The Challenges

Yesterday, I went to the new school that I will be teaching in for the next ten months. I met the School Principal and some teachers that were on duty that day. They gave me an informal orientation about the school, teachers, the students and the parents. I'm excited for this school year because I will be teaching older kids (that is, a little older than toddlers.)

They showed me the old Kinder classroom and asked me if I wanted to transfer to another classroom which is bigger. I preferred to transfer to a bigger classroom since the recent memo from Department of Education (DepEd) says that the maximum number of students for a regular Kindergarten teacher is 35. Yes, 35. Imagine putting 35 kids in a relatively small classroom. There should be enough space for them to move around, play and do some activities. Well, that's just one of the challenges.

I was surprised to see that the classrooms were not that unattractive. Just some clean up (maybe, a lot) and they will be ready for school. Some rearrangements need to be done; some repainting may be good, too. I can imagine transforming the classroom to make it more child-friendly and conducive to learning and playing. I'll be asking help from friends and it will look alright in time.

The old Kinder classroom

The classroom that I will be using

Next week will be DepEd's program, Brigada Eskwela 2014. It's a time when the teachers invite the community (parents, barangay officers and some concerned citizens) to take part in preparing the school for the start of classes. It's a time when the school focuses on all the facilities and equipment that need some fixing. In some ways, this program helps build supposedly strong relationship between the school and the community, to better the education of the children. On the other hand, I cannot help but think that this program is just a way of the government to address budgetary concerns relating to the improvement of school facilities and provision of necessary materials, because clearly, the funds seem not enough to help the teachers prepare their classrooms every year. Unless, there are funds that are unfortunately, not distributed properly. In the end, the school asks for donations and solicitations from parents, groups and private associations, that can help in much needed improvements. Oh, well.

Though there are a lot of challenges in classroom preparation, I am still excited to make my classroom look better for the learning of the children. I just hope that I'll get enough help (manpower and finance) before the school year starts. I pray for a happy school year! ♡