You can find me in San Luis... primary school

Ayer (yesterday) we visited the escuela altos de San Luis. This is a one-room schoolhouse, serving grades k through 6th. Yes you read it right…all of those grades in one place. There is about 23 students in this school. We met the principal, Angel, who is also the main teacher (he has 1 volunteer teacher and one regular classroom volunteer). The room is split into two. One side for the 1^st through 3^rd graders, here they practice reading, math, writing but no English. The other side is grade 4-6^th, here they have computer class and English class once a week. Tai, who has no training on how to teach, teaches both these. The volunteer, Jennifer, use to teach in a title 1 school in the states so she has education background.  Kindergarten has a small room off to the side but we did not meet the teacher or students because, the teacher is a part of the strike (more on that later.)

Upon arrival, the school just looked like a happy place. All of the walls are painted with murals, and everyone we met was smiling, children included. I was shocked by the fact that the older students had a projector, a group of small laptops and Internet access. We found out that the school had been approved to be apart of a government program to give them more resources since the school is so rural.  Aside from those technology touches the school was very simple. The rooms weren’t very visually stimulating. By that I mean there were no posters of anchor charts or decorations up. We also were able to see the cafeteria. One woman makes breakfast, lunch and a snack for the students everyday so their families only have to be worried about feeding them one meal. The government only give the school one dollar per student per day.. for 2.5 meals. The rest of the money comes from donations. This just doesn’t sit well with me. The school isn’t given enough resources or money to feed the kids, yet they are expected to because they may not have the means at home. Those students who don’t have the means at home clearly don’t have the extra means to help contribute to the fundraisers. It just seems like a never ending cycle,, thankfully they are making it work and those families who can help do. I just hope this continues.

            Us MSU students split into two groups, I went to work with two older students (4^th and 5^th grade). I was teaching them numbers in English. At first to see where they were in their learning I wrote some number down and had them read them to me, they were blowing through this so I had them count verbally. They went up to 90 before I told them they could stop. About this time we were given a stack of flash cards, the cards were number 1-18 and had a combination of words, the number, and an array of pictures. We played a matching game; I think this really benefited, Carlos, the younger student because he had to count the pictures to find the match. The young lady I was working with was a pro at this already. After 2 rounds of this we switched to “fly swatter”. During this game all the cards are in front of them, and I say a number and they race to “swat” it. The friendly competition really drove the students to stay focused and try their best. It was really nice to see the students having fun while they were learning, the young lady even started to catch her mistakes (she switched 8 and 18 a lot) before I could tell her to try again.

            The students were ready for a brain break and the little boy wanted to quiz me but he made me say all the numbers in Spanish. We did this for only a minute or two, I think he was a little disappointed that I was getting them correct. I did this because it helped strengthen our connection, had some laughs, and it showed them that I was learning another language just  like they were so they were less afraid to make mistake in front of me. I believe that relationships are important for any classroom, and the better the student knows and trusts the teacher the more willing they are to take risks and be themselves. Knowing we were coming back to this school I tried to pay a little more attention to this aspect because when we return on Thursday I want them to have a positive thought about learning from us, and really give it all they have for our short time together.  

            I can’t wait to return tomorrow...

The entrance to the classrooms

Jennifer working with the 4-6th graders

Donated playground

Projector for the older children

Our second day at San Luis was absolutely wonderful. Nate, myself, and Erika played a game with two groups of older students. During this game we showed all but one student a picture, a very UNrealistic picture. For example one was a huge hand with 9 eyes, a nose, mouth, and three legs. The student who could see the picture had to describe what to draw using English. This was so much fun, and overall very successful. I believe that is day was so successful because the students were engaged the whole time, talking, moving, drawing, laughing. The first picture was always the hardest on the students because they didn't expect such crazy pictures. We also drew a basic outline of a body and labeled different parts so the student would have a visual aid if they needed assistance. If I was able to do this again I would review more than what we did, we had the rattle off parts they knew verbally and explained why we had drawn the diagram on the board, which worked out okay but I think it would be better if we had them point to the part on their body when we or themselves said that part. This way we could do a better job assessing their prior knowledge. When all the student already had a turn to draw, we had them tell Erika and myself what to do, this reinforced the goal because they knew that we wouldn't response to the Spanish directions that were so temping to use for them. Based on our group discussion afterwards and personal experience, relationships came into play in a huge way because they were starting to get to know us and feel more comfortable taking risks, movement was much more engaging than sitting and listening for the younger students, and the fact that we were able to play games while they were learning was a fantastic bonus. 

