Visiting the Sugar Cane Fields

This morning we visited a sugar cane field where 19 different Haitian families live and work. We did this as kind of a service learning project and to see how other people live in the DR because all of the students we work with are quite wealthy. This was a very eye opening experience that cannot be put into words.

Last night we made cream cheese sandwiches and filled a piñata with candy in preparation for the trip. We traveled far from Santo Domingo, toward the mountains that separate DR from Haiti. Once we reached the little village, children started running out to greet the van. By the time we got out of the van though, the children were all gone. We started handing out cups of coca cola to the adults sitting outside, and eventually the kids started to reappear. They had been called inside the change into nicer clothes because there were visitors! It was surprising because these people have so little, but they wanted to look as nice as possible. We handed out the sandwiches and chocolates, which everyone loved. I had some little “silly band” bracelets with the CMU Flying C logo that I handed out to all of the kids. They had no idea what CMU was, but they loved their new accessories! Then we set up the piñata. They loved it! When it broke open the kids were instantly in a huge pile on the ground, grabbing as much candy as they could. No one cried about being trampled or not getting a turn to hit the piñata or not getting enough candy. At home there would have been a lot of tears the way this game happened, but the culture is so different here. The older kids were so willing to share their candy with the little ones.

Next the kids started games of soccer and baseball. It was amazing how fast these little kids could throw a ball! And then hit it clear over the roof of a house! They were incredibly fast runners, too. It was very clear that they didn’t spend their afternoons playing video games inside like so many kids in the U.S. They were so happy to have just a flat soccer ball, a baseball, a bat, and a glove, it was remarkable.

It was astounding to see the huge gap between the rich and the poor in this country. I know it can be seen at home too, but it is so apparent here. Our students in the private schools are all very privileged, they have anything and everything they want and need. I know most of them will never travel to one of these sugar cane fields to see how others live…their families may even be the ones who own the sugar cane fields and provide the low wages and unsanitary living conditions. I hear my students, both here and in Michigan complain about little things that truly are first world problems. But then to see that this really is a third world country in some areas, and that the children are so grateful for everything they have, is just heart breaking.

I am so glad that we had this opportunity to help.

27 Charcos

What a fun day! I’ve been looking forward to the trip to the 27 Charcos for weeks, but I had no idea how awesome it would be! I was expecting to walk around the edges of some beautiful waterfalls and just see nature. Boy was I surprised.. I ended up hiking up a mountain in the jungle, jumping off cliffs, and sliding down the waterfalls. It was amazing! Oh did I mention that it is finals week back at CMU? So while everyone is studying this weekend, I have been fortunate enough to be a part of this great program that takes me to jump off waterfalls! How cool is that?!

We left bright and early at 5:30am to drive to Puerto Plata. We were the first trip out to the waterfalls today and we had two really fun guides, ChiChi and Moreno. We had about an hour hike to reach before getting to the waterfalls, which was great because it warmed me up because it was pretty chilly.

We made it to the first pool of water, and that was kind of a test run. We swam a little and jumped off a small ledge. I was terrified of even that little jump, but I had no idea what I was in for next.

When we got to the big waterfalls we had to either jump or slide, there was no walking around it. Sliding was fun, it was crazy seeing these natural waterslides made by water!

When we got to the biggest drop we could choose to slide down or jump off. At first I was going to slide. Jumping from 30+ feet into deep water sounded crazy. But then I thought that I should jump because a) I wanted to say I did it (and hopefully have a cool picture!) b) it would hurt less than the slide and c) jumping would be faster than sliding. So I jumped. After they counted uno, dos, tres about 7 times, I finally made it off the ledge. Clearly I am terrified, as you can see me flailing about in the picture.

I’m so glad that I did the big jump, it was a lot of fun! There was a little more sliding and jumping and then we reached the end of the waterfalls. After a short hike back to the buildings we were greeted with a delicious buffet, which was necessary after all the hiking and adrenaline rushes.

I thought it was interesting that admission to the Charcos, including a helmet, life jacket, and guide was only 500 pesos (about $12). It would be at least $75 dollars to do something like that in the states, I’m sure. And there were no waivers to sign, that would never happen in the U.S. Luckily no one got hurt, because our guides were so helpful and kept us safe. I am covered in bruises, but they were worth it! I have a trip all planned out now because I would really like to take my family to the DR. We could stay at Olga’s house in Las Terrenas and visit the waterfalls. The only expensive part would be the plane ticket!

On the van ride home I was reading the Hunger Games while everyone tried to nap, and I made a little friend.

