Down Time in Belize

I am sitting in the Houston airport, and I am really starting to process my time in San Pedro. I just spent the last five days with my family relaxing and showing them a little bit of my experience. I loved being able to walk around and know places and people. We got to visit New Horizon on Tuesday, and that was really sweet! I walked into one of the classrooms, and got tackled with hugs. It brought tears to my eyes. I think that I was definitely able to help in different ways during my time there, but in that moment I realized how much these students and teachers had blessed me. I left feeling so appreciated and loved. I felt that they gave me just as much (or more) than I had given them.

I am thankful for what this experience taught me as an educator. It taught me to be firm in expectations, consistent in what you say, be understanding, and always extend love or an extra hug. I think if these things are in place, then the academic side of school will follow. I am excited to begin my teaching career wherever that may be with this experience under my belt. I can never fully express the gratitude I have for this time and all that it meant to me and will continue to as I process through it. This is definitely a 6 weeks I will never forget!

Feeling the Feels

.... at this point I am definitely feeling the feels. I am feeling so grateful for this experience, and all that it is currently teaching me and what it will continue to teach me after I am home. I am excited because my family will be here in TWO days! I am feeling sad because I have a day and a half left of teaching, and I am not quite ready to say bye to my kiddos (would I ever be?!?!). I am feeling anxious about what this experience is showing me about the future about the kind of classroom I want to be in and where I want to be. I am also feeling really happy because I still have a week to enjoy this beautiful place. So now that you made it through my emotional rollercoaster, you have maybe have an idea of how I am feeling! 

I have been thinking of what this experience has taught me. First, it has made me really thankful for my education. Most of the teachers here do not have any formal training or education, and they are expected to handle so much without any training. I am thankful for the teachers here, and what they have taught and shown me. It is evident that they know and care about their students. They have shown gratitude for small and simple things we have shown them, and they appreciate the resources they have. This experience has given me a glimpse of what my first year of teaching will look like if that is what's next for me. I had to come in and develop relationships with the students while also creating expectations to follow. I will not walk into a classroom that is already established like I did with my internship in the States, it will be more like my experience here. However, I have learned so much about the importance of behavior management. If the behavior is not manageable, the academic learning is not going to be effective. This is most important thing to establish first in my future classroom. Overall, I learned that these students have so much to offer, and I have to provide a safe, engaging, and loving environment for them to learn in. 

But like I said, I am grateful that I have a week to be here with my family and continue to process and reflect on my time in San Pedro and at New Horizon.

Community Service Projects

One of the elements of our trip was getting involved with the community through service projects. This has probably been one of my favorite parts! 

One way I got involved was through a local church here called Living Word Church. Mary Blake and I just attended on our first weekend here, and we met a man from Baltimore, Maryland. He told us that his family had moved down here for a year, and he helps with service projects in the community with the church. We told him that we were definitely interested in being involved. We got in contact with him later that week, and he connected us to the pastor. We met the pastor the following week at church, and told him that we loved kids and would love to help in anyway. We then met Noemi, who leads the children's ministry, and she said she would love it if we would help with Sunday School. For the remainders of our Sunday's here, we had the opportunity to lead Sunday School. It was so fun to meet the kids, and get to learn and play with them! We also helped Noemi paint the Children's Ministry room one afternoon after school. I loved this experience because I got to meet so many people and develop relationships with them, and then serve alongside of them during my time here. 

Another fun thing I got to help with was a school dance! The interns at the other school, Isla Bonita, put on a dance, which was a fundraiser for the school. It was so fun to be apart of, and the interns at Isla Bonita did a wonderful job setting up such an enjoyable night for the students. They had decorations hung up at the school, hamburgers and hotdogs, a DJ, and a super cute photo both. I helped take pictures, and help facilitate the kids... and by facilitate I mean encouraging them to dance! Even though these were not the students I taught, it was so much fun to spend time with students outside of school in such a fun environment! 

Getting involved in the community has been one of the most rewarding parts of this experience. I love learning from the people here, and listening to what life is like for them here. They have taught me so much about simplicity. I feel like so often I am rushing from one thing to the next, but here I have been able to cherish time spent with the people here. 

Digital Storytelling

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to help my professor with a professional development workshop for teachers at a local school. The purpose of the workshop was to talk about and create a digital storytelling. Going into the workshop, I knew a little about digital storytelling, so I was not sure what to expect. 

We got to the school, and my professor began explaining to the teachers what digital storytelling was. She explained to them that it was a short story told from the first person about an experience they have had or something that relates to them personally. The purpose of digital storytelling is to encourage creative writing. The purpose of teaching the teachers about this is to show them that this is one way they can motivate their students to write creatively. 

After my professor’s presentation, we broke up into small groups. I was working with four teachers from Standard 5, which is 6th grade in the States. The first thing I asked the group was what are you thinking after what Dr. C explained. I wanted to understand their perception of digital storytelling before we moved on to generating ideas. They all had a clear picture of what it was, but mentioned that they were having a hard time coming up with ideas to tell about. 

I began to prompt them with questions like what experiences have you had, who are important people in your life, or where are places you have been that have made an impact. This began conversation between the teachers, and through this collaboration they were all able to come up with an idea to tell about. 

They, then, began to map their stories out on a story board. They were determining how they were going to express their stories. Some decided to use drawings, narratives, pictures, or videos. Today, we are going to use an App on the iPads to make their stories digital. 

