Today was my first day of school at La Escuela Z-13 (zeta-trece). Although the students were only there for half the day, it was still a full day with a lot of information to process because of meetings after the students left.
I found out my schedule, which while busy does not seem overwhelming. I will be teaching science and an oral comprehension class to 2 6th grade classes, 1 5th grade class, 2 third grade classes, and 1 second grade classes. I will also be teaching a small amount of English every day to a kindergarten class in the afternoon.
I introduced myself to all of the classes in the school, both the ones that I will be teaching and those that I will not be teaching. Most of the students were in school today, however certainly not all of them were.
I will really start teaching on Monday. I will be using the next couple of days to accustom myself to the school. I will start working on learning the students names and getting to know the other teachers who I will be working with.
I am excited for the school year. While I am nervous and feel it will be a long and stressful year, this is what I wanted. The classes are large, ranging from 20 to over 30 students, but I will never be alone in any of them. I will always have support from either the regular teacher or one of the other English teachers.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
First day of school tomorrow
I have my first day of school tomorrow. I am showing up at 6:45 tomorrow morning, with little to no idea of what is going to happen. I do not even know my schedule yet, though I do know which grades I will be teaching. Tomorrow I should find out my schedule, though there are no guarantees.
I have to focus tomorrow on only speaking English. While I am relatively pleased with my level of Spanish so far, I need to set the tone from the beginning that in the school I will only speak English with the students. With the other teachers the Spanish may come out, depends on their comfort level with English.
I am finally settling into La Fortuna and Z-13, so I am looking forward to starting school tomorrow. I still can not really wrap my head around the fact that tomorrow starts the school year and I am here until December. I am excited and nervous for tomorrow and for the rest of the year, should be an interesting time.
I have to focus tomorrow on only speaking English. While I am relatively pleased with my level of Spanish so far, I need to set the tone from the beginning that in the school I will only speak English with the students. With the other teachers the Spanish may come out, depends on their comfort level with English.
I am finally settling into La Fortuna and Z-13, so I am looking forward to starting school tomorrow. I still can not really wrap my head around the fact that tomorrow starts the school year and I am here until December. I am excited and nervous for tomorrow and for the rest of the year, should be an interesting time.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Commuting
I have a 30 second walk to my school. I am currently sitting outside of my house and using the wifi at my school. One of the best parts so far about living in Zeta-Trece is how short my commute every morning will be.
When I have a bad day, I will be able to walk home in two seconds and relax. While it might become annoying when my students know where I live, I will be able to escape inside or change quickly and go for a run.
While school starts at 7am, since I live less than a minute walk away, I should have no trouble arriving on time.
These small bonuses are what I need to remember as I embark on this crazy adventure. I knew what I was getting myself into and I know it is going to be a tough year. I will have to remember how grateful I am to have less than a minute walk to work in 65 degree weather year round, not a 20 minute drive in the bitter cold.
When I have a bad day, I will be able to walk home in two seconds and relax. While it might become annoying when my students know where I live, I will be able to escape inside or change quickly and go for a run.
While school starts at 7am, since I live less than a minute walk away, I should have no trouble arriving on time.
These small bonuses are what I need to remember as I embark on this crazy adventure. I knew what I was getting myself into and I know it is going to be a tough year. I will have to remember how grateful I am to have less than a minute walk to work in 65 degree weather year round, not a 20 minute drive in the bitter cold.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Finally in La Fortuna
Apologies for leaving the blog so silent. I am able to have internet in my host family's house at least sometimes, so I should be a little more active going forward.
The last few days have been busy, with a lot of time spent in buses traveling to and fro from San Jose- La Fortuna, then yesterday back to La Fortuna and then back to San Jose last night.
La Fortuna is really nice and I am really happy to be here so far. I still have plenty of it and Zeta Trece which I have to explore, but from what I've seen so far its really nice. There are lots of things to do, though unfortunately most of them are pricey because they are geared towards tourists.
In the near future I will be working on going to the watefalls in the area and finding some of the free natural springs. That will be a goal of this weekend, in an around lesson planning for the start of school next Wednesday.
Today we had a staff meeting of all of the teachers at the school I will be teaching at. I met the other teachers, which made for an interesting morning. The meeting was obviously all in Spanish, so my understanding got a good work out. I think I followed most of what was going on, but at times I lacked the context to figure out what was being talked about.
Tomorrow I figure out my schedule and which grades I will be teaching. That should be interesting, I need to figure out tonight which ages I want to ask for.
