Please allow this mom to bask in a little spotlight of pride and joy as I show to the world (or to those who will stumble upon this blog, LOL) my youngest child’s drawing for the theme WRITING  in Photo Hunter today:

She copied this from a YouTube Video tutorial She loves to draw dragons among other things.

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I started this blog Teacher Julie, Filipina Special Education teacher to write about special education issues and my experiences as a special education teacher and I’ve a Teacher Julie Facebook page I’ve recently had the courage to make.

Then I wrote posts about my family and about being a parent under the parenting posts.

Through it all, it gives me immense joy when people I don’t know send emails, comments and thank-yous for helping them while they read about my experiences as a special education teacher.

I know I still have a lot to learn. I know I have my own shortcomings and that my students have adapted to my quirks I know too that I fall short of the expectations I set for myself.

And there were times when I ranted online when I shouldn’t have.

But in the end, when I see where my students are right now, I feel pride and joy that all the things we went through together are worth every second: teenage issues, challenges, expectations, bittersweet moments, future plans, discussed controversial topics where I have been privy to their journey through the turbulent teenage years.

The sleepless nights, the crossroads, the questions, the doubts now look like just little stumbling blocks that made their parents and I hope that we have shaped the path for a better future for them.

continue reading this entry »

With her birthday two days before Christmas just around the corner, my youngest daughter is excited with her wish list.

• A Ben 10 toy that looks like a watch,
• new toy soldiers,
• a pair of binoculars
• and a new pair of rubber shoes for PE.

I know it seems odd that she prefers these toys rather than have dolls. Last year she got a big toy gun for her birthday, a pink one.

As long as she is happy and plays with her toys I see no problem.

A big piece of delicious and juicy medium rare steak. Nomnomnom.

My apologies to non-meat eaters.

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Some of the children I teach a little less or even more than a decade ago are still with me. Some are not with me anymore though the years we’ve spent together are not forgotten.

I’ve seen them grow.

I’ve been with them through their ups and downs.

I’ve been all ears to their joys and tears and I perceive myself as a friend they can trust.

Now that some of them are in college and some are on their way to college, I sometimes ask myself if I had done the right things for them, encouraged them enough to do what I know they can do best and told them how much I appreciate that they are a part of my life.

I didn’t just “teach” them, they also taught me a lot of things: patience, learning more about my craft and improving what I already know and what I can still do, and being positive about life.

I also practiced being a parent with them, long before I became one myself.

Among the many thing we discuss these days, especially with my students who are about to become young adults, are issues that they may face, or are currently dealing with, and how they can cope and learn from it.

Among the teenage issues are: continue reading this entry »

A cup of hot chocolate for my warm breakfast. Others would feel itchy after they consume chocolate but not me. Yey! The drink should have been coffee but I got the hot chocolate because of the conversation after the jump:

I was about to order my breakfast meal at this home-grown fastfood chain when I saw the service crew give a cup of coffee to a guy named “RAMON”. How do I know his name? It was on his cup of coffee.

ME: “Miss, I also want to have a cup with my name on it, how do I get one?”

Miss: “Sorry po, you have to be a senior citizen to have a personalized cup”

ME: “Ay ganun ba? Is that so?”

Thought Bubble: “Ooops, ooookay. I’m no hurry to have that cup yet and perhaps think about treatment for wrinkles, knowing I can be a bit vain at times.”

So I ordered a hot cup of chocolate instead

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