Last day of school and in Belize!

Friday was another interesting day with the kids.  They didn't behave again as well as I know they could! We had a lot to do, but I knew we wouldn't get through it all because of the behavior.  I did some of it, but it was definitely a struggle.  I had some students that had difficulty reading and then difficulty with behavior.  I really focused more on the student with behavior issues because the student with reading difficulty was able to go with another intern for help everyday. I feel like my perceptions have changed a little bit through out my experience here in Belize and my independent study class that I participated in. I fell like I now have more knowledge to be able to help someone that needs advice about a student.

Getting on the plane to go to America!

Yesterday was a long traveling day! I had to take a flight from San Pedro to Belize City at 9 am and then took a taxi to the international airport.  We then had to wait a while for our 11:51 am flight to Atlanta GA.  It was a 3 hour flight and it seemed like a lifetime! This trip was truly amazing and I loved every minute of it.  I can't wait to be able to share it with more people!

Last Thursday!

Today was a very interesting day. We had to sub for our teachers today and tomorrow. They are at a conference in Belize City. I am in the Infant I class which is about the equivalent to 1st grade, however; I feel they are below 1st grade compared to America.  We are doing some things that I feel like are above their grade level.  Their writing skills are not where they should be either.  They are supposed to take notes from the board and you can barely read them.  It's very hard for a child that young to look from board to paper and remember what they are doing.  If they don't finish because of lack of time then the teacher is supposed to write the notes in their book.  They need their notes because they take tests on every subject! Anyways, today wasn't that great of a day. The kids, of course knew that their teachers were not there at all so I think that was a big issue.  They didn't care about anything and it definitely made for a long day.  All of us that were teaching today was happy for the bell to ring at 3 pm.  Tomorrow will be a little easier because after lunch we are going to do a field day, but it will be at the beach.  We aren't going swimming though. We will have different stations with games for the kids to participate in.  We decided that would be a fun thing for us to do for them since it will be our last day with them. I will definitely post some pictures of that tomorrow after school. I really hope tomorrow before field day will be better for me because I think I just let myself get too stressed out today. I had to constantly remind myself to calm down.  I think I will go to bed a little early tonight considering I have a lot to do tomorrow as well since Saturday morning we are leaving! Bittersweet! I can't believe its been 5 1/2 weeks already!!! WOW!!!

Final Countdown

Monday started our final week in Isla Bontia Elementary School.  I have been teaching along side of my partnership teacher.  I was able to teach math, language arts and social studies.  As I have said many times before, it has been a journey to get the students to follow simple directions.  One of my students has a real big issue in behaving and I think we have finally realized why she behaves like that. So one of the graduate students that is here helping and doing her own work came into my classroom today.  She helped out with my student a lot.  She wrote 3 basic rules for her and drew a picture of each of them.
number 1 - sit in your seat
number 2 - raise your hand
number 3 - use your quiet voice

She then had 10 lines and she had to earn 10 stars to get her reward, which was one cookie.  She was really excited about that.  She did very well because she had continuous support from all of the teachers coming in and out of the classroom during the day.  I also sat down with her and helped her out for a while and that's when she did earn her cookie.  However, at the end of the school day (after lunch) I was told I was going to be by myself and teaching social studies (I didn't prepare anything since I wasn't originally teaching it).  So, here I am teaching in the class all by myself from 1-2 pm (they get out of school at 2 pm).  I was just winging what my teacher briefly told me to review with them.  It was very wild in the classroom especially with the one who already has behavior problems.  I couldn't help her and then help the rest of the class.  It was very frustrating for me to be in there because I felt like all of that hard work with that one student was just being tossed to the side.  I know I couldn't have helped the reasons why I had to be by myself for that hour.


Tuesday

Today, I had to sub for my teacher and luckily she gave me her plans for her lessons that she was supposed to be teaching. It was a decent day overall because they are finally starting to understand the behavior management that I am trying to put in place.  I really feel like today could have definitely been better but because my teacher was not there it was something different.  They did all of their work very well and they were able to play a fun game.  I played a hangman except I drew a face when they said a wrong letter.  They loved it!  For the little girl that has more extreme behavior we did the 10 stars again.  She did well the first time around, but then as the day went on she didn't earn her next set of stars : (

The students really enjoy the team game I play with them. At the end of each day a team wins! They get something simple (pencil, eraser, etc) from me. However, I might need to change that up a bit just to keep them on their toes.

