Congratulations to everyone involved in the Book Week, an absolutely positive experience in every way. The school was a buzz of activity with teachers reading to different classes, plays and storytellers mesmerizing us, the fantastic Fancy dress day and a hugely successful Book Fair.
This year international book week saw some familiar guests return along with some new additions, or better said, “editions” to the traditional CIS celebration. The EMC once again turned into an interactive museum piece fused with a workshop seminar site. The forbidden library re-opened its vaults, once again reminding us of the function of a school and its library as an inquirer and conscience of a society. Book Week trivia piqued the memories of students and “what’s your favorite book” asked EMC users to use their intuition to match colleagues’ pictures with their favorite books. As part of our celebrations during Book Week, elementary students and teachers took part in a dress-up day, disguised as their favorite book character and brought in the book to share.
One of the week’s highlights was a first time visit to CIS classrooms by a contingent of high school students from Binaliw, a mountain barangay whose community members count among the world’s poorest. CIS students have been working with Binaliw high school students for the past two years in a kind of two-way exposure plus reading program for Binaliw 2nd graders. The culminating activity of this semester was Book Week, when the team brought a morning of storytelling to 1st grade classes of Ms. Brockbank and Ms. Amargo. The little ones were treated to Filipino folktales told by our multinational cast in English, Cebuano, Japanese, Tagalog and Korean. The enchanting 1st graders returned the favor by sharing some of their stories with the newly charmed high schoolers.
Old friends complimented new ones, as Dr. Josol brought her former teacher back from Cebu Normal University for her 2nd Annual Research Congress. The 10th grade English class was privileged to have their research papers reviewed by scholar and professor, Dr. Joseph Galleon. Certainly the 10th graders benefited from the feedback of a “real live” professor who gave them a glimpse of what to expect in college.
I feel that book week 2009 was a great success and that comes down to all the effort that students and staff went to. Thank you all very much.