The last few days have been busy, with a lot of time spent in buses traveling to and fro from San Jose- La Fortuna, then yesterday back to La Fortuna and then back to San Jose last night.
La Fortuna is really nice and I am really happy to be here so far. I still have plenty of it and Zeta Trece which I have to explore, but from what I've seen so far its really nice. There are lots of things to do, though unfortunately most of them are pricey because they are geared towards tourists.
In the near future I will be working on going to the watefalls in the area and finding some of the free natural springs. That will be a goal of this weekend, in an around lesson planning for the start of school next Wednesday.
Today we had a staff meeting of all of the teachers at the school I will be teaching at. I met the other teachers, which made for an interesting morning. The meeting was obviously all in Spanish, so my understanding got a good work out. I think I followed most of what was going on, but at times I lacked the context to figure out what was being talked about.
Tomorrow I figure out my schedule and which grades I will be teaching. That should be interesting, I need to figure out tonight which ages I want to ask for.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Ware the Monkeys
One aspect of my trip to the beach which I did not mention yesterday was when a friend of mine was mugged by a monkey.
We were hiking through the small national park in Cahuita after we finished snorkeling. About 5 minutes into the walk we came upon about 10 capuchin monkeys swinging around and taking a look at us. They were really cool and we all took pictures with them.
After about 5 minutes of taking pictures one of the monkeys started to run on two legs after another woman not with our group. She managed to walk quickly away from the monkey and was fine.
The monkey then noticed my friend and started walking towards her. She was facing away from the monkey and did not notice the monkey until it was climbing up her leg. She stayed very calm even as the monkey hung onto her bag and she tried to shake it off.
After a minute or so she let the bag drop and the monkey rifled through her bag and found a half eaten candy bar and ran away eating the candy bar. My friend grabbed her bag and we walked quickly off before the monkeys realized who else had food.
The experience was unreal, that this small monkey would be so bold. Clearly they had figured out that a bag often meant food, or else the monkey smelled the food. My friend was fine and she was pretty nonchalant about the whole thing, impressively.
We were hiking through the small national park in Cahuita after we finished snorkeling. About 5 minutes into the walk we came upon about 10 capuchin monkeys swinging around and taking a look at us. They were really cool and we all took pictures with them.
After about 5 minutes of taking pictures one of the monkeys started to run on two legs after another woman not with our group. She managed to walk quickly away from the monkey and was fine.
The monkey then noticed my friend and started walking towards her. She was facing away from the monkey and did not notice the monkey until it was climbing up her leg. She stayed very calm even as the monkey hung onto her bag and she tried to shake it off.
After a minute or so she let the bag drop and the monkey rifled through her bag and found a half eaten candy bar and ran away eating the candy bar. My friend grabbed her bag and we walked quickly off before the monkeys realized who else had food.
The experience was unreal, that this small monkey would be so bold. Clearly they had figured out that a bag often meant food, or else the monkey smelled the food. My friend was fine and she was pretty nonchalant about the whole thing, impressively.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Cahuita and la playa
This past weekend I went with most of the other teachers to a beach on the Caribbean coast, Cahuita, which is near the Panama-Costa Rica border. Since there were 23 of us, we were able to rent a private bus for a reasonable price. The trip took about 4 hours from Orosi to Cahuita, which was not that long all things considered. Nothing like the 7 to 10 hour buses to the beach from Quito, Ecuador.
The weekend went really well. We arrived on Friday night and hung out for the night. Then we got up pretty early on Saturday morning and after a good breakfast at a crepes place we went to Puerto Viejo, which is a bigger beach town next door to Cahuita.
In Puerto Viejo we basically just walked around for most of the time. Some of the people and I were lucky enough to see some monkeys high up in the trees along the beach on a walk. The water was gorgeous where we were. There was a natural sand bar about 50 yards out into the water, which formed a little bay inland from it. This meant the water was clear and calm and no rip tides.
Both Cahuita and Puerto Viejo are an interesting mix of Spanish and a sort of Jamaican culture. Listening to the tour guides and vendors talk in Spanish was interesting, since their accents were so different than anything I had ever heard.
According to the 2009 Lonely Planet book I have, United Fruit Company originally brought Jamaicans to the southern Caribbean coast to form the backbone of the original banana republics. While each year the area becomes more and more connected to both the rest of Costa Rica and the wider world, it is still a very different feel from the other parts of Costa Rica which I have seen.
