Reflections of my time in San Pedro

It has been only 6 days since I have left San Pedro and to say that I am “home” sick is an understatement. Leaving the students in Standard III was extremely emotional but I know it is never goodbye just see you soon. All 27 of the students came to school on the last day the other International Student Teachers and I came into school to say goodbye. It is amazing to think of how much I have learned from them, the Belizean culture and how close we have all become.

Things I have taken away that I didn’t know before coming to San Pedro:
1. My students are able to speak two languages on average, English and Spanish or English and Creole (arguably a dialect and not a language but for the purposes of this post I’ll keep it).
2. Football (soccer) is a HUGE passion for many of the people in San Pedro (and for the students, playing it is just as good as watching it)
3. Real Madrid and Barcelona are the top two fan favorite soccer teams
4. Classrooms share resources such as books and speakers
5. BJAT (Belize Junior Assessment Test) is a huge focus right now.. it is the Belizean version of the MCAS
6. The people on San Pedro accept you for who you are
7. Many students have extended families
8. The school day has two halves 8:30-11:30AM and then 1:00-3:30PM, with an hour and a half lunch break in between
9. Some students go home for lunch and others stay at school to eat and play soccer
10. There are two seasons- dry season and wet season
11. Sometimes school can be cancelled or delayed due to rain (especially during the wet/rainy season)
12. Students must pass ALL classes in order to advance to the next standard
13. Shilling water is insanely popular and very cool; it is served in a plastic bag!
14. Students will run up to you in public and will brighten your day with a huge hug
15. Belizean food is SO fresh and offers an enormous amount of spice for those adventurous eaters
16. Marie Sharp’s habanero sauce is out-of-this-world
17. Students will beg you to play football (soccer) with them during PE.. and you should it is so fun
18. Report cards are not given to students, the parents come to school and discuss the grades with the teacher
19. You will learn from your Cooperating Practitioner and your Cooperating Practitioner will learn from you
20. WiFi is offered everywhere if you ask for the password, just know that it is hard to upload videos and pictures sometimes!
21. Drinking water is EXTREMELY important; I drank almost 2 liters a day
22. Snorkeling or diving is a must– especially at Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley
23. Island hopping is really easy, it takes just a half hour water taxi ride to get to Caye Caulker
24. “Caye” is pronounced “key”
25. Exploring is the best way to familiarize yourself with the island
26. Rent a golf cart to go to Secret Beach but a lot of streets are one way so be aware!
27. “Bamboo Chicken” is iguana meat
28. Estel’s breakfast burritos are life changing
29. Try a hurricane at Hurricanes
30. Time abroad goes by so quickly.. say “yes” to as many opportunities as you can
31. Put yourself out of your comfort zone
32. Try to check out the ruins, go cave tubing or zip lining on the main land but go with a reliable tour guide service
33. Go slow–the pace is very different in the classroom, enjoy it and soak in the experience
34. Ask questions! Get to know the locals and don’t be afraid to look silly, you’re learning and growing
35. Keep and open mind and hope to go back to visit 🙂

 

Our last weekend in Ecuador, a visit to Baños

Well, this was our last weekend of traveling throughout Ecuador. It’s very bittersweet for us but overall our trip to Baños was a wonderful way to end our time abroad. While there, we went to Casa de Arbol and swung over a cliff on the top of a mountain, hiked to a massive waterfall named Pailon del Diablo, and spent a day relaxing at Luna Runtun’s hot baths and spa. The town had a really cool atmosphere that blended daytime adventure activities and exciting night life. We also had the chance to meet some really fun people and enjoy our last weekend away in good company.

 

Until we meet again, Rio

I don’t think anything in my life has gone by as fast as my experience in Rio. It seriously felt like just yesterday I arrived and was trying to make sense of this new place. With that also being said I feel like I was able to do so much while I was here and it is a very bittersweet feeling to be leaving on Saturday night.

EARJ taught me about many things, but love, compassion and the joy of being a teacher is what I am mostly taking away from here. Maybe it was because I wasn’t under as much pressure with completing lesson plans, creating units, and meeting deadlines. I was able to enjoy every day with my students. Being in first grade was a big adjustment for me because I prefer to work with the older grades, and I have had little experience prior to this with first grade. It ended up being such a positive experience for me and I learned a lot about classroom management strategies. More structure is not always the most effective way for students to be taught or the best environment for them to learn in. When students aren’t being micromanaged and make their own decisions they are learning to take accountability for their learning which also translates into better problem solving skills, and solving their own playground/personal issues on their own as well. That will be the biggest thing I take away from here is that here I am seeing a lot more kids acting like kids and learning through experience, making their own decisions, utilizing choice, expressing themselves through song, movement and creativity.

