Good news! The parent/student strike is over! All the kids are attending class again, and we can stop reviewing old material and start teaching new stuff. As a result of the parent strike, there have been a few changes at the school. Classes are starting promptly at 7am (the official start of the school day), recesses last for scheduled 10 minutes (ok, maybe 15, but its a lot less than the previous 30), and the school lunches now include more fruits and veggies. The principal installed a bell, which sounds a lot like the tornado drill sound I grew up with, and she bought the school a coffee maker! I'm not a fan of the bell, mostly because I can hear it from my house, but it really does help insure that the school stays on its schedule.
Another change for this school year is that the 1st-3rd graders are going to be using English workbooks. I'm really excited to start using them. We will save sooooooo much time because the students won't have to copy stuff off of the board- they will all have their own copies of the materials all ready in their workbooks. We will also save time by not passing out photocopies, and the students will have a visual reminder of how much material they have learned. I think it will be really motivating and a great classroom tool. But, it was a controversial decision because the kids have to pay for their own workbooks. I think I've mentioned before that the English budget only covers the cost of photocopying the tests. Each workbook costs $7.00, and they only way to get them into to classroom is if each kid buys their own. That $7.00 represents a legitimate sacrifice on the part of quite a few parents- and some of the parents have opted to pay in installments. Hopefully we will have all our workbooks by the end of the next month. *I think it's worth mentioning here that students in Chimurria use workbooks for certain subjects in school, usually math and social studies*
La Maravilla, the smaller school that I work with, had its first PTA meeting last Thursday. The school has around 40 students k-6, and there were 16 parents at the meeting (14 mothers and 2 fathers). Considering that most of the students have siblings/cousins in school- nearly every student had a family member there to represent them. The critical points addressed at the meeting: who was willing to come to mow the school lawn, who was willing to chop wood for the school's stove, how much money each family had to give to the school (standard practice in public schools in Costa Rica), was there enough interest/money to have a soccer team this year.
The meeting went pretty smoothly, and it was encouraging to see how invested the parents were in the school.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
First week of school
Today is the 6th day of the school year. Class has already been canceled twice- once for a regional meeting and today because the national teacher's union has organized strike.
The students in Chimurria are on strike, too. Over half of the students haven't been coming to school because their parents have issues with the principal. Half of the teachers want to switch schools. The whole feeling at school this past week has been tense. Everyone is on edge and nervous, anxious to see how this whole thing will end. I've been trying hard to be as uninvolved in the drama as possible. The organizers of the parent/student strike are some of my closest community friends. I work alongside the principal and she is one of my biggest supporters as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I think both parties are being too extreme, but there is no way that I'm going to speak my mind and get mixed up in this mess. I understand where both sides are coming from, and where both of their faults lie. I've decided that the best road for me to take is to duck and cover and wait for this whole thing to blow over. I don't want to mess up my professional relationship at the school with my principal and with the other teachers. I don't want to cause any tension with my friends in my community. So, I'm doing my best to keep my mouth shut- which is hard- and remain a neutral party. I think in another week everything will be resolved, my fingers are crossed.
Needless to say, teaching at Chimurria has been a challenge. With only half of the students coming we don't want to go over too much material because we know the other kids will eventually come and need to catch up. The kids who do come to school are perceptive of the anxious tension in the air and are being more timid than usual. But, silver lining, I have a whole goodie bag of new teaching supplies that the students at Evergreen sent down! So I have a lot of ideas and new activities to use with the kids who are coming to school. We are mostly doing review stuff (greetings, goodbyes, basic introductions). So far the most successful tool I've used has been a cd of children's songs by David Grover. I've used 2 of his songs to review greetings in 1st-3rd grade, and they've both been a hit. I've also been using the cd as background music for games like "hot potato." The songs are incredibly helpful in lightening up the classroom and taking the kids out of their shells. Thank you Evergreen Community!!!
