RCOE International Student Teaching Spring 08

It is hard to believe that week three has already passed by. Things are starting to get a bit more familiar around here, walking around town, finding CR's most delicious milkshakes. I am starting to feel like I am truly a part of this town and my family. One, thing that I am still not becoming more comfortable with is the heat. However, I can sacrifice the comfort of air conditioning for the amazing food, friends and family that is only CR!

I am starting to become more familiar with what works and what doesn't work in the classroom. I recently taught my students the classic jingle "If Your Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands." This quickly became a favorite with my students and we start each class off with this song. Megan and I were able to make connections with emotions by making modifications in the song. We have started several projects with grades one through three including number flash cards. We are finding that it is important to make connections with everyday objects and pictures for increased comprehension. Repetition is particularly important when teaching English and has become an important part of planning.

In other news, I am falling more in love with Costa Rica each day. I found a new favorite cafe that has a delicious carrot cake and coffee. Here is an updated list of treasures found in CR.

-Carrot Cake from Cafe de Melon
-Chicharones from the guy beside the super market
-smoothies made by my mom

As I sit here, back in NC, I cannot come up with adequate words to describe my Costa Rican experience. Actually, words cannot describe my experience. I am very grateful for having the opportunity to go down to Costa Rica.

The first thing that I now think of when I think if Costa Rica is the group of girls I was with. I feel that my experience should be credited to the four other ASU student teachers that I was with. None of us really knew each other before this trip, but we all got along very well. We had quite a few bumps in the road with our travels, but we all worked through them AS A TEAM! This was very important because we were five American girls in a foreign country. At the end of the trip, I was unable to leave the country with these girls because I stayed a couple extra days. I wish I could have left with them.

I also give credit to my cooraporating teacher/ mom, Karla. Karla was a huge part of my experience. I worked with her at school. We taught English to the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. She helped us out with the language barrier and also with the day to day activities. Outside the classroom setting, Karla had ideas for us, suggestions on what to do and where to go, and helped us get around town.

This experience has allowed me to see how another culture lives, works, and learns. This has opened my eyes up and hopefully this will make me a better and more understanding teacher. I feel that I have more to offer after taking part in this student teaching experience.

Last day at San Ambrosio... Me and Lauren with a couple of 6th graders

Last day at San Ambrosio... Me, Torrey, and Karla

Wow! I can't believe it's all said and done! The last few days were wonderful and I am going to miss it all very much. On our last day we had the kids write little autobiographies for us to keep so we wouldn't forget them. They were so cute, loved writing about themselves, and adding stickers and color. They love stickers! It was hard to say good-bye and after about a thousand hugs, we were finished. I learned so much from these students, way more than I could ever teach them. They were a huge inspiration in their desire to learn English and in the way they treasure their education.

Overall, this experience will help me so much in my future teaching career. I will be able to relate to other students so much more and will understand the feeling of being in a foreign place and not understanding a word!

Saying good bye to my family was really hard, much harder than I ever expected. We went to San Jose for the weekend for a birthday party and had a blast. The family members were so much fun and I really felt like a part of the family. We said goodbye a few short days later. My mom cried, which made me cry! They told me I have to come back and we have already starting planning activities! My family was such a blessing, and I will miss them dearly. They really took me in and made me another member of the family despite the fact that I could not even speak their language.

Well, goodbye Costa Rica, thanks for everything!
Pura Vida!

Eating mangoes with some students:)

My brother!

Hokey Pokey!

The last week or so at school was bitter sweet. I am really going to miss these kids and this town. We had some really cool experiences this week. Marley and I had a chance to go through the school’s “library” and take inventory of the books. They have some really great stuff that has been donated. We got so excited that we declared it “story day” and read to the students the rest of the day. They loved it, especially when some of the books were bilingual so we would let them take turns reading with us.

We then had them draw illustrations for the books and tell us about them. My favorites were for "Where the Wild Things Are" which has always been one of my favorite books. Since we have been down here, we have been surprised to see how little emphasis is placed on literature and reading in the cultural and how much they value books. It was wonderful to see how excited the kids were just to hold the books.

As far as my family goes, things are still going wonderfully well. I rode bikes to Playa Samara with my mom this weekend and it was a blast. It was a difficult ride, very similar to riding on the parkway for 36 km. It was a great bonding experience with my mom because we both really love to do that sort of thing. We then spent the day in Carrillo which is a gorgeous beach just south of Samara. The rest of my family met us there and it was great to just spend the day with them.