Where I see myself in 5-10 years is now very different after having had this experience. I am more open to traveling and getting out of my comfort zone. I would love to be able to teach internationally in Brazil or in another country in a few years. Before coming here this semester I did not even know opportunities like this existed and that you could be a teacher anywhere in the world at these international schools. I met so many expat teachers with incredibly stories of where they have been and where they are moving onto next, and I am so thankful I was able to see another side of teaching.

-Michayla Berthiaume

First Grade at EARJ, a Video

In my first grade class, where all instruction is in English, I had 15 students from Brazil, France, Italy, Spain, and Japan. Yes, the American School is indeed an international school, not one of the students spoke English as their first language, that said, only two are receiving ELL instruction. Eight students speak 2 languages, six students speak 3 languages, and one student speaks 4 languages. They were an amazing and a very intelligent group of kids that I will miss so much!

Teaching in Hong Kong, A Video Summary

Well, it has come to the time where I am flying home from Hong Kong on Monday.  I cannot believe how quickly these past two months have flown by.  Below you will find a video summary of my teaching at the Jockey Club Primary School.  In general, the teachers do not speak English in class unless it is English class.  A lot of teachers in fact do not speak English at all because it is a local school with local students.  The students speak fairly good English for the most part, but that is why we are there… to teach them.  If you ever have any questions please feel free to reach out to me! You can get my email from Dr. MacMillan.  That is all from me and I will see you all back in the US!

 

Hong Kong – Small-sfo4s5

Last Days in Rio/ Teaching Video

Hello to all the fellow student teachers! Tomorrow is our last day of teaching here in Rio and we are leaving Saturday night. My time here has gone by so fast and I cannot believe tomorrow is my last day. These 8 weeks in Rio have flown by much faster than my weeks student teaching in the United States did. I can’t help but feel overwhelming grateful to have had the chance to experience not only living in another country, but teaching in another country. It has been amazing to teach at an international school with students and teachers from all over the world. It has been very humbling and inspiring to see how education connects this entire world. I am also grateful to have gained the experience of seeing how a private school runs. I cannot thank the administration here at EARJ, my teachers Ms. Cecilia and Ms. Anna, my 19 Kindergarteners, and all of the other kind people I have met at this school for all that they have done to contribute to my experience here in Rio. I will truly miss them all and will think about them often. Just like at Central School, I am going to miss my students dearly. It is different this time around though. I have learned that many of these students move around quite often and I know that they will all go off in their own directions across this world. I am truly excited for them and for the opportunities they will have because of this education here at EARJ. Although I am shocked that my time at EARJ is over, I am more shocked that this means that I have finished student teaching and am graduating Bridgewater in just one short week.

Attached below is my teaching video for Spring 2017. Here is a little bit of background context for my video.

Student teaching at The American International School of Rio de Janeiro has had so much to offer me. I student taught in a Kindergarten classroom with 19 students. The lead teacher of my room was Ms. Cecilia, a native Brazilian teacher who has worked at the school for over 20 years. The assistant teacher in my room is Ms. Anna, another native Brazilian teacher. In my Kindergarten class, only 1 student out of the 19 children speaks English as their first language. There is 1 student whose first language is French, 1 student whose first language is Italian, 2 students whose first language is Japanese, 1 student whose first language is Norwegian, and 13 students whose first language is Portuguese. This presented a difficult challenge to the teacher because all of our students are coming from different backgrounds, different first languages, different experience levels, and different levels of parent support and English reinforcement at home. Most of the students in my classroom can speak English fairly well, but I worked one on one everyday with a selected group of students who will start receiving ELL services next year when they get to first grade. A lot of what you see in my teaching video is my one on one work with these students. Both of my teachers speak fluent English along with Portuguese their first language. My students are so intelligent and worldly, some having traveled in lived in more countries than I have been to and they are only 6 years old. They never failed to impress me with their intelligence, kindness, and their willingness to accept people from all over this world without hesitation.

Suggested Packing List

We’re almost finished with our student teaching!  It went by so fast.

Here is a suggested packing list. We used this list and added a few items based on our experience. Even though you can buy most of these items here, we chose to bring almost everything so we could use it up and make space for souvenirs.