This teeny tiny baby lizard crawled onto my finger and was just the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen. I didn’t know what to do with it, but luckily we were stopping for a baño break so I gave him a new home in a potted plant.

It was a fantastic day, and we have another interesting excursion planned for tomorrow. We spent the evening making sandwiches and filling a piñata with candy to take the the children at the sugar cane fields tomorrow. It will be a very new experience.

Visiting Other Schools

Today half of our group of student teachers visited other schools in Santo Domingo. We went to the International School first thing this morning, and wow, was it different from St. Thomas! I really like that it has an outdoor amphitheater, a pool (being built), a functioning library, an art museum, and it is more out in the country. All of the teachers that I met there seemed very nice, and the little kids were just adorable. Today was one of those days where I wish I would have been an elementary teacher instead of secondary. But since I’m a week away from graduation, I better stick with what I have, haha. I go back and forth a lot, I never could decide 100% if I wanted elementary or secondary. Lucky for me, I can have the best of both worlds by working in museum education!

After International School, we visited my school. We just wandered around looking at everything, which I haven’t even done yet! It turns out my school has a store, an auditorium, and tons of extra classrooms that I never knew existed! Next the group headed to St. Michaels, but I stayed at my school because I planned to go souvenir shopping with a couple of the teachers after school. We went to quite a few different places to get things for our friends and family back home. It was nice to see some different areas of the city, too! I am most excited for the sweets that I picked up in la zona colonial – dulce de leche and cacao balls.

We have an exciting excursion planned for tomorrow morning at 5am so I am heading to bed! I hope to have some really cool pictures to post from our adventure.

I forgot to write in my journal yesterday

Nothing overly exciting happened yesterday school wise so that’s probably why I forgot to write. The students were just working on their review guides for the most part. The government class presented the political parties that they created, so that was fun to watch! I saw some great creativity and heard some good ideas, too. The students here seem to know a lot about US government, even more than the kids back home! Here are their presentations:

This group of boys had the slogan “yovo: you only vote once.” Pretty funny!

Subbing in the DR

Today my host teacher was out sick so I taught all of the classes on my own! Normally that is not a big deal to me at all, I started subbing in Michigan over 2 years ago, and subbed all the time during my student teaching. Here school is so different, and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to exactly carry out the plans my teacher wanted because I didn’t have the right tools. Luckily she emailed me last night saying she might be out and left instructions for the day so that I was prepared with alternate ideas before I got to school.

Just Kidding 🙂 ….most of the time at least.

Almost all of the classed were supposed to do something that involved the projector – which I have no way to connect my computer to. I asked around the school but was unable to find a good solution, so I came up with other plans. Instead of watching documentaries we discussed study guides and I had a chance to talk with students to get to know them a little better. the 9th graders worked diligently all hour on their World History study guides. Almost all of the the 8th graders claimed to have finished ALL of the study guides for their classes, but I think they just said that because they wanted to chat. One of the boys just kept wandering around blowing bubbles, where he got bubbles I have no idea. We were supposed to play a geography game by projecting a map of South America onto the board, so I had to come up with something else. First, I tried to draw the continent on the board so that they could name the countries, but it turns out I can’t draw. So I found a worksheet in the desk (I hope it was okay to use!) and had the students use that to label the countries and geographic features. This worked well, but it wasn’t as fun as the game would have been.

It was kind of funny that I subbed today, because my teacher and I just talked about how subbing works yesterday. She said that if a teacher is absent, an aide from an elementary classroom will come fill in, but that they don’t really teach. Later, one of the other student teachers and I talked about this and compared it to subbing in Michigan. To be a substitute teacher in Michigan all you need is 90 credit hours of college education (in any degree/major), pass a background check, attend a 2 hour training, do some easy online training modules and then sign up for sub jobs! You don’t need any experience in teaching, and there is no interview. We couldn’t imagine if they did subbing like that here. I’m not sure any of the non-teacher subs would make it through their first day!

Overall, I survived my first day of subbing in the DR! I have always felt that flexibility is an essential part of being a teacher, and it definitely came into play today.

Done with My Final College Assignment!!!

Today my CMU professor came to observe my teaching for one last time. Now that it’s done I have finished all of my college assignments and am basically just waiting to graduate. Of course I will still be in my classroom here and will be teaching government for the remainder of the week, but it feels so nice to have everything else done! I think that my lesson today went well, my professor had some very nice things to say about it, as well as some helpful ideas.