La Carpio

It took me a long time to process our visit to La Carpio today. It was absolutely incredible to see how much the community has grown and how it is set up in general. By that I mean, how the families by the river at the bottom of the valley are living in tiny homes made of pieces of tin but at the top of the hill I saw a cell phone store and they are building apartments. The “top” of the hill really surprised me. Seeing what Gail and the Costa Rican Humanitarian Foundation has done was so inspiring. These citizens really have made something out of nothing in a sense.  I wish we could of stayed longer or go back to do more community service projects. During our time there we painted a banister from a new staircase that was roughly 150 steps before visiting a school. Once I reached the (almost) bottom of the stairs, I caught myself just looking up. Imagining how things were before these stairs were there, we were told about 400 families lived on that hill. It was so steep and was just dirt- or mud when it rained, which it does a lot here for years and years. Being there felt a bit overwhelming, there were so many emotions. I was feeling so happy and a bit proud that we were able to come and help in any way even though our time was short yet I was so sad people even had to live in those conditions when there is so much technology, and life beyond that little valley that some of those people will never get to see or experience for themselves. I found it interesting as we were walking up the hill from painting to see what was inside some their homes. Many of the doors were open,  if they had a door at all, one house had a huge stereo, and multiple homes were playing music really loud. It made me so happy because they seemed happy, another home had a nice stove but otherwise the houses were very bare and extremely small on the inside from what I could see. At one point a little girl, who was absolutely beautiful, poked her head out to watch us. We tried to talk to her but she was shy, at that moment my heart sank a little because the family had so little. I think of all the opportunities, schooling, toys, food choices that a typical American child would have and if there was a way to even give half of that to them it could change their entire living situation.

                        The level of poverty, both in quantity and quality was just unreal for a lack of a better word even though it is a harsh reality. It made me really appreciate what I have and the opportunities my family and I have received over the years. From a teacher point of view I think poverty and certain home situations can greatly affect a child’s learning, not their ability but if they are hungry or tired or scared or otherwise stressed they will not be anywhere as near focused as someone who has all their basic needs met. Those children that are living in somewhere negative or poverty-ridden communities are just trying to survive sometimes. That being said when we were went into the school, the class (students were around 5 years old) was full of happy, trusting, welcoming, loving students. They sang songs, counted in Spanish and English, used shapes, role-played, shared, created. I recognized a lot of the teaching methods such as putting things in chronological order using a song/tune, having “12” then 12 pictures of something then “twelve” written under it so they can make those visual connections. The teachers had the classroom set up in centers and every inch of space was utilized for learning. They even had a small library in the class. Every student I worked with was engaged 100% of the time and learning, they even knew certain phrases in English. I was blown away by the school and what the teachers were doing for the students given their resources and surroundings. They even had snack time. The teachers obviously had high expectations because they were prepping them for a public school, they kept portfolios of student work and lesson plans. The students followed directions and knew which song meant clean up, they put away their plates/trash from snack in the proper places. I kind of forgot they were so young while we were there.  This experience is making me feel so much more comfortable with the idea of teaching low socio-economic or children of immigrants. It just proved to me that when a teacher has high expectations of children, they will rise to them no matter what they may be dealing with outside of school as long as you give them the tools they need to be successful. I truly believe that the lessons and the things I saw and learned this day will stick with me for years to come.

Learning Spanish so far..

So I have officially completed 2 days s of Spanish class. Our placement test was my first day on CPI’s campus, it included: a 5idh page list of statements where we would have to cogitate the verbs. I had remembered a few weird grammar rules from high school so it wasn’t awful. Justin (CPI instructor) told us not to guess because it would mess up our placement so I left a lot of blank spots. After that we had an interview. The interviewer spoke only in Spanish and I was like a deer in headlights. Which was probably a good thing because if I was placed any higher I would have been so lost. I was placed in Group 2 of 4. We reviewed forms (yo, el, ello, nosotros, etc) and verbs on day 1.  We were all so excited to get going on class I was remembering some words and things way faster than I expected. I left class feeling pretty proud. My brain was very tired. I was nice to remember those things so quickly because seeing all the signs and recognizing words but not remembering what they meant before class started very extremely frustrating to me.

Day two (today) was way harder for me. At one point it felt as if I had hit a wall and could not think any longer. We wrote a lot of sentences using new and old vocabulary; typically these sentences were based off a picture on a card that we pulled at random. I liked this exercise, we weren’t writing super long sentences at first and it was nice to get a refresher on how the sentence structure is. Then we moved on to reading (popcorn style) two paragraphs in Spanish, then picking out words we knew paired with ordering photos to ensure comprehension. Lastly we asked and answered questions, also in Spanish about what we had read. By the end of the classes I was feeling maxed out.  I think everyone was feeling that way because after our end of the day meeting it seemed, as people were getting a bit testy. Nothing dramatic or hateful you could just tell everyone was tired. I hope I can adjust to this class so it gets as fun as it was on day 1.