I really enjoyed the math lesson we did today. We are working on fractions (whole, half, thirds and quarters) and then we are slowly doing equal parts.  Today I gave two students a set of pencils and they had to figure out how many they could each have.  However, they both needed to have the same amount of pencils.  I, of course, put enough pencils so they would each get the same amount.  Many of them did it correctly, but there were some of them that needed some help. 




Tomorrow is going to be another fun filled day because my teacher is going to be out again! Thursday and Friday we are going to sub again for all of the teachers so they can go to a conference in Belize City.  What a week we are having!

End of week 4

These past few days have been exhausting especially because of how different the schools are compared to America.  It has been a whirlwind of an adventure.  I have been teaching math, language arts, science, social studies, health science, and a little bit of spanish. The behavior has made a lot of progress in the past couple of days.  However, it is still a huge struggle with the Infant I class to understand some of the concepts.  The simple thing of saying sit down, be quiet and raise your hands is a foreign concept to them.  They have not been taught to do this on a regular basis.  I have slowly had them doing this a lot more especially when I am teaching.  We have a 30 minute break (recess and snack time) and in order to leave you have to be sitting down in their seats and no talking.

I have also used a game called Teacher/Students, where they get a point if they are being good and doing what they are told. However, if they are not behaving and they are shouting and walking around then I will get a point. It was very hard for them to do this game because, again, they are not use to having to be quiet and sit down in their seats.  So today, I changed it up on them. I divided them all up into teams.  They all have those single desks and they are put into rows.  There are 4 rows in the classroom so ultimately I had them in 4 teams.  I feel like they liked this game better then the teacher/student game.  I think seeing the points on my side was discouraging them from being good.

One of the interns with us is getting her degree is special education.  She has been working with many students and especially with 2 students in my class.  One with his reading and the other one for her behavior.  However, I was able to see how she does her reading program with the young boy.  She uses a book called 100 easy lessons.  He was reading very well for her and I think he was just lacking some of the basic skills that sadly, many of them are missing.

Geo's Hideaway

For lunch this week, we have been going to Geo's Hideaway Cafe and Meat Market.  They have paninis and they are amazing!











This is our last weekend here in Belize. It is definitely a bittersweet feeling.  

Cultural Heritage

While we were in San Ignacio, it was a great eye opener to how much the people of Belize know about their culture.  The tour guides, of course, have to know it because of their job.  However, they take so much pride into their work that it was so enjoyable to hear them. It is definitely different than America because I feel like the guides there don't really seem to care about their jobs.  They tell you what they need to and then move on.  Our guide, Diego, at the Caracol tour was the most knowledgeable person I have ever met.  It just goes to show that the people here in Belize take pride into their work and their ancestors. I haven't been really able to see the children's insight because I am working with Infant I (1st grade).  They don't know much about the world yet. However, what they do know is that they have rights.  Yesterday in class, my partnership teacher, was talking about children's rights.  They have a right to food, a house, love, and many other things.  They also learn about water and land pollution.  They directly link it back to the tourists and how they want to come to San Pedro.  This is a vacation destination and they thrive on it in every aspect.  

Today at Isla Bonita, they had an assembly.  The mayor was supposed to come and talk to the students.  However, he was very busy and they had others from his office come and talk.  They talked about pollution and rules of San Pedro.  They definitely want to inform the students of what they need to do as a citizen.

Principal Addie receiving a gift from the Mayor's office

 

San Ignacio - Part II

Wednesday

We got up again, super early and went to the ATM Cave (Actun Tunichil Muknal).  What an amazing trip to be able to go on!

Entrance to the cave

http://www.cayoadventure.com

For the fit and adventurous this is hands down the most talked about cave in Belize.  Discovered in 1989 and open to the general public since 1998, the ATM cave is a full five kilometers deep.  After a 45 minute hike in the cool tropical rainforest and across three streams you enter its hourglass-shaped mouth for a 10 meters swim in water at most 5 meters deep, to land on a rock shelf.  The next 600+ meters is a journey of well over a half hour filled with many sharp & slippery edges, water depth alternates from just covering your toes to portions where only the tallest won't need to swim.  Along the way you pass many calcite formations, a few which have undergone minor sculpting (purpose unknown), by the Maya.  After this distance, you ascend 2 or 3 meters to a shelf above the river. From this point forward is shallowed ground, where you walk barefoot (with socks only).
As you go forward you encounter increasing amounts of pottery of all sizes, their condition from near intact to completely shattered.  Catalogued within the cave are over 1400 artifacts - pottery, tools, and ceremonial items dating from 1 to 1000 AD - including over 200 vessels.  While over half of all the items appear in plain sight in small pools, they are also tucked away between stalagmites, on small, high shelves or other unusual places. The artwork found in Actun Uayazba Kab in unmatched when compared to any other site.

