Marikina River Bank Outing

The MLC outing was held at Marikina River Bank last November 9, 2007. 30 children who successfully attended their activities in the centre must have joined this said outing but some of them were not able to come. Some of them were reprimanded by their houseparents or staff in the homes because of misbehaviours. Anyhow, the 19 children who were able to come enjoyed walking and running around the cemented pathways. Most of them appreciated the janitor fish leaping from the water, (the water was dirty since it rained the other day), and would even like to catch them. The guard often called their attention because it was forbidden. Some played ball games where the carabao sculptures (made out of stone) were located. The children were on top of those carabaos while passing the ball to one another. Some were playing football on the ground using the ball of the basketball and tossing and catching the smaller balls on the half cemented and half grassy part of the football field. The ball was thrown into the river so the facilitators needed to run through the river banks just to follow where the ball was going while shouting for some help from the man on the boat.

I thought the coordinator would dive into the water as he was about to do it. My gosh...The water was dirty and it was muddy. Just imagine a person who would dive into it then found himself planted on the mud. It was almost like a rice field.

At around 2:00, the children were tired and decided to go home and take a rest. It was 3:00 when we reached Yague Street.

MORE OUTINGS!!!!!

First Quarter Examination for 2007-2008

120 children take the First Quarter Examination
Amidst the rain coming in torrent, the children enrolled in pre-school and tutorial lessons took the First Quarter Examination last Aug.13- 18, 2007. Mathematics, Filipino, and English subject which is composed of Reading and Language in the tutorial lessons were given by the teachers following the same tutorial schedule. Pre-school subjects like English, Filipino, Mathematics and Science were given to the Nursery and Kindergarten children by the Pre-school facilitator.

The effort done during the assessment is really a big help in grouping the children according to their levels. This makes the result of the written examination positive. Most of the children got a good score; however, there are some who failed due to schedule conflicts, behavioral problems and the like.

Regarding the computer class, the volunteer facilitators gave an application test wherein the children applied the basic concepts they learned from their computer lessons. The Basic Computer Course for the smaller kids entered data in the excel sheet and followed the facilitator’s instruction. On the other hand, the Young Adults made a presentation depending on their topic of interest using the Power Point Presentation. Through this, the children were able to express their insights, enhance their creativity, overcome their stage frights and observe the proper way of reporting.

Monitoring the Children

Teachers and facilitators worked hand in hand in filling up the progress report card of each child for monitoring purposes. They had to write down the results of the examination, their observation during tutorials and the cognitive aspect of every child to track down the progress. The cognition is based on the monitoring card of the child which is being checked every session of the scheduled tutorial. All of these are communicated to the different homes through the feed backing with the House Parents and Social Workers.

paglinang sa kaalaman

Education is just like the game of chess. Why chess? Why not basketball or football? Yes, these games may have common grounds to be understood before the players play, however, in chess, only one player plays and wins. One has to learn at least the names, arrangements and the different moves of the pieces more has an idea on how to give and get out of check. Basically, this is what I do in Tutorial Room 1 (TR1) with the children I am handling.

I don’t teach them chess literally because I know they’re good in playing it. As a facilitator, I just want them to realize that as they move their pieces they must already know the proper arrangements and the names of each member of the board game. Just like in education, the children can not read and blend words like cat, dog, goat or rainbow without knowing the letters and sounds of the alphabets or even find the value of X-Y without mastering the basic mathematical operations. I am handling children from Level 1 to Level 4 and some of them lack these abilities especially the one’s enrolled in the higher levels. There are some instances that the topics hardly penetrate their minds.

Being the initiator of these kids, I have to find other ways and techniques to help them dig in to their minds the concepts and applications of our topics. Sometimes, we need to do our lessons on the floor to make them comfortable and combine play activities to lessen their boredom. I have to involve their talents as well since most of them are very talented and artistic. They draw, color, cut and paste figures or pictures and even compose a poem or a song basing from the pictures that they like. They can create their own melody through the use of a guitar or can adopt the tune from their favorite songs. The children like challenges and do well if they understand the lesson. This motivates me to do our evaluation through a contest by giving them numbers to solve. We also do story telling through the use of puppets and power point presentation to make our session interesting instead of just merely reading the story book. Most often than not, we also sit or lie on the matted floor while watching movies related to our curriculum. It helps them think critically and teaches them to value life.

