My Classroom!

Today was the day before the two week Easter break so the kids were pretty hyper! Overall my classroom experiences have been going great! Ms. Andrea has done a great job of making me feel like one of her colleagues instead of an intern. We have been working together to try to implement new techniques in the class room. One thing I have felt unprepared to handle in the classroom was the level of noise in the classroom. A lot of times, the teachers just yell over the students when teaching the lessons. This has been really hard for me since I am pretty controlling when it comes to the level of noise in the classroom. I have taken tips from Ms. Andrea as to what is and is not acceptable in the classroom as ways to guide my classroom management techniques. I have tried to get the students to raise their hands instead of just shouting out answers so that everyone has time to think through the problems. Another thing that surprised me was the amount of Spanish spoken in the classrooms and the teachers' lounge. It is a little hard at times to feel connected with everything that is going on when I do not always understand everything around me. In an effort to overcome this, I try to start conversations with students and other teachers to show them that I am open to conversation As a result, many of the teachers have been a little more open with us interns and have even started to teach us a little Spanish! I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring!

First few days at San Pedro High

Monday was our first day at San Pedro High School since opening day last week. Testing was taking place at the school so there was not too much to do. I did, however, meet the teacher I will be working with. Her name is Ms. Andrea and she teaches all form 1 classes. This will be her first time with an intern and I am super excited to work with her. At the high school, they use forms to describe the grade levels, so form 1 would be like freshman students. Ms. Andrea also teaches a business/computer class which is very different from high schools back home. Back in the states, high school teachers really only teach their content area but here they also teach elective classes. Something else that is different is that here in San Pedro, the teachers move from class to class instead of the students changing classes. I really like this idea, because it shows the students that it is their classroom which they are responsible for. The students are also in charge of the cleaning of their classrooms. Each of the teachers has his/her desk in a large staff room on the second floor of the school. Another big difference is that San Pedro High does not have any air conditioning, only fans. There is definitely not as much technology in the schools which has me really thinking on my feet! It’s neat to see all of the creative things the teachers use in their classrooms to make up for the lack of technology. One of my favorite parts about San Pedro High is their cell phone policy. If a teacher sees a student using a cell phone, they take the phone and the student can pick it up at the end of the year! I wish I could do this with my students back in the states.
Many of the students here are in charge of doing the physical labor around the school. One student I met yesterday was sweeping and mopping the staff room as a form of in school suspension. Having the students help upkeep the schools really creates a sense of community I think many of the high schools I have worked in previously have lacked.
Some times the schools here push students through to graduate early so you can graduate high school as early as age 16. To become a teacher, you only need to have a high school degree which means that some of the teachers are only 17 or 18 years old. I have found myself talking to people at the school thinking they are students and come to find out they are teachers! All of the teachers are super inviting and sweet. It is hard to understand some of the students since many of them speak to each other in Spanish and Creole. Their grade system here is only “pass or fail,” they do not use letter grades in high school.
Tuesday was my first day observing Ms. Andrea and the classroom dynamic is so different than what I am used to. The teachers literally yell over the students and the classroom altogether is much louder than what I am used to. The students will literally tug on your arm to get your attention which threw me off a little in the beginning. It is pretty neat to ride your bike home from school and pass your students on the way. Many of them are so friendly and seem to really enjoy being in school.
Wednesday, today, was my first day teaching in the classroom! I was a little nervous about writing on the chalkboard because I am really nervous about breaking chalk and scraping my nail against the board (sounds silly but wait until you are faced with it!). My lessons ended up going well I just need to work on getting to know my students. Some of my classes have 40 students in them which get really loud! I also have a hard time pronouncing all of the names; although, I give my students a good laugh whenever I attempt the names in my American accent. For dinner tonight, my two professors (Dr. K and Dr. C) took Parker (an elementary education student) and I out to dinner at this place called Caliente on the beach. The food was amazing and such a great treat after a long day! Afterwards, Parker and I conned Dr. C. into going to Pandulce (the local bakery) to get some baked goods for dessert! Needless to say, I will definitely be going back! Tomorrow will be our last day in the schools before they have a 2 week long Easter break. Next week we will work on our service projects which will consist of volunteering on the island to give back to this amazing community. Bailey (the other secondary mathematics educator) and I will be working on writing a children’s mathematics book which Dr. C will get published for us. We will also be volunteering at the local library to help with an Easter camp as well as walking the dogs at the humane society (who have never been on leashes). Easter is a huge holiday around here and we are all so excited to get to participate in the celebrations!

