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*