Motivation

There is an elementary school in Asheville, in Haw Creek, that has been keeping me motivated and inspired. At the beginning of my service I got an email from a 2^nd grade teacher at Evergreen Charter School. She wanted to connect our classrooms: to give our students a chance to make friends with children their own age in a foreign country. She had found me by chance: saw my name in the local paper announcing that I was about to serve in the Peace Corps in Costa Rica. She looked me up online and sent me an email. At the time I was checking my email twice a month- these were before the days of my bicycle ownership and I didn’t get to go into town as much. When I first got her email I was in disbelief. At the time I felt completely disconnected from my old life. I was having a hard time getting in contact with my family, I didn’t hear much from friends from home, and Peace Corps protocol didn’t allow me to leave my site very often those first three months. I spent most of my time immersing into life in Chimurria, speaking Spanish and playing soccer. Here I was, living in this tiny community of 600 people in rural Costa Rica, and *plop* into my in-box comes an email from a teacher from my hometown. It seemed so incredible to me that I could feel so removed, so far away from everything familiar, and then at the same time be google-searched, facebooked, emailed. I had never before quite realized the capacity of the internet to connect people.

I was amazed, and I was definitely interesting in starting up a pen pal exchange between her students and mine.

The day we got the first pen pal letters was so memorable. As a teacher, I was excited to share with my students to opportunity to contact native speakers their own age. It’d be near to impossible to find a more motivating classroom tool. As a Peace Corps volunteer, I was excited to be able to promote cross-cultural understanding in both Costa Ricans and US citizens. In general I was just excited that a classroom full of kids from my hometown was getting ready to “meet” a classroom of children from Chimurria, Costa Rica.

My 2^nd graders loved their letters so much. They pasted them into their notebooks- and they would pull them out and show them to me for weeks afterwards. Writing the response letters was a challenge for them, and they tackled it beautifully. Costa Rican classrooms tend to inspire perfectionism and an intense fear of failure. I try my best to avoid that mentality in my class, but my students still come to school with that ideology and it’s hard to get over. So, for them, writing letters to native English speakers was really scary. They were afraid to mess up and write something incorrect in their letters. They were nervous about what a US 2^nd grader would think about them. And it was their first time writing a letter- in any language. I guided them through the concept of a letter, of a pen pal, and each student ended up writing 2 drafts of the letter that they wanted to send. Then they filled the white space with pictures and drawings of Chimurria. I have never seen my class so focus and concentrated as when they are writing to their pen pals. I wish you could have seen how proud they were of their letters.

Afterward we took pictures of the class to send to the students in the US- to help personalize the letters- and partly because my students love having their picture taken.

The next day school was canceled for some reason or another. I was at home with my host brother (a second grader) and he asked me if he could work some more on his letter. I took it out for him so that he could work on it, some other kids saw him working on his letter, and they wanted the chance to polish theirs, too. Soon I had a group of about 5 students in my living room- and once their first letters were up to their standards, they wanted to write a second letter. I was floored. School was canceled, and here was this group of 2^nd grade students gathered together writing letters in English. In that moment I was so proud of and impressed by them.

We’ve had a few more letter exchanges, and each one is filled with anticipation and excitement by the class. They love reading and writing their letters. Each time it’s a little less intimidating and each time their English improves.

Their US pen-pals are really special kids, too. I’m proud that we share the same hometown. My mom, step-dad, and little sister had the privilege of going to Evergreen Community Charter School and actually got to meet them. The students, their parents, and teacher had organized a bake sale to raise money to send me teaching materials. They were going to pass off the materials to my mom so that she could bring them to me when she came to visit. My mom and step-dad came for a visit a few weeks ago (which deserves its own blog entry- I know I’m behind) when I opened the suitcase with the teaching materials I could have cried. After teaching all year on a budget of $0, I have been craving to use books and have more exciting interesting materials in the classroom than my sad looking drawings on construction paper. These 2^nd graders in Asheville got together to send me dozens of English books, children’s songs, markers, flash cards, tangrams, geoboards, a twister game, and various other teacher goodies. It was the most beautiful Christmas gift I’ve ever gotten. My class is going to be so much more fun, exciting, interesting. My students are going to be able to read actual books!!! I am so blessed to have been the recipient of such great teaching materials, and I am so excited for my students to be able to benefit from them. I am awed by the kindness and generosity of the students and parents at Evergreen. These kids have such big hearts, and their hard work will improve the quality of the education of their Costa Rican pen pals. It is inspiring to see kids reaching out to help other kids- they motivate me to be a better volunteer. I love Asheville for so many reasons- it’s incredible to have my community support me they way that they do.

I want to send out a giant THANK YOU to the students, parents, and teachers at Evergreen. Thanks for your collaboration with the pen pal exchange, thanks so much for the teaching materials, and thanks for keeping me motivated and inspired over the past year.