming and fulfilling term, this one came as a sudden surprise, but more in the personal level rather than professional, mainly because of the fact that my schedule was not so great this term mainly because it meant I wouldn’t get to see my friends in the department too often. Plus of course the fact that there were some people and things missing as well in the department (ktnxbai ). On the professional side, however, this term started quite well I still am trying to find the silver lining to the term.

So here goes….

Thank you that the LCD projectors now have virtual remotes (even though I still don’t like where it’s set up because it is sooo hard to manipulate. plus let’s not forget the lighting in some of my classrooms is not all that great so it’s either I’m plunged in darkness or stuck in brightness because all the lights are connected to one switch only).

Thank you that it wasn’t too rainy and stormy throughout the term so I didn’t have to worry too much about the weather.

Thank you that my “Miss Ria’s Exams bring Natural Disasters” curse broke!!! Haha. Yes….my exams have happened at the same time as earthquakes, sudden rainstorms and freak floods.

Thank you to my thesis mentees for, well, finding a way to make research interesting. Then again, when we talk about shopping, how can you go wrong, right?

Thank you for that little corner in the Andrew Library which made my Wednesdays bearable because otherwise, it would have been very, very lonely to make the trek back to the department in between classes.

Thank you to the random people who kept me sane and grounded throughout the term by sharing their bits of advice, positivity and love whether in person, online or through text.

Thank you to my Persef2 classes, the Bio majors and the errr….what was that again? Management? Marketing??? (haha) for making classes fun all the time.

Thank you to my Persef1 classes for….um….well….challenging me beyond belief. Yes, I ranted a lot about you guys, wrote several blog posts because of you, but I would like to hold on to the notion that no matter what, things happen for a reason.

but most of all THANK YOU to my Clinpsy students who made teaching a joy for me this term, even though I think I did talk a weeeeee bit too much about myself this term hahaha. Remember: what we talked about stays inside those four walls, okay?? haha. Oh, but of course you MUST take what you learned about Clinical Psych outside of our classroom. But seriously, THANK YOU for a wonderful term. I learned so much through you, with you and because of you

Miss Ria

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Drawing the Line at “Playing Dress Up”

Let's Play Dress Up!

The other day, Bubba and I took a little trip to Bonifacio High Street. While we were walking around, we came across this little girl dressed in a short frilly skirt, a tank top with spaghetti straps, and heels. YES HEELS. She was about three or four years old. HEELS! errr….

In my school, I have come across several of those heels already and every time I see them, it kinda freaks me out. I mean, I know as a child I liked putting on my mom’s high heels and dressing in them but I never imagined having them in my size. When my kids wear their heels to school, I send home notes that I don’t want to see them because one, it’s inappropriate for class activities and two, it’s such a hazard I tell ya! It’s bad enough I have to deal with shoelaces and buttons that the kids can’t manage, but this?!? Oh geee.

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

Stocking Up on Hugs and Kisses

I went to bed a bit earlier than usual yesterday because I was feeling a wee bit under the weather. I woke up somewhat better, but still tired, and I know that part of it was the fact that I wasn’t looking forward to class today…um…it’s Wednesday and this is the day I have to meet the class that kind of challenges me beyond imagination. So much so that at more than once in the past two months, I found myself on the verge of tears (remember the whole Dear Students letter I did to deal with that?!?!)

Anyway,  I knew I needed to do something to make sure I didn’t fall into a pit of frustration today which I knew would be bound to cause a migraine so I stocked up on hugs and kisses

This is definitely one of those moments I will miss most when I say bye-bye to preschool teaching.

Posted by Teacher Ria in Reflections | 0 Comments

Starting them Young

My mom was, to say the least, not the typical mom. But even if she was very different from the image of the “mom”  that I would see on television (errr…I watched Little House on the Prairie a lot growing up! mwahaha!), I strongly believe it is what has allowed me to become who I am today.

