Woohoo! I am now officially done with the lesson planning. (:
Xiao Yu arrived in the classroom first. This was the first time she arrived early again. Lately, she was arriving lately due to her "pigsa." But when she got healed, she came back to her usual routine. Her lola told me that she really wanted to come to school. But she was sick. So she was happy to be back. We chatted for awhile about the missing toy in the play street. She found it though.
There were already seven students before 8:00 AM. That was a big number already compared to starting with three students only. We started 3-5 minutes before 8:00 AM because the students were requesting for a game. We played two different games. The first one was the girls' favorite "Closing Up the Flower (Sasara ang Bulaklak)" and the second one was everyone's favorite "Pepsi 7Up." We took a lot of rounds and then at 8:05 AM, we were done with the games. We went through the whole morning routine and we did not skip the Mystery Activity this time. The students asked for it. The mystery thing was a "basahan" or what Tessa called the "wipey." Hihi cute name. Almost everyone guessed it correctly.
The students were also focused during the unlocking of difficulties. They also gave very good guesses about the meanings of the words. I guess I could say that one of my most favorite parts of the GLR-CT was the unlocking. It is such an essential part of the lesson. To me, it is like a key that the children have to use in order to enter the story.
The story that I told today was entitled, "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus." This was a story where the students' responses were required. Some said, "No" to the pigeon. One kid said, "Yes." She was definitely curious about what could have happened. The children loved the story. They were laughing at almost every line of the pigeon. By the end of the story, the last student arrived. It was Sophia. I had 14 all in all. Complete attendance (excluding Ziv who is now in Mindanao).
For the EAs, I am really blessed that my students were very appreciative. They said WOW at the charts that I made, they kept on raising their hands on the charts they wanted to do, and at times they get sad if they could not do the chart they wanted. But generally, I could see their efforts and interest to do the EAs. And that meant a lot to me. I wanted to help them understand the story in an enjoyable way too.
I worked with the first and last group on their EAs simultaneously. I first helped out the last group because they have to practice their dialogues for "The Bus" news. The second group, on the other hand, suddenly needed help. I just saw in the video that Sabien said, "Halaaaa, Zohaaaan!" I didn't hear this of course. What I only knew was that Sabien walked towards me and held my hand, "Teacher, Zohaaaaan. Zohaaaaan." And he led me to Zohan, pointing at what she was working on. Unfortunately, Zohan was drawing something, not the pigeon... but something else. And she was coloring the whole paper using the pink marker. I had to explain to her that she was not following what teacher told them and that she must stop. She was covering her work, ashamed of what she did. But she was not stopping. So I had to tell her to stop and I gave another sheet of paper for the group to draw a pigeon instead. That solved the problem for the first group. As for the last group, I had to help them practice their dialogues. As for the second group, Teacher Rina focused on them so although they were the last group to finish, they also did well.
There was also one moment when I had to talk to the students who were finished. Luis called Julianne a "loser." I had to talk to them about it. Julianne said being called a "loser" makes her feel bad. So I stressed on how it feels if somebody calls them a loser. This was not the first time Luis called someone a loser. He has been calling other people's works "panget" too in the past. This kid really needs constant reprimanding. 'Wag susukuan. Patience, patience. He will grow up and act mature later on.
During the discussion, I'm very happy that the students know the story and they remembered the details. Giving them sentence stems helped a lot for them to recall most of the details especially the many things that the pigeon do to convince us to let him drive the bus. They also gave good answers about what might have happened if we let the pigeon drive the bus. They said bad things might happen, he might bump into something, he cannot steer the wheel, etc. One even said that the pigeon was too small to drive the bus. Some even said that they wouldn't let the pigeon drive the bus because he was already angry.
Vincent kept on playing with his "The Bus" cue card. LOL. I almost forgot about the presentation of group 3's "The Bus." LOL. It was good that they reminded me before I gave out the Enrichment Activity. They had two takes because some of them were not ready and the audience was not listening. They did a great job in take two. Though they still needed a higher voice meter. ((:
We finished the Enrichment Activity first before they ate their snacks. All of them finished their work. However, there was one student who did not claim his/her work. I made 14 pairs so it was really impossible that someone did not make it. I asked everyone but everyone said it wasn't theirs. It was sooo weird. I believe I will be able to find out the owner later on. I asked the kids to put their work in front first so that we could take a look at them. I took some pictures before asking them to bring it home.
The fan was making me crazy while I was preparing for GOLD. The visual aid was flying away because of it. I asked the students, "Kapag may mga lumilipad na papel, hayaan nyo na lang sila, okay? Hindi naman natin kailangan 'yon ngayon." Hahaha! All of them were really distracted because of the flying and falling papers. They all wanted to help out and put it back.
Sabien had an "OC moment" when he wanted to ask, "How about that box?" The last two boxes on the chart were allotted for the naming words that we were describing. He asked why was there no describing word for the empty boxes beside the naming word. I told the class that the last two boxes were for all the naming words. I wanted to say, "Sorry naman di nalagay sa gitna ni Teacher K ang naming words." ((:
Jeremiah was still very inattentive today. I think he was quite listening but he kept on moving. He kind of reminded me about Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind when he was lying on the snow and wiggling his arms and legs around him. O_o
The GOLD game got them so hyper. They absolutely loved the flags. But I had to tame them each time they fall out of their line. It also helped a lot because they have to follow the rules in a game. If I just let them go around or do whatever they wanted, we could have a wrecked game. Still, they were able to speak up and recite. It was a good way to let them speak what they think.
The GOLD evaluation also got them excited because they were drawing their favorite toys and describing them. Some drew their Barbie (Ashley's toy), "Juya" (Julianne's toy), cars, baby dolls, and etc. Their works were fantastic. They were able to write describing words about their toys by copying the describing words on the wall. That wall helped a lot. I also needed to spell out some words in order to write the names of their toys. I was not able to ask them to bring their work home because I wanted to check their works first.
Before the TS, I had a hard time with the board once again. I had to remove some of the visual aids before I started. Kagulow, actually! The game "Touch the Picture" worked but not everyone was able to touch the right pictures. Maybe they were overwhelmed by the plenty of names/pictures on the floor. After the game, we were not able to have the grouping of the pictures to long and short sounds anymore due to lack of time. We were supposed to do it actually so I let them leave the pictures on the floor. But we had no time so I proceeded with the seatworks and oral works instead. Fortunately, I was able to give them all the activities. They did well in the oral works. However, some of them had to bring their seatworks home and bring them on Wednesday. They knew they had to bring them home actually. Many of them were saying, "Finish na lang sa bahay, Teacher?" or "Teacher, can I do it at home?" Oooookay. Your call. ((:
At 10:35 AM, we were done. I collected their folders/envelopes with their worksheets. I plan to give them back on the 28th of May.
I had fun today even though I felt really tired. My menstruation finally came. It was actually a good thing that it came right after my teaching and not before while I was preparing the lesson and materials. Thank you God!
Today, there were times when I was losing my cool (especially my voice) and losing patience with the materials and visual aids that kept on falling and flying around but there were more times when I could smile, laugh, and be proud of what my students have made.
I finally fell in love with them completely. :")
