Where I Work

I am working in three different schools: Chimurria, La Maravilla, and Colonia. All the schools I work with are varying degrees of small. The biggest school is Colonia, it has about 130 students. The smallest school is La Maravilla and has about 35 students grades K-6. Chimurria falls in between the two and has around 100 students.

Colonia: I work at Colonia on Mondays and Tuesdays. English lessons in my area of Costa Rica only last for 40 minutes, so even though I teach 6 classes a day, it is only a total of 4 actual hours in the classroom a day. However, I spend around 8 hours in Colonia when I go there, waiting for breaks between classes, lunch, recess, etc. I get there a little before 7, and leave a little before 3. I ride my bike to and from, it’s a little hilly but not too bad, and it about 7k. I love riding my bike in the morning. It’s not too hot, and there is this beautiful mist that sits on top of all the farm land-at least when it’s not raining. Occasionally, well, more like half the time, I get poured on. I am told that it is currently the dry season, when the rainy season comes I am sure I will have to give up the bike and take the bus. The problem with the bus is that it doesn’t come very often, and I’d get to school about an hour early if I took it. In the states this would be normal, maybe, for teachers to come early. In Colonia everyone arrives between 6:50 and 7:10. (Class starts at 7ish) And the gate to the school doesn’t open until about 6:55. So, my choice is to either ride my bike in the rain for twenty minutes, or sit outside the school and wait in the rain for an hour. The main issue of concern is that the bus ride would also amount to about 2 dollars a day. This is, unfortunately, out of my budget. The TEFL volunteers are talking to the Peace Corps office in San Jose about giving us a little more money in our stipend for travel costs to and from schools. For me that would be about $25 a month. Hopefully it works out in our favor.

La Maravilla: I work in La Maravilla on Wedensday and for half of Thursday. It is about 3k from my house, I also bike there. I could easily walk there if it wasn’t for the rain. This school is so much fun to work in because of the teeny classes. They have one regular teacher, and another teacher who also serves as the principal. There are two classrooms, a building for kindergarten, two bathrooms, and a little kitchen. That is it. There are six students in the first grade, and they are all super adorable. The second class I teach is a combo class of 2nd and 4th graders. There are only two students in the 2nd grade, a little boy and a little girl. 4th grade is the biggest grade with a whopping 13 students. Those are the morning classes. *side note* In most schools in rural Costa Rica, students only go to school for half the day, in order to accommodate the number students with the number of teachers and classrooms. There is a morning shift from 7-11:30 and an afternoon shift from 12-4:30. All my schools follow this schedule. *end side note*
In the afternoon there is a 3rd and 5th combo class. Then sixth grade is by themselves, there are four of them. When we teach the combo class, English class is 2x as long. However, the teacher I am working with there and I are not 100% on how to simultaneously teach two classes with two different curriculums at the same time. If there wasn’t a set curriculum to follow it would be easier to adjust a lesson to two different levels. But, since we have to follow the curriculum, and the curriculums don’t exactly line up, class is kind of a mess. Teach this topic to one side, give them work to do on their own. Then run to the other side, teach one thing, give them work to do on their own. Continue until class is over. Oh yeah, and they don’t have English books or a copy machine. None of my students in any of my schools have English books, but the school in Colonia does have a copy machine. So, if anyone out there has some advice on how best to teach the combo-classes, I would love to hear it. I need some ideas.

Chimurria:
I teach here, in my community school, for half of Thursday and on Fridays. There are two English teachers that teach at this school, the other schools only have one. The English teachers for the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders is also the teacher for La Maravilla. He just got notified from the Ministry of Education that he has to attend an English teaching class from 8-3 for every Friday until July. So now I only teach in Chimurria for half of Thursday (the other half is in La Maravilla) and half of Friday (now I have the other half free, because the English teacher is hung up in that workshop). Its got me kind of down that I am spending more time out of my community than in it.

Anyway, that is my “teaching” schedule. But I am also co-planning with the teachers, doing community English classes, and organizing English workshops for my teachers. Holy crap it is exhausting.