The past few days I feel have been busy but filled with fun. Sunday was about the laziest day we have had here yet. We just rode our bikes to the beach and had a group dinner.
Monday was a tiring day for different reasons. I went to the high school to help with the testing. In Belize, school is very different from the U.S. The students must take a test to get in to high school. So if you are in Standard VI, (eighth grade) in order to go to form I (ninth grade) you must take the state test. I helped a student that has special needs take his test. I just helped with the read aloud, while another teacher helped with the writing. The student seemed very eager to learn more about high school, but he seemed overwhelmed with all the things in high school. It was still interesting to talk to him in between the tests that he took. I found out that he is a student at Isla Bonita so I will be seeing him some at the elementary school. Monday we went to dinner at a cheap place (Nery’s) but the food was wonderful.
Tuesday was probably the busiest day yet in San Pedro for me. I started the day off in Teacher Hector’s room working with the students. I worked with all the students but I focused mostly on the students falling behind. I really tried to get to know the students more though before jumping right in and teaching them. I like to build that rapport with the students I come in contact with. I made sure to talk to all of the students. They seem to really like seeing someone from UNCW. They are very curious and they like to know a lot about other people. I read to the whole class and after that I jumped straight into meeting the students that have weaker areas in reading, writing, spelling and behavior. It was very interesting. The students here have fewer problems with behaviors but there still are students that have difficulties with their behavior. There is a huge different in behaviors from back home to here, mostly in field experiences at homes “bad” behavior was when a kid cussed in class, or punched another student, but here “bad” behavior is when a student runs around the classroom. It is definitely something different to handle. The students are very open with me and I asked them several questions. I feel like most of the students that I have worked with need phonics so I am using a book I got from UNCW called 100 Easy Lessons. So far it seems to work well and the students LOVE the interaction they get from it. I was very impressed with Teacher Hector because he really wants to help all of the students. He told me that he wants me to tell him about some of the things I do with the students. He also wants to know about every student I am working with and what I can do for them and such. It is nice to have someone so eager to learn about what I am doing for the students.
Wednesday I ventured back to the high school. I was able to meet the students in IE. I really enjoyed working with all of the students and hearing how the different teachers taught the students. I was slightly saddened to find out that the education in Belize is not free. I think that is one of the toughest things I have learned. I know education in a privilege anywhere you find it because there are countries with no education, but knowing that there are kids out there who want to be in school but can’t afford it breaks my heart. Most of the high school students I worked with seemed a little unmotivated, but they all said they wanted to be at school. I really talked with the students and tried to get to know them. I didn’t work individually with any students yet at the high school, but after Easter break I will.
Today I was back at the elementary school. I started the day off seeing the students in Teacher Hector’s room. I feel a little bad because the students really want me to stay in their class all day, but with what I am doing I can’t. But after the first 15 minutes I worked with Standard I and Standard II students to help them learn how to read. We worked on 100 Easy Lessons. I have found that this book is a little more difficult to use with a larger group. I had six students and I used the Teacher-Student game with them, but there were still times when it was hard to monitor how each student was saying the words. After I completed Lessons 1 and Lessons 2 with the students, I switched and worked with Infant I and Infant II. Luckily Parker helped me out. It was 5 students that I worked with today, but normally there will be 6. Parker helped manage the behaviors while I went through the lessons with the students. For these students, I feel like the very structured setting helps them at least with reading. From what I understand, they do not have major problems with math, so it may just be that these students need to catch up and focus on reading for a bit. After working with these two groups, I feel like I need to spilt the groups up into groups of two each day. I feel like if I lower the number of students I will lower the distractions and can move quicker through the lessons. I am hoping to cover two lessons a day so that way I can at least cover almost 30 lessons with the students by the time I leave. I know that when I leave, there won’t be extra help there for the students so they won’t be getting those lessons. I wish I could stay until I finish all the lessons in the book! After I worked on reading, I worked with a student (Maddi) on behavior. I think that she acts out for attention, but I’m not positive yet. She shows a little defiance at times as well, but with me she completes all of her work. When she works with me she is in a quiet room though. It is really hard to figure out exactly what is helping her do her work. After working with Maddi, I worked with Dayanara and Elizabeth on Dayanara’s braille. She is so excited about learning braille because this is finally her chance to be able to do everything…but her excitement almost interferes with her learning ability. Dr. C Has been wonderful enough to order some games and books for her though. I can’t wait to see how she does with games and books.
No comments:
Post a Comment