Week Two in Saint Thomas School

Today we taught 6 classes in my classroom. Mondays are our longest days because we have the 11th grade class twice, which is quite strange to me. Some grades we teach 6 times a week, others only 4 times. School schedules are much more consistent in the U.S. Other than that it was a pretty typical school day. Tomorrow is my first observation from my CMU coordinator while in Santo Domingo. I will be teaching an 8th grade geography lesson about Michigan.

Here are some other various observations I have made about Dominican culture:

• Though we all work in schools where the families are quite wealthy, there is a lot of poverty near where we live and teach. Every time we visit the convenience store there are little boys asking to shine our shoes for money. We saw one of the little boys pull his backpack out of a McDonald’s trash bin where he had been keeping it safe. (Not in the actual garbage, but inside the door of the cabinet thing the garbage bin is in.) It was so sad, and very eye-opening. There are also two Haitian women who beg us whenever we walk down our street. It is crazy to see such wealth and poverty so close together.
• When we walk down the street, men sometimes make comments or hiss at us. Men do not do that at home, so I think it is simply because we are fair-skinned, light haired, and clearly not from around here. We are all glad that there is one male student on the trip.
• We have also gotten special treatment at some places. For example, we went on a banana boat ride at Boca Chica and the boat driver got out the nice life jackets for us because we are white. It seemed so strange that he just came right out and said that he only uses the nice life jackets for the white people. You would never say something like that in the U.S! We have heard many different comments about race that are quite surprising.

Oh and the soccer tournament is still going on! We haven’t stayed to watch, but we see a little bit as we are leaving the school each afternoon. They sell Papa Johns pizza, snow cones, and popcorn, and it is televised, so I guess it is a pretty big deal! Go Falcons!

First full weekend in the Dominican

The weekend is just flying by! We have been having so much fun.

On Friday night Winston (he is the son of one of the ladies we are staying with) took us out with some of his friends. We happened to meet a guy who attended Western Michigan University while we were out, which was a funny coincidence because it is Central Western Weekend. He said that he felt obligated to hate us because our schools are rivals, but he taught us how to dance anyway. Salsa dancing seems so easy, but most of us struggled with it. I should have taken lessons before coming here!

On Saturday we went to the beach at Boca Chica. The water was beautiful and the perfect temperature. We played in the water, walked on the beach, and did a little shopping.

This is 5 of us with Estelle (one of the ladies we live with, in the blue) and Bernadette (the director of the international school, in the pink).

We also went on a banana boat ride, which was a blast!

Later on Saturday we went to dinner at Pizzarelli (a pizza place on our street) and then had a movie night. We watched the Great Gatsby with Spanish subtitles.

Today we just went to our professor’s hotel to work on lesson plans and then stopped by the mall for lunch. Now it’s time to relax and prepare for another week of school.

It’s Friday!

Today was a really interesting day at school. It was very busy and exciting. At the flag ceremony students running for student council positions gave speeches. They were pretty funny, it seemed like most of the students came up with their speech on the spot. Later in the morning they voted. I’m not sure when winners will be announced but it should be interesting.

I taught US History again today. We reviewed the progressive era by discussing political cartoons and making timelines. Here is the start of our class timeline.

In the class before lunch the seniors threw their annual celebration. There was music and dancing, confetti and cotton candy. The whole school gathered in the courtyard for the party. I have never seen anything like it. The seniors just started running through the halls blowing horns and throwing confetti and all of my students left my class. I was so confused. That would never be ok in schools back home! The rest of the day was pretty normal, considering all of the excitement.

Here are some pictures of the event.

We decided that walking home from school is much less stressful because driving here is crazy. So we walked home and immediately took a siesta because we all felt sick today. The nap and dinner helped a little bit. Now we are trying to decide what to do on our first Friday night here.

Jueves en Santo Domingo

(Jueves means Thursday for any non Spanish speaking readers)

Today I taught the 10th grade world history class about the American Revolution. Since it is a broad history of the world, we covered everything from the Boston Tea Party to the US Constitution in one class period. I like that the world history class is split between two years because there is more time to really get into the topics that students are most interested in.

In US History we finished up the chapter on progressivism. Tomorrow we will review the chapter with different activities and video clips.

It was kind of a crazy day because some classes had meetings so they didn’t come to social studies. There was no government class. I thought it was strange that the teachers weren’t informed of these scheduling conflicts.

As I mentioned earlier in the week, Saint Thomas School is participating in a big soccer tournament this week. Here is a picture of the soccer field located in the courtyard of the school.

Day 3 in the classroom in the DR

Today we had all 5 grades (8-12) in my classroom again. It looks like I will be taking over the 11th grade U.S. History class first. I have given the lecture the past two days. I am a little bummed out because today we finished the section on progressivism, which is a topic that I have a whole unit planned out for from my History methods class. I would have liked to test out my plans in a real classroom. But we are also moving into my favorite era, the 1920s, so I am very excited about that! Most of the other classes are still doing presentations, but I will get to teach a full week of government on my own. (It should be interesting, I haven’t taken government since I was in high school since I’m only a history major, not social studies.)