After the teachers mapped out their stories, we had a few more minutes in our group to discuss. I wanted to see how they could translate this activity to their classroom without the technology because most of the teachers do not have iPads. One of the teachers began to tell the story she had been mapping out, and then at the end had a question from the story. “If you could go back to one moment in your life and done something differently, what would have done?” I thought this was a neat way to translate this to her classroom. She was going to be able to give her students an example of what she was expecting them to do through her story, and then she would prompt them to make it personal and write their own story. She said then, I would encourage them to express in whatever way they wanted. She mentioned they could act out the stories, draw pictures, or just narrate it. 

This experience was wonderful. It was really neat to work with teachers. So often, I am mostly working with students, so I really enjoyed having conversations with teachers about a strategy they can use in their classroom. Also, it was interesting to watch the teachers go through the process of the storytelling. We ask our students to do so much, and it is so helpful if you know exactly what they are experiencing and how they are feeling through the process because you yourself have experienced it. Through this process, the teachers were able to see the importances of small group discussions and prompting their students with ideas to get started. I am excited to continue this process, and watch the teacher's stories unfold! 

Two Weeks?!

I cannot believe that we only have two more weeks here in Belize… the time has flown by! Even though it has gone really quickly, I feel like we have been able to accomplish a lot and build relationships while we have been here.

For the next two weeks, I really want to focus on equipping the teachers and students with strategies they can continue after we leave. If I do not do this, then what I did while I was here will quickly fade after we leave. One of the things we have been working on is behavior management for one of the classrooms. She has many students who have off task behaviors that impede on the whole group’s learning. We introduced a whole class positive behavior strategy, and we are going to begin to implement it this week. I want her to be confident in using it by the time we leave, so she is able to see the benefit from using this system. 

I also want to show teachers simple ways they can include students who are academically lower than the majority of their class. Instead of giving the students an unrelated task like coloring or drawing, I want to encourage teachers to give the students a modified activity that still engages the student in the fundamental skill they are working on. I understand after being here for a couple of weeks that it is hard to manage a class with thirty to forty different students, but I think they can make small accommodations to ensure every student is learning and growing. 

I also want to helpful in whatever way possible. I know, realistically, that everything that is happening now is not going to continue after we leave because of the lack of special education. I do know that by helping the teachers during this time has been a relief in some ways for them. Their days are busy (and hot!), and if we have helped to make them a little less busy or stressful, I think that has been a way we have impacted our schools while being here. 

I  want to continue to be involved in the community in whatever way possible. I have loved living here for the past month, and getting to know the people of San Pedro. I have enjoyed learning about their lifestyle. The people and students are teaching me way more than I feel like I could ever teach them. I am so thankful for this opportunity, and how everyone has been so inviting and welcoming. I will definitely leave a chunk of my heart here in San Pedro

What am I learning?

This experience has been very humbling! I came from internship in Wilmington feeling confident… not that I had everything figured out by any means, but definitely was excited about moving forward as a teacher. The experience here has been challenging. It has made me think really hard. It has shown me that I have so much room to grow and so much more to learn. It has taught me that consistency is really important. I am seeing here in the schools that the teachers have rules in place, but there in not much consistently in the consequences. I have learned that behavior change takes time and effort. As a teacher, it shows me the importance of establishing expectations from the start, and keeping with them. I think through expectations and consistently, I am able to demonstrate to my students that I care about them and their success in school. 

I have also learned the importance of valuing time with students. In the schools here, I have had more time to spend with the students outside of the classroom. Whether that is playing soccer or just sitting with them talking, it has been neat to be able to develop a relationship with the students. As a teacher, I think when you understand your students, you have more leverage to relate to them and be aware of what is going on in their lives. This is something I definitely want to take back to the students… whether that is talking to students before school starts, eating lunch with them, or throughout their breaks during the day. I know that my schedule will be packed when I am a teacher, but I think knowing your students is the most important thing you can do as a teacher. 

I am loving this experience, and all that it is teaching me! It is teaching me that I do not have it all figured out for sure, but is also a reminder that I probably will never have it all figure out. I think in anything we do we always have more room to grow. It has made me thankful for the schooling and experiences I have had so far that have helped me be successful here, and the ways this experience is shaping me as an educator and person. 

And at the end of the day, these sweet faces are so worth it! 

Full Circle Project

During my internship, I have been working on a Full Circle Project to connect my experience in Wilmington to my experience here in Belize. During my time at Gregory in Wilmington, we learned about Belize. The students learned about the schools here, and we talked about the similarities and differences of their school and the school here. The students also wrote letters to the students here introducing themselves, telling the students what they learned about Belize, and questions they have for the Belizean students. 

Yesterday, I showed the students the scrapbook of the letters. It was so neat to read through the letters, and find things the students in Belize have in common with the students in Wilmington. It shows the students how they can relate to each other while also learning about students in a different culture. 

This experience has been incredibly beneficial for me as an educator, but it is now showing me how it is affecting the students I am teaching here and the students I will return to in Wilmington. Both groups of students will learn from each other, while understanding what life is like in a different part of the world. 

….And since we were talking about North Carolina, we, of course, had to discuss the Carolina Panthers! My students at Gregory loved everything Panthers and Cam Newton, so they made it really clear that the dab had to be introduced to the students here at New Horizon School.