These are just among the things that I and my students do in TR1. I don’t want them to chase the rainbow but just like in chess, the player must plan first before executing a good move. It’s up to him to think and weigh before he do a checkmate. So come, let’s play chess in TR1. :)


*february 2007 nung dumalaw mga sponsors*

Swimming in RMC

*october 2006 sa swimming pool*
Another exciting event has happened again for this month courtesy of Magellan Learning Center (MLC) team/management. This was the two-hour swimming outing held at Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Vito Cruz, Manila on September 17, 2006. The said event was organized for the children who attained excellent performance in MLC and even at home for the previous month.
A total number of 34 kids along with 6 staff joined the outing out of 50 requested participants. Ate Pie and Ate Malen, Project Coordinator (PC) of Caress Home and Social Worker of Ella Yallah Home respectively, said that the 16 kids were not able to come because of some reasons, one of which was the bad records committed at home even though they always attend MLC.

Anyhow, the children and staff were so excited that they even paraded under the heat of the afternoon sun in going to the jeeps terminal. Kuya Jeremie, the Center Coordinator of MLC, being the “majorette” led the vigorous kids jovially. Two jeepneys boarded the outers until Taft Avenue and had another 3-5 minutes “walk-a-thon” up to the main location. The team rented swimming gears for the children who were screened out of not having the accepted swimming attire.

The youngsters took their first shower before running to the swimming area where they drenched themselves. Mama Alma of Gabay Buhay Home (GBH) and Ate Malen joyfully served as watcher to the younger kids who delightfully played and splashed water to one another while Ate Pie acted as life-guard to the older children who gleefully jumped and dived at the other pool. On the other hand, Kuya Jeremie assisted some small kids and played as the Baywatch man as he taught them how to swim.

The writer had seen the happy faces of the children as they swam to and fro like fishes in the sea. It seemed like forever but just like in a movie, it had to end as well. At around 4 o’clock, the children took last quick shower, returned the gears and proceeded home.
There’s no denying that the children really relished themselves to this outing. Each of them has their own stories to share unaware of the stimuli which encourage the others to sail through in all the activities and behave satisfactorily at home. Guess this might be a challenge for them to do their best for next month.
Kudos to all those who partook! Good luck on the next level of the coming spree. See yah! ☺

Computer Technical Course

with the computer facilitator

hala! wak wak na ung cpu...

with another computer facilitator...




*during the visit of "the prince" last aug 2007*

Ayala Museum Outing

Ay grabe itong outing na ito. One of the children eh tumakas sa grupo. Sus! We tried to find him around and inside Glorietta. Sinundan namin siya mula Ayala hanggang sa may Fire Station. Good thing, Sunday yun, otherwise, baka nahuli na kami ng MAPSA sa ka-J-J walk. Para kaming mga ewan. Tapos pag-uwi, hinanap naming siya sa bahay kasi baka umuwi. Wala pa daw kaya muntik na namin siyang i-report sa pulis. Hapon na nung umuwi itong pasaway na bata na ito.

Mahirap manaway ng mga pasaway talagang mga bata.

On 5 Days ALS Seminar (flashback)

*August 2006 *

This is the first educators seminar on Alternative Learning System. This was attended by the MLC team together with the community facilitators conducted by the ALS Department of Education heads.

Got a very funny experience here. I got lost the first day of the seminar. The team agreed to meet in front of the main office (which was in Mola before) at exactly 6 in the morning but I was not able to meet them because I lived far. I told them I would not make it to Mola so they proceeded to the venue. I took a bus from C5 Taguig and told the driver to stop me somewhere in Cubao just near Quezon Ave. The driver forgot so he dropped me to a street which was already far from Quezon Ave. I didn’t know where I was. I asked the policeman who was just standing to a nearby post but showed me another way. I took a cab then and told the driver the address of the venue. He said he knew it but as we traveled he kept on asking me the direction. I noticed he was just pretending so I told him to better stop the taxi. I was already late. The team was already in the venue and the seminar was about to start. They called me to ask where I was. I told them I was somewhere in EDSA near Robinson Mall then suddenly I heard different reactions from the team like “What?! Why are you there?” and so on and so forth. I didn’t know they had a Manila map with them. They spread the map on the table and everybody tried to locate the street where I was. They instructed me to ride and to stop to a certain landmark. I took a cab again and I was able to reach my destination.

When I arrived at the venue, of course the seminar already started, I was damned ashamed because I was late. It was the first day pa! Anyway, I was just new in the city and I didn’t know the places.

From Old to New MLC..

Have you ever carried “heavy-gat” things to another place? Things which are really greater
than your normal body weight and would probably erase your flat or aquiline nose once you let go?...Well well well, the team did! A salute to our Commander- in-chief Mr. Jérémie Bougé, who commanded us to carry what it seemed to be a titanic cabinet…he!he!he!
This experience gave us funny memories and a history that will be treasured and remembered, but it would have been funnier if only the two hunks (two students from
Ateneo de Manila University) shared the said experience with us. Mabuhay kayo!