The deeper in the cave you go, the more recent the activities of the Mayas were.  Use of the cave by the  Mayas of the Late Preclassic (1 to 250 AD), tended to stay near the mouth of the cave, whereas later generations moved further into the cave, perhaps believing that this would bring them closer to the lords of Xibalba.  The closer to the gods, the better the chance the ceremonies would be answered.  Pottery of all sizes and styles lay within the cave, all broken to release the spirits contained within.
A not-so-common artifact are human remains.  So far, remains from fourteen individuals have been found; 7 adults & 7 children, all under the age of 5.  These are not the ceremonial burials found in the other two caves in the area, but are sacrificial victims.  They were all likely sacrificed in the hopes of appeasing the gods and bringing rain.  Young victims, particularly females, were important for rituals to be "zuhui" - pure & uncontaminated in the eyes of the gods.  The Crystal Maiden was a young woman of about 20 years old whose complete remains lie at the back of the cave.  It is believed that she was clubbed and left for dead, and with the passing of time she has been cemented to the floor in a layer of brown calcite. (To reach her final resting place, you must climb aluminum ladders mounted on a sheer rock face!)  Don’t choose this tour if you are not an extreme adventure lover, it is not for the faint hearted!

We got back a little earlier that day and we all went out to Hode's.  I think about half of us got the nachos!

Thursday

Market in DT San Ignacio

Today was our only free day during this inland trip.  Some of the other students went on another excursion that was not part of our budget.  4 of them went to Crystal Cave and repelled into it and crawled around in tighter spaces. 2 of them went horseback riding to Xunantunich.  They all had a great time.  However, 3 other girls and I went shopping for our souvenirs! It was a lot of fun and we found some great things!  I only have to get 2 more things and I guess I'll just have to pay a little more here in San Pedro.

Friday

We left with all of our things at 9 am and went to the Belize Zoo.  It was so much fun! We found out that we could do some things in the zoo, like pet a jaguar and be inches away from him.  So we got into groups of 5 and did that.  It only cost us $20 BZD and it was an awesome experience.  I love the zoo and I was able to get some decent pictures.  After the zoo, we got lunch and then headed back to Belize City to get our water taxi to San Pedro.  It was awesome to get back!!! We all missed our "home" and we are glad to be back at Pedro's Inn.

Jaguar

Tapir

San Ignacio - Part I

Monday

We packed up our bags and our rooms.  Everything went into one room so they could use our other rooms for the week.  It was crazy!! We then walked down to the beach to catch a water taxi to Belize City! It was about a 2 hour ride from San Pedro!  We got there and then we got a taxi ride to the bus station.  We still had another ride to do to get to San Ignacio!  The people literally swarmed onto the bus and we were all shocked with our mouths open at the sight.  It took $7 BZD or $3.50 USD for a 2 hour bus ride.  It was so long! We literally spent all day traveling.  We ate a local pizza place since every thing was closed because of Easter Monday.

This is the "chicken bus"

Tuesday

We all got up early and went to Caracol and it was amazing! It took a long time to get there from our hotel, but it was so worth it!

http://www.cayoadventure.com

Situated high on the Vaca Plateau deep in the Chiquibul Forest Reserve, Caracol is the most extensive Mayan site in Belize and was only re-discovered as recently as 1936. The site of Caracol covers over 80 square miles with 30,000 structures, and at its peak supported a population in excess of 150,000. Situated at 1600 feet above sea level (one of the highest located sites of the southern uplands region) with no natural water body close by, it remains a mystery why such a huge population centre like Caracol evolved where it is. However, the close proximity to both extremely hard stone and copal, two commodities highly prized by the Mayas may help explain this enigma.
At the heart of the site lies the massive pyramid of Caana (Sky Palace) which is now almost fully restored and reaches a height of over 135 feet. From the top you can enjoy breath taking panoramic views over the forest clad mountains.
The drive to the site in the early morning occasionally allows guests to take a glimpse of tapirs, jaguars or ocelots, as they break their forest cover to cross the road. The sprawling site contains huge Ceiba, Mahogany and Sapodilla trees and is superb for birding (the rare Keel-billed Motmot is one of the many residents of the site). Wildlife such as Howler and Spider monkeys, the Oscellated Turkey, Coatimundi, Gibnut and Grey Fox are often sighted while quietly wandering along the site’s causeways or along trails connecting the plaza groups.

On our way back we went to a waterfall and was able to jump off rocks and swim in the water!  Again, amazing!

We didn't get home until almost 6 pm and we were all so tired!