My 12th Grade Government Class at St. Thomas School

One thing that we talked about was how facebook is used in the classroom. I know I mentioned it before, but I still think it is a really good use of technology. Each grade has a private facebook group (only students are added to the group and no one else can see it) where they can talk about class, ask the teacher questions, find assignments, and download powerpoints. Everyone in the states is so afraid of using social networking as a classroom tool, but I see it as a wonderful resource.

After we walked home from school (it was so hot today!) I relaxed a little and then got to work on some museum lesson plans. I officially start my new position as a Museum Educator on the Monday after graduation (not much of a break for me!) but I am working via email right now. I am really excited for the things that are coming up and I can’t wait to get home to work on new exhibits and play with the little kids! Even though my degree is in secondary education (grades 6-12), I love working with young children and have learned a lot about teaching them throughout my CMU education. A big part of my job will be to align our programs and exhibits with the topics and education standards that are being covered by our local schools, so I’m glad I learned all about the Common Core, Michigan GLCEs, and Next Generation Science Standards in my education classes. I have also learned so much about classroom management during student teaching, so I will be able to apply that to museum programs to make the experiences as enjoyable as possible. I also had my graduation party invitations sent out today, so it is starting to feel like “real life” is coming up really soon!

Monday #4

After yesterday’s adventure of getting back to Santo Domingo, getting up for school this morning was pretty tough. Most of us did not make it down to our 6am breakfast. Thank goodness for pop tarts!

School was pretty typical. Students are starting to prepare for their final exams next week so they are working on study guides. I will be teaching the 12th grade government class all week, which my professor will be observing tomorrow. I think that it went well when I taught that class last Wednesday, so I am hoping for another good lesson! I’m just a little worried, what if the class doesn’t show up? This is actually a real problem here, an entire class just might not show up. Especially if they have a test in the class period before.

I am still pretty confused about the test taking environment here. Every time our students have a test they take way longer than the 45 minute class period to finish it. Because of this, they miss their next class, and the next class we are supposed to have has to wait in the hallway. This would never happen in the schools back home. When the bell rang, my students back in Millington quickly made their way to their locker and their next class to avoid a tardy. Here, the bell means nothing. As a teacher used to more structure, and as a former high school student who earned the perfect attendance award, this kind of stresses me out. I am not sure I would ever get used to it!

I was quoted in CM Life! Read the article about student teaching, and share your thoughts

http://www.cm-life.com/2013/11/08/student-teaching-terms-lengthy-enough-for-students-faculty/

Read the article at the link above. CMU is considering changing student teaching from a 1 semester experience to a full school year. I am glad that I was able to share my opinion on this issue. Now I would like to hear what you have to say! Please share your ideas or experiences, I would love to hear from fellow educators. Take the poll below 🙂

 

On December 1st I built a Sandcastle, and other adventures in Las Terrenas

Due to Thanksgiving we had a 4 day weekend so we decided to take full advantage of it by heading to beautiful Las Terranas. It was quite the adventure! Here is the story of our trip.

Friday: We woke up bright and early to catch the 7am bus from Santo Domingo to Sanchez. We arrived at the bus terminal, bought our tickets, and learned that we would have to take the 8am. So we killed time by playing Euchre (I still haven’t gotten the hang of it). The bus was fantastic, probably the comfiest seat I’ve ever sat in, and the view was amazing! We drove through the mountains and jungle, saw rice paddies and other farms. We arrived in Sanchez, where we would take a taxi the rest of the way to Las Terrenas. Sanchez is an interesting little town…when we got off the bus we had no idea what to do. Men were yelling in Spanish trying to get us to take their taxis. Finally we found a nice taxi and were on our way. Here is what we saw on our drive:

Once we arrived at the house we rented we ran to the bodega to grab some provisions (mac n’ cheese) then headed to the beach! The house was so cute, and it felt like we were in the jungle!

Saturday: We woke up early because the roosters were crowing (literally, there were so many chickens) and we wanted to see the sunrise.

We spent most of the day at the beach, or relaxing around the house. I think we all read more this weekend than during all of our student teaching combined, I know I did. I have really missed having time to read! The beach was so perfect, it doesn’t even look real.

