End-of-Year Reflection 2019

1. How do you feel about last year?

I have mixed feelings about last year. I think it has been a great year but there were also some parts that were not so good. When I look at my Facebook Year in Review  and Facebook albums, I was reminded of several things:

(a) I connected with relatives.
Tita Anita, Tita Elena, and Marianne coming to the Philippines last January 2019. Although it was just a day, I am glad that I was able to spend a day with them because I seldom spend time with relatives especially from my father's side. More on spending time with my father's relatives, this year I got to mingle with Tita Benneth and Yusuke.

The reunion at Dumaguete last February 2019 was indeed something to be stored in my memories. It is good to establish one's roots. I saw how the Bruno clan was proud of its origins. I also got to talk to 2nd and 3rd-degree relatives. I helped by having Chito design the t-shirt for the reunion. Auntie Rita had a very beautiful farm. It's like a resort on top of a mountain. She was very hospitable and generous. She prepared a banquet for us and even hired a band to play live music. I read a Bible reading to the group. My favorite food in Dumaguete was the Sansrival. I took home some and ate most of it with Chito.

We also spent time with Tito Val last April 2019. It was Donna's initiative to go there. Before April 2019, I think the last time we went there was when Alyssa was 4 or 5 years old. I got to see Tito Eric and his nipa hut. We spent time at Tito Val and Tita Benny's house. Donna's family, Alyssa and I stayed at Isabel Suites. It was a bit challenging on the budget to stay at a hotel but at least the stay was comfortable. We visited Kapurpurawan Rock Formation, Bangui Wind Farm, and Cape Bojeador Lighthouse. On the way back, we stopped by Baluarte Zoo and Calle Crisologo in Ilocos Sur.

(b) Celebrate Alyssa's 18th Birthday.
I think Alyssa's birthday was a success even though it was met with several challenges like producing money for it, convincing the dancers to attend the practice, and inviting people to attend it. There are some things that I found out about myself during the preparation process. I am not influential enough to encourage people to attend my activities. I needed to rely on other people to do the convincing. When it comes to organizing, I am better if I am part of the support staff instead of the head. I think I need to work on my leadership skills. Planning events is physically and emotionally draining. I think I lost some of my confidence during the preparation and the actual day of the event. There were just things that did not go according to how I see it in my head. I found that I needed to ask people for help and not to be shy about it. I was grateful that some of my co-teachers helped out voluntarily. But on the bright side, I was glad that Alyssa was happy and contented with how her party turned out. I admire her because she did not allow herself to be stressed by the preparations and stuff. Instead, she just enjoyed the moment. I should acquire that quality. I think the reason why I was stressed was because I expected too much and I worried that the party would fail. I think I got a bit traumatized by this and so I will definitely think many, many times in case I will be asked to plan some big celebration that requires inviting a lot of people in the future. I'll be okay organizing small ones where the only immediate family is involved. But big ones, hmmm.... I will need a lot of thinking and self-convincing. Anyway, Alyssa's 18th birthday is truly a memorable one for me and for her. Many thanks to the sponsors.

(c) Our VISA was approved.
Late 2019 and early 2020 is a turning point in my life. Finally, our VISA was approved and we will be going to the US soon. I am excited, sad and fearful at the same time. Excited because I will be in a new environment. There will be lots of adventures ahead. I will experience 4 different seasons. I'll get to spend time with my parents, sisters, and nephews. Sad because I will leave the Philippines where Bunny and some of my friends are. I personally find it difficult to think that I will not see Bunny every day or hear his complaints about politics, government and work or smell his sweat or perfume or feel his embrace. I shall miss my friends in BNAHS especially the Gleek club where Stone and Snow are. I shall miss our time watching movies together, talking about work, chatting about ideas (or other people). I am sad to leave my advisory class because I feel that I am letting them down by not finishing the school year. I regret leaving my classes because they are generally good batches of kids. Fearful because I am not really the most confident person in the world. I fear that I will have difficulty dealing with other people who are more assertive than me. I fear to look for a new career because even now I still don't know what I want. I like teaching but I have issues with disciplining children and dealing with difficult students so I am not confident to apply for a teaching post. I like teaching especially when things go right and when my students seem engaged and seem to be learning. However, I also feel drained because of the amount of work I have to put through just to prepare for a lesson. I am considering taking up nursing. However, I am not sure if I will like nursing either. I am patient and have the capacity to learn. I think I can stomach disgusting stuff but I am scared of ghosts and dead bodies. Studying something new seems exciting and tedious at the same time. I am also open to other careers but I still don't know what will suit me.