Here are my thoughts overall, I have noticed that I can read and verbally understand WAY more than what I can say or write. I think writing is harder for me then speaking. Some things in class that have helped me be successful are the pictures that went a long with the story we were reading; if I didn’t know the word it was a great tool. I will absolutely use this in my classroom with my future ELL’s. What is a good thing but not 100% effective is that our teacher basically does not speak in English to us. I love that it pushes us to use our skills and problem solve but there is a point where there is so much confusion a phrase or something in the students (myself in this case) is very much needed.  Experiencing this alone will make me remember to learn at least a few basic phrases for my students if they are learning English, especially those who are struggling.

Pictures from our school.

day 1

This is my second night with my tico familia. My mama ticas name is Damaris; she is about 8 months younger than me. She has been married to my papa tico Warner for almost 5 years and they have a 2-year-old son named Daniel. The house is much bigger than I expected, 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms (not sure if the master bedroom has a bathroom or not). I was lucky enough to have wifi so I can do homework and talk to my family and friends back home easier. This is how my first night went…

I was picked up around 5:45 from CPI (school) and the drive only took about 5-8 minutes. Driving is way different here, they don’t always follow the lights and there are NO street signs. Not joking- I don’t have an address that I know of. Everything here is based off landmarks. You adjust much faster than one would expect. During our drive home I very quickly realized that my mama tica spoke no English.  This kind of panicked me for a little while because I expected them to at least know basic phrases since they volunteered to have an American stay with them. Hindsight makes me feel dumb for thinking that because I went to a Latin American country with very limited Spanish language skills. My papa however spoke pretty good English so he would help us chat. After getting home and shown my room (attached to what would be equivalent to an American sunroom- full size bunk beds, and my own bathroom), met their pet rabbit. The rabbit just lives in the backyard, it is one of the biggest rabbits I’ve ever seen and their fence is stone so it cannot escape. I hung out with my papa for about 2 hours.  He went to his room to play a computer game and my mama tica came out after, we used Google translate to talk…or text, whichever you think is more fitting. This was very helpful however as most translators go it didn’t always make sense. This gave us lots of laughs but also some confusion.  It a great thing that laughter is a language everyone speaks. After a while I showered and went to bed. At 4 am I was woke up by a rooster that was going crazy! I was in and out of sleep for a long time and it took me a solid 20 minutes to figure out what the sound was.  I could tell my family was waking up around 5 because I could hear banging around the kitchen. Finally got out of bed at 6:45 and once I was ready my mama tica and I walked to school.

            Once the general nervousness and awkwardness went away we had a good first night. Though this first night I learned that there is always a way to solve a communication problem.  There were bumps and puzzled expression filling the whole night but we started to figure each other out. I only interacted with them for about 3 hours before bed, the second day (today) was much better. Our 4 hours of Spanish class got my brain working overtime and I was remembering more vocabulary than I did before so once I got home I was able to practice with my mama tica. We still had Google translate off to the side but it was so much better. I feel comfortable trying to use my Spanish at home now. I was very very timid the first night. It felt like I couldn’t remember anything at all. 

By the way as I’m typing this my tico brother is standing next to me trying to type at the same time as me.  He is just the cutest little thing, beyond hyper all the time though.  

Heres his message to you all: 65o8897777uyiyhgbvc xigt./wfwdf rwwwghhzgast

Daniel and Myself playing with photo booth on my mac

Pre-travel thoughts

Buenas tardes! I’m currently sitting in the Houston, Texas airport- it almost feels like I’m already in Costa Rica because I’m hearing every language except English (mostly Spanish)- which is pretty awesome. This is the last leg of my journey and I cannot wait to be there with the rest of my classmates and teachers.

I wanted to be a part of this Costa Rica study away program because it widens my perspective on social, cultural, and poverty related issues. This trip also lets me immerse myself into a different culture and most of all gives more experience with working with families and students that speak a different language (and hopefully the Spanish classes we take stick!). Overall my main goal is to take every opportunity sent my way and really get the most out of this experience. Sounds pretty simple I know, but isn’t that the whole idea behind study away programs? To be more specific my goals are very classroom orientated, I want to improve my ability to teach ESOL students and build relationships with them and their families so when I have my own classroom I can better serve those students and be a part of their support system. Another goal of mine is to get as good at Spanish as possible in a 23 days. It is obviously going to take much more practice and classes to be able to easily communicate but I couldn’t think of a better way to start learning. I truly believe this opportunity is going to give me so many opportunities to grow as an educator, a student, and an overall better, well-rounded person.

            Right now I am just so excited to be there, see the schools and meet my new host family I’m not that nervous. I’m very curious to see if there will be any type of language barrier at my new home but that is just something I will have to wait and find out. The fact that I’m not scared to go surprises me a bit to be completely honest I feel as if I should be a little more worried, mostly because this is my first time traveling alone (just on the way down there) and being this far away from my family and friends. Hopefully I get to update you all often on this bound to be amazing journey. See you in 6 hours San Jose! Hasta luego!

P.S- I've officially arrived at La Condesa (the hotel)! It is so beautiful!
Here's some pics