Teaching at La Maravilla has been entertaining. La Maravilla is tiny- less than 40 students in grades 1-6. The vibe there is much more relaxed. Last Thursday the kindergarten teacher bought a full grown chicken from another teacher and the transaction took place at school. During school said chicken was tied to a tree so that she wouldn't run away. At one point the chicken hid herself under a bush and the kindergarten teacher got worried that she had escaped. In order to keep a better eye on her, she put her in a rice bag and decided that the best place to hang her would be in the classroom where we were teaching English. So all during English class there was a chicken hanging from the wall in a rice bag. The chicken was too traumatized to make any noise and I think the students weren't really phased by it. I was the only one who was distracted. I kept worrying about the chicken, thinking that if she got scared and started moving around too much that the bag could fall to the floor. Thankfully, she never fell, and now she's out of the rice bag at her new home at the kindergarten teacher's house.
It's been a weird week.
The students in Chimurria are on strike, too. Over half of the students haven't been coming to school because their parents have issues with the principal. Half of the teachers want to switch schools. The whole feeling at school this past week has been tense. Everyone is on edge and nervous, anxious to see how this whole thing will end. I've been trying hard to be as uninvolved in the drama as possible. The organizers of the parent/student strike are some of my closest community friends. I work alongside the principal and she is one of my biggest supporters as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I think both parties are being too extreme, but there is no way that I'm going to speak my mind and get mixed up in this mess. I understand where both sides are coming from, and where both of their faults lie. I've decided that the best road for me to take is to duck and cover and wait for this whole thing to blow over. I don't want to mess up my professional relationship at the school with my principal and with the other teachers. I don't want to cause any tension with my friends in my community. So, I'm doing my best to keep my mouth shut- which is hard- and remain a neutral party. I think in another week everything will be resolved, my fingers are crossed.
Needless to say, teaching at Chimurria has been a challenge. With only half of the students coming we don't want to go over too much material because we know the other kids will eventually come and need to catch up. The kids who do come to school are perceptive of the anxious tension in the air and are being more timid than usual. But, silver lining, I have a whole goodie bag of new teaching supplies that the students at Evergreen sent down! So I have a lot of ideas and new activities to use with the kids who are coming to school. We are mostly doing review stuff (greetings, goodbyes, basic introductions). So far the most successful tool I've used has been a cd of children's songs by David Grover. I've used 2 of his songs to review greetings in 1st-3rd grade, and they've both been a hit. I've also been using the cd as background music for games like "hot potato." The songs are incredibly helpful in lightening up the classroom and taking the kids out of their shells. Thank you Evergreen Community!!!
Teaching at La Maravilla has been entertaining. La Maravilla is tiny- less than 40 students in grades 1-6. The vibe there is much more relaxed. Last Thursday the kindergarten teacher bought a full grown chicken from another teacher and the transaction took place at school. During school said chicken was tied to a tree so that she wouldn't run away. At one point the chicken hid herself under a bush and the kindergarten teacher got worried that she had escaped. In order to keep a better eye on her, she put her in a rice bag and decided that the best place to hang her would be in the classroom where we were teaching English. So all during English class there was a chicken hanging from the wall in a rice bag. The chicken was too traumatized to make any noise and I think the students weren't really phased by it. I was the only one who was distracted. I kept worrying about the chicken, thinking that if she got scared and started moving around too much that the bag could fall to the floor. Thankfully, she never fell, and now she's out of the rice bag at her new home at the kindergarten teacher's house.
It's been a weird week.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Shack Attack
This is my first take at a video blog. I don't know why this didn't occur to me earlier. Here is a video of my house. Well, there are two videos. The sound didn't work for me when I played it in divx, but it worked fine in windows media player. I'm not really sure why- but hopefully you can get the sound to play.
Part 1
and
Part 2
That's my little house!
I moved in last November and am still fixing stuff up. Maybe in a few more months I'll have done something with my extra room. What I really want to do is get a table/desk and turn it into an office. Where I can work on lesson plans and make materials for classes. I really hope that these videos work. Let me know if you are having issues seeing them or hearing them.
Part 1
and
Part 2
That's my little house!
I moved in last November and am still fixing stuff up. Maybe in a few more months I'll have done something with my extra room. What I really want to do is get a table/desk and turn it into an office. Where I can work on lesson plans and make materials for classes. I really hope that these videos work. Let me know if you are having issues seeing them or hearing them.
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