Los zapatos solatario...

This weekend has been very low key! I think we are saving up for next weekend when we go to the mainland. On Friday we went to my partnership teachers house. She made us dinner. John tried chicken feet! We went out after dinner with some of the teachers and had a nice time.

Saturday we hung out at the pool and I worked on my tan. Did I mention that I have already been mistaken for a local? Haha! I guess my tan is good enough.

On Sunday we snorkeled for a little bit and then Walter, the main guy at Pedro's, made us lunch. He grilled chicken and we hung out at the pool again.

We are at school today. The 8th graders are here to take the PSE which is placement test for them before they enter High School. Some of us are proctors while others assist in various duties. The tests seem to be similar to our standardized tests. High importance is placed on them. These students will be tracked by the grades they receive and there are two parts, writing and science. They are not taken lightly. There are confidential booklets and bubble sheets for answers. Number two pencils. It is like an EOC but the setting is very different. We have one child that does not speak English in one of classes that they are having an issue with. The test is in English just like the classes taught here. They are trying to figure out what to do to help him without breaking any of the test rules.

I have lesson plans to write and making a test for the Life Skills class for this week. I am also grading tests the biology class took. The teachers are putting us to work :) Tomorrow is class as normal. The kids had today off because of the primary school test. We do not have school Friday because there is a track and field competition. Some of the teachers are gone this week, including my partnership teacher. There is a field trip for the seniors in biology. They get to go to the mainland for three days to experience what they have been learning in class. So I am on my own Thursday and Friday! This week will be short but tough!

I love that the classes and the school are so open to the outside. I am sitting in the conference room of the school. It is a room with a table and some chairs where the faculty meets. I just saw a lizard run across the room! I tried to catch him but he got away. There are so many lizards here.

Another thing that we are seeing a lot of, los zapatos solatario! That is the silly joke we have running between the MAT students. Lonely shoes! There are shoes all over the place missing there mates. On the streets, in the trash. We saw one yesterday washed up with barnacles growing all over it. So strange....

More observations..

As I spend more time in the schools I am noticing interesting differences between schools back home and here and I thought I would share. I don't think I mentioned in earlier posts but the students and teachers wear uniforms. The girls wear a white dress with a tie. The tie color corresponds to their grade level (form is what they call it). So form one, which is freshman wear a green. Form two is yellow, three is blue, and four is red. The boys wear white shirts and pants. They all have badges sewn to their shirts that display the high school emblem. Teachers wear khakis and a white shirt usually.

On Fridays they are allowed a "casual day". But there is a catch...Students pay to dress down!! For example if a girls wants to wear makeup she pays a dollar. She must pay a dollar to wear flip-flops, and a dollar to wear shorts and so on. In the end the girl could pay $5 to wear what she wanted to school. By the way this is in Belize dollars. 1 Belize dollar is equal to 2 American dollars.

Another thing is the bells at school. They ring through a PA system set up in every room but they are not automatic. So if the person that is ringing the bells forgets or is not paying attention than they do not go off! It is so funny. Classes have a scheduled time to end and sometimes the bells do not ring. Teachers do not move and the next class does not begin till that bell rings. If this happened at home I wonder what the kids would do? There would be an uprising!

One thing I have forgotten to mention are the walks to and from school everyday. We walk about a mile everyday to school and a mile back. We do the walk again to go into town for errand and to eat dinner. It is expensive to rent bikes and golf carts here so we are hoofing it! I would say we are probably walking a good three miles everyday. It is worth it though. It is a beautiful walk every morning at about 6:45 am. I stop and get coffee and take in the scenery. At about 7:25 I get a move on. We need to be at school by 7:30 am. Every other day the teachers start the morning off with a prayer. They are extremely religious and most are catholic.

Speaking of this, the school rules and the classes are focused on this aspect of life. There are crosses hanging on the walls in most of the rooms and the students attend scripture classes. There are some rules that deal with the religious beliefs and morals of the faculty and the students. One that I found interesting was that if a female was caught pregnant she and the father were banned from school functions. If she is found to have had an abortion she is expelled. Wonder how this would go back home?

Some other random facts; students earn demerits that get them detention. Detention consists of staying after school to clean the yards. There is a strict policy of no gum chewing or eating in the classrooms! Students sweep the classrooms out at the end of the day. Its windy here and there is A LOT of sand. Students erase the board for the teacher after the lesson. Teachers NEVER erase the board at the end of class. Oh and chalk is like gold. Teachers have have their very own stash that they carry from room to room. I guess they are like the dry erase markers back home. Female teachers don't get called by their last name, it is simply Miss. Oh and seniors are still the teachers favorites here, just like back home :)

A little about my day at school and I will stop. Today we did labs in biology. We simulated the spread of a virus which is a lab that is similar to one we did in microbiology. Except, they put a nice catholic spin on it. I think it was a good lesson for the kids though. The virus was HIV. The students were put into different groups. Some were abstinent, others sexually active but used protection and some were promiscuous and did not use protection. They "exchanged fluid" meaning they mixed water with other students and their beakers. The fluid was water and one beaker had acid in it. The beaker with the acid and the water represented an infected person. At the end of the lab we used an acid indicator to show who was "infected". The lab went over well, although there was some giggles and snickers. I think it was a good lesson for the kids who might be thinking about these issues.

The last lab we did was one we did back home. Thank you to Mrs. Abraham. We extracted DNA from out cheek cells. It is an easy lab and one they had never done before. I think the kids really liked it. One girl said she would like to show her little brother. They all found little containers to put the DNA in to bring it home and share with their parents and friends.