Parker and I at Pandulce- the local bakery!

Getting some work done in the staff room at San Pedro High

Steak fajitas from Caliente and I finally got some Guacamole! 

Everyone walking to school together on our first day!

Yoga Pier

Relaxing at the Yoga Pier

Bike Riding on the beach is a regular thing :) 

The beautiful Yoga Pier!

Girls at Hurricanes for our group dinner

Yummmmyyy Shrimp!

Blowing the Conch Shell!

The last two days have been spent at the amazing yoga pier resort and a place called Palapa’s! A few girls and I started the day off with a little yoga at the yoga room a few blocks over from our inn. This was my first time doing yoga and I couldn’t think of a better place to start. The instructor was so sweet and encouraging even though I didn’t always know exactly what I was doing. The views were breathtaking as the studio looked out onto the beach. Later that day, we took our bikes over to the north end of the island which was an awesome 30-45 minute bike ride. The first half of the ride was through the busy streets of San Pedro on cobblestone and the second half of the ride was on this dirt road full of potholes. I think all of us are a little sore from hitting all of the potholes. The views along the ride were awesome and biking on the beach was even more amazing. Below I have posted a few pictures of our relaxing weekend at the north end of San Pedro. One of the nights, a few of us girls rode our bikes into the center of town to try to find some dinner. Many of the local women put up tents in the middle of town by the cape fear inspired clock tower and cook different foods which you can buy for super cheap. I really loved the sense of community this town has. Every where we go, people are so welcoming and excited we are here. Sunday we rode back up to the north end and went to a place on the water called Palapa’s. They have tubes tied to the dock so that you can lounge in the water and drink smoothies. Needless to say, this weekend was extremely relaxing. Sunday night was our group dinner at Hurricanes which is a restaurant on a pier (like many other restaurants here). We are all getting so spoiled with all of the amazing views. Since there were 12 of us, it took a little while for all of us to get our food but luckily we had a really entertaining waiter. He taught us how to play 3’s which is similar to yahtzee. You basically throw 6 dice and pull out the 3’s which count as zero points. You have to pull out a dice each throw and in the end, you count up how many points you have. If the dice end up on top of each other, then you have to pay a dollar or in our case, blow the conch shell. I was the lucky one who stacked the dice first so I learned to blow the conch shell which was harder than it looks. We all got to bed early last night since today we are going to the schools.

Waiting for the World Famous Chicken Drop
to start

Thursday nights here at one of the local restaurants on the ocean front they hold something called the chicken drop. What they do, is take volunteers to blow in a chickens butt and then they spin the chicken around. After a few seconds, they drop the chicken in this gated square which has numbers listed on the bottom. Everyone makes bets as to which number the chicken will poop on. This was hilarious to all of us who have never seen it before but apparently it is a weekly event for the locals.

Birthday lady shaking the chicken

Looks like we have 2 winners: 6 and 96!

Bailey and I waiting for our meeting to start at the high school

Yummy Paella 

San Pedro High school 

Friday we woke up around 7 and all met up for breakfast. All of the food here in Belize is freshly prepared so when our group of 12 arrive at a restaurant, it may take a while to get our food. It is a really nice change to not be in a rush and just really enjoy the company of who you are with instead of worrying about cell phones and things.Our next stop was the schools to meet some of the students and teachers we will be working with in the upcoming weeks. We walked next to the sea all of the way to the high school in an effort to not be so hot. The high school was having opening day which is where all of the students hold different centers in the classrooms to show off what they have been learning. It was awesome to see all of the students so enthusiastic about learning. Many of the students told us that they love school and are super happy to be there. This was extremely refreshing considering many of the students in the states are not nearly excited about being in school. Some of the centers they had were math, language arts, Spanish culture, physics/science posters, and even a live zoo on top of the school. As many of you can probably guess, the math center was my favorite. :) The students came up with awesome activities to show off their knowledge of percentages, decimals, geometric shapes and numbers. They had games and even some laptop computers to display activities. Being at the school was probably the highlight of my trip thus far; i am so excited to start working with the students! After a long day, we stopped at Latitudes on the beach to get a smoothie before walking back to the pier to go swimming. Later that night, we attended Paella night at Pedro's Inn (the place we are staying). The Paella had mussels, shrimp, calamari, sausage, and chicken on top of rice and was amazing! It's awesome that our Inn has so many activities going on so that we don't even have to leave to have fun!