The students act so much different than in the U.S. They are just loud and rambunctious all day long! Sometimes I wonder how they learn at all, but they seem to be doing well. It is a much different classroom atmosphere than I am used to, but it is a different culture!

I have a few things to do tonight to prepare for the next couple days of school, such as find a video clip about president Woodrow Wilson, and an activity to review progressivism. I am also making a lesson on Michigan geography for my 8th graders.

Day Two!

Today my teacher only had 3 class periods – 11th, 12th, and 8th grades. I taught the 11th grade class about the Progressive Era in the United States. I think that it went well, the students had some great questions and seemed interested in the topic. The 12th graders gave presentations on government. The 8th graders have a test later this week so they worked on reviewing information on geography in North and South America. I’m looking forward to teaching more in the 10th and 11th grade classes, since the other classes will be doing presentations for most of my time here.

Some other observations from my second day of school:

-They do not speak English or Spanish, they speak Spanglish. Everything is a mixture of the two. For example they might say: Canada is bigger than the U.S. pero less people y cities. My teacher explained that they just use whichever word comes to mind first whether it is Spanish or English. I am glad I already know some Spanish!

-I learned that the majority of my students come from very wealthy families. They all have iPhones and macbooks.

-The teachers described Saint Thomas as kind of a soccer boot camp. Soccer is a huge deal.

-My students are all part of facebook groups where they can communicate with the teacher. She posts all of their assignments and powerpoints so that they can access them from home. I would love to be able to do this in my classroom at home, but everyone there is so afraid of using technology such as facebook as part of school.

 

Overall, I think today went very well. After school we had another delicious dinner, went swimming, and a few of us went out for a snack at a local restaurant.

 

First Day at Saint Thomas School

The first day of school started bright and early with a wonderful (as usual) breakfast as a group. We were picked up by a taxi and taken to school at about 7:15am. Samantha and I are both student teaching at Saint Thomas so we went together.

School started with a flag raising ceremony. They played the national anthems of both the Dominican Republic and the United States. Then, students went inside to begin classes. I am teaching Social Studies in grades 8-12. My host teacher seems very nice, and the students like her. I am glad that I know a little Spanish, because the classes switch between English and Spanish a lot. School is so different here.

Here are some other observations I made throughout the day:

-Class sizes are much smaller.

-Students are much louder.

-They like to crowd together in a big group rather than stay in rows of desks.

-Soccer is VERY important. (There is a big tournament this week.)

-Students wear uniforms.

-My school is air conditioned and very cold.

-The students are very good at reading aloud in English, even though it is their second language. I would say that they are better than most American students!

-My classes use American textbooks, and they are very nice and new!

-Students do not rush out of class when the bell rings. They kind of stroll in and out as they please.

I’m looking forward to great learning experience while I work with the students and staff at Saint Thomas! It was a great first day!

We Have Arrived in Santo Domingo!

So our group of 6 CMU student teachers has finally made it to the last part of our degree program! After arriving at the airport in Detroit at 4:30am yesterday we traveled to Miami and then to our destination of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic! We are staying in the cutest apartments with sisters named Adela and Estelle.

Last night we had our first “Dominican” meal of spaghetti. I thought that was funny because I went out for a big Italian dinner right before leaving because I thought we wouldn’t be eating any pasta for the next 5 weeks. After dinner we sampled some other Dominican things such as El Presidente cerveza, and coconut water fresh from the coconut. Then we went to the local mall for gelato.

This morning we left bright and early for a tour around Santo Domingo. There was so much to see!

First, we drove through Little Haiti. The Haitians sell their goods on the streets here. We also drove through Chinatown.

Next, we went to Los Tres Ojos (the three eyes). It is a national park of caves with three lakes inside. It was absolutely beautiful.

Another view from inside the caves. So pretty!

We saw many other national monuments and sites. Here is the palace built by Diego Columbus. He was the son of Christopher Columbus. The inside is set up as a museum filled with furniture and art from the 1500s, though it is not original to the palace because of a fire.

One of our last stops was a cathedral. We made friends with this guard. It was quite a busy day, we saw and learned so much!

The rest of the day will be spent grocery shopping and preparing for our first day of school tomorrow!

Last day of student teaching at Millington High School! What a great experience, and it went by so quickly! I have learned so much, worked with great teachers, and met wonderful students. Now that this part of my journey is over, I am excited to start my second placement in the Dominican Republic. Goodbye Millington, it was fun!

Great Work from the World History Students!

A few weeks ago, during our religion unit, I assigned a project. Students had options of presenting their research in different ways such as through a PowerPoint, museum exhibit, comic strip, essays, etc. I was very impressed by the quality of work presented by some groups. Below are some examples of creative projects.

These are artifacts created by one group for a museum exhibit project. They researched Greek Mythology.

These two students made a whole museum dedicated to the gods and goddesses of Greek Mythology! The detail inside is most impressive!

Maybe I’m a little biased because of my museum studies background, but I loved these projects! I think I may have created some future museum curators. As my museum studies advisor from CMU always says: world domination!