2018 In Review: The DepEd Story Writing Project 2 of 2

With NLP People and Participants from CDO DepEd and Libraries

In June, at that month's last week, I found myself in the company of librarian friends from the National Library of the Philippines (NLP). Fresh from the controversy of the #NationalNonLibrarian, Ed Quiros, Dolly Carungui, Melai Ramirez and their band of silent workers from the NLP were in full force in Cagayan De Oro to conduct another Story Book Writing and Storytelling Workshop.

And yes, I was the facilitator for the writing workshop.

What made this experience interesting are two things: 1) I met the #NationalNonLibrarian up close and personal, and 2) I did a writing in the mother tongue workshop when in fact, I neither speak Bisaya nor Cebuano.

For an introduction of NLP's project, read the blog post, NLP is on the move. I realized this is an unfinished post, so I will catch up on this before the year ends. Long story short, the NLP is doing its job to connect with the LGUs and the DepEd in the regions, donating books and shedding light to what seemed a hopeless case of public library development in the country. The current library director is a Human Resource Manager and his appointment caused a great divide in Philippine Librarianship. But, given the status of  the profession and some technicalities to the nature of the NLP as a government office, Dir. Gilbert Adriano will have to perform his duties and the Filipino Librarians who are adverse to his assignment must simply accept things as they are. For now.

Good news from the NLP recently: LGUs are taking a more active role in public library development. We will explre and find out more of this next year! So rejoice in this good news.

Now, how did my workshop in creating books in the mother tongue go?

Kamusta Ka in Cebuano

I started with a Filipino song and have the participants translate it in Cebuano. This was a planned activity of course, but, the response of the public school teachers present in the workshop were automatic. They jumped into the exercise. Proud to speak their mother tongue and to sing it out loud as a community made the session more meaningful. The rest of the day was spent on writing their own stories, reading them aloud and giving feedback.

This prepared them for Day 2 of the workshop which is the use of an app for creating story books. The books they made are accessible through the NLP and in cooperation with the DepEd and the Cagayan De Oro public library. My takeaway from this experience is this: we need each other to work collaboratively to ensure that our children would have the materials needed to teach them how to read, create their own stories and eventually, grow a genuine love for books (of all types).

For my work on mother tongue based instruction, both as librarian, teacher and writer, go to this blog post on My Musings on Mother Tongue Based Education.

2018 In Review: The DepEd Story Writing Project 1 of 2

A teacher shares her book review

It is already December and with the busyness of the Christmas season biting on our heels, here I am making a long list of wonderful things that have happened to me in 2018. It is not an easy year, in all aspects of my life, the country and the world. But, in times like this, I channel into Uncle Iroh's teaching: hope is something you give yourself. A Jesuit once told me, give up hope and you might as well give up on life.

And so, I persist.

I rage against the dying of the light.

In my own way, I light a candle in this gathering dark. I have my wand ready and my patronus charm memorized by heart to drive away the Dementors when they come to steal away any form of happiness I know and cherish.

So, this entire month of December, I will be posting happy thoughts and ideas conjured, planned and implemented including events, activities, projects and not so happy stuff happening at work that lead to possibilities. Anything to illustrate that, in the age of Duterte and Donald Trump, hope floats.

Let's begin with stories and storytelling.

I have had the amazing experience of visiting Mindoro, Cagayan De Oro and Antipolo this year for the conduct of workshops in storytelling, writing stories for children and school library development. I have blogged about my experience in Mindoro through a guest post by Joy Solina, Bernadette Solina Wolf's sister who was with us the entire time as "media staff". Read her article on the workshop through this link.

Mini-book Making Activity 

In Mindoro, I met wonderful people. Alice "Peanuts" Panares, art educator and the epitome of everything positive and radiant in this world. Literacy Advocate, Ana Bacudio who is building a reading and writing center in Mindoro. Alvin Delen, the division librarian of the DepEd there who is working so diligently in creating learning materials and resources for the Learning Resources Materials Development Services (LRMDS). Teacher Annie Lee Masongsong who learned the language of the Mangyan so that she can understand them and teach them well. Last I heard, Teacher Annie has won an award in recognition of her works with the Mangyan.

The three day workshop helped teachers in Mindoro to clarify their purpose for writing and creating storybooks. The impetus for this is to win in the regional and national contests run by the DepEd. But, I know, the three faciltators, Peanuts, Bernadette and myself imparted in them the long term values of the art of story telling, writing and book making.

We hope to go back to Mindoro in 2019 with more friends who can further improve the ideas and concepts we shared with the K-3 teachers in Calapan. What's amazing for me is that, I always learn from the teachers of my workshops. Much respect and admiration to the tremendous job they do in the classroom. And there they were, willing to face another challenge of writing, telling and creating story books, not just to win in a contest, but to construct meaning and knowledge from their cultural and social experiences.