Life of a Kat

Warning: This is a vent-out post.                 All negativity inside. Read at your own risk. I just got home from school. I go to school at exactly 5:30 AM, today I arrived home and it’s already 6:04 PM. Yesterday, I came home at around 7:30 PM. What’s happening to me? I feel so tired. I feel so alone. I feel so tired, even sleep and longer sleep won’t seem to ease the tiredness in me. I miss home. I truly miss the meaning of home. I miss my mama’s home-cooked meals, the chats over breakfast and dinner with my siblings. The endless asaran and the endless sermons from papa. It’s as if I am living in a faraway country that I can’t seem to be with them. I mean, enough time to be with them. I maybe with them on Sundays, but it had never been enough. I never thought that I will reach this point of weariness. That I would feel so drained and all I wanted is to cry and feel someone’s hug. This is one o...

All of these happened in my class last September 13, 2013. Friday the 13th. Sa Science: Teaching how COCHLEA is differently pronounced from how it is spelled... Cher: Ang pagbasa talaga ay /kok-lee-yuh/ pero ang spelling ay sa /koch-lee-yuh/ Student X: Ay parang yung sa TheVoice. Si Coach Lea. Pause. Process. Respond. Cher: Yes, si Coach Lea nga. Tatandaan mo lang yung pangalan nya at spelling ng cochlea. Tapos ang itsura nya ay parang si Gary na pet ni Spongebob. Hay mga kiddielets. Kahit ano na lang, go para lang matandaan nyo ang mga bagay-bagay. Kung si Coach Lea ang magpapaalala sayo ng Cochlea, sige lang. Manonood na ko ng The Voice PH. Para sayo. Haha ______________________________________________________________________________ Sa English: Teaching of words with Blends.  /sm--/ Smart. Cher: Anong tagalog na salita para "smart" ? Student Y: Cher, pang-load!  ___________________________________________________________________________...

Thirty minutes had passed  and we are still not yet through with Reading Drill #1.  She was perspiring non-stop. Cher: Pagod ka na? Gusto mo bukas naman? JM:(shakes her head) Ok lang po ako.   Wipes her face, goes back to uttering the sounds of every letter in the CVC word. Every time she reads a word, she would look up to me, her eyes seeking affirmation then I would say, "Yes, very good." She goes back to reading, perspiring, wiping her face, pushing herself to read. The only way for me to survive this phase is step into their shoes, feel their struggles and learn with them side by side. When I discovered that most of my kids are non and frustrated readers, honestly, I felt weak. I felt helpless. How can I teach these concepts if they can't read?! How can I meet the expectations of the organization? How can I prove that I am a teacher? Then I realized, most of the things I know and have learned weren't fed to me by my teachers, I got it from my love of re...

One quarter down. Thank goodness I survived. Thank you to my family, for their continual support and prayers, to my friends everywhere and this blog.  1.        Never ever let those papers pile up unrecorded. 2.        Always be advanced in lesson planning 3.        Prepare extra worksheets/seatworks. 4.        Take care of oneself—physically and emotionally. 5.        Have songs, hand gestures and mnemonics incorporated in keypoints of the lesson. 6.        Journal daily events in the classroom. 7.        Never let those down moments linger. 8.        Smile. 9.        Be the influence. 10.    Start Mondays with a smile. End Fridays happily. 11.    Read. A lot. Read more. ...