This week we are finishing up our training for teaching. Then this Saturday we are free to go to our sites, yet school does not start until February 10th, so I have a fair amount of time to both plan and to simply relax before the school year starts. The director of my school came to Orosi yesterday and I met him, which was interesting. This year will be his second year at the school, so now that he has experience with WorldTeach volunteers it hopefully will be an even better year than last year was.
Thats most of what I have for now, thank you for reading those of you who do.
The weekend went really well. We arrived on Friday night and hung out for the night. Then we got up pretty early on Saturday morning and after a good breakfast at a crepes place we went to Puerto Viejo, which is a bigger beach town next door to Cahuita.
In Puerto Viejo we basically just walked around for most of the time. Some of the people and I were lucky enough to see some monkeys high up in the trees along the beach on a walk. The water was gorgeous where we were. There was a natural sand bar about 50 yards out into the water, which formed a little bay inland from it. This meant the water was clear and calm and no rip tides.
Both Cahuita and Puerto Viejo are an interesting mix of Spanish and a sort of Jamaican culture. Listening to the tour guides and vendors talk in Spanish was interesting, since their accents were so different than anything I had ever heard.
According to the 2009 Lonely Planet book I have, United Fruit Company originally brought Jamaicans to the southern Caribbean coast to form the backbone of the original banana republics. While each year the area becomes more and more connected to both the rest of Costa Rica and the wider world, it is still a very different feel from the other parts of Costa Rica which I have seen.
This week we are finishing up our training for teaching. Then this Saturday we are free to go to our sites, yet school does not start until February 10th, so I have a fair amount of time to both plan and to simply relax before the school year starts. The director of my school came to Orosi yesterday and I met him, which was interesting. This year will be his second year at the school, so now that he has experience with WorldTeach volunteers it hopefully will be an even better year than last year was.
Thats most of what I have for now, thank you for reading those of you who do.
Monday, January 18, 2010
La Fortuna
This past weekend I spent traveling to and from my site, where I will be teaching. Friday night I traveled from Orosí to San Jose and stayed over in a hostel in San Jose. Then on Saturday morning the other two volunteers who I will be teaching with and I took the bus to La Fortuna.
I arrived at my host family's house at around 1:30 or so. While La Fortuna is the main town where the tourism industry is centered, I am actually going to be living and teaching in Z-13, or zeta-trece. My host family's house in Z-13 is right next door to the school's, I will have about a 30 second walk to my classroom.
My host family was really nice and I enjoyed spending time with them. The host mother is really funny telling me all about the other volunteers she's had who have left with Costa Rican boyfriends and things of that nature. I only met the host father for a minute or two, but he was welcoming. The daughter and son are nice too, the daughter is 21 and has a 1 year old son who is adorable.
I only saw the outside of the school, but it is beginning to sink in more that I will be teaching in that school for a year. Today we start Practicum in Orosí where WorldTeach offers free English lessons to the children of Orosí all week. I actually will not be teaching today, but I will be observing and tomorrow I have my first lesson with 1st graders. Then Wednesday another lesson with 1st graders, then I switch with another group and I teach fourth grade on Thursday and Friday.
I will be learning how to teach in a real classroom setting. Since the majority of my teaching experience is either on a lake or in a pool, this will be somewhat different. I am excited and nervous to see how I do.
I arrived at my host family's house at around 1:30 or so. While La Fortuna is the main town where the tourism industry is centered, I am actually going to be living and teaching in Z-13, or zeta-trece. My host family's house in Z-13 is right next door to the school's, I will have about a 30 second walk to my classroom.
My host family was really nice and I enjoyed spending time with them. The host mother is really funny telling me all about the other volunteers she's had who have left with Costa Rican boyfriends and things of that nature. I only met the host father for a minute or two, but he was welcoming. The daughter and son are nice too, the daughter is 21 and has a 1 year old son who is adorable.
I only saw the outside of the school, but it is beginning to sink in more that I will be teaching in that school for a year. Today we start Practicum in Orosí where WorldTeach offers free English lessons to the children of Orosí all week. I actually will not be teaching today, but I will be observing and tomorrow I have my first lesson with 1st graders. Then Wednesday another lesson with 1st graders, then I switch with another group and I teach fourth grade on Thursday and Friday.
I will be learning how to teach in a real classroom setting. Since the majority of my teaching experience is either on a lake or in a pool, this will be somewhat different. I am excited and nervous to see how I do.
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