Bittersweet...

This week was our last week in the schools.  On Tuesday all of us that are Special Education majors were able to take a trip inland to visit a school exclusively for students with special needs.  This experience made my week.  The students there were just completely full of joy and my heart was overwhelmed with happiness.   Going to this school just completely confirmed that I chose the right major.  I felt so at home and back in my own element.  One of the students I met there Byron just loved to jump on us and just laugh and laugh.  He was so precious and was definitely soaking up all of the attention he was getting.  Another student Ed ran up to all of us when we entered his classroom and just wrapped his arms around us, giving us the biggest hugs.  This day definitely melted my heart and ignited my passion even more.

The rest of the week was spent at Isla Bonita teaching my last lessons here.  I taught angles in math and prepositions and conjunctions for language arts.   I am so thankful for all the experiences I gained from this field experiecne.  I have became more culturally aware of different cultures and learned how to teach off the fly without a lesson plan or technology.  I've also learned some Belizean history and a lot of interesting facts about the island. I had an awesome class of students who tried to teach me Spanish although they normally ended up all giggly because of my southern accent.  I have loved every minute here and I wouldn't trade this experience for anything.

One thing that has surprised me the most is that as a teacher, I can make a lesson up on the fly and just go with it.  In the states we prepare lessons days or even weeks in advance and rely a lot on technology.  I am one of those that heavily relies on a plan and structure.  From this experience I have learned that some of the best lessons can be made with a moments notice and zero technology.

I hope you have enjoyed my blogs, they have helped me to keep all of my family, friends, partnership teacher, and students informed of my experiences while in Belize.  I also have formed a new love for blogging because I now have a lot of memories saved that I may have forgot about if it weren't for my blog!

Community Service Projects

While we are in Belize we are required to complete 20 hours of community service projects.  Last week was our free week to complete these hours...

For my community service hours, I served in three different areas.  The first area was with SAGA Humane Society in Belize. The humane society here in Belize has a small staff and limited resources, so we decided to devote some of our time to help them in anyway they needed.   I spent 7 hours along with a few other girls from our group.  The first day we were there, we spent two hours fixing kennels, cleaning up the dog kennels, and washing the dog bowls.  The second day we were there we spent 5 hours painting buildings and dog kennels.  We also were privileged to get to play with all the cute dogs that SAGA had rescued!  The next service hours I did was with ACES.  ACES is the American Crocodile Education Sanctuary.  ACES devotes their time to educate the people of Belize about crocodiles and also protect them from danger and harassment.   A group of us went out with the ACES staff and spent three hours helping them pick up trash and break down crocodile cages.  This community service project took a lot of muscle.  We were using hammers, wire clippers, and even our entire body weight to tear down the walls to these crocodile cages.  The reason ACES needed our help with this particular task is because they are relocating the crocodile sanctuary due to people harassing the animals at their current location.  My final 8 hours of community service have been dedicated to writing a book for the children in Belize.  The book is called The ABC’s of the Belize Zoo.  I spent two hours at the Belize zoo taking pictures and learning about the animals.  One hour was spent working with Emma on the script.  The remaining 5 hours I spent on formatting the book, adding pictures, and translating the book into Spanish to be able to have a Spanish version for the students that predominately speak Spanish.