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What are we teaching our children?

A few months ago, I came across this pack of candy that I thought was quite cute. It was a play on one of the popular cigarette brands that said “Sucking Does Not Kill”. I liked how, in it’s small way, it implies that smoking is dangerous to ones health while the candy, well, it’s a better alternative, right?

However, days later I came across this one in a local grocery store:

I was quite shocked and angered by what I had seen. This actually encourages young children to think smoking is cool Grrr.

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Things you don’t want your teacher to know…

I’m sure there are a whole lotta things you hide from your teacher, such as your little notes about him or her, or the caricatures you doodle to make fun of them, but of all, I think this is one thing you don’t want your teacher to know:

Free essays, eh? Hmmmm.

I got this in my email inbox not too long ago, after I assigned an essay to my students. Definitely not the kind of thing you want your teacher to see.

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Arts and Crafts, Teacher's Corner, The Library, Tips and Tricks | 2 Comments

My Concept Wall

It’s been over a month since classes started and I realized I still have not posted what my classroom concept wall looks like. With no further ado, here it is!
The caterpillar is actually a recycled one from my Toddlers days but I love it so much I decided to keep it, even if my students don’t really need it. For the calendar, I decided to up the ante by having the kids master the concepts of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

My favorite feature, however, is the reading train. My co-teacher painted that over the summer There are a series of pockets which currently hold our various word lists. An alternative I was thinking of is tracking titles of books we read throughout the month. Fun idea, huh?

Join in and jump aboard the reading train!

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

Child-proofing and room safety

One of the most common accidents that happen in school is what we call in Tagalog “nakanto”, or when a child hits the corner of a shelf or a table. One way we address this in our school is by making sure the tables we get have rounded edges, but these are not really a dime a dozen, right? I was once able to buy those plastic office furniture kid safety pads (those plastic thingies that you slip to the corners of a table) but we lost two of them. Now, I can’t seem to find replacements In the meantime, we placed cut-up sponges in the corners.

Another common classroom accident are fingers caught in the door We were able to find a rubber foam stopper that helped eradicate this problem in school. It’s looks like a butterfly and it helps block the door from closing completely, so tiny fingers don’t get caught even though you close the door. Will post a picture of it soon!

The scariest room danger, however, are electrical outlets. It’s like no matter what you say, children seem to gravitate towards them. I’m glad we were finally able to find those socket blockers so now I feel much better about it. Before, what we could do would be to cover up the outlet itself by putting a shelf in front of it or hiding it behind posters and charts.

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Multimedia Center, Teacher's Corner, Teaching Resources, The Library | 2 Comments

Learning Position Words on P.E. Day

One of the highlights of this week in the Seniors Class was P.E. Day. However, rather than it being a typical P.E. day, I decided to integrate vocabulary building into the activity. Keeping in mind the song “Going on a Bear Hunt”, the kids and I played games that let us go over, under, through and around things!

The kids had a blast! I guess I can say I did too…even though I was dripping with sweat the whole time through since it was quite a warm day. I was huffing and puffing my way through it too, especially since I know I’m not very fit nowadays! The activity was quite a workout! Admittedly,  activities like these sure can beat even the best weight loss supplements in the market! Maybe I should do a little more of these and soon I’d see results…imagine that…teaching kids plus losing weight! Woot!

Anyway, for those not familiar with the song “Going on a Bear Hunt” , here’s how it goes (it comes in different ways, but here’s what I often use)

Going on A Bear Hunt
I’m going on a bear hunt
I’m not afraid!
What’s that?
Tall grass!
Can’t  go under it,
Can’t go over it.
I guess we will have to through it!
Whew!

I’m going on a bear hunt
I’m not afraid!
What’s that?
It’s a great big tree
Can’t  go under it,
Can’t go through it.
I guess we will have to climb over it!
Whew!

I’m going on a bear hunt
I’m not afraid!
What’s that?
It’s a bridge
Can’t  go under it,
Can’t go through it.
I guess we will have to walk over it!
Whew!

I’m going on a bear hunt.
I’m not afraid.
What’s that?
It’s a river!
Can’t go over it
Can’t go under it?
I guess we will have to swim through it!
Whew!

I’m going on a bear hunt.
I’m not afraid.
What’s that?
It’s a deep dark cave!
Can’t go over it
Can’t  go under it
I think we are going to have to go in it.
Shh!

