Final Reflection

Volcan Arenal, The beautiful Scenary and A Stick Bug

Through this whole experience I have learned a lot about myself and my teaching. I learned that not everything you learn or teach is going to be easy, and not ever student you teach will be on the same level or be able to comprehend things as well as others. As I was in Spanish classes these past few weeks I found myself becoming very frustrated in classes. I wouldn't comprehend something, and would get so down on myself. The way that I have overcome the frustration is really taking in the fact that I am a new language learner and not everything is going to come naturally to me. I need to take the time to practice, and speak the different language in order to enhance my learning. As a teacher I learned that I need to take more steps in engaging students, more science based, research based, and elaboration on subjects. I will not only focus on reading and math, but also focus on incorporating science, social studies and other core subjects into math, and reading. As far as my outlooks on things, coming to Costa Rica I realized that not ever country is going to be like the United States. I have never been out of the country before and it was a culture shock for me. I have yet to see a house that looks like my house in the United States. The thing is here that people don't even take into consideration the conditions of their housing because they are more focused on working, learning and family life. Which I believe are three very important things in life. Sometimes us as Americans are so worried about money, struggles, and other aspects of life they seem very unimportant to the people of Costa Rica. While being here, to other people along with myself in the group complained about being tired and how we wanted more free time, but I looked at my Mama Tica who woke up every morning around five to start her daily task of getting the children ready, cleaning, doing laundry, and making breakfast. she never takes naps and keeps going until dinner ends around eight. She always seems to have a smile on her face, and I have yet to hear her complain about anything to me. She never says that she is tried and never complains about the work. She just does it because it is part of her life. I learned a lot about learning while I was here, and realized that learning can be creative, and fun, but we shouldn't focus our learning and teaching around being fun. We need to be able to engage our students in different ways, and doing trial and error with our students to find out what can be effective for them.

The Hiking In Saint Elena Reserves!

The View right in Front of my school CPI

My family Tico on the last day

The last week!

The best Spanish Immersion School

C.P.I

The last week of our adventures here in Costa Rica will be unforgettable. The week flew by and the next thing you knew, it was Friday, our last day here. This week was filled with a lot of adventure from going to the School Creativo, an English immersion private school, and getting to eat at a wonderful bakery called Stellas and more. On the day we went to Stellas we had a great discussion about the difficulties of pronunciation for children. which I felt was very important to know and understand. A lot of children when asked what the letter "p" sounded like, would respond with "PA" It is interesting when you really start to think about the different pronunciations with words. Such as "shoe", "salt", "Some", they all begin with an S but after the S sound there is a different sound. We went to the Monteverde Coffee fields this week, and got to plant a tree in a very empty part of the sixteen acre farm. It was very exciting to know that in a few years, our trees will be tall and I can say I left my mark in Costa Rica! We learned a lot this week in Spanish classes, I have learned more Spanish here in Costa Rica than I have ever learned in my life. I am able to hold conversations with people in Spanish and the important part is I am able to communicate with my family Ticos. I don't think I could have learned as much Spanish as I did without being immersed into the Spanish culture. I feel confident than ever before, and I have never felt that way before. It is quite an exciting experience!

Cloud Forest Elementary School

The Cloud Forest School was absouletly stunning. When we walked in we were greeted by a very sweet lady who was in charge of the tours and inviting people to come to the school to volunteer and intern. We walked around the trails of the school at first and saw different plants and trees that were planted by some of the students in the school. The school will be celebrating its twentieth year anniversary this coming up year. We first walked down the trails and came to a section that was the play area for the school, it consisted of a soccer field with unnetted goals, a basketball court and many places to sit and hang out. It was a large space for all the children during their break or downtime to come and relax. The guide told us that it was the "heart" of the school, because that was a time with the kids could come together and relax. I loved all the plants and gardens they had around the school because the majority of the gardens and trees planted were planted by the children of the school. The school only consisted of 180 children, and the grade levels were from preschool to eleventh grade. I liked the way that the school was very enviornmental friendly and Eduardo the only maintenance man in the school told us that the reason they are teaching and showing these children how to farm and maintain plants and fruits because they want to be more enviornmentally friendly and in Monteverde it is very important to know the skills of farming. Monteverde has a lot of open land and has alot of natural and organic foods. When we went into the classrooms we saw that a lot of the teachers were international teachers, and some from America. Fifty percent of the teachers were natives of Costa Rica and the other half were international, from Latin America to the United States. It was very interesting. The school is aiming to be a full bi lengual school in the future. I think that is very important in the development of a school here is incorporating not just spanish literacy but as well as English. As a teacher I feel that incorporating spanish into the classroom would be beneficial as well, considering by the year 2020 almost half of the students in elementary ranged grades will be spanish speaking students. The Cloud Forest School cost as much as $3600 dollars per student to attend because it is a private school. The extra resources, and the beautiful 160 acre land is absolutely amazing. I want to incorporate as much science and enviornmental studies into my classroom as this school did. I loved the vivid colors, displayed student work on the walls as well. This school was a school I could see myself at in the future. I would love to teach english to young children in another country where english is not dominate. We had the opportunity to visit a wonderful school and got to see another side of schools here in Costa Rica. I really enjoyed the visit, and took many new ideas and thoughts from the trip to Cloud Forest School.