Everything is really starting to feel like home! I can’t believe that it is almost time to go. I am looking forward to our last few days with our kids but also dreading having to say goodbye!

Playa Carrillo

Well, it is over. I have left my new family, my new friends, my new home, and my new school. My mom and I cried when I finally had to leave my home and I handed her the keys. I know I will never be able to repay them for the kindness they have bestowed upon me, in welcoming me into their home and helping me to explore and learn about the culture of their country. I've been looking forward to going home and enjoying the air conditioning and my favorite foods in the United States, but soon I realized how much I was really going to miss everyone and the city of Nicoya.

It's difficult to imagine never returning to a place that has had such an incredible impact on my life and my career. My Costa Rican parents have offered me a home in Nicoya whenever I want, for as long as I want and I hope that I am able to take them up on that offer. I now know I will miss the rice and beans, the kindness of the people, the relaxed settings, the beautiful views, the open air buildings, the hugs from the kids, and the companionship of the friends I have made on this trip, both Costa Rican and Appalachian!

My Tico Family

Our Final Picture in Costa Rica, at the Liberia Airport

My final week at San Ambrosio was a mix of emotions. We had many breaks this week as the students were being tested for the quarter (This was their only test for the entire quarter.) and the end of the week came rather quickly. We didn't really remind our students that this would be our last week and so Friday was almost a shock to them. We were overcrowded with hugs, especially in third grade where the students literally blocked the doorway and would not allow us to leave! We gave out our email and mailing addresses and promised never to forget our students in Costa Rica.

I know I will never forget them or the experience I have had. I have learned so much about Costa Rican culture and more importantly their school system. I will take these experiences with me to future classrooms and hope to influence and enrich the lives of other children by broading their horizons. I cannot believe my time at the school has ended and as I walked down the road towards my home for the final time I couldn't help but wonder if I would ever see it again.

Our last day at San Ambrosio

At the top of the mountain!

A view of the city of Nicoya

It's hard for me to believe, but tonight is my last night in Ireland. I know I'm really going to miss the people I've met. I've finished my work in the school and was very sad to have to say goodbye. The school said goodbye to Lindsay and me during assembly and we kindly thanked them for giving us the opportunity to work in their school. I think they were sad to see us go.

The school gave us a very nice going away present and I have every intention of keeping in touch with some of the teachers I worked with. I'm going to email them asking for advice and ideas when I start teaching this year. And as for my Irish family, I'm going to miss them terribly. I'm quite emotional about it really and I think we are all in agreement on one thing - my coming back to visit.

Here are a few more pictures from the school and my latest trip to Killarney National Park. Goodbye Ireland and I hope to see you again.

As I'm sure you may already know, potatoes are pretty important to the Irish. This is a picture of 4th class maintaining their potato plant which is for a potato growing contest. The plant's name is Spud Bob.

Killarney National Park. Absolutely gorgeous.

So today was my last day at the American School Foundation at Guadalajara. It has been a great experience down here in Mexico, and I can already see all of the ways that it will affect my classroom, my Spanish, as well as myself as a person. I believe that this six weeks has been the perfect amount of time for me to reflect on my decisions that I have made in the last four years about what I would like to do with my life.

Through working at ASFG, I have been able to discover that I am not completely incapable of working with young children. I have found out over the past six weeks that although I prefer to work with older children that I am capable of working with and enjoying teaching younger students. This is a very important addition to my confidence as an education professional.

I also hope to in the future work with the English as a Second Language program. I have come to this realization because I have truly enjoyed watching my students learn English and to work side by side with them through Spanish and English. It is a struggle that I personally know, learning a second language, and it is something that I can truly relate to after being in a completely immersed second language classroom.

My understanding of the Spanish language and Mexican culture has been broadened by leaps and bounds here in Mexico. From my previous study abroad experience in Spain, I believed that I knew what I was in for. But it has been a completely different experience being down here and being in charge of my own cultural learning and understanding rather than relying on professors and guides to help me explore. By living with a family and working directly with students here in Mexico I have been able to grasp the culture and language in a way that one never would be able to do with traveling as a tourist. It is an indescribable gem that I have discovered and will carry into my classroom.

My last day of school was this past Friday. It was a pretty strange experience. Though I've only been at the school for five weeks it feels like I'd been there forever and I was closing a sort of chapter in my life. We started off Friday like usual with assembly and a short sermon by the Reverend for the school. After that I spent the morning with the KG2 girls.

I had a bit of free time around break so I went outside and watched the girls play one last time. A lot of them came up to me to tell me they'd miss me and that I should take them to America. I mentioned that it would be hard to fit all of those girls in my suitcase without drawing some suspicion.