I feel something furry!!
It has a big nose!!
What’s that??? (pause)

IT IS A BEAR!!!!

Run out of the cave
Swim back through the river
Climb back over the tree
Go into the house and slam the door. BAM!!
I wasn’t afraid. Were you?

Check out You Tube too, there are lots of fun versions of it. This is my favorite:

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Teacher's Corner | 2 Comments

Theives among us

When I was a preschooler, I stole a red crayon. I will always remember how I had gotten caught with that elicit crayon and how I got a bad spanking for it. Not only that, I got a pretty long time out for it. Back then, I wasn’t really aware that taking things that weren’t mine was bad. After that incident, however, I knew better than to take things that were not mine.

Nowadays, students (as well as other people around)  in schools steal more than just crayons. Just last week, we received a memo in the school warning us about keeping our things safe, even inside our offices. Apparently, a department near us had an incident wherein someone’s laptop and other things had gotten stolen.

I guess because it’s our workspace, we take for granted that things are safe, but this incident served as a reminder to me to be more cautious, especially given how difficult times are now so many resort to stealing to make ends meet. It worries me sometimes because I am the type of teacher who cannot leave home without my laptop. I’ve actually thought about getting a laptop insurance policy, but I figured more than losing the actual laptop, it’s the data in it that matters most. Because of that, I started backing up all my files and making sure that I have equipment and gear that can keep my gadgets secure.  Also, I took down the serial number of my gadgets so in case of anything, I can have something to trace it with. Honestly, because of the incident, I began to appreciate the tiresome task of getting a laptop pass when we enter school!!!

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Classroom Escapades, Featured, Teacher's Corner | 2 Comments

The Seniors Go Investigating!

The first week of school has come and gone and I’d like to think we got off to a good start!

Like I mentioned in my previous post, majority of my students came from my class last school year so getting to know you activities are not as extensive. Also, since they are mostly familiar with the school, touring the facility was nothing new to them.

As such, I decided to make our school tour more than just a “getting to know my school” activity. I decided to do a thinking exercise to get our learning process started. I also thought that this would be a good way to assess their present capabilities and also gauge what my the two new additions to my class can do.

I started out with a drawing activity with the kids making a picture about what they think they can do, see, find or use in Playschool.

Here are a few examples of their responses:

Then we charted out their ideas and finally set off around the school to find out more about their hypotheses. After finding out if those things they drew were present in school or not, we also had brief discussions about what these were for, where it could be found and how to use these things. At the end, we had this chart:

It was a fun activity, although it was so hot so the kids and I ended up so sweaty and exhausted afterward!

This is definitely the kind of things I will miss when I “retire” from being a preschool teacher. Like many of my readers know, I am planning to make this year my last teaching year because I am no spring chicken anymore! I can feel the age creeping in. Although I do hope I can still do some consultancy or administrative work in the preschool level in the future. However, while it may be physically gentler for me, I’m sure it will be an adjustment to me, especially when it comes to the nitty-gritty details of the job such as filing business credit reports, wading through paperwork, attending to payroll, and making sure the bills are paid on time. Plus of course making sure the teachers get their benefits and the school turns a profit. Now that I think about it, it appears that teaching the kids may be a wiser decision!!!

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The Power of Information

I believe very strongly in the power of information. More than any weapon, information empowers and individual to make the right choices and to affect change in their lives. This is why I believe in including an updated version of health education in the school systems, including talking about sex, drugs, alcohol and it’s consequences in one’s life.

While many may argue that talking about these things only spark their curiosity, I  would argue that it quells the curiosity as answers are given. Because these things lose it’s enticing qualities, it can be seen in a more matter-of-fact, direct point of view. Of course I think that boundaries should be set and observed while discussing these things. Also, it should be age-appropriate. For example, talking to adolescent girls about proper weight loss and the pros and cons of using diet pills such as Lipovox allows them to have a more realistic view about body image and issues surrounding it. This helps them realize that what friends or movies say may not necessarily be correct.

Of course this should be taken with caution. For me, my mom was always very open about issues and concerns. Given that she is a smoker, she never gave me falsehoods about it, which I think contributed to the reason why I never did it myself.

Empowering people with information is a preventive measure. Rather than solving the problem after it happens, by giving people the right information at the right time gives them better opportunities for the right choice.

