Migration means adaptaion

(Wrote this piece for the Alberta Filipino Journal)

https://issuu.com/alberta_filipino_journal/docs/alberta_filipino_journal_-_may_2021_issue

My current employment here is no way near to what I have been doing in the media industry for the past 20 years. I am currently working, part-time, as a program leader with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Saskatoon while also as a substitute educational assistant under the city’s public school system. In both jobs, I deal with school kids from Mondays to Fridays, from 7am to 3:30pm.

Being the responsible adult, in a way, could be the best job description for what I do with the BGCS where I come up with programs and other activities for the kids that go to the program. I get to supervise children during the before and after school programs. I get to play games with them—like grounders, everybody it, octopus, Jenga, Uno, Snakes & Ladders, etc.—or we do arts and crafts, and other activities that would challenge them and aid in their development.

At the same time, being a program leader, you need to communicate with their parents and their teachers to let them know how the kids are doing while they are with you in the program. You get to talk to them about their behavior, like how would they treat you as their adult friend and also how would they interact with their peers. As the proverb states: it takes a village to raise a child.

BGCS also partners with Reebok and the Toronto Blue Jays in promoting being active through its BOKS (Building Our Kids’ Success) and Jays Care programs. Both involve various activities to get the kids to be active in a fun environment, with the latter also introducing the game of baseball to the younger generation.

Being a substitute EA, meanwhile, is a bit different since you would assist the lead teacher with the day’s lesson—be it in writing, mathematics, reading, language arts, spelling, or social studies. I try, as much as possible, to help the kids learn and understand their lesson for the day.

You need a ton of patience in both jobs, especially being an EA where you are helping kids improve their reading and language arts skills, solve math equations and problems, or coming up with answers to questions in social studies like: why was the Trans-Canada Highway built along with towns and cities

Coming from being a journalist—reporter and editor, it was not that easy for me. I struggled most of the time, but it was a fun and learning experience for me. You are going to deal with a lot of different kids, who came from diverse different family backgrounds and whose parents have different approaches to raising their children.

In both jobs, I would always encourage the kids to read books. I would tell them that English is not my first language and that reading a lot of different books while growing up helped me widen my vocabulary by learning new words, their meaning, and how to use them properly in a sentence. Hopefully, I could have convinced a couple of them.

I am not sure if I would still get the chance to work as a journalist here in Saskatoon or do anything related to the media industry. My writing career has an uncertain future. For now, I would do everything that I can to help encourage these kids in growing up to become responsible adults and productive citizens of this country.