Where do I even begin?
Updates on life thus far:
Update # 1 Apparently it's normal for a town to lose electricity. This has started to happen quite frequently in the town that I am living in and while normally I am in bed when the electricity decides to disappear - yesterday it happened at an inopportune time: when I was getting ready to go out! However, I was not alone as the entire town was suffering the same fate as I. How do I know this? Well I discovered this as I walked to town in pitch black darkness because I was determined not to spend a perfectly good Friday night at home with no electricity - which brings me to update #2.
Update # 2 I like it here. Once my first week of culture shock and anxieties waned down, I started really experiencing the Tico lifestyle. Which in this particular town, includes walking everywhere (which I love), smiling and saying hi to everyone, eating all the time, weekly runs up and down a steep hill, and an occasional dance lesson - not really. The only thing that I listed that is actually "Tico" lifestyle the saying "hi" part. Everything else is just me. I'm happy to say I work with some great people who, although there exist a language barrier between us, they have invited me to do different activities with them! I have a dancing buddy who has introduced me to a class that teaches bachata and other latin dances (which is were I was determined to the other night when we lost electricity) and one of my co-teachers invited me to her home town of Las Juntas to visit her family. I'm learning to take my time and enjoy it here and now it feels like time is slipping away. Only three more weeks left.
Okay now onto weeks 1 & 2 of teaching.
Week 1 - tema bosque (theme Forest)
Each week, we are given a theme and activities are to center around it.
During week 1, I was assigned to help the art teacher which I wrote a little about in my first post. That was a challenge mainly because of the language. The teacher didn't speak English, the students didn't speak English, and the teacher was a bit of a free bird. It was hard for me to keep track of what we were supposed to be doing half the time because she would flit in and out of the room collecting random things (for example: tree branches, leaves, or she would just disappear).
However, I was able to incorporate vocabulary and the students did some great work exploring the forest. They were able to interrupt what the forest meant to them and also did a bit of storytelling. While I enjoyed the creative expression aspect of this class, I also had a lot of free time on my hands and found myself always searching for things to do which is when one of the directors over the program decided to also partner me with the 7-9 students. So during my free time, I was to work with the teacher of 7-9 and then also help the art teacher whenever she had a class.
Week 2 - tema insectos (theme Insects)
During this week, I was assigned to co-teach with the 4-6 old teacher. I LOVED this group. I actually really enjoyed this entire week. I have never exclusively worked with this group range so I had a lot of fun challenges. For starters, there attention span is little to none so we were always chasing after them, coming up with different activities in between classes and my Spanish vocabulary increased exponentially.
"Venga, Espera, and Acqui" are some of the words that I found myself using quite frequently. Also the teacher that I was paired with also happens to be my Spanish tutor while here in town so she helps me out a lot in translating Spanish phrases.
However my biggest takeaway from this week has been the knowledge that I am not through learning. I thought that I would be going here and teaching ESL and giving my "expertise." When in reality, they have been teaching me so much. I have never seen teaching like this before. All of our classes are outside and in nature. We take many hikes through the forest and students do a lot of exploration on their own and then bring back what they learned to the classroom so that they can form their opinions. I LOVE it. I will definitely be adding this to my class for next year. I've already started collecting materials and formulating lesson plans. In essence, I am more of the "student" and less the teacher. We need this for our educators! Yes, I have been able to share some of my practices, but I have also been able to observe and learn from this process, too.
That being said, I'm excited for week three. I get to work with the 4-6 year olds again and the same partner teacher!I love to goal-set so my goal for this week is to continue learning. Instead of going in with this mindset that I have to be the one doing something - instead I'll just let things come naturally.
Updates on life thus far:
Update # 1 Apparently it's normal for a town to lose electricity. This has started to happen quite frequently in the town that I am living in and while normally I am in bed when the electricity decides to disappear - yesterday it happened at an inopportune time: when I was getting ready to go out! However, I was not alone as the entire town was suffering the same fate as I. How do I know this? Well I discovered this as I walked to town in pitch black darkness because I was determined not to spend a perfectly good Friday night at home with no electricity - which brings me to update #2.
Update # 2 I like it here. Once my first week of culture shock and anxieties waned down, I started really experiencing the Tico lifestyle. Which in this particular town, includes walking everywhere (which I love), smiling and saying hi to everyone, eating all the time, weekly runs up and down a steep hill, and an occasional dance lesson - not really. The only thing that I listed that is actually "Tico" lifestyle the saying "hi" part. Everything else is just me. I'm happy to say I work with some great people who, although there exist a language barrier between us, they have invited me to do different activities with them! I have a dancing buddy who has introduced me to a class that teaches bachata and other latin dances (which is were I was determined to the other night when we lost electricity) and one of my co-teachers invited me to her home town of Las Juntas to visit her family. I'm learning to take my time and enjoy it here and now it feels like time is slipping away. Only three more weeks left.
Okay now onto weeks 1 & 2 of teaching.
Week 1 - tema bosque (theme Forest)
Each week, we are given a theme and activities are to center around it.
During week 1, I was assigned to help the art teacher which I wrote a little about in my first post. That was a challenge mainly because of the language. The teacher didn't speak English, the students didn't speak English, and the teacher was a bit of a free bird. It was hard for me to keep track of what we were supposed to be doing half the time because she would flit in and out of the room collecting random things (for example: tree branches, leaves, or she would just disappear).
However, I was able to incorporate vocabulary and the students did some great work exploring the forest. They were able to interrupt what the forest meant to them and also did a bit of storytelling. While I enjoyed the creative expression aspect of this class, I also had a lot of free time on my hands and found myself always searching for things to do which is when one of the directors over the program decided to also partner me with the 7-9 students. So during my free time, I was to work with the teacher of 7-9 and then also help the art teacher whenever she had a class.
Week 2 - tema insectos (theme Insects)
During this week, I was assigned to co-teach with the 4-6 old teacher. I LOVED this group. I actually really enjoyed this entire week. I have never exclusively worked with this group range so I had a lot of fun challenges. For starters, there attention span is little to none so we were always chasing after them, coming up with different activities in between classes and my Spanish vocabulary increased exponentially.
"Venga, Espera, and Acqui" are some of the words that I found myself using quite frequently. Also the teacher that I was paired with also happens to be my Spanish tutor while here in town so she helps me out a lot in translating Spanish phrases.
However my biggest takeaway from this week has been the knowledge that I am not through learning. I thought that I would be going here and teaching ESL and giving my "expertise." When in reality, they have been teaching me so much. I have never seen teaching like this before. All of our classes are outside and in nature. We take many hikes through the forest and students do a lot of exploration on their own and then bring back what they learned to the classroom so that they can form their opinions. I LOVE it. I will definitely be adding this to my class for next year. I've already started collecting materials and formulating lesson plans. In essence, I am more of the "student" and less the teacher. We need this for our educators! Yes, I have been able to share some of my practices, but I have also been able to observe and learn from this process, too.
That being said, I'm excited for week three. I get to work with the 4-6 year olds again and the same partner teacher!I love to goal-set so my goal for this week is to continue learning. Instead of going in with this mindset that I have to be the one doing something - instead I'll just let things come naturally.