(d) I became conscious of my health.
Last May 2019, I decided to embark on a fitness journey by changing my way of eating. It is one of the best decisions I made. I was able to lose 15 kilos in 7 months. I also try to move more. I dance Zumba from time to time with Alyssa. The benefits of being conscious of my health are plenty. I used to easily need to catch my breath when I walk on an incline but nowadays I can sustain my normal breathing longer. I feel lighter. Clothes fit me better. I get compliments from my peers that I look sexier. There was a point when a doctor told me to stop my maintenance medicine. Bunny is happy with the results. However, these past weeks I have been cheating on my diet due to the holiday seasons. Temptations abound! This is made even more difficult because we are on vacation. I was thrown off my regular routine. It is harder to control not to eat when you have plenty of time to eat. I need to get back on track once the holidays are over. I still need to reach my goal weight of 60-63 kilograms. Changing my way of eating is a challenge. There are still times when I feel I am depriving myself of the good things in life. However, I need to practice tough love! I need to remind myself that! If I love myself, I need to endure the temptation because it is for my own good. I do not want to get to the point when things become irreversible. Diabetes, hypertension, gout and other illnesses might be acquired if I do not change my way of eating.

2. Did your life change or stayed the same in the last year? How?
Some parts stayed the same while the other parts changed. I think I am able to accomplish saying "NO" to some of the things that burdened me before especially from work. I have mixed feelings about this. I feel that it is an achievement because I am able to say "NO." Examples include summer reading camp and speaking engagement in reading moments. It was difficult for me to refuse other people because I feel that I need to be nice to everybody and not disappoint them.  However, if I accept their requests, I feel that I am losing personal time and sometimes it feels unfair because others get to have free time while I still need to work on some things when I could have said NO to the job. But then now that I said "NO," I also feel that I did not accomplish much in my career (but I did get to have more time to myself).  Perhaps, it is because I feel I am not accomplishing enough. I feel less burdened though. I think I was able to watch more movies and soap operas and I had time to read some books. These I enjoyed very much because I feel I am taking care of my self when I give myself some downtime. 

Lately, my confidence level has been dwindling. But I also feel that I am not so great this year. My emotions were easily swayed by students' reactions and it affected my performance. I think I need to work on my adaptability skills and learn not to carry too much emotional baggage. I need to avoid being worked up on small issues and to get over things in a shorter amount of time. The problem with me is I dwell on stuff instead of moving on.

Things that did not change? My love for Bunny and Twinky stayed the same. Routines at home are still the same. But I do hope that we can have more moments together as family. How can we have some quality time without spending too much? A lot of things will change this 2020. I will be far from Bunny and I don't want us to grow apart just because we will not be living together anymore. I want us to still feel togetherness despite the distance. And that can be a challenge. Both of us do not speak much. Although we can communicate via Messenger, I wonder how long our conversations will be? We aren't talkers. We're more of listeners.

3. List three of your "greatest hits" from last year.
First is losing 15 kilograms in 7 months. Although my weight has stalled now, it is still an achievement to change my way of eating for my health and well-being. I hope I can continue this way of eating in the following months. Second is Twinky's 18th birthday. It's a milestone as a parent. I now have an 18-year-old. Third is my promotion to Teacher III, which did not push through because I needed to resign in order to migrate. Anyway, I am proud that I ranked first among the candidates. I like the idea of moving up the career ladder.  

