Today (Thursday) was report card day right before the Easter holiday. I had the chance to play games and do fun activities with the kids all day. The kids really enjoyed it. The teachers also give out rewards for the top 3 students in the class and honor roll certificates so last night I spent a few hours making them out of construction paper.
As part of the activities we planned for the kids, Mariam, the intern working with ACES the crocodile conservation program who is staying at Pedro's with us, came and talked to the students. She talked to them about how to conserve them and all about the parts of their body and what they are for. She also brought one around and let the students all touch it.
If you want to know more about ACES, check out their website.
http://www.americancrocodilesanctuary.org
Something that has surprised me that I did not think I would be able to do very well is come up with lessons and activities to do literally a minute before I do them. I have talked about the Social Studies lesson I had to do in the last post that went very well. It happened again a few days later. Ms. Mazey needed to finish her report cards so she asked me to teach Social Studies. I asked her what she wanted me to teach because if it was something about Belize history, then I would not be able to. She told me to teach the mapp, so I had to come up with another quick lesson. The only other time I had to do this was with a science test. She said the students were supposed to have a test on the seeds of fruits. We had seeds from a project we had done so when she asked me to give them a test, I hadimmediately thought to walk around with the seed and have the students write down which seed it came from. When I suggested this to her, she didn't want me to do it that way. She wanted a way for the students to match the fruit to the seed so I had to use my non-existant drawing skills to draw fruits and their seeds. Somehow the students did well on this test.
There has been times that my lessons have not gone as long as I thought they would. I have been able to come up with quick activities to do with the students while waiting for the bell to ring. It has been great!
I knew going into this trip that planning activities on the spot would probably happen. I was worried about it because I knew I could come up with something, but I was not sure if it would actually be a good lesson or not. Every time I have had to do so, the lessons have ended up turning out really well and the students have seemed to enjoy them. I have been really impressed with myself. I feel like no matter what, I will be able to continue to improve this skill and use it once I am back in the United States!
Second and Third Graders at Murayville, here are my answers to your questions!
Bryson- I don't think a cupcake in the mail to Belize will last very long. Maybe we should save it for when I am back!
In math, I have been teaching my students how to tell time when someone says it is quarter past, quarter till or half past the hour. They also have been working on even and odd numbers, but mostly telling time.
They do not read as much as you guys do in class. They have 20 minutes after a break to read outloud and the teacer and I walk around to listen to them and help them if they need help. We work a lot on writing asking and telling sentences. When you guys write sentence you put a period at the end but the kids here call it a full stop! I have also been reading them a lot of stories and they like that a lot!
Teaching in Belize has been really fun! I am not sure where I would want to teach yet. I like teaching in the States and in Belize! They both have their pros and cons!
I do not know which day yet, but I will be coming back to Murrayville between May 6 and May 8.
What kinds of pictures do you guys want to see from Belize?
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