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!