My Name

As part of my getting-to-know-you writing activity this school year, I asked my students to read "My Name," a vignette from Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street. Personally, I really liked the book but I don't have the luxury of time to have my students read the entire book so I settled with just a vignette.

Since I like the vignette so much and since I asked my students to write their own version, I have decided to make one myself because teachers should be models to their students too. So here it is:

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In Greek, my name means good victory. She conquers. Happily conquering. Well, I believe that's what I have been doing to my life. Silently and steadfastly going towards victory. My name is like a happy smiley because it starts and ends with an "E." And of course, when one pronounces the letter "E," one has to be smiling or showing one's teeth. However, happiness in my life is not the jovial, loud, celebratory fiesta type of happiness. It is more like a vine that creeps and climbs silently up to the sunlight.

When someone pronounces my name, he has to pucker his lips up to pronounce it. The "Eu" in Eunice is pronounced as "Yu," like unicorn or uniform. Now, when someone pronounces my name like that, he would probably not think about happiness or victory or vines creeping towards the sunlight. Rather, he might think of a sunflower at dusk with its head limping on its stalk, which is far from the image of success. But that's just like me. I might look like defeated or dejected at times. But when the time is right, I am like the sunflower at noon smiling back at the sun.

It was my grandmother who gave me my name. She was a strong woman who had so much pride and so much breath in her lungs that she could talk for hours on end. If one fortuitously came by my grandmother's house, he would be entrapped there for days listening to my grandma's war stories and love stories. Looking back, although I was annoyed by my the repetitious quality of my grandma's stories, without it I wouldn't know so many things about her and our family. She's the exact opposite of my grandfather who used to just sit on a corner with his face buried on some newspapers.

If it wasn't for my grandma, I wouldn't have known that she had named me after Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of JFK. My grandma must be a fan of Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Well, I was certainly impressed with her famous quote: "You are the stars and the world is watching you. By your presence, you send a message to every village, every city, and every nation - a message of hope, a message of victory." It's as if she was proclaiming her name - our name - into the world. EUNICE, EUNICE, EUNICE! Go and conquer the world! I have inherited Eunice Kennedy Shriver's name and I want my name - our name - not just to be a name. I want to live the meaning of it. I want to show the world that this quiet, meek wallflower can become a magnificent sunflower at noontime, standing tall and proud for the world to see.

Reading Link Day 15: Ang Gruffalo

Teacher Hazelle told us to look for a funny story that will make the last day worthwhile. I find the story "The Gruffalo" funny and I really want to share it to my students so even if it is in English, I chose it as my reading material. I just translated it to Filipino. Teacher Hazelle approved the selection but told me to make the story shorter.

I did not have the book of "The Gruffalo" but I have a .pptx copy. So, I made a hard copy. I made a big book and changed the text to Filipino before I printed the book out.

The story was a hit! Before reading, we sorted animals according to the food they eat. I had them clip the animals on a clothesline. Then, I asked them about monsters and they had a lot to say about monsters. While reading, Luis kept asking if we're going to make a gruffalo. But I told him that we would be making our own monsters instead later. For engagement activity, they were able to pick the correct characters. And, they were able to color the gruffalo correctly (although I remember one of them asking if he could give the gruffalo a different color).

For the enrichment activity, we made a flip book about monsters. The students had a lot of ideas for the features of their monsters. Some monsters had a lot of mouths; some a lot of eyes; some lack some facial features. In this activity, I think Justine Carl was really shy about his drawings. I think he feels he could not draw nicely. He told me he could not do the activity. But I said he could draw anything. He borrowed my example instead because we wanted to copy the ideas there.

