My brother and niece go to the same school and last month they had an educational trip. They visited an institution where blind people are pampered  with love, care and Education as well. This is done to help themselves live a normal life and cope up with their daily living in spite of their disabilities physically and emotionally.

Davao School and Rehabilitation Center for Visually Impaired is formerly known as Davao School for the Blind and Development Center or DSBRC.It’s a residential school located in Bago Aplaya, Talomo Davao City, Philippines. It was established on August 14, 1981 and is recognized by the Department of Education, Culture and Sports or DECS. In addition, it caters residents’ education and rehabilitation needs for school age children.

The school provides free Elementary Education including Educational materials, free board and lodging and other necessities, the school can afford.Below is the Center’s Mission and Goal.

Mission

To provide with quality education to make the visually impaired persons totally accepted to the mainstream of society.

Vision

There should be self-reliance, self-propagating and self-sustaining institution that serve as a vehicle towards the total development of the visually impaired persons.

I have seen people with disabilities who are succesful in their lives.They became responsible and succesful citizens in the society. If you notice, there are instances when physically and mentally challenged people have better living than those abled ones! If that’s the case, disabilities is not a hindrance. It’s up to people if they want to make the best out of their life.

Reading means understanding something which is written. There’s no reading if there’s no comprehension. This process in not just up to uttering written text in which we termed as oral reading but decoding printed words.

In my own experience, my mom exposed us to books at early stage. We learned to love reading at young age because my mom is a reader. There was once that she told me that she wants to take a rest. But when I entered their room I found her reading a book. I was surprised because I thought that she’s sleeping!

How Children Learn to Read

Why not follow these good steps?

1. Parents should choose books with simple concepts to encourage children to read (e.g shapes, color, texture, size etc)
2. When reading, point pictures and names. Allow your children to do the same.
3. Make your home a book-rich environment. Teach them to love books.
4. In choosing books to read, let the interest of your children be their choices (e.g. planets, animals, objects, sports, games, cartoon characters, Disney characters etc)
5. For young and beginners of reading, picture books are perfect for the.
6. Children can make their own choice but parents should be the one to decide that’s according to the level of child’s comprehension.
7. Help your children become successful reader by talking, listening and reading together. That’s what we call as interactive reading.

Read more

What is an interactive reading model?

Teaching Reading from an Interactive Perspective

Today I had the toughest job of my work as a teacher. This afternoon I experienced the difficulty of teaching English as a Second Language or ESL. Language barrier is the top problem! I almost got a headache. I want my students to learn our borrowed language for them to live their life more comfortable since they’re staying in the country because of their will to learn English and academics as well. While inside the classroom I was thinking on a new approach to use on the following day to make the learning more effective and easy for them. Enough time, dedication and participation are needed if a student is willing to learn and speak good English. With my experience today I’m somehow happy because my students are very much eager to learn. I can see it. They tried to absorb everything. I understand that they can’t get everything that we had taken up but the point that they listen and participate is a good thing to keep me going and help them to step for the next level of learning.

Today is the moment of high technology. Cars, gadgets, computers and other products of science and technology keep on innovating and changing the life of humans as well. Things that are not done by old generation is now possible with the current and amazing inventions of today. Keen research and practical application affect the lifestyles of people.

In Education, the advances of technology is employed to attain better learning. Better teaching approaches and strategies mean better quality of students. Traditional way of teaching has gone. The new has come. From utilizing any paper visual aids, black board and chalk to power point presentations.

For young kids, playing virtual toys like toy laptops can help their mental and motor development. With the sounds they hear, color and shapes they see and different functions to touch, they encode knowledge and learning. However, educators should not forget about the holistic learning approach.

Interactive toys for learning allow them to discover more as they continue their search for knowledge. See the image below. These are the toys of my nieces given by their granny. It’s a toy laptop with 10 educational and fun activities. The magic wand serves as the screen pointer. Its got a mouse too formed like a shoe of Cinderella.

These are the 10 fun activities in this laptop toys.

1. Lovely letter- matching big and small letters
2. Missing letter- filling in the missing letter of a word with picture
3. Picture match- matching the pictures of the words heard
4. Number order- arranging numbers in order
5. Magical math- adding and subtracting one digit numbers
6. Choose a shoe- matching same pairs of shoes
7. Dress up- choosing your own style of Cinderella’s gown
8. Pretty puzzles-  rearranging pictures
9. Charming pairs- clicking for the pair of pictures like a memory game
10. Music time- listening to music with 10 different choices

In London, there’s a group of Filipino children who have their own band. I’m uncertain with the band’s name but it sound like “Silverdale”. It’s composed of James Cruz, Allan Panisales and Lester Calucag. They started as Maharlika Singing Ambassadors. These children are truly idols for Filipino kids. They show that they can become stars at young age!

These three kids grew up in England with their family. Although they’re not currently living in the Philippines, their parents are instilling the Filipino culture and values. What they did is they give emphasis on two cultures (Filipino&foreign). They’re teaching their kids Tagalog which is our national dialect. In addition, they show pictures from the Philippines. On how the Philippines look like. In their homes, they prepare Filipino dishes. Parents are doing these because they don’t want that their kids will forget their native land.

Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple or or * Intelligences includes musical intelligence. A child who’s got good hearing in rhythm and tones and able to play musical instruments is considered smart/intelligent. That’s why teachers would recommend or encourage the mommies to allow their child to play musical instruments if they assess that their child is exceptional.It’s expected that they can do it without so much struggles. They’ll learn easily with it.

To all parents who have kids, pay attention to these tips given by the parents of these 3 children stars in London, England.

1. Observe your child. Explore their skills and hidden talents.
2. Support child’s talents.
3. Let them participate in competition. That will help them develop their skills.
4. Don’t humiliate them if they can’t do what you want like in playing piano which they don’t like or can.
5. Don’t be pushy. Don’t force your child to do that they hate. Their interest is more important.
6. Prepare to accept that there are things that can’t do that other children can. Remember that we people differ. So with our development.
7. Help them in areas where they do good.