That afternoon we headed into town for dinner and shopping. First we found the ATM. I randomly withdrew 5000 pesos because I am bad at math and never know how much money it is, but this will become very important later. We checked out the souvenir shops for a while then found a little Italian restaurant. This is when things started to get weird. A man on crutches came into the restaurant and started begging us for money in French and showing us all sorts of injuries. We couldn’t get him to leave and the restaurant workers were not doing anything. Finally he left. Then we sat at a little beach bar when a man with a guitar came to sing for us. It was very strange, then he asked for money. We decided to find somewhere else to hang out when a man (very intoxicated) started following us and trying to get us to buy illegal things from him. It was scary because he would not let go of Bret’s shoulder and we tried everything to lose him. Luckily, we happened upon the taxi who had driven us into town so we quickly hopped in and took off. Then the taxi charged us an insane amount, but we were just glad to be back to our house.

Sunday: I spent most of the morning enjoying the hammock on our porch before heading down to the beach. (Notice my tan is not coming along very well)

At the beach we played in the waves, relaxed in the sun, and I built a sandcastle! It did not seem like it could possibly be December, but I know that it is snowy at home!

At 3pm we took a taxi back to Sanchez to catch our bus home. We got our bus tickets, but the man told us it would be a 4 hour ride home! With that as our only option, we ran across the street to a store to pick up some snacks for the ride. We were planning to catch the 4:30 bus. A bus pulled up at 4, and we ran over to get on. The bus driver said this was not the bus to take to Santo Domingo, and that we needed to wait for the one that would come at 4:30. That was all fine, we just thought the bus was early. We went to sit down in  the bus station and the ticket seller started yelling and banging his hands on the desk. He said we were supposed to get on that bus! Apparently the next bus was completely full and the last bus of the day. What were we going to do?!? Our options were: stay in Sanchez (not really a town I’d like to visit again, let alone sleep there), get a taxi all the way to Santo Domingo (so much money!), call our host family to come get us (such an inconvenience for them). The angry ticket man ended up helping us out by saying he would have a taxi take us to another station to catch a bus. He said our taxi was there and we walked out to find not a car or van, but 3 motorcycles. To have a picture of our faces at that moment… So, we rode 3 deep, with our luggage, no helmet, flip flops, through the mountain jungle, with strangers who didn’t speak English. I refuse to ride a motorcycle with my boyfriend, while wearing a helmet, in a town I feel safe in, but I didn’t have a choice here so I got over my fears right quick. The motorcycle Laura and I were on pulled off, and all I could think was that this was the beginning of a scary movie. We are getting kidnapped. Luckily Bret and Katie showed up and we went to a gas station.

Then the motorcycles were 1000 pesos each. Everyone else just had some random coins with them, maybe 50 pesos. That wasn’t going to cut it. Then there was me, with my 5000. (It’s so weird to say I took out 5 grand from an ATM) I was so glad that I’m so bad at math, because I don’t know what would have happened if we didn’t have the 3000 pesos to pay these guys.This is where we were dropped off:

So we waited at this gas station for the next bus. We were thrilled to find that the guy working there was from New York, and spoke English! And they had a credit card machine so we could buy some snacks. We were so nervous about making our bus, otherwise we would sleep at this gas station. We tried to get on the wrong bus twice, but the nice New Yorker saved us. Then the correct bus showed up, but every seat was taken! We convinced them to let us stand in the aisles for the 2 hour drive back to Santo Domingo.The nice man I was standing next to gave me his seat after an hour.

Finally, we made it to the bus station. I’ve never been so happy to be in the crazy city of Santo Domingo. We grabbed a taxi and headed home where Adela, Estela, and Lula were so happy to see us. They cooked us some amazing chimichangas and it felt like the best meal I’ve ever eaten after a day of eating only chips.

Overall, it was the most relaxing, yet most stressful trip I’ve ever been on. Thank goodness for Sam who speaks fluent Spanish, and for my bad math at the ATM. Otherwise we might still be in the Sanchez bus station.

Happy December everyone!

So Thankful to Be Here!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration today with our host family and CMU professor. All of us student teachers woke up, watched a bit of the Thanksgiving parade and headed to the grocery store to prepare for our feast. We cooked for our host family because they take such good care of us every other day. It turned out surprisingly well, considering we were not even sure if we could buy a turkey in the Dominican Republic. I made pumpkin pies, and realized that they do not have measuring spoons or cups, so it was kind of a fun guessing game. Luckily, the pies turned out fine!

Groceries purchased at the supermarket located in the mall nearby.

So much good food!

The student teachers sitting at the kids table.

The whole family 🙂

So proud of my pies!

 

It was a lot of fun to celebrate Thanksgiving in another country, it turned out to be quite the adventure! We are so excited to be heading to Las Terrenas for the weekend. It will be great to relax on the beach some more and see another part of the island.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!