Final Post

Since last October when we sent out the acceptance e-mails, we have been looking forward to the International Teaching Experience (ITE).  The 18 students that were selected for the trip worked to raise funds, registered for a three hour class, and started the preparation for the trip.  They learned about the culture, history, geography, customs, government, and schools in Belize.  One of our partner schools in Belize sent us a list of topics in March, and the elementary education students focused on reading .  The CEHD students worked hard to develop appropriate lessons and gather resources and supplied needed to teach the lessons that they had planned. 

We arrived eleven days ago.  For six days, the CEHD taught in the schools of Georgetown Technical High School, Red Bank Primary School, and San Pablo Primary School.  We had to be flexible and make adjustments as we went along.  As part of the program, our students were paired with Belizean teachers.  They worked hard to learn classroom management, student names, routines, and culture.  The schools that we worked in embraced our students and made them part of their faculty.

Nina Beck and I have had the pleasure of watching this group of CEHD students in this experience.  They have done an amazing job.  They were well prepared, flexible, and embraced the schools, teachers, and children of Belize.  They were wonderful ambassadors for our College and our University.  We want to recognize their work and their dedication to being better teachers and world citizens. 

We also want to thank the families and loved ones of the ITE participants.  I know that it was difficult to allow them to travel to a foreign country for 12 days.  Yet, you encouraged them and supported them as they planned and traveled.  Please know how much we appreciate your sacrifice!  You would be very proud of how much they accomplished on the trip.  I know that Nina and I are proud of them!

We also need to thank our leadership team of Shavon Wagner, Tyler Morris, and Olivia Kaiser who worked tirelessly to make sure that all the logistics were in order.  They were a fantastic team!

Thank you for following our blog this week.  We appreciate your interest and support of this project. 

Best Regards,
Dr. Margaret Pentecost

Wednesday

We arrived safely in Belize City.   On the drive, we stopped at the Belize Zoo.  It was a good day to relax after a busy week. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Georgetown Technical High School

Student Reflection - Jamie

Hello Readers,
As we finish up our last dinner at Cardies, things are starting to set in that this amazing experience is almost over! Today was our last day at San Pablo and it was just as hard saying goodbye to them as it was to the kids at Red Bank. For the first hour, we got the privilege of watching the teachers teach their children. I have to commend them for their ability of using their limited source of supplies to do the same things we do in America. For lunch instead of the ol' PB&J, the teachers prepared a hot meal for us. It consisted of rice with chicken and slaw. It was absolutely delicious! During this time we talked to the teachers about our experience at their school and what we are able to take away from it. I know that my peers could agree that we are so thankful for the way the school and community let us come in and accepted us with open arms. As I wrap up my college career, with graduation 4 days away (YAY), I have been able to take a lot away from this trip. I am so thankful for this opportunity and for the adventures Dr. Pentecost and Nina have taken us on. I know that I will treasure every moment and picture from this trip and remember to always be thankful for the things I have, no matter how little they are.

Yours Truly,
Jamie Collins

Student Reflection - Jasmine

Today was our last day teaching and it was truly a bitter-sweet situation.  Before ending our day we were asked what we took away most from this experience. During our group talk I didn’t have much to say. But after some deep thought, I realized that this is one of the most amazing experiences of my life. After leaving Belize I will not only be a better teacher but a better overall person. I am now a more humble, appreciative, and resourceful person. When I get back to the United States there is no way I could ever go back to the person that I once was. I am forever changed.  There are so many things that I learned that I can bring back that can positively impact my future students in the USA. I originally thought I would come to Belize and have this huge impact, but I found that Belize had a greater impact on me. I thank God for this wonderful experience, it is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. I hope that all the other UofL students take away something great from this opportunity. I KNOW I did!!!

Tuesday Pics in San Pablo

 

Student Reflection - Emily

Hi friends!

            Today was our first day teaching at San Pablo and can I say it was an eventful one! First, we took the 9-mile long dirt road, which was about a thirty-minute drive off the highway.  We drove passed many banana farms and saw a few farmers picking bananas.  Needless to say, I’ll never take a banana I eat at breakfast for granted again! 

            When we arrived at the school, the students looked excited to see us.  It’s amazing to think that some of these children have never been out of their village and are so curious as to why I have white skin, light eyes, and light hair.  We started the day assessing the students to gauge their reading levels.  After our first break, we returned to the classroom and I read one of the classics, Corduroy to small groups and worked on phonics and sounding out words in the book. The story interested each and every student and left students smiling when we finished reading.  It goes to show the book’s message of the true meaning of friendship and acceptance is universal and unchanging wherever you go.    

During breaks between classes, the students got a kick out of taking pictures with my camera and seeing themselves on the camera screen. I will never grow tired of seeing their smiling faces.  Some of the girls took me down to the river and showed me where they swam and did laundry.  After showing my enthusiasm about the river and telling them how much I wish I could swim with them, they jumped in without hesitation in their uniforms and wanted me to join them.  I admire the students’ fun-loving attitudes.  Their ability to appreciate life for what truly matters in the midst of “poverty,” will undoubtedly impact my life back in America.

Thanks for reading!

            Emily Dahl

Student Reflection - Liam

Most people wake up on Monday's and dread the day that awaits them, we here in Belize were ready and relaxed after the long weekend! Good evening readers, Liam Corley here to blog a bit about my recent experiences in Belize. I guess I should start with a brief summary of this weekend's experiences and how it prepared us for our final days in Belize.