In fairness, maganda ang bagong centre. There are tutorial rooms na at may aquarium pa. Kaya lang it’s mainit pa rin but not mainit as before. Doon sa dati para kang nasa oven. Tumatagaktak talaga pawis mo. :)

Banaue Reflection

The first time I climbed the mountains going to Banaue was on April of 2002 and that was Holy Week. I and some friends planned to be there after the second semester. Most of us were from Batch 2000 (Don Bosco High School).
The road going up was quite rough and the mountain was steep. We met some tourists on our way.

The road going up was quite rough and the mountain was steep.
When I went back after five years (November 2007), I saw some changes. The road from Banaue Poblacion to Banaue proper is still roughly the same. It is just widened so that 2 jeeps coming across can be accommodated. From the proper where we started to hike is almost the same but as we went along, I noticed that the road became wider. A tricycle or an owner type jeep can actually pass by until Batad. I and some friends whom I went with reached Batad Rice Terraces after more than 2 hours of hiking. We rested in one of the inns facing the majestic view. It was very cold even if it was just afternoon. It was not that beautiful as I had seen the first time because the farmers just reaped the palays or the rice plant. I just saw the remains of the rice plants piled on the edges of the rice paddies.

After resting for about 2 hours (I slept because of tiredness) and taking some snacks, we decided to climb the terraces. I went ahead and lost myself at the peak of the terraces. There were some rice fields which were full of tall grasses. I tried to think it wasn’t like that before. As I followed the path, I became I bit scared because it was getting dark and I couldn’t trace the way to go back. From where I stood, I looked down the village and tried to find my companions. I couldn’t see them and didn’t know where they were. Suddenly, I heard loud voices and they were just at the other side. We met and found our way back to the inn because it was getting darker.
I noticed that the village has lights already meaning they have electric power. We just used lamp before and it was a bit difficult especially when going out. According to the people, the electricity turned up 2 years ago.The following day, we trailed down the Tapia falls. The way going down wasn’t easy because it was very tricky as before. If I was not that careful, I could slip and fall down the ravine. They swam in the river and tried to go near the falls. Ay naku, my companions were as hard headed as the stones. They were enjoying themselves in the water, taking pictures and teasing each other while I was there feeling nervous because the water was coming up. It rained that night and was still drizzling that day. I just didn’t realize those people were from the other side of the planet and had tons of reasons when I told them blah blah blah of being careful whatever! They may’ve laughed behind my back. I turned back and ignored them.I thought of the 3 children I met in that falls 5 years ago. They were selling drinks and junk foods like chippy, oishi..etc. These children overtook us on our way to the falls five years ago. The older one which was 8-9 years old was carrying a case of coke, the girl who was 7 years old was carrying the bags of bread and junk foods while their 3 years old sister was on her back. The youngest was held by a woven clothe wrapped around her back to the shoulder of the big sister. They told me they were going to the falls to sell what they brought with them. Their goods came from Banaue poblacion rode up to the proper and carried to Batad. I wondered where these children are and what they do now.At last my companions finished their swimming so we decided to go back to the inn. Wow. It was another trek going up and it was darn raining. We reached the inn, freshen ourselves and started to trek again going back to Banaue where we must take the ride to Manila. It rained hard so we were all wet.

Fort Santiago Outing

The footsteps of Rizal

The Building

One of the objectives of mlc is to provide a monthly outing for children who attend tutorials most especially to those with complete attendance. Hence, an outing was organized by the team and held last July 10, 2006 in Fort Santiago, Manila. This is to further expose the children in real life experiences and broaden their knowledge away from the books for the meantime. This is a way to have fun, enjoy and learn at the same time. This will also encourage the kids to keep on attending the tutorials and motivates the others to participate in every activity that the MLC offers. Moreover, it promotes rapport among the children and staffs as the foundation of a good comradeship.

Children and adults alike were transported back in time to the days of Spanish rule and Filipino revolutionary ideals in pre-20th century Philippines. The second batch of mlc students also visited historic Fort Santiago and (literally) traced the footsteps of our national hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal, on a path from his prison cell to the fields of Bagumbayan (now Luneta Park) where he faced martyrdom. This activity, one of regular monthly outings organized by the Magellan Learning Center, was indeed a learning experience for everyone. It not only gave one an interesting crash course in Philippine history, it was also an opportunity for the children to develop an awareness and appreciation of their “roots”. On a lighter note, it was a time to simply relax, have fun, run around, and share food and stories at mealtime. This question, asked by one of the children some days later, probably sums up what this event was all about: “Kailan tayo pupunta ulit?” (When are we going again?)

*July 2006.*