It`s a Wrap

It’s raining again here in Manila. Yesterday there was flooding in some of the low lying areas but we were not affected. We have now finished our work with the teachers, just one more evaluation meeting and then I leave for Bali. Yesterday we spent the day shopping in the mega mall complex called Greenhills. We barely scratch the surface it was an overwhelmingly huge cluster of malls all connect to each other. Even without Greenhills, I have too much stuff with the clothes from teaching and gifts from host families/clubs. Add to that a bit of my own shopping and it’s crazy. Shannon has kindly offered to take one of my bags back home with her so I don’t have to take it to Bali with me. I am trying to reduce my luggage even more down to one bag but am having trouble. Maybe I’ll just take the extra to Bali and decide there what I really don’t need. Dave Ilyn would be disappointed but I really am trying.

Being back in Manila is a real treat after the north. We have our own beds though Shannon and I are still sharing a room but it’s much better now that you can’t see into the shower from the beds. We have hot water –that’s a big deal. And best of all we can decide our own schedule. We get up when we wake up, we eat when we’re hungry and we sleep when we’re tired. For the last month we were often up at 5:30 am, were served 7 meals a day and got back to our rooms at midnight. I’m starting to feel well rested and am less full. But I’m very ready to see some familiar faces. I’m excited to see Brian in a few days and know that by the end of August I’ll be really ready to see everyone in Canada. I don’t know how people can travel for months and months at a time. I’ve had good adventures and I think we’ve done some good work with schools but it’s hard to be away from everyone you love for so long.

The school work was a challenge as some of the district supervisors are very closed to change. In some districts teachers were not allowed to attend workshops unless it was on their own time. At the end of the day, some supervisors twisted our words to make them fit their old ways of thinking. However, we did have lots of chances to spark conversations about other possibilities. The teachers were very interested to learn of other ways of working. A few supervisors were eager to talk with us and explore other ways of working. The biggest issues in our observations were not around class size or lack of resources, though they are legitimate concerns. The biggest issues appear to stem from a lack of teacher autonomy. Teachers here generally prepare a detailed hand written three page daily lesson plans for every course they teach. There are expected to teach the same units at the same time and then all of the students in the country write quarterly exams together for each subject. This highly controlled system creates many undesirable constraints within the education system. Teachers spend endless hours writing and the following year rewriting inflexible lesson plans. The detailed lesson plans even list the questions the teachers will ask, so it makes it difficult for them to be responsive to their students’ needs whether as a group or individuals. Making teachers spent so much time writing daily lesson plans takes away their time to think creatively and collaboratively. Having all of the teachers teaching the same unit simultaneously also puts an enormous strain on resources. In Canada several teachers share the same resources because we teach similar topics at different times. Finally, the standardized test promotes rote learning rather than true learning. Just like every other country where standardized testing is emphasized. We know that our one day workshops can’t make big changes in the structure of the educational system in the Philippines but we hope that we have been able to spark some deep thinking and conversations about other possibilities. The teachers here are caring professionals who are well educated but lack the freedom and support to do what they know is best for their students.

In two days I’m off to Bali with Brian. Hurray!