Carry On:
Mac
Mac charger
Phone
Phone charger
Passport
All in one adapter
Power converter
Any medication
Mouth wash
Gum
Empty water bottle
Travel pillow
Wallet (health insurance card)
Itinerary
Cash (US and Hong Kong)
Book
Extra underwear
A change of clothes that could be used for teaching
Pack of tissues (some bathrooms don’t have toilet paper)
Headphones
Make up
Pen
Hand sanitizer
Tampons

Toiletries:
Hand sanitizer
Sunscreen
Tampons
Pads
Dry shampoo
Face wash
Make up remover
Make up removing pads
Shampoo
Conditioner
Body wash
Tooth paste
Tooth brush
Deodorant
Razor (and extra heads)
Hairspray
Mini hair straightener
Brush
Elastics
Bobby pins
Tweezers
Nail clippers
Packages of tissues (For bathrooms)
Band aids

Clothing:
Dresses for teaching
Nylons
Lounge pants
T shirts
Tanks
Socks
Underwear
Bras
Sports bras
Work out shorts
Work out tops
Pajamas
Nice dress
Jewelry
Watch
Bathing Suit
Jeans
Sweatshirt
Leggings
Lightweight rain coat

Shoes:
Flip flops
Sneakers
White Keds (for sight seeing)
Pair of heals (optional)

Other:
Sunglasses
Goggles
Umbrella
Regular towel (microfiber is the best – very lightweight)
Face clothes
Luggage scale (great if you plan to travel while here!)
Camera
Camera charger
Purse
Lightweight backpack
Sheets
Pillow case
Fork and knife
Tupperware
Reusable grocery bag
Snacks to last until food shopping
Doctors note saying you are trained to use gym equipment (Can’t use gym without this note)

Tips:
Alert banks / credit card comaponies about travel plans before you depart

Have access to at least two ATM bank accounts (in case one bank shuts down your account for fraud, this is super important!!!)

Consider opening a credit card (Same reason as above.  Again, very important!! Visa is the best. Discovery and Mastercard are not as popular here.)

Email a copy of license, passport and itinerary to yourself (If you lose your passport this is key.)

Pack clothes with dryer sheets —  keeps it smelling fresh!

Letter-Writing Lessons and Qingming Festival

Hello everyone! It has been a bit of time again since I have posted, so I will try to cover everything that has happened in the past few weeks.

In the effort to continue improving student writing skills, I gave a listening and writing lesson to grade 7. In this lesson I had my niece (pictured on the board above) make a video of herself talking about her life as a middle school student in America. Before starting, I asked the students what kinds of questions they would like to ask her and we compiled a list of questions that included things such as “how old are you?” and “what do you think of china?” I wanted the students to listen and see if their question was answered. We then watched the video. She talked a little fast so we went through and watched it multiple times in an attempt to break it down and get as much information from it as possible. The first time I paused in-between sentences and asked questions. They second and third time they wrote down some notes.

In the end they took all of the questions and information they had gathered and wrote letters to my niece. I asked them to include some of the strategies we had covered from the last lesson such as using “and” to make longer sentences. We picked the best letters and sent them to my niece to read who answered their questions and sent back responses. I think the students really liked this activity because it was interactive and they were actual able to talk to another student from America.

During the past few weeks there was also a school activity for the Qingming festival. During this time, people visit graves of family members who have passed and clean them. They also make food out of green dough. We were tasked with making qingtuan (buns made of green dough with red bean inside) and then taking the extra dough and making a display out of it. We created a snowman with some animals(see above). We sprinkled the tops with some undyed flower to make it look like snow. Unfortunately while taking this picture the snowman fell over and hit the floor! I thought it was really funny actually, but it left our snowman a bit lopsided. Later they asked us to explain how and why we made this display. The student to the left me explained how in Chinese and I explained why in English. I said the snowman was lopsided and falling over because spring was almost here and the animals were coming out of hibernation to play in the last snow of the season. We won a prize for most creative display so I guess that explanation worked!

Then, on the weekend, some of the students’ parents invited me to their house to make dumplings. It was a little bit more difficult than it looks but luckily even if they’re ugly they’re still tasty! We ate the dumplings along with some other dishes like spicy chicken soup and kimchi. Then we went out saw the Pu Dong side of the Bund and took and boat ride. It was a lot of fun and I ate far too much food.

Now this post is getting a little long so I think I’ll save the rest for one last post before I leave.

Until next time,

Michael Rose