To end the day we went to Mr. Kelly's for Johnny cakes. These are baked tortillas, kind of like pancakes, that are filled with ham and cheese. They served them with the best refried beans I have ever had. It was a nice evening of hanging out and meeting his family.

Tomorrow I teach Life Skills. This will be my first class. Wish me luck!

First Day of School

Today was our first full day at the school with the students. I was surprised with the classes and then again I was not, if that makes sense. I am beginning to see that these students and teachers are so similar here to the ones back home. The kids are crazy and full of energy. The teachers are trying to teach and write lesson plans and stress just like teachers back home. The classes here are shorter, only 45 minutes long and there are 8 classes a day. Another thing that is different is that when the bell rings the teachers move rooms, not the students. Students are in the same class with the same kids all day. The lack of resources at their disposal is also another difference. There are no power points and very few, if any, handouts. Most of the lesson is done on chalkboards and the students take notes in a composition book. There seems to be a lot discussion in class and the kids seem to be involved in their lessons.

I sat in a chemistry class where they were starting on environmental chemistry. I also sat in 4 life skills classes. This is a class that teaches children positive behaviors in their school and home life. Tomorrow I will get to see the biology classes as well as the chemistry and life skills. The students were very receptive and extremely curious about us. The kitchen staff made us the fish that we caught on Saturday. They topped it with a tomato, onions, and habenero and it was served with tortillas. The best meal by far! After school we sat in on a staff meeting. Yet again the similarities were striking. The principal was reminding teachers of certain things and they discussed children in their classes and issues that they were facing. The schools seem to be the same but I am sure that there are differenes that I am not noticing yet. Here are some goals while I am here in Belize: One, to see and understand how Belizean culture influences educational standards and more importantly, motivation for students. Two, to see how resources, or lack of, can effect how education is carried out in a developing country as compared to USA. Third, to see how Belizean schools carry out science instruction as compared to NC. And lastly, I hope to increase global awareness in students that I will have in the future with the experiences that I gain in Belize. I hope that reach these goals while I am here and find some answers to these questions. I want to be able to compare and contrast the educational systems back home and here.

After our staff meeting we walked back to Pedro's where we were interviewed by the local paper. I am not sure when the story comes out but I am excited to see it. Later we met with 4 of the teachers and they took us to a local taco stand where I tried empanadas. Delicious! Can you tell I am digging the food here way too much? :)

Fish On!

Yesterday has been the best day yet!! We met with the dean of the junior college and one of the teachers from San Pedro High School early this morning and they took us fishing. We chartered a boat from one of the oldest local fishermen on the island and he knew what he was doing! He took us out into what they call the bay, the waters between San Pedro and the Mainland. We caught over 90 snapper in 2 hours (plus a couple of grouper, a puffer, and an eel!).

To make things even more wonderful the Dean brought the ingredients to make fresh ceviche on the boat. We filleted the freshly caught snapper and ceviche on the boat for lunch. After we were done we headed back taking in the scenes and then had to....clean the fish, all of them! We docked the boat and used a cleaning stand right off the dock. And the visitors arrived. We had about 8 pelicans and three sting rays hanging out in the water wanting some of our catch. The pelicans were taking fish guts right out of my hands! It was so cool!

On Monday at school we will get to eat our bounty. We don't have a kitchen or even a fridge to hold the snapper in so the captain will hold them for us till school on Monday where we will make lunch for the staff and ourselves.

We ate dinner at a local hole in the wall called Pupuseria where they served authentic great food. The guys ordered pupusas which are corn tortillas filled with beans and pork. They were amazing. I think I hit the jackpot with the tostadas. But Dr. K showed us all up with the HUGE shrimp burrito that he ordered. I am loving the food here but warning, I may come back 20 pounds heavier! :)

Sub umbra floreo!

Well we are getting nice and settled in. We met with the high school staff yesterday and the entire student body! Little did we know that all 400 of the students were called into assembly to meet us. It was crazy! They all seemed excited, especially with Will the English teacher! The girls were screaming when he got up there (I swear it was like a backstreet boy stepped on stage. I will post the video, we have footage ;) They must love the gringo teacher! The school is small, only 13 class rooms and maybe 20 teachers. We met again today and are getting set up for Monday. We ate out last night and are experiencing the Belizean cuisine! The teachers shared their lunch with us yesterday, cow foot soup! It was good but I didn't try the tripe in it (shame on me!). I tried watermelon juice yesterday though, delicious! It is raining today so we are taking it easy around Pedro's. The Belizean motto is holding out to be true... sub umbra floreo which means "under the shade we flourish"! It is HOT here. But I am loving it. Tomorrow, snorkeling!

Good Morning!

Feeling refreshed and ready to go after yesterday. It rained here this morning but I am hoping that it will clear. The water is not working so I had to brush my teeth using a water bottle. I guess this is something that we will have to get used to. Many things we had at our disposal back home won't be taken for granted here. I already have a sunburn, if that's possible. I guess I need to get used to putting on sunscreen. Never had to before! Now where is the coffee?

We are here!

Well it has been a long day! We got up this morning at 3:30 am to be at the airport by 4:30. Our flight left at 6 am and we finally arrived in San Pedro at 1:30 pm (they are two hours behind Wilmington so it was really 3:30 our time). It was a beautiful plane ride here. Thought I might get sick a couple of times though! We checked into our rooms and had time for lunch before it was off to meet with the principal and teachers of Isla Bonita, one of the elementary schools on the island. Four of the interns will be working with them. The rest of us meet with the high school tomorrow afternoon to get things set up.Now it is time to rest up and eat some yummy Belizean dinner!