I went to the P3 girls class next where they had planned a surprise for me. Everyone had made cards and signed everyone of them thanking me for my hard work and for helping them on the Egyptian project, which was their unit while I was there. Most of the cards had American flags on them and I got a kick out of one that had a flag with the stripes where the stars go and the stars where the stripes go. Most of them said they loved America and would come visit me. I was tickled that they'd gone to the effort and made sure I thanked them individually.

The KG2 teacher was always asking me for ideas for young girls as far as art projects are concerned so I compiled a list of ideas as well as resources for her to use to create projects for her girls. I snuck it into her box as a kind of secret thank you for allowing me to spend as much time as I did with her class.

I did my last lesson with the P2 girls which has been one of my 'projects' while at the school. Every Friday I take their class and do some sort of art project that invites them to be creative and break out of their routine for the week. This week we created fantastic beasts. I think I'll miss the girls spelling out the words on the board as I write the project for the day. Each girl picked four different colored cards and on each card was written an animal or creature or even something a bit sillier like a robot, snowman or pickle. They had to create a creature that had traits from all four of the things on the cards, give it a name, and create a habitat for the creature to live in. Needless to say, I got a lot of really hilarious takes on the assignment and no one creature was the same as the others. The girls really enjoyed the project as well and were so enthusiastic about sharing it with me.

At the end of the day I gave a card to Mrs. O'Neill, my principal, thanking her for the experience and letting her know how grateful I was to be taken in the school, even though my teaching style and philosophy seemed so different from the standard there. It was a bit surreal walking out the school across the grounds at the end of the day knowing that my student teaching experience was now over and that I am now very much an adult and ready to take on teaching in my own class.

I spent the weekend and Monday and Tuesday in Nice, France, Monaco and Italy (for lunch) with two other girls from Minnesota who I've become close to throughout this trip. We reflected a lot on our experiences, shared or unique and really came to terms with the experience winding down. My parents come tomorrow from Pennsylvania so I'm not out of Ireland yet... you'll see one more post from me... but it's with a sort of calm reverence that I finish up my last week and a half in Ireland, with all that's happened in the school and with my host family behind me.

the finished bulletin board/mural



P2 hard at work


two P2 girls



one of the fantastic beasts, a starfish pigeon robot bug

Today is the second to last day at school for us in Guadalajara. My teacher had arranged for me to spend some time visiting other classrooms in the school this week so I could receive an ever greater understanding of the school. Today I visited a Pre-Kinder and Kindergarten combination class for awhile. It was so incredibly different from a Kindergarten classroom in the States.

Here at ASFG, they use an Italian theory in their early-childhood program that is completely focused on exploratory learning. It was so interesting to see children in their center time this morning. They are actually quite calm and quiet and performed different tasks with such patience. It was very different from most things I am used to seeing.

I was talking with the teacher, Miss Stephanie, and she was telling me how she sends home a "Daily Journal" via email to her parents. It is some digital photographs of what the children did that day with some comments and short sentences telling parents what happened at school that day. She also poses all of the really thought-provoking questions to the parents and uses this journal as a means of keeping them updated and involved on what is going on in the classroom. She keeps a hard copy in her room and I read some of the entries. I love this idea! I would love to incorporate this into my own classroom in some way because I thought it was a great way to have parents really know about what is going on at school. It can also be used as a means of accountability because she has one for each day of the school year thus far.

Another thing I have noticed in my time here is how much the students are so much more free. They have more freedom than any elementary classroom I have ever seen at home. They do not typically walk in lines anywhere--to recess, the cafeteria, etc. However, they all always end up exactly where they are supposed to be (generally speaking) at the right time. Perhaps in the States, we should give our children more freedom within the school. On the other hand, ASFG doesn't have traditional hallways as classrooms open to the outside. This configuration lends itself to giving students more freedom, I think.

Now that we have started to pack things up and are beginning to wrap up our time here in Mexico, I realize how little I have thought about things from home since I have been here. The other day one of the teachers (who is from the US) mentioned something to me about the election, and it occurred to me that I could not even have a conversation about it because I have not heard about it in such a long time. I am anxious to get home because it is important to be able to answer those questions and have intelligent, thoughtful opinions.

I got back to my classroom after my kinder observation only to be "kicked out" because my students were working on a secret project for tomorrow, my last day. I am really going to miss this class because of how much they have taught me about patience and tolerance and understanding. They are so affectionate and I will miss their sweet smiles and hugs every day!