Views on the walk to school, I could get
used to this :) 

Clock Tower inspired by
Cape Fear Community College

View from the top of the school

Time for a mathemagical moment at San Pedro High

Some of the students at San Pedro High showing off their work!

First few days in Belize

Day 1:

View from the Puddle Jumper

Bailey and I started bright and early in the Charlotte airport! I was super nervous for the day considering I have never really flown before and was going to have to fly not once, but 3 times! I successfully completed all 3 flights without having to be searched or anything at customs. I now consider myself a professional flier since I took a domestic, an international and a local puddle jumper flight all in one day! The puddle jumper one was by far my favorite! We took this little plane to get from Belize City to San Pedro and the views were absolutely amazing; however, it was a little scary when we landed in San Pedro and the air strip turned into sand. The best part about the international flight into Belize City was that when we landed, we got off of the plane and stepped right into the fresh air of Belize!!!! On the plane ride there, Bailey and I sat next to a lady from Belize and she filled us in on a lot of cool local spots in San Pedro.
After lots of traveling, we finally got to Pedro's Inn, where we will be staying for the next 5 weeks. We immediately put our stuff down and hurried off to get lunch since we were all starving! We went to eat at this place called Estelle's which was right on the beach and I had amazing steak tacos. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring and hanging out by the pool.
Dr. Paul, the consulate of Belize, recommended we try shrimp burritos at this local place in San Pedro so we went there for dinner! I got the Coconut Cream Shrimp Burrito and it was delicious! I can definitely tell where the most of my money will be spent the next few weeks. After dinner, we were all exhausted and got to sleep early.

Coconut Cream Shrimp Burrito!

Day 2-
Woke up early and went to the local grocery store to try to get some water! It is soooo hot during the day so I wanted to make sure to stay hydrated! Unfortunately, there was no other way to get the 5 gallon jug of water back to our hostel except to carry it and boy was it heavy! The one thing I've wanted to do ever since we got here was swim in the Caribbean and so I set out on a mission to do that today. It is the most beautiful teal color I have ever seen. A bunch of us went and hung out on a dock and went swimming in the ocean which was awesome since you can see all of the way down to the ground. The water was extremely clear so it was easy to see all of the fishies beneath us. We got our bicycles today which was super exciting and nerve racking at the same time. Clearly there are not too many laws as far as driving goes around here so it really is just every man/woman for him/herself. A lot of people drive golf carts around and the roads are really hectic. There are also a million stray dogs around here! If only I could find a goldendoodle to take home with me :) Hmm maybe one day. Tomorrow we are going to see all of the schools which will be super exciting as well! For lunch we wanted to find a cheaper place to eat since we have been eating all meals at pretty touristy spots. We went into town a little bit and found this little stand which had the freshest watermelon juice for 50 cents or 1 Belizean dollar. The money situation has been pretty confusing since everything here is in Belizean money so when you pay in american dollars, they give you your change in Belizean dollars. This is definitely a test of my mathematics skills!
The internet situation is a little touch and go, but I will try to post again soon!

1 Day Before My Adventure Begins!

Yesterday we had our final meeting before our departure! It was really exciting to see all of my fellow Belize goers and talk about our future adventures! At the meeting, we distributed the many school supplies that some of the local schools and parents in Wilmington so graciously donated so that we can bring to the schools in Belize. 

School Supplies for Teachers/Students in Belize!

My Parents live on the lake- traveling
from one paradise to another :) 

After the meeting I drove to my parents' house in Lexington, NC to do a little visiting before flying out tomorrow morning. Bailey and I will be flying out together around 7:30 a.m. from the Charlotte airport. I am super excited about getting to Belize midday tomorrow; however, this means I will be waking up around 3:30 a.m. tomorrow which I am not too thrilled about.

Any room for Doodle? 

 My trip to San Pedro, Belize will be my first time out of the country and my first time through an airport! I have been on a small 2-3 person plane before with my boyfriend but that really has been the extent of my flying history. 

For those of you who have known me for many years, you know that I am an extreme planner and stickler for things going as planned/on time. For those of you who have been to Belize or have done a little research, you know that many people in Belize work on "Belize time" and are some of the most relaxed people ever! I am really looking forward to meeting new people and hopefully learning to relax a little while just enjoying a day at a time. I am also excited about getting into the schools and seeing how other teachers "do their thing." My nervousness about airport procedures are currently overriding any worries I may have about being in another country for the first time! Wish me luck and the next time I post I will be in Belizeeeeeee!