I can’t believe how quickly this practicum has gone by; I only have 2 teaching weeks left after Easter. Throughout this internship I have grown so attached to this wonderful group of kids. There were some children in my class who have challenging home lives, which drives me to enhance their school experience. I feel a great responsibility for a lot of students and have done all I can to make school a safe and fun place for them to be. It has become pretty clear to me that several of these students just need a positive role model and someone who shows that they genuinely cared about their well being. Every chance I get I provide them with encouragement, concern and patience with the goal of instilling a positive sense of self worth into them. I am trying to not think about how hard it is going to be to leave these kids, some of them have asked me to try and squish me them in my suitcase when I go back. I will just make the most of the little time I have left and soak in every moment!
party at Tony's bar. We surprised her by having her parents call our friend Shantel's cell phone to wish her a happy birthday because she was a little bummed she wouldn't get to talk to them. 
ompletely surprised and impressed with Katie and my extreme sneakyness...
m on the lookout for the video, hopefully there will be one in Guatemala for me to bring back after Easter. It has worked out so well for me to develop skills in Language Arts.
e of these lil cockroaches wanted to snuggle with me last night in bed...kinda caught me off guard.But everytime we go to the gym we bring our bikes right up to the door and the owner always assures us that they will be safe and there is no need to lock them up. Well, sure enough last night Trisha and Katie’s bikes got stolen. It is one of those situations that really sucks but there isn’t much that we can do for it. Katie put out a lil reward incentive for them but we told the students to not take matters into their own hands but to just tell us (we pictured them all showing up the next day with ‘our’ bikes…yikes).
So we just have my bike between the three of us, and I it’s a tiny lil bike for these ladies, but will have to do!
OUR VISIT TO SAN PEDRO:
The other intern Laurie from our University is teaching at a private school in the San Pedro so we decided to take a trip up there and check out her school. Wow, we couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw this school.
The woman who owns it is married to the distributor of Bowen and Bowen which makes them
millionaires. When she came to 
pare our experiences which sound like VERY different placements, she is hoping to make a visit here and check out our classes. We weren’t overly impressed with San Pedro, extremely expensive and we missed the friendly atmosphere of PG. Although, we were pretty pumped to find some clothing stores which sold swimsuits since ours are looking a little rough and a real supermarket complete with milk and good sunscreen….ahh the little luxuries we miss! Even though the school was incredible in San Pedro we were so happy to come to our safe little town of
Katie’s birthday was on March 10th and we went to Placencia to celebrate. As usual we had an amazing time just hanging out on the beach, playing volleyball and enjoying the good food and drinks. It’s neat because we have met a lot of the locals there and we enjoy reuniting with them to play some volleyball and hang out. We got Katie a massage for her birthday and she looked pretty darn relaxed when she returned. I think she had a great day chillin on the beach with her drink all nice and relaxed, good way to get away from all the crazyness of teaching for a couple days!
On Friday March 9th we went to 
to end up teaching, but after this experience I think I was wrong. I loved everything about this age group from their excitement and energy to their eagerness to learn. I feel as though my personality is suited for this age group and I could offer these students so much and they could do the same for me. I am so grateful that I have these practicums to realize where I feel I want to be as opposed to finding out by being in that position for a year.
Trish and Katie must have seen my enjoyment with this age group because they both agreed that this is where I should be. It was such a neat little school with only four teachers and
small classes. They have a big garden in the back which the students tend to once week and really work hard at. They were so excited to show it to me and I had about twenty kids pulling at my arms to come see it. It was a wonderful day and I really enjoyed reading, working and playing with this group of kids.
Hole In One!
Friday, March 7th, 2007
I am starting to realize that teaching is a lot like golf. At times it can be so frustrating you are stressed and overwhelmed. Even if you have put in the money and time for classes, you know all the strategies, tricks, nothing seems to be working. Then, when you least expect it….a hole in one! So rewarding, you realize why you love this so much and never want to do anything else. Well, I declare this week of teaching my hole in one week! The fact that last week was probably one of my most challenging ones so far probably made the success I faced this week taste even sweeter.
I am starting to see huge improvements in my students reading and writing skills. It is extremely difficult here because the class sizes are so large, and if I could I would work one on one with every one of my students, I would. Even spending five extra minutes with some of them after class you see improvements, so I can’t even imagine what twenty to thirty a minutes a day would do. But, I have tried to be patient, and do my best and I am facing some of the most rewarding moments I have ever experienced in teaching. One student in particular holds a real special place in my heart (I know, you aren’t supposed to pick favorites), but he is what the locals would refer to as “a walkabout”. This simply means that he spends more time on the streets than anywhere else, and therefore has a bit of a stigma attached to him. For a couple weeks I would be lucky to get a word out of him and every time I asked him how we has doing he would reply, “not good Miss”. So I looked at the situation and realized that I needed to be persistent and reward him every chance I get with praise. At first it was a struggle, he could barely read or complete a sentence, but today when I was working with him he began writing a short story and was really excited about it. He loves being read to and is so into James and the Giant Peach that we are reading in class right now, he always begs for me to read one more chapter. I notice a whole new confidence in himself and his writing. He is starting to actively engage in class shooting his hand up often to share his answer without any concern of being wrong.
The problem is that since the class sizes are so large, and there simply aren’t the resources here so many kids slip through the cracks. Back home that is not an option we pride ourselves in the fact that no child is left behind, but that is easy to say when we have classroom aides, social services, school psychiatrists etc. Not to mention smaller class sizes. I have had some really informative conversations with my teacher about some of the struggles that occur here and it is hard for me to wrap my mind around the home lives that some of my students have to deal with. Some of these students are so mature and eager to learn, what they accomplish with so little is incredible. Some of my students inspire me with their eagerness to learn against all odds. I have such a short time with these kids and I will do all I can to help them academically and to give some of them a real sense of self worth. This week was so rewarding I am grateful to have this experience to grow as a teacher and a person.
God. It was so cool, I have never been of a movie set before and it was neat to see how everything runs behind the scenes. Since the film was about a Venezuela tribe we helped apply the tribal paint and dusted the actors making them all ‘dirty’. Trisha and I were shocked at how ordinary everything was, so similar to what we have seen in theatre, they even use the same products that we have seen. They seemed grateful that we could help and it was neat to talk to the local actors and get some information on them. At lunch I was fortunate to have a conversation with the director about his ambitions for the film and discussed some of his schooling and background. Such an interesting experience!
the race (not as many as the bicycle race though). The kids had a great time though and it is always nice for them to get out of the classroom and have fun, they don’t get too many opportunities to do so since there isn’t an available gym or anything along those lines. 
