Pictures!

San Ignacio

Hello Everyone ! I was a little sad to leave our cozy room at Pedro's Inn this morning, but an hour and a half boat ride, taxi ride and a 2 hour bus trip later, we made it to San Ignacio! And I'm not talking a coach bus with plush seats and air conditioning- think packed like sardines into an elementary school bus.No air conditioning. 95 degrees. Long day. We'll be staying at Rosa's Hotel until Friday and tomorrow is our first excursion to a Mayan ruin..exciting ! San Ignacio seems like a cool place with lots of little shops and restaurants and i'm excited to see it running in full speed tomorrow.

week 2

Today marks two weeks in San Pedro!  Sorry about the lack of pictures thus far, but the intermittent internet paired with an old laptop makes for frustrating picture uploading.  This week, while school is out for Easter break, we have been working on our service project hours.  I began accumulating hours at the Miss Isla Bonita pageant last Friday. It was the first time I had ever attended a pageant and it was a VERY interesting experience. Each contestant spent the weeks leading up to the pageant fundraising for the school. Each girl also had a booth set up, selling food and drinks to earn votes.  I worked at a booth selling rice and beans, ceviche, sodas and beers. At the end of the night, the girl who raised the most money for the school was crowned Miss Isla Bonita. Very adorable and they raised a TON of money for the school.

This week we also took part in an Easter camp for children at the local library. I had no idea there were so many possibilities for Easter crafts using only construction paper and paper plates! We played games, read stories and concluded the camp with an Easter egg hunt on the beach.  One of my favorite campers was a puppy named lucky who was recovering from getting hit by a car. AW!

Prompt 2

On the first day of Easter camp, I arrived a half hour early to prepare what we needed for the crafts and get organized. However, the library was locked until about 5 minutes until 2:00. I was a little frustrated that I didn’t have time to set up and get myself sufficiently prepared.  I was a little flustered at first, because I’m so used to preparing ahead of time, but I had to think on my feet and we just prepped the craft as we went along.  It was a little more hectic than I would have liked for a room full of kids, but it worked out fine and the kids had a blast making paper bead cross necklaces.  This reinforced the “go with the flow” environment that we were told to be prepared for. I tried to mentally prepare to be unprepared, but I don’t think there was any way for me to be broken of my chronic list making/organizing habits, other than to be thrown into it.  This experience will be helpful for me as I return to the classroom in a few weeks. I need to be able to be more flexible and more able to go with the flow in order to adjust to the cultural difference here in Belize.

Prompt #1

I have only had one class that specifically addressed teaching student with different special needs. I feel very unprepared to teach a child in my class who is severely disabled.  I know that I have several resources that I can take advantage of in order to include this child in our classroom and help her advance academically.  Kristen and Ms. Curry will be of great help to me, as they specialize in special education and I’m sure they have many tips for inclusion.  I also found out that the more comfortable this student got with me, the more she would open up and respond to me. I was having trouble assessing her academic level, but spending more time with her and gaining her trust allowed me to get more responses from her and I now have a better idea of what she is capable of.  With only 5 students in my class, I feel that I will be able to assist this student with special needs with help from my peers and teachers.

I can’t believe our first week at school is almost over ! It’s the last week before school lets out for Easter break, so our schedules were a little off. This is also the last week of preparation for the Miss Isla Bonita pageant, so many of our students were out of class for the afternoon to practice their dancing and modeling. I’ve become so accustomed to following a schedule and carrying out the plans I’ve made a head of time, so it felt very strange to be trying to come up with things to do off the top of my head on a moment’s notice.  I think this is going to be good for me, though.  Not that I won’t plan in my own classroom, but during hectic days or weeks, it becomes necessary to think on your feet and change the schedule around. The “go with the flow” atmosphere I’ve experienced this week has definitely challenged me and will continue to challenge me when we get back to school, but I’m going to try to plan what I can ahead of time the best I can. 

                I took over our math class on Tuesday, so that is one thing I have been able to plan for ! I’m not sure that it was ever stated that I would teach tomorrow, but the math teacher gave me the direction for the next few lessons and I took that as, okay I’m going to go home and plan just in case.

                Yesterday afternoon we celebrated one of my student’s birthdays by going on her grandpa’s boat (another advantage of going to school right on the Caribbean Sea).  First, we went to Shark Ray Alley and swam with huge fish, sting rays and nurse sharks. The kids all thought it was hilarious how scared I was! Then we took a ride to Hol Chan.  I learned that Hol Chan is a Mayan word meaning “little channel”. We were lead over the reef and saw SO many cool things.  The coral was gorgeous and we saw clown fish, sting rays, grouper, an eel and a barracuda !  I was pretty much in shock the whole time, it was unlike anything I have ever seen.  For my 11^th birthday we went bowling or to the movies. This definitely beats whatever it was we did at any of my birthday parties…maybe next year…

We're Here !

Hey everyone ! We’ve arrived in San Pedro and have been busy getting to know our new home.  It is amazing here ! The weather has been beautiful, which made for a great day by the pool at Pedro’s Inn and swimming off the pier at Ramon’s. We’ve been trying all of the different places to eat, but I think my favorite place so far is the fruit stand.  For 1$, we each got a quarter of the freshest watermelon I’ve ever tasted. We attended the “Chicken Drop” on Thursday night, which if you have no idea what that is, it may come as a shock.  They have a big dance floor looking area, with a low fence and numbered squares from 1-100. They put a, slightly dizzy, chicken in the pen and people make bets on what number the chicken will poop on. It sounds crazy, but it was actually a lot of fun, and the live reggae band was excellent !

Friday morning we visited the schools we would all be working in.  We first went to San Pedro High School and it happened to be “share day”.  The students had put together different science, math, language and history presentations to share with their peers, younger students, and parents. They were all so excited to share their projects and it was easy to see that they LOVED school ! Next, we went to Isla Bonita Elementary school (did I mention that we walked on the beach the whole way to school?). I was placed with a Standard 5 class, around the age of fifth graders in the United States. Teacher Sharon is the teacher I will be working under and we have only 5 students in our class ! I’m so excited to start and to see how the teaching styles compare to the ones we use back home.

This morning we woke up and walked down the block to The Yoga Room where we did an ocean front yoga class. I can definitely see this becoming part of my weekend routine ! Afterwards we went to George’s Kitchen for one of the most delicious breakfasts I’ve ever had. Later, we took a bike ride to the northern part of the island. We had a lazy afternoon on the pier and took some cool pictures…More to come !