Tuesday, February 10, 2009

In the Classroom


This is a panoramic view of my school's yard. When it rains, there is a river that flows through the middle and the dirt paths are all washed away into mud-pools down the hill.

From now until March 26th, graduation day, I will teach first year English with Ma'am Airen (read Irene). Today, finished our unit on poetry, rhyme and rhythm. We used the Philippine national anthem (translated from Filipino to English) and the U.S. national anthem to look at the inherent rhythm in the English language. After guiding the students in a rousing rendition of "Lupang Hinirang" (the title of the Philippines anthem), Ma'am Airene reviewed the historical context in which the anthem was written; it was written during the "Revolutionary Period" by Jose Palma in 1898, when the Filipinos began revolting against the Spanish colonial power present here for 333 years. The tune itself is a march and is super up-tempo. The "Lupang Hinirang" is sung every morning before classes begin, but in Filipino. Much to my surprise, the students had never been introduced to an English translation. After the historical context, Ma'am and I unlocked some of the more difficult words in order to facilitate the students' understanding of the song. We asked if any of the students knew what Liberty is. "Milk?" one student responded. And this, friends, is how I learned that the brand of milk here, advertised on TV, is called Liberty Milk. The class had a good laugh when Ma'am and I explained what it means. I look huge in this picture; I always forget how tall I am until I see myself in a picture. Below is a video I took of the students singing.

Here is the English translation of the song:

Land of the morning, child of the sun returning,
With fervour burning, thee do our souls adore.

Land dear and holy, cradle of noble heroes
Ne'er shall invaders trample thy scared shore.

Even within the skies and through thy clouds
And o'er thy hills and sea. Do we behold the radiance,
Feel the throb of glorious liberty.

Thy banner, dear to all our hearts
Its sun and stars alight,
O never shall its shining field
Be dimmed by tyrant's might!

Beautiful land of love, O land of light,
In thine embrace 'tis rapture to lie.
But it is glory ever, when thou art wronged,
For us, thy sons, to suffer and die.

After Ma'am Airene's explanation, I asked the students if they knew that the Philippines and the U.S. have a commonality in their history and, more specifically, in the history of their respective national anthems. None of them did. I told them that the United States was once too a colony, but of the English, and that our national anthem, written by Francis Scott Key, came from our efforts to insure independence.
After taking apart the words (as many of them are too archaic for a ESL learners to understand), I asked them what the song was about. "War." It had never occurred to me before, yet in light of their inspiring, optimistic and lively anthem, it made sense that ours might come across as somber and sad-sounding.
Notice that we use paper to hang information on the board. There is no money or materials for handouts, which makes creating these visual aids imperative.
Working with Ma'm Airene is a real privilege. She has a lot of enthusiasm and is inspiring when it comes to working with the students, who are mostly 12. I have little experience being around people this age and she is an excellent mentor. We have started to develop a co-teaching chemistry and she is really supportive of the ideas I bring to the table whenever we lesson plan. She is the kind of co-teacher I had hoped for while in training.

So, Monday through Thursday, I teach three hours a day with Ma'am Airene in the mornings and one hour a day with Sir Erwin in the afternoon. Every Friday I teach exclusively with Sir Erwin.
Currently, Sir and I are teaching the fourth year students how to create web sites using free, open source software, called KompoZer. They are really having a good time it seems. Currently, they are in the midst of teaching each other aspects of web creation through presentations. Sir and I have made English the medium of our instruction for web design (as ICT does not require the students to use English across the board; this is not an English classroom after all). We justify this with the fact that nearly 70% of the internet is in English. This picture is taken during one of the presentations. We do have a digital projector that was donated to us, but it has no bulb. The bulbs are quite expensive, our aspirations limited only by our budget. Students must gather around the computer monitors for the presentation. Everyday I am thankful I have been put in a place with an ICT lab and that these students are afforded the opportunities to learn on the machines here.

On a previous post I have provided you with a schedule, hopefully this provides you with a concrete image of my day-to-day.

I am also working with a teacher, and former PC Philippines volunteer, in PA. He and I have been in contact about ways in which our students can interact. I hope that the media presented on this blog are a good start.
Really, the internet has become the essential to for the Peace Corps volunteer.

2 comments:

  1. oh my gosh.. how cute are your kids singing. i should do that lesson plan with my girls.. wanna send me the "module"?

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  2. when i was in elementary, there was a directive to sing the national anthem in English, Cebuano and Filipino alternately during flag ceremonies/retreats.. it was quite confusing sometimes esp. if we have to sing the other version every other day.. to make it easier for us to memorize, the government distributed free notebooks with lyrics of the national anthem printed on the covers.. i never thought i could read the English version here.. i could only remember the first stanza though..

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