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Teacher's Corner | 2 Comments

First Day of School Activities

Tomorrow marks the opening of classes for most schools. While the day can be marked with excitement, it can also be the most stressful and anxiety-provoking days for teachers, parents and students alike.

For my preschoolers, what I try to do to ease the stress is to welcome them to a warm and nurturing classroom, but not one that is too overwhelming and loud. Lucky for me, this year out of my nine enrolled students, eight of them were classmates last school year so the adjustment is less difficult.

Some activities I do to make the day fun are as follows:

• Name-tag making activities. Using pre-printed name plates, I allow my kids to decorate their name tags which I then place in their tabletops to mark their places.
• Parent-child singing activities. This is especially true for the younger kids. What I do is have mommy/daddy/yaya join us in a brief circle time session where we sing hello and introduce ourselves. Then, after a few minutes, I ask the adults to move to one side and just watch from that end. While this is happening, I discourage to much interaction and picture taking, but that’s quite difficult!
• My First Day of School Portraits. I let the kids draw their portraits about how they felt about their first day of school. For younger kids, I pre-print a happy face and just have them color it but for the older ones, I let them draw free hand. We also take pictures that we can print later on.

One thing that really helps with the adjustment to the first day of school is to have parents be relaxed about the idea of leaving their kids behind. Remember, parents, if you are anxious, the kids feed off of this

Have a good first day of school!

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

Seniors Class Here I Come!

Just a few more days and classes officially open! Here are some photos of the school’s face lift.

Of course, genius me forgot to take photos of my own classroom hehehe! Will update that soon. I’m kinda looking forward to the new school year (I say ‘kinda’ because I’m still struggling with the having to wake up early part!) because I will be handling the seniors class (4′s and 5′s) again. It will be the first time since around 2006, if I remember correctly, for me to handle the older kids again. Much as the younger toddlers and juniors are a lot of fun to work with, I like the fact that the seniors are so much more independent and conversational. I love listening to the banter they exchange, plus they are really developing their own personalities more distinctly at that age. They’re more concrete in expressing their emotions and ideas, which is a joy for me.  They’re also able to translate this to actions, words and drawings more effectively too. Their drawings and artworks are so endearing too! In fact,  I love receiving their little personalized gifts such as drawings and notes from them. These are things I always cherish and till now, I keep them in a box. The last thing I’m looking forward to this school year is the fact that many of my kids from last year will be coming back, so that should be a blast! So for now, Teacher Ria is counting down the days till Wednesday, the first day of school!

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

Are you the Philippines Smartest Driver?

Three years ago, I invested in a new car. One thing I used to guide my decision as to what car to get was whether or not it was fuel efficient. As such, I opted for a 1.3 valve engine and a manual transmission. I also read reviews about the car I was planning to get and most raters did point out it’s fuel efficiency. However, I believe it is not just the vehicle that translates to fuel efficiency, but also how one maintains and uses the vehicle.

For me, the most important fuel saving tip is planning ahead. We have to be more cautious in planning our schedules, the routes we will take and the stops we make when driving a car. I noticed that since I’ve started monitoring my movements, I’ve saved quite a lot on gas costs. For example, if I know I have an event in Ortigas or Quezon City, I try to schedule appointments at my clinic in Cubao as well so I can hit two birds with one stone.

My mom also reminds me to lessen the junk I leave in my car. As a teacher, I tend to keep a box of papers and booklets in the trunk so it’s easy to access when necessary. She tells me, however, if I always fill my trunk, I not only damage my car but I also use more fuel.

Do you have a fuel saving tip? If so, Pilipinas Shell invites you to join the search for the Philippines Smartest Drivers. If you hold a valid Philippine drivers license, simply share your Fuel saving tips by shooting a video explaining how this can translate to fuel efficiency and upload it to www.topgear.com.ph/shellsmartestdrivers. Be sure to end your video by completing this phrase: “Ang Pinoy na matipid sa gasolina, ____________.” Entries can be as simple or as creative as you’d like it to be. Uploading period is from May 20 to June 20, 2010.

All contestants will take home premium items from Shell and the top ten finalists will take home Php 10,000 worth of Shell vouchers and will be invited to a fuel economy boot camp on June 26 where they will compete for the top honors of being hailed The Philippines Smartest Drivers.

These drivers will also get the chance to join Team Philippines from the Mapua Institute of Technology and the University of Sto. Tomas in the Shell Eco-Marathon Asia in Malaysia where they will compete with drivers from other Asian countries.