My mom always believed in the principle of “starting them young”. She always allowed me and my sister to make choices about many things in our day to day lives, and allowed us too to make our mistakes along the way. She never left us to face the consequences alone, though, but she always made sure we knew about it. Not only that, she always made sure whatever it is we wanted to try would be made available if possible.

For example, I  loved video games as a child but I had to “earn” the games and the like. So, she enouraged me to tap into my business potential. She would make me little trinkets (such as crocheted cases, personalized bookmarks, etc.) which I would sell to my classmates. This allowed me to learn the value of money even at an early age.

Given what I have seen in my personal experience, I always tell my students that their learning process (whether it is in the preschool level or in college) is an essential tool in making them who they are. For one, they don’t just learn how to read and write. This is where they discover their full potential. I love telling them stories about the most successful people who did not necessarily do very well in school but excelled in life. I tell them too that many of the most successful home based business are managed, owned and maintained by “ordinary” people. The difference, I tell them, is that they didn’t let whatever obstacle, limitation or challenge get in their way.

I think that is one thing I’ll miss most when I stop teaching preschoolers…being a part of tapping into one’s potentials and starting them young. Yes, I may not personally see their progress, but for me, simply knowing I did something way back when is good enough.

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Life Lessons, Reflections | 0 Comments

Little Bits of Sunshine

One of the things I will miss the most when I no longer teach my Little Chickens (a.k.a. the seniors class. For some reason they’ve taken to calling me Momma Chicken (or shark, or tiger, and lets not forget cougar at times!). One day they decided that since I’m their momma whaterver, they became little chickens), are the random bits of sunshine they throw my way. From unexpected hugs to hilarious comments, and even those little endearing puppy-dog-please-please-please-teacher-eyes they send my way, these are little bits of sunshine that brighten up even the most dismal and difficult days.

Not too long ago, I was having a really bad day. But one of my little chickens threw such a bright ray of sunshine my way I couldn’t help but feel the love.

oct. 15, 2010. today wasn't all good.... blame in on bad dreams and kulit dogs that don't let me sleep, being too nice to people who i should know better than to be nice to (but then again i'd like to still think being nice is a good thing...butbutbut...lets not go there), knowing i hurt some people without meaning to, having to deal with unexpected requirements... but...lookie what i found in my bag ♥ dear god, thank you for these little reminders that despite everything, there is always something nice in every day ♥

happy, happy sigh

I am so gonna miss this.

Posted by Teacher Ria in Reflections | 0 Comments

When Teacher Gets Sick….

Lately my health hasn’t been in tip top shape. I blame the terrible weather for it,  I tell ya. I’ve been getting asthma attacks on and off and I often feel like I am coming down with the cold or something, but it never really happens so it feels like it’s stuck in there somewhere. A few days ago, I was complaining about yet another one of my headaches and my friend told me it just isn’t right that it’s been happening so frequently. She suggested that I take supplements (errr…I am not really the type to make it a consistent habit to take such things, even if it is dubbed as the best vitamins available in the market!) to help keep up my stamina and resistance to such under-the-weather conditions.

Today I went to the doctor to get myself checked and one conclusion I came to is that all the feeling sick and being out of sorts can be pinned on one thing:

I’m really getting old. Yes. There, I said it. Ktnxbai hehe.

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Preschool, Reflections | 0 Comments

Growing Up Too Fast

In as much as I love seeing the little girls in my class all dolled up and prettified, sometimes it freaks me out when I see:

• heeled sandals for a three year old
• dresses that resemble lingerie (complete with the straps and lace and strings….)
• nail polish on those little fingers and toes
• lipstick for everyday (actually, I don’t even like it for the programs, if I had my way)

sigh. Think Toddlers and Tiaras…or similar beauty pageants.

I do think they’re cute and all, but sometimes, I wish parents realize that they kinda make their kids grow up too quickly. I remember when I was a child, we’d wear braids and have sandals that strapped in a more functional way! I’ve had so many almost-accidents in class because my kids wear all these sandals that are made to look like mommy’s! Errr….may women I know struggle with such kinds of shoes, what more children, right?

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