Extra Curricular Activities in Belizean Schools

Back in America the students have the world at their finger tips. Students have specials everyday, whether it be art, music, physical education, library, or some type of club. As educators we know that there is not enough time in a day to cover core subjects such as math, reading, social studies, and science let alone make time to cover extra curricular subjects. Luckily in America we are fortunate enough to have the room and finances to hire extra curricular teachers. Here in Belize there is not enough money to hire extra curricular teachers so the classroom teachers are responsible to teach these subjects to the students. I spoke with the teacher I am working with and she explained to me that she hardly ever has time for any extra curricular activities except for physical education.
Many of the teachers here are straight out of high school and have no formal training to be teachers so i can only imagine the frustrations that they deal with as a new teacher. So what is the effect on the students that don't have extra curricular classes? Hopefully as I spend more time in the schools here I will be able to evaluate if this has any effect on the students at all.

First days at Ambergris Caye Elementary School!

Monday March 22 was my first day at Ambergris Caye Elementary School! I was assigned to Miss Dora's Standard II class, which is equivalent to 3rd or 4th grade in the United States. I have 7 students in my class, 4 boys and 3 girls. Their names are Brandon, Nathan, Rochelle, AJ, Faith, Juan, and Kylie. The students here are all very enthusiastic about school and when I asked them what their favorite subject was they names almost every subject. i know that most of my kids at home would have probably said their favorite subject was lunch or recess. My students here are were very excited to share with me their hobbies and interest. The kids here are hardly different from my kids at home. The children here love to play sports (such as soccer which they call football), dance, listen to music(such as Hannah Montana, High School Musical and the Jonas Brothers), and make art. The content that is taught here is quite different. Here are the area that the teachers a required to teach: Religion, Spanish, math, science, social studies, phonics, grammar, reading, health sciences, spelling, and reading comprehension. All of these are taught throughout the week where back home i was only making 4 lesson plans per day- math, whole group reading, ability group reading, and science or social studies (depending on what 9 weeks it was). The challenge that I am facing here is the lack of materials. I have been so spoiled in the United States! Teacher do not do a lot of hands on activities because they are used to the direct instruction approach. Miss Dora told me that they have been trying to move toward more hands on activities but it is a adjustment. She also told me that they have been to a few workshops that teach them how to used more constructivist activities, but she added that it is difficult to conform when the workshops are all direct instruction as well. I am so excited about getting to know the teachers and students here, i feel like i have a lot of suggestions and ideas so they can incorperate more hands on activities into their daily plans. This week is testing week so I dont think I will be doing that much teaching. Although i did get to teach math and spelling on my first day. It was very differnt to what I am used to! Basically I was told to just write division or multiplication word problems on the board, and the students copied the problems down and found the answer. Then for spelling I was asked to call out their spelling words and they would tell me the definition or i would call out the definition and they would tell me the word. The majority of the students knew all of them. Once again, very different to what I am used to but I will get used to the idea that direct instruction is ok and it needs to be used! I think that Miss Dora and I will learn a great deal from each other for the three weeks that I am here at Ambergris Caye Elementary School and I am looking forward to what each new day will bring!

Hello Mrs. Kosh's Class!

Hello my Bradley Creek Dolphins!
First of all I miss you all very much! I wish that I could have brought you all with me! It is very beautiful here and very hot, Can you believe I already got a sun burn? If you look on the world map in the classroom can you seen where the equator is? We are much closer to the equator here then we are in Wilmington so the sun is a bit stronger! For my Spanish speakers you would especially love it here because of the food! Another thing that here that is going to take some getting used to is using money. The Belize currency is 2 to 1 American, which means that if you go into a store and buy something that is $2 Belize it is the same as $1 American. The people here will accept Belizean money or American so this is where is gets confusing! This is where your division and multiplication skills will come in handy. Try this math problem: If i have 20 American dollars how many is that in Belizean?
How about this one: I went to the fruit stand this morning and I bought $18 worth of fruit in Belizean, how much is that worth in American?
Now when it gets really confusing is when you have to make change, or when they give you change in American and Belizean money! I'm still getting used to it!
There are 12 of us Elementary education teachers here and 6 High School teachers. Since there were so many elementary teachers they had to split us up so there are two different elementary schools we will be working in. Miss Rebecca, Miss Hill, Miss Woodcock (she was the intern for Mrs. Holland's Kindergarten class),Miss Conn (from Mrs. Wallen's 5th grade) Myself and another intern from Forest Hills Elementary School are all going to be at Ambergris Elementary School. This is a very small school1 there are only 55 kids in the whole school! Can you believe that? The grades are set up a little different too. There is no kindergarten school starts at "Infant 1" which is like 1st grade, then "infant 2" which is like second grade. Then there is "Standard 1" which is like 3rd grade! and it goes on and on.
It is 10:30 here so that means it is 12:30 where you are! How much of a time change is that? How did you figure that out?
I will try and figure out how to post pictures on here so you can see some of the sights here! I miss you all and hope you are doing well! Keep up with me on here, it will be like I never left!

School

Tonight we were assigned what school we will be teaching at for the next few weeks. I was assigned Ambergris Caye Elementary school. I am super excited about this. The school is very small and consist of about 55 students. The grades are a little different here then in the states there is Infant 1 which is equivalent to 1st grade,and Infant 2- second grade. Then there is standard 1- third grade, standard 2- fourth grade, standard 3 fifth grade, and so on. I will be posting more information about the school once i find out.

My first full day in San Pedro!

Hello All!
Today is March 18th and our first day here in San Pedro, Belize! What an eventful day I've had! First of all let me tell you a little about what the trip here was like. I arrived at Wilmington Internationional Airport at around 4:30 AM and our flight left at 7. The flight to Belize City was not that long at all it was shorter then flying to Arizona. Once we arrive in Belize City we had to take a very small plane to the island. Now let me just say that this was one of the scariest moments of my life! I really thought i was going to die and the weather was not making things any better. It was cloudy, windy, and raining and because of that we didnt really have a good view, but there is always the ride back right? Oh boy! There was quite a bit of turbulance and Stephanie, Becca, and I of course were stuck in the very back so when we took of the plane was fish tailing and wobbling, needless to say i was freaking out big time! Just when we landed and I thought it was all over it turned out not to be our stop so we had to take off all over again and land again, except this time when we landed we landed on a gravel airstrip. Once on the ground i was able to gain consciousness once again and function. We then go in a cab and drove to Pedro's Inn. Upon arrival Peter the owner gave us all a complimentary Beleikin ( i dont know if that is spelt right) beer which is brewed here in Belize. What a great cultural experience! The room that I am staying in is very small, there are 2 twin beds, a small TV, and a small bathroom. We even have AC! Woo hoo! Im very excited about the whole AC thing, yes I know I am a typical American and I'm proud of it! Anyways yesterday was very exciting and I am still trying to get settled in and organized.
Today (March 18th) we took a tour of the town. We walked to the schools that we will be working in and we got to meet some of the teachers and students! I am very excited about this! We visited Ambergris Caye, Isla Bonita, and San Pedro High School. I was very impressed and curious which school i was going to be put in I have an idea about which one i want to teach at.