Personal Journal for Week 12:
My daughter Huckleberry is joining me for the last few weeks here in Costa Rica. Like me she has school work to complete. She has been posting some of her work on her own blog (http://costa101.blogspot.com/). This week I want to write about completing my service work here, recent experiences in local public schools, and our trip to see Arenal (a volcano).
My Service Project Winds Down
While I am still trying to coordinate visits with regional Rotary Clubs with my students to discuss the possibility of future exchanges with the US(because of cultural differences this goal has been difficult to accomplish), my classes concluded this week. We celebrated with a pizza party at a local restaurant.
Recent Visits to Schools
Over the past several weeks I have visited several public schools in Costa Rica. Similar to my experience in while visiting schools in Mexico, I was impressed with the passion and dedication Costa Rican teachers bring to their students. At Escuela Anoches Bella in Santa Ana I met a wonderful sixth grade teacher named Patricia Benamburg Guerrero who beamed with pride over her students. Senora Guerrero teaches math, science, and social studies to approximately twenty five students. Her class is mixed ability. There were no textbooks or other books in the class (every classroom was the same) but the school had a nice library. The students wrote everything in their notebooks. They also glued in worksheets, newspaper articles, and other sources of 
information that they needed as they studied different subjects. During my brief visit in her class, she and her students were working on cards for Dia de Las Madres (Mother´s Day).
My daughter Huckleberry is joining me for the last few weeks here in Costa Rica. Like me she has school work to complete. She has been posting some of her work on her own blog (http://costa101.blogspot.com/). This week I want to write about completing my service work here, recent experiences in local public schools, and our trip to see Arenal (a volcano).My Service Project Winds Down
While I am still trying to coordinate visits with regional Rotary Clubs with my students to discuss the possibility of future exchanges with the US(because of cultural differences this goal has been difficult to accomplish), my classes concluded this week. We celebrated with a pizza party at a local restaurant.
Recent Visits to Schools
Over the past several weeks I have visited several public schools in Costa Rica. Similar to my experience in while visiting schools in Mexico, I was impressed with the passion and dedication Costa Rican teachers bring to their students. At Escuela Anoches Bella in Santa Ana I met a wonderful sixth grade teacher named Patricia Benamburg Guerrero who beamed with pride over her students. Senora Guerrero teaches math, science, and social studies to approximately twenty five students. Her class is mixed ability. There were no textbooks or other books in the class (every classroom was the same) but the school had a nice library. The students wrote everything in their notebooks. They also glued in worksheets, newspaper articles, and other sources of information that they needed as they studied different subjects. During my brief visit in her class, she and her students were working on cards for Dia de Las Madres (Mother´s Day).While schools here would lack many of the resources our schools have in the United States, Costa Rica´s literacy rate is approaching the level of many other rapidly developing nations and is the highest in Central America. While the classrooms are sparse, students in these schools have more access to written materials than their counterparts in Mexico (which would suggest why their literacy rates are slightly lower than Costa Rica).
Although one teacher told me her class was one hundred percent proficient, the director of another school said her students were only seventy to eighty percent proficient on yearly assessments. The director felt that issues of poverty (drugs, abuse, neglect), a complete turnover in her staff this year (teachers move to more affluent private or public schools), and the lack of resources necessary to teach adequately are factors contributing to the schools current level of success.
Students do not progress to the next grade without passing their exams. Some students are repeating the same grade for the third or forth time. While there are special education laws on the books, the schools I visited had no support or special accommodations for SPED students and all but the most severely disabled students were mainstreamed. I was not able to visit a facility for these students but as far as I know at this point they are taught in separate facilities.
While I wish I could help these schools more, I couldn’t help but admire what the teachers were trying to do for their students. On more than one occasion I was warmly invited into different classrooms to share different projects and talk to students. In addition to learning about the system of education here, the teachers in Costa Rica asked about schools in the United States (which I was glad to answer). The real value for us as educators here in Costa Rica and back in the United States is to maintain an open dialogue where we can learn, understand, empathize, and in the future support each other. I hope to return to schools like this in the future not just as visitor, but a colleague who can breach cultural barriers and initiate true partnerships for change and transformation. Both educational systems in developing and developed nations have something to offer and receive.
Living at the Base of a Volcano
Students do not progress to the next grade without passing their exams. Some students are repeating the same grade for the third or forth time. While there are special education laws on the books, the schools I visited had no support or special accommodations for SPED students and all but the most severely disabled students were mainstreamed. I was not able to visit a facility for these students but as far as I know at this point they are taught in separate facilities.
While I wish I could help these schools more, I couldn’t help but admire what the teachers were trying to do for their students. On more than one occasion I was warmly invited into different classrooms to share different projects and talk to students. In addition to learning about the system of education here, the teachers in Costa Rica asked about schools in the United States (which I was glad to answer). The real value for us as educators here in Costa Rica and back in the United States is to maintain an open dialogue where we can learn, understand, empathize, and in the future support each other. I hope to return to schools like this in the future not just as visitor, but a colleague who can breach cultural barriers and initiate true partnerships for change and transformation. Both educational systems in developing and developed nations have something to offer and receive.
Living at the Base of a Volcano
I am going to defer to my daughter´s website on this topic (see addres above) with the following addition. Seeing a large, rumbling and active volcano for the first time and living underneath it for two nights in our hotel is humbling to say the least. The power these geologic giants have to transform, extinguish, and support life is something to behold and I hope everyone gets the opportunity to see an active volcano in their lifetime.
¡Pura Vida!
¡Pura Vida!
No comments:
Post a Comment