For GOLD, we practiced for our readers' theater presentation. I made a script entitled "Sunog! Sunog!" with superhero characters. They chose the characters they wanted to portray. It feels nice when things happen according to your plan. I feel really great because they were cooperative during the practice. Of course, I could not thank Teacher Julie enough for helping me out.

After the practice, we made superhero masks that they brought home. The students left the room wearing their superhero mask. Vladymir felt in character as Incredible Hulk even as he was going out of the room.

Reading Link Day 14: Si Hugo, Ang Pahamak na Hunyango

Okay, so I vowed to avenge my Day 13 with a better lesson for Day 14. Today, our reading material is "Si Hugo, Ang Pahamak na Hunyango," which I think was a bit long but it worked quite well with my set of learners. This is perhaps due to the unlocking of difficulty that we had. I showed them pictures a a video of chameleon. They were amazed at the size of the smallest chameleon. And when they watched the short video clip of a chameleon changing its color according to the shades/glasses that owner gives it, the students identified the colors of the chameleon. We watched the video a second time because they liked it so much. They wanted to view a third time but I declined because we would not be able to move on if we did.

During reading, I could see that they really liked the story because everyone was intent on listening. From time to time, Cedric would come up and look at the pictures closer. The engagement activities were okay. I just think that I should have prepared a better Venn diagram for the first engagement activity. Cedric took quite a while to finish the second engagement activity because he was so careful in coloring the chameleons.

Well, moving on to the enrichment activity, they were so excited to make a chameleon. It is a 3-D chameleon. We used some construction paper for the body and some folders for the mouth. The mouth could open and close with a tongue rolling out. It was really pretty to look at. They enjoyed drawing on the body of the chameleon and attaching the head and feet. It took a lot of time to do but it was worth doing it. They loved the chameleon up to the very end. Later, I was even told by Jan Derick's mom that he did not want to put it down. I was so happy to hear that!

For GOLD, we studied opposites. They paired off opposite words with pictures. Our guided practice was done orally. They just need to give me the opposite of the word that I would say. Then for independent practice, they connected the pictures that are opposites with a line.

Since we took a lot of time doing the enrichment activity, we lack the time to do the TS. But overall, I really enjoyed today's lesson and I am sure that the kids did too. So happy!

Reading Link Day 13: Boom, Bang, Clang

Today, I am not satisfied with the way things flowed out. And of all days, this is the day they chose to be extra noisy and extra naughty when I am being observed by Teacher Hazelle. Such luck! By the way, my most obedient student, Justine Carl, is absent today. Perhaps, one reason why I can't seem to find order today is because Justine Carl is not around.

Anyway, our reading material is "Boom, Bang, Clang." It is different from my other reading materials because it is not about animals. I had them sing Boom Tarat Tarat, which was done okay. But during reading, because I had too few musical instruments not everyone got the chance to play a musical instrument. So next time, I plan to use the musical instrument myself if I could not provide for everybody. Maybe things would turn out differently if I did that.

In the engagement activity, Luis and Vladymir and... everybody... seems to want to do other things. Well, they were able to identify who the characters are but they were not focused when doing the activity. The sequencing event was okay though.

For enrichment activity, although they did their drums, I think they were not as attracted to it as the other activities that they did in the previous lessons (shark puppet, dog sock puppet, etc.). Maybe I should have stuck to puppets because they like doing puppets.

For GOLD, we did names of emotions. We had a game of charade. It was funny because when Jayvee and Cedric did the emotions they were supposed to do, they were smiling so the other students could not guess the right emotion. Vladymir was the best actor for me because he did the "angry" emotion with such passion.

For TS, I had a huge picture of an elephant and they had to draw out a picture from its pocket. Then, they have to say the name of the picture. We also played basketball for oral. If they say the name of the picture, they get a chance to shoot the ball.

