Shanna Held

Saying Goodbye is Never Easy One of the last big moments for me during my time in The Philippines occurred during the closing ceremony at LegaSci school. It was a performance of a beautiful song and it has stayed in my heart. I think back to it often when I am remembering my time and my students there. The song is called "Make Me a Channel of Your Peace - The Prayer of St. Francis". I heard this song often growing up in church and it's sweet, gentle melody has always brought me peace. But...

Who Am I? A Guiding Question As part of our preparation for our experience in the Philippines, teachers were asked to create a guiding question to observe and reflect on in our time abroad. As someone who lives and teaches Spanish and EL in communities with a strong Latino presence, I have been able to observe how the youth in these communities integrate and fuse both Latin and US cultures. As someone who has been teaching for over 20 years, I am also seeing the children of former students...

The view from the Quintiday Hills of Albay Seeing the good. One of the many flowers of the Philippines During all my time in the Philippines, in Manila, Batangas and Albay, I was surrounded by things of beauty. While it is obvious beauty is there in the blue-green waters off Batangas and the lush landscape of the nearby Quintiday Hills of Albay, one might wonder where beauty is found in the concrete jungle of Manila. Surrounded by skycrapers and traffic that bustles seemingly without rhyme...