School Updates

I haven’t talked about school in a little while:

In case you didn’t know, and I know it is a little late for that but I thought I might as well tell you what classes my friends are teaching or helping in.

Stacey – colegio math (high school math)
Amy – 1st and 2nd and art
Caitlin – designed and teaches a brand new music program and 4th grade
Jane – Education Ambiental (environmental ed with Milton)
Allison – 1st and 2nd
Charlotte – ESL with Teresa
Robert – ESL/Spanish (I think)
David – 1st and 2nd
Hollyn – 4th grade
Macey – Kinder/prepa and special education
Ruth – 6th and drama

I don’t think I’m forgetting anyone. We are all spread out and we usually only see each other before and after school, unless our lunch or prep periods ate the same.

In some of the classes, I help out by answering questions, making sure the kids are taking notes and helping Anna try to keep some of the classes in order. The 8th grade.octavo grado, are one of the hardest classes to deal with sometimes. More than half of the 23 of them are boys and they are all pretty friendly with each other, making classroom management pretty difficult. Anna is doing really well, considering this is her first year teaching and this school is hard to teach at due to the way the school is organized. Classroom management is the biggest struggle here and I think part of it is cultural. There is also a very widespread issue with confidence in the material. I can’t count how many times students have asked me during a test “Is this right?”. And then there is the pouting and whining that drives me crazy sometimes. The minute you mention homework there is an outbreak in whining and “Oh, Anna!” or “Noooooh”. It is probably the hardest thing for me to deal with. My parents didn’t put up with whining much (although I was pretty good at it) and I find that I have very little tolerance for it now. I think it is cultural though. As a kid there is some indulgence whenever possible and I don’t know if it is on purpose or if it is just part of how life is here. Amy and I were talking about it one day. The indulgence could be part of trying to get the children to have as much childhood as possible, because life as an adult is so much harder here. I don’t know how some of the families do it. There are often three or more kids in a family and often both parents work, and the kids are alone or another Aunt, Uncle or Grandparent takes care of them. I’m still trying to figure it out. That is the best part about living here for so long. I am getting a really good feel for the culture, no matter how touristy this town may be.
I am really enjoying teaching. I do a lot of research to get the information that I need in order to teach the class. They ask so many questions!! I have been learning the finer art of google searching. I managed to come across three or four different lectures (in word and power point form) about the circulatory system. Some of it is much more in depth than I need for this class, but I am enjoying learning it. I probably wouldn’t be having as much fun if I was required to learn it, but I am having a lot of fun.
For the past couple months, the 11th grade class has been helping out on a research project designed by a woman named Patricia Townsend. She is finishing her doctorate at University of Washington and she wanted to begin another project that we can continue to do on our own, so the school can measure the progress of the reforestation efforts they have been doing for the past 15 years. There is very little hard data about the reforestation here at the school and most the information about when trees were planted and so forth is in the head of our land manger, Milton. So there are 10 plots measured off in the pasture area. 5 of them have a lot of inga trees (a common tree planted by the school) and the other 5 are mostly the invasive grasses. In each plot there are 2 meter by meter subplots where we count species diversity, number of tree seedling, percent cover of native verses non-native plants, and percent herbaceous or leaf litter cover. Then each tree in each plot is measured for height, canopy width (how far spread out the branches are in two directions) and branch width at average chest height. It is a little tedious but kind of fun. We have been out there in horrible rain, wind and also when it was gorgeous and we napped among the grasses. It has been fun. There are two grad students that have been helping with taking data. As students, we take data and it is compared to the data they collected and a margin of error is determined that can be used in future data taking. Eric was here for a month and did bird surveys. He was up and in the field looking for birds by 5:30 AM. He was really fun. Then there is Michael. He is a riot to be in the field with. A great sense of humor makes even the most mundane data taking much more interesting. We are almost done with all the data taking which is good because the 11th grade has to prepare for the Ministerio Exams they take in May. They take one in each subject and it is more important than the SATs. These can actually affect what kind of jobs they can get or any kind of education they want to do beyond high school.
Today Anna is in San Jose picking up her sister who will be here for an undetermined amount of time, exponentially increasing the amount of stress Anna has. Her mom just decided to send her to Costa Rica for the vacation from school, and Anna didn’t know about it until the day before yesterday. So I get to substitute, which means a little money in my pocket, also an entire day to try to deal with all the kids. Last time I substituted, just for a half day, it was really hectic and I just needed ice cream and chocolate by the end of the day. Today has gone pretty well. Granted I didn’t have to lecture or anything, which could have been more difficult, but they didn’t get out of hand or disrespectful. I took the 8th grade on a walk; there was no point in trying to contain them within the walls of the classroom. I would have gone crazy!
With the 8th graders we went for a hike, part of the reason they were so cooperative. There is this hallowed out strangler fig that technically belongs to The Original Canopy Tour company but it is really awesome! The tree it strangled had died out, so you could climb up the middle of it! Rope steps made climbing easier and safer and the gaps between the vines allowed for a spectacular view of the forest. There was also a rope that you could swing out over the hill on. Being with a group of 8th graders, I had to watch carefully and enforce some rules, but I think they had fun. I even swung on it. You get this wonderful flying feeling and then you are in the trees! Just don’t let go of the rope! One of these days I’ll go on a tour and go on the real zip lines and stuff. I’ve heard that it is pretty fantastic! Specifically the one I want to go on, I don’t think I’d be able to get my parents to go…especially since my mom is a little nervous about heights and one of the zip lines is a a kilometer long! Maybe that’s what I’ll do this weekend while everyone else is off doing their own adventures (I don ‘t have the money or I’d go with them).

Thanks again for listening to me.

Hugs!
K