As you could guess, Friday we were all pretty tired from our exhausting but exciting week. Dinner on the beach with some native Garifuna dancers was exactly what we needed to get the weekend started off right. Saturday was nothing short of amazing. We had the opportunity to burn a little bit of our energy and go on a pretty lengthy hike in Cockscomb Basin, a Belizean National Park committed to the preservation and growth of the Jaguar population. Though we didn't see any Jaguars, the beauty that surrounded us was enough to get us through the heat and humidity and we had the rest of the evening.  As a team, we celebrated the Kentucky Derby Belizean style and relaxed with the great owners and employees of Cardie's, the hotel where we've been staying. After church in Red Bank Sunday morning, we spent the day at Belizean Dreams Beach Resort. My goodness was it beautiful. This being my first time on a resort, I didn't know what to expect but I promise it met any and every expectation anyone could ever set. 

After the relaxing weekend, we were ready for the next two days of teaching! Our elementary and early childhood teachers changed schools today and had plenty of new experiences at San Pablo Roman Catholic School in San Pablo, Belize. Everything I've heard so far from talking to my colleagues about San Pablo is that their experiences today were challenging but nothing short of a fun and educational opportunity. I, on the other hand, alongside Gillian Griggs and Sarah Flaherty returned to Georgetown Technical High school. I've enjoyed every waking minute I've had at GTH and was ready to start off my week on the right foot, the same way I did last week. Co teaching with my supervising teacher has been incredibly educational for me, I hope she feels the same way. I've had the opportunity of teaching Spanish to 2nd and 3rd form students, a daunting task but I was ready for the challenge. I've spent the past week coteaching concepts that have been previously covered earlier in the year as the students begin to prepare for their final exams and project presentations. As my last day at Georgetown Technical High School approaches, I yearn for the words to show my appreciation towards all those that I have been alongside in this journey. This includes the professional staff supporting and making this trip possible, my colleagues on this educational journey with me, and the amazing support and friendliness of the staff at GTH.

As our opportunity to teach is coming to an end in Belize, I'm lost for words as to how amazing this experience has been for us. I hope that this blog inspires others at Louisville, in Kentucky, in the United States, and around the world to take every challenging opportunity and appreciate that we have those opportunities. The amount I personally have learned thus far is not something that can be captured on a blog or in a book, but something that only you-- the reader-- can experience yourself.

I hope you've enjoyed this blog and gained a bit of insight to our trip.

Student Reflection - Ashley

This morning when I woke up I was filled with excitement because today was our first day at a new school- San Pablo. We traveled 9 miles down a very rocky road to get to the isolated village of San Pablo. Along the way we saw multiple banana farms with hundreds of bananas growing in each of them and we also experienced some bumps along the way (let’s just say the people in the back seats of the van went flying a few times). When we finally arrived the students at the school the students had big smiles on their faces and we couldn’t wait to get to know them and get to work.

The first thing we did was conduct reading assessments with each student in the school. We each assessed around five students in order to see if they needed to work on decoding or comprehension skills. Once all of the 115 students at San Pablo were assessed the UofL students broke into reading stations. About half of us led stations on comprehension and the other half led stations all about decoding/phonics. Each station lasted anywhere from 15-20 minutes each and once a group of students finished one station they moved to the next station in line.

My comprehension station focused on the book “Stellaluna” and taught the students how to identify the beginning, middle and end of a story. It was really fun because the students were able to actively participate by taking notes on their very own cut out Stellaluna (name of a bat).

During break time we brought out the soccer balls, beach balls and a jump rope. Just like home, the girls clung to the jump rope and mastered the skill very quickly and the boys darted towards the balls and were playing soccer and “catcher” (their version of tag) in an instant.

We then proceeded to eat lunch (the usual good ole’ PB&J sandwiches) in the church. We had multiple sandwiches left over and as a group decided that if we split up the sandwiches into ¼‘s we could hand out the leftovers to just about every student in San Pablo.

After lunch we played some more with the students and had the chance to interact with them. The students would forget to speak in English and would try to have conversations with us in their Mayan language. I had to tell them “speak in English; I don’t understand your Mayan”. They laughed and giggled at me and we continued to hit it off.

At three pm the school day was over and we all piled into the vans and headed back to the hotel. Overall today was wonderful and I cannot wait to experience another unique day at our new school tomorrow. I will leave you with this inspirational quote I found a few months ago:

“If you’re 22, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel – as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live, eat, and cook. Learn from them wherever you go. “~Anthony Bourdain

Student Reflection - Casey

Today was our first day teaching at San Pablo.  It was such an amazing experience working with these students.  We first did assessments on the students to determine if they needed help with decoding or comprehension.  Afterwards each ITE student had their own station where they taught their lesson in a small group setting.  The students rotated from station to station.  I really enjoyed teaching in the small group because I felt like the students were getting more out of each lesson and I was able to get to know a larger amount of the students this way than teaching in a large group setting.  I also think it was really benefical for the students because they were getting to complete many new activites as well as learning a wide range of informaion more than they would have learned if they were taught just one lesson.

The best part of the day was getting to interact with the students.  We all thought they were going to be really shy around us since we were the first group of people to come to their village to teach.  We were wrong!  The students were so excited to see us and made as feel more than welcomed in their village.  We played with a jumprope, they kicked a ball around, and we even taught them how to play Duck, Duck, Goose.  A few of the students even showed me around their village and showed me where they lived.  Afterwards some of the kids took us down to the river to show us where they spend a lot of their free  time.  The river was absolutely beautifull.  The funniest part was as  soon as we got down to the river several little boys jumped in and some of the girls jumped in the water in their school uniforms.   A few of them even swam to the other side and swung on the rope swing into the water.  Overall it was an amazing day and I am looking forward to going back again tomorrow but it makes me sad knowing tomorrow is my last day with the students and my last day in the schools on this trip.

San Pablo Teaching Day