fingers crossed

tomorrow, 7 of our team will be taking their grade school and high school diploma tests.

it's the first time we're doing this, ever since the opening of our school last february.

needless to say, i am praying with all my heart that they pass.

sharing with you my letter to them...

***

Dear Angge, Jeff, Anabelle, Jasmine, Ashley, Bai, Roselyn,

I just wanted to wish you all the best this coming Sunday. Sorry too for not being able to be there during these last few months -- but I am sure that you are getting more than enough attention from Teacher Rose and Ate Marge.

I know we always pressure you to pass the test. Please understand that this is only because we all believe that you can. But at this point, I just want to all congratulate you already for all the strides that you've made over the past months. No matter what the outcome of the tests, we're all already very proud of you knowing that you have been, and will try your best.

Please don't forget to give your sincere thanks to Ate Marge and Teacher Rose who have been tirelessly working to make you all learn more.

Again, best of luck this Sunday! Congratulations to you all! We are all very proud of you!

Love,

Ate Krie

***

please say a li'l prayer too!

where am i?

where am i??? can you guess?

here's a clue:

yup that's us painting our office floor... and yes we're in our li'l office-factory-warehouse-now-school-too. woohoo!

here's a snippet of our upcoming classroom. first day of school is on monday :)

of course, all our things have to go somewhere... so imagine the mess. (spot the assistant!)

more on our school later :)

reaching up

yahoowee!!!

we're getting a grant for my school h.ou.s.e. project!!!

(This is our school h.ou.s.e. logo...)

it takes inspiration from those ivy league coat of arms...

and twinpophub's "mahirap abutin pero kaya" art works...

maybe securing a high school (and grade school) diploma for each of the messy bessititas isn't that much of a feat after all :)

I think Susan was right... and this grant is Saturn's gift...

She said that:

Saturn has been touring your tenth house of career for two years, and ever since, your abilities, good judgment, practicality, resourcefulness, and determination to stay the course have been tested.

AND...

Saturn always leaves a gift by the door when your tour of duty is over.

So maybe this is Saturn's gift... or simply God's gift of course :)

So first things first... which chair to choose for our permanent classroom? Both are from Uratex, makers of the infamous monobloc chairs.

Whichyou like?

anything's possible!

thanks to uber generous tana, yesterday was our first day of english lessons.

here we are slowly going through the first chapter of a book...

this is the middle-school book we're reading... a true rags-to-riches story about a chinese (boy) ballet dancer...

a story they all relate seem to relate to... since they're all dancers (some hiphop, some at men's clubs)... and of course all struggling like the character.  

(one of the girls even cried during the reading, because she could relate to a character who was maltreated)

i'm so happy they were quite engrossed and wanting to finish the book in the future.

(oh, by the way, did you notice their shirts?  woohoo!)

anyway, teaching them english... and even more, getting them grade school and high school diplomas is an uphill climb... but i'm taking it.

maybe that's why i'm enjoying the new show recommended by twinpopbro...

it's about musical high school outcasts... a musical dramedy with very tina fay-esque humor.

anyway, here's to believing in those who many gave up on.   naks.

beacon

whew!  i survived my talk!

this morning, i was asked to speak to the 8th grade class of beacon about messy bessy and social entrepreneurship.  wow those kids are super smart.

the school's currently in a temporary location (an old government building i think) and from the inside, it looks like your regular school.

this is one of the corridors of the middle school.

but then you start seeing tell tale signs that they're quite progressive.  like this sign in the driveway to speed up the traffic.

chickout this quote on the corridor -- ang lalim.

the teacher to student ratio is extremely low here...  also, chickout their computer room!

chickout what this girl was working on -- a sustainable venture that can help alleviate aids/hiv -- shwooooahhh!

a wall display on the different world religions...

a list of questions in their filipino language & culture classroom.  funny the heading is "mga tanong" but chickout the questions --  they're in english.

chickout this activity, they were learning the map and how the globe translates to it.  so they worked on orange peels and spread them out on paper.

last observation:  what are these things tied around their heads?  hmmm...