Reading Link Day 12: Kung Bumalik ang mga Dinosaurs

Last week, we had a conference with Teacher Hazelle. And Glenda told the class that her students enjoyed the story "If Dinosaurs Came Back." Suddenly, I got inspired by what she said because I was too sure that my students would also enjoy a story about dinosaurs. And I was right. The students loved the story. Because I was teaching in Filipino, I had to translate the text to Filipino and because the text was long for my set of learners, I also skipped some pages.

We solved a dinosaur jigsaw puzzle in the activating prior knowledge. I had a student search for a puzzle pieces after identifying a picture of an animal. Although it was a nice activity, next time I need to find a way to stick the puzzle pieces in a neater way. When we finished doing the puzzle, we could not post it upright on the board. By the way, Luis is not in class because he got sick. He surely missed a lot of dinosaur fun.

During reading, Cedric would come very close  to the book. His classmates would tell him to sit down. Although I like Cedric's intense interest in the story, I need to learn how to make them sit properly during reading. Sometimes, I am able to do it but there are still lapses. Vladymir and Alex had a lot to say about dinosaurs.

After reading, the students drew other things that dinosaurs could do for us. I think Jan Derick's drawing of a T-rex was very nice. It really was ferocious. Vladymir's idea was unique. He drew a dinosaur dancing ballet and making the audience laugh. I asked the kids whose idea they liked best and two of them voted for Vladymir's. Justine Carl seemed to be not confident in drawing pictures so Teacher Julie assisted him. I found out that my second engagement activity was difficult for them to answer. They were supposed to sort which animals are still living at present and which lived in the past. It was difficult because I think they were not familiar with some of the animals I presented and some animals look like another type of animal that they know of so they thought it was the one that they know of. For enrichment, we made dinosaurs made of paper plates. They get to select the type of dinosaur that they want to make. Jayvee liked the paper plate dinosaurs that he was one of the first to finish making dinosaurs. He liked the dinosaurs so much that he borrowed some of the ones I made as example and played with them. He named his dinosaur "Ninja."

For GOLD, we studied names of colors. I had them search for dinosaurs that have the specific color that I call out. Then, we played "Touch the Color," which was a lot of fun. They really like running around. Then, they colored a picture of a dinosaur. It was a color by number activity.

There was no time to do TS and I think the kids were already exhausted from running and coloring.

Reading Link Day 11: Ang Tatlong Pipit

Vladymir, as usual, was so active and I had a bit of a hard time with him at the beginning of the lesson. He was showing his butt to Cedric. At first, Alex did not want to participate during the preliminary stuff. Good for me, Alex followed after some prompting andVladymir paid attention after asking him about our rules in the classroom.

Our story today is entitled "Ang Tatlong Pipit." Because  it is Mothers' Day on Sunday, I prepared activities that are related to that event as well. The story is appropriate for the event because the three birds in the story are being taught by their mother to fly.

For activating prior knowledge, I posted some shapes in different places in the classroom. And then, I ask one student at a time to get a particular shape. I told them that I lost my pet and that they could help me find it by getting the shapes that I needed. It was a fun activity because they were eager to get the shape I asked them to get and because they tried guessing what type of animal I was forming with the shapes.

During reading, it still surprises me that even without colors the students like the illustrations of the book. They students were intent on looking at the pictures in the storybook. After reading, I had the kids sequence the events in the story. Teacher Hazelle dropped by to give me some instructions. She told me to ask questions about the pictures. I was glad that when Teacher Hazelle came the students were on task and not doing their usual riot.

The students made Mothers' Day cards for enrichment activity. It was a messy activity because we used paint. Good thing I asked them to bring aprons and I had some wet wipes for clean up. I still had trouble with kids going out of the room despite telling them not to go.

We did names of numbers for GOLD. What was fun about this part is the students counted beads as they make bracelets for their moms.I had trouble with distributing beads at first because I placed all the beads in one box. To solve this problem, I placed some in another container for Teacher Julie. Then, some students would get beads from her and some would get from me.

Since we had a lot of activities (making mothers' day card, bracelet gift), we lack the time to do the TS part.