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Books for the Preschool Classroom: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

One of my favorite kiddie books is Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It’s vibrant colors and cute drawings always bring a smile to my face. My kids love it too! It teaches a whole range of concepts from sequencing, days of the week, and in this case, even colors I made this poster a few school years’ ago and it’s still one of my favorite classroom decorations till now

There are a lot of video adaptations of the story on You Tube,  which my kids also love. We were lucky two years ago because right after discussing the story, we chanced upon a real live caterpillar in our school garden and we actually took care of it until it hatched into a butterfly! Talk about a hands-on learning experience! Read about it here.

Posted by Teacher Ria in Reflections | 0 Comments

Sight-seeing in the SLEX

Last night I was stuck in the expressway-slash-parking lot for ages. The normal short drive from work, which takes less than half an hour if I leave school after 9 pm, took over two and a half hours. I wiled away the time on my mobile phone writing notes and what-not. But I could only do that for so long, so I began sight-seeing. Well, billboard seeing that is! Normally I don’t get to look at them much since I am driving, so I usually just get a glance.

Anyway, last night I was amazed at the sheer number of billboards there are. It’s like every hundred meters has one! From shoes, cough medicines, internet providers and beauty/cosmetology centers (whether for an acne skin product or various treatments). While I think our government has to start regulating these billboards in the name of safety (especially in EDSA where the billboards can be so mesmerizing, especially those with bright lights and are animated), I was glad for once that they were there to keep my entertained throughout my painfully long trip.

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Reflections | 4 Comments

A lesson from the first day of class

I made it through the first day of class! Well, the first two days should I say. Yesterday we started a new term and I’m slowly trying to get back to the daily grind. The first day is always testy for me, no matter how many times I’ve done this before. I always manage to get all anxious and antsy. Lucky for me, three of my four classes have students I have taught before, so this calmed my nerves a bit.

On the other hand, the last class is a totally new bunch of students, and to top it off, they’re from the College of Engineering. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I always seem to have the wrong perceptions of them. For example, I always assumed that engineering students were good at math and had good drawing skills. Today, my students struggled through a simple drawing activity and one even jokingly said that if it were a cad drawing or a computer assisted task, they’d get it done in no time! Plus apparently math is not always an inherent talent for these students! At the end of the session, I guess it was me who was reminded of a lesson: don’t make assumptions because in as much as clothing is not one size fits all, so are these preconceived notions I have.

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Teaching’s fringe benefits.

I’ve reconciled myself with the fact that teaching preschoolers will never reap me financial rewards, except perhaps if I owned the school and implemented a sizable tuition fee. However, while I face my small paycheck every fifteen days, there are so many fringe benefits that make it worth my while. These are the things I really have to think about when I finally bid teaching preschool goodbye:

• Teaching preschool keeps me young. There’s something about the joyous laughter of children that really taps into your inner child and as such, translates to a more youthful “you”.
• Long summer breaks, holidays and semestral breaks! Yes, when classes are out, classes are out for teacher too We do have some administrative work to attend to, but we don’t have the same rigid schedule all year round.
• Seeing students succeed. This is one of the best fringe benefits for me.
• Running around the playground, squatting and sitting in the teeny-tiny chairs of the classroom, picking up the kids (and after the kids too!), as well as cleaning up and repainting the school during the summer sure beats the best  fat burners in the world! Well, unless of course you counterbalance it with mega-binges after work!!! Seriously though, most of the co-teachers I’ve had are tiiiiiiiny!
• Of course a fun fringe benefit are Christmas presents, flowers, drawings and expressions of love from my kids. Where else do I get kissed by a bunch of boys on a daily basis, right?

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Classroom’s almost done!

Two weeks and many tubs of paint later, our school is almost ready for opening. Well, at least the Toddlers and Juniors classrooms that is. Mine still needs some work, especially since I’m located at the downstairs section of the school which is the largest area to contend with. Plus it’s the part with lots of pebble washed walls and roofing that needed repair. To be fair, my co-teacher has done a good job getting the ball rolling and our concept wall is almost done. A few additional technical repairs are still needed though, such as installing a ceiling fan and replacing the rubber mats on the floor. Hopefully we get things done by the end of this week so the last week of summer can be allocated to working on my lesson plans and activities.

Will post pictures of the school soon

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