The travels to Volcan Arenal, and time for Relaxation

VOLCAN ARENAL AND LA FORTUNA

This weekend we traveled to Volcan Arenal in La Fortuna Costa Rica. This weekend was very nice and relaxing after the long weekend in Monteverde. The trip was long and bumpy, but luckily I could catch some rest before we got there. Once we got there we were able to go around the shops and look at all the souvenirs. It was very tourist area I saw many Americans there. We were able to purchase perfume for less than five dollars! It was pretty interesting. After La Fortuna we returned to a beautiful hotel where we stayed. The hotel included a hot springs which was very relaxing and new to me. The hot springs is warmed by the water that is underground near the volcano. It was very hot. But very nice. The next day we explored and hiked a trail that was right in front of the volcano. We saw many new animals and plants I have never seen before. We saw a plant that when touched would close up automatically for about ten minutes. We saw a group of about six howling monkeys that were definitely howling loud. I am deathly afraid of wasp and bees, so of course we saw a few of those. The fun part was that one of our own girls in the group Krysta ate a termite. Very interesting! So now we know if we are lost in the forest, that is one of the few edible things. The nature is so beautiful here and green. Everywhere you look in La Fortuna, Costa Rica is green and full of wild life. We were very fortunate when we got there to get a clear view of the beautiful volcano. After a week full of classes, and learning about the Country Costa Rica it was very nice to get a moment to relax and take in the natural beauty of Costa Rica. I was surprised to see that many of the restaurants are outside restaurants so the air conditioning is the natural wind. It was very nice, even though it was hot. The breeze was cool and comforting. Costa Rica is very different then North Carolina. I was born and raised in North Carolina, and I truely didn't understand the natural beauty before I came to Costa Rica. The nature, the animals, the serene sounds, and natural waters. It is all so beautiful. Using the nature and including it into my classroom setting would be a great way to enhance learning by engagement. The nature is beautiful and so many ways, and it took the hikes here, and the view for me to realize the true beauty of it.

Learning as a teacher

My new family is very special to me. My youngest sister Valentina is not learning spanish in her school yet because she is only in kindergarten. Her old sister Maria Jose is in fourth grade, and is learning english. The thing that is interesting to me is that Maria doesn't seem to be learning much from her english learning class. The class is only fifty minutes long so there isn't much time for a lot of information and learning. Fifty minutes realistically is only forty minutes in a class room with twenty five kids if the time isn't utilized correctly. My spanish classes are going very well, but I have started to realize the frustration of every day four hour classes of spanish. ESL students in english classrooms start to become frustrated like I have started to become in classes. After a long day, being in a classroom for four hours and not knowing everything solidly can be very frustrating. I learned that as a new language learner there are times when you may feel frustrated or overwhelmed but that is when I remembered that it is important for my future students that I know or at least understand spanish language. Being here in Costa Rica made me realize more things about myself such as the importance of communication and how at times a lot of people tend to shrug away or ignore students with difficulties learning, or difficulties speaking. These are the students that we need to have higher expectations for because if they know that we care, they will begin to care more as well. My family Tico has helped me to realize a lot about the importance of family as well. My mother tica ask her children everyday if they have finished there homework and if they need any assistance doing so. Many students in America don't have the family support at home that they need to complete homework assignments or to even be assisted with homework assignments. As a teacher I want to reach out to students who may need the after school assistance so that questions can be answered and questions can be asked for the students. As a teacher being in the Saint Elena Elementary school has opened my eyes to the diverse ways of teaching and learning. My students seemed very engaged when we came into the classroom every day. They wanted to learn and that was because we engaged, supported, and assisted them. The english teacher spoke english but it wasn't the sharpest english. That could be something that spanish students have trouble with is understanding spanish from a teacher who speaks predominately english. The barrier may be difficult for the students to understand. In the future when I begin to teach I will be sure to know the correct way of teaching english to spanish children and not just using the books, but also using creativity and uniqueness to engage.

My students from Saint Elena May 24 ( My hermana Tica is on the far left!)