It’s already been 5 weeks in the DR??

Somehow time has just flown by and we are heading back to Michigan tomorrow!

Last night we went out to dinner with our professor, Karen, our coordinator Bernadette, and our host moms Adela and Estela. It was so much fun! The restaurant was called El Conuco and besides yummy food there was music and dancing for entertainment. The dancers were so talented, I cannot believe the moves they were doing. The girls were spinning so fast I don’t know how they could stand up after. They taught some of us to dance too. I am an awful dancer and I didn’t want to be the entertainment for the whole restaurant so I joined the band instead. I do really want to take salsa dancing lessons when I get home because it looks like so much fun!

Today was our last day at school, and it was another half day of exams. My students took their Spanish and Sociales exams. I felt bad because I wasn’t much help to them because they obviously study Spanish at a much higher level than I am capable of and I do not know much about Dominican social studies. But, it’s not something I should worry about because I wasn’t expecting to become fluent in Spanish in the short time I’ve spent here. I took 3 years of Spanish in high school and an intermediate course during college, but it has been 4 years since I’ve used it at all, so it took me a few weeks just to get used to the language again. I was looking through some old papers that I wrote for my Spanish 201 class and I was pretty good at Spanish back then, I wish I had kept practicing! I was proud of myself for writing a thank you note to my host family in Spanish though! So when I get home, the plan is to take Spanish and salsa lessons!

Thank you to my host teacher, Ms. Pacheco, my students, everyone at St. Thomas School, my professors, my host family, and of course the other 5 student teachers for making this an unforgettable experience. I will forever treasure the memories made here!

Top 10 Reasons I’m Excited to go Home and Not Ready to Leave

I’m ready to head back to Michigan because…

10. There is hot water at home. I can’t wait to take a warm shower.

9. I can brush my teeth with water from the faucet without potentially poisoning myself.

8. Going to a restaurant and ordering a water doesn’t mean paying for a bottle of water.

7. Feeling like I will probably survive car trips. I feel like kissing the ground every time I step out of a car alive here.

6. I can drink milk! It’s weird how much I love milk (I sometimes drink a half gallon a day). Milk is so strange here, it is super pasteurized and is kept warm on the store shelves for months. I can’t.

5. Knowing how much things cost. 500 pesos? Is that a lot? I don’t know. Take 5000 pesos out at the ATM, sure!

4. Not getting hissed at every time I walk down the street. Yes, we are a group of light skinned and blonde young women, but staring and hissing is unnecessary, and is not going to make us like you, sir.

3. Normal doors. The door to my apartment has a normal lock, a deadbolt, a chain lock, a latch lock, and bars with a padlock. The hallway to my bedroom also has padlocked bars. It literally takes 5 minutes to get out with all of the keys involved. What if there was a fire?

2. Having independence. I love just getting in the car by myself and going to do whatever it is I need to do. I can’t even go to the grocery store alone here!

1. To see my friends and family, of course! So much fun is planned for this weekend in celebration of graduation. I can’t wait to see everyone!

I’m really going to miss…

10. Being able to count on beans and rice at dinner every night. Lula makes the yummiest rice!

9. Being greeted by Adela when she gets home from work. She is the sweetest lady ever! I’m going to miss hearing “Hola chicos! ¿Como estan?”

8. Practicing my Spanish skills with native speakers. I really loved talking with Adela in Spanish. I want to take Spanish lessons when I get home because it would be so great to be fluent.

7. Everyday adventures. If you’ve kept up on my blog, you know what I mean.

6. Warm weather. When I looked at the weather this morning it was 4 degrees at home. I was chilly when it was 72 the other day. I will be the one at graduation with a snowsuit, blanket, boots, and mittens under my gown.

5. Panadero! The bread seller rides his bike cart in front of our house every evening yelling panadero. Estela always goes out to buy delicious bread for us. How convenient!

4. Colmado. Basically a 7-11, but you can hang out with your friends and watch the baseball game over a cold presidente.

3. Knowing that the ocean is so close.

2. Relaxing on the patio with good friends. The 6 of us student teachers have gotten pretty close in the past few weeks. Spending our evenings on the patio with a game of euchre and conversation has been great.

1. Time passing so slowly. Dominican minutes last twice as long as American minutes. If it feels like I’ve been at school for 4 hours, it’s only 10am. It seems like we have endless hours of free time after we have finished all of our work.

 

One Last Trip to La Zona Colonial

As I mentioned yesterday, it is exam week for all 3 of our schools in Santo Domingo. All of use student teachers either have a half day of giving exams or no school at all, so our professor decided to excuse us from school so that we could spend one more day exploring and doing some souvenir shopping.

We went to the Colonial Zone this morning and visited a market. It was set up kind of like a flea market in the U.S. with people selling all sorts of goods. I was glad that we had Estela, one of our host moms, with us to help us barter. If she hadn’t been there we would have been charged so much more! We are not used to bartering at home, so it is pretty difficult, at least for me. Shopping was very overwhelming because the merchants were so persistent that we buy something from their shop. They would say things like “it is free to look” to try to get us into their store. I ended up with some very nice gifts for my friends and family, I’m so excited to see them in a few days! I also bought some jewelry for myself. I love wearing cute rings so I bought a larimar ring and an amber ring. Larimar is a type of stone that is only Found in the Dominican Republic. It is the pretty blue one in the picture. I have just always liked amber (fossilized tree resin) so I was excited to find that in many shops here too.

After the Colonial Zone we went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant near our apartment. It was delicious! I highly recommend Gastronomia Mexicana to anyone in Santo Domingo!

I forgot to mention in yesterday’s blog that I tested out Dominican Taco Bell. Anyone who knows me knows that I am quite the Taco Bell connoisseur. The verdict: Fiesta Fries are not as fun as they sound, but they have way better desserts than are offered in the U.S. I had a dulce de leche quesadilla that was quite yummy. Also, crunch wraps are crunchy wraps. Remember this, because I learned that they don’t know what you mean if you just say crunch wrap. I think it’s funny that there are so many American fast food and casual dining restaurants here and that they use the same (or very similar) names (in English) for the items on their menus.

Exam Week for St. Thomas and CMU Students

It is funny to think that this time last year I was studying for exams in classes such as Ecology, Education Theory, and Museum Programming and now I am sitting on my balcony in the Dominican Republic relaxing because I have completed all of the requirements for graduation. Graduation is THIS WEEK. And real life is starting Monday since I have a big girl job. How crazy is that?!

My students are under pressure this week too, because it is midterms week. Today the high school students completed their math and social studies exams during the half day of school. Tomorrow there is no school because it is a “study day.” Then another half day Wednesday. If exams were like that in my high school or college midterms would be a piece of cake! Like regular school days, exam days here are very different from what I’ve experienced at home. Students are still pretty talkative even though they are taking an important test. The teacher whose class the test was for would walk around to the different classrooms to answer questions. They were giving a lot of help because students had tons of questions. I felt like I was not very helpful at all today.This is what I accomplished: Helped a girl put her hair in a ponytail because she had a broken finger. Updated my LinkedIn profile. Made the finishing touches on my electronic portfolio. I did not know how to help because if it was my class I would have been much more strict on the talking issue, but I did not want to overstep any boundaries because I realize there is a difference in expectations here. Or maybe I’m just a “mean lady,” as a little boy at the museum once told me when I saved him from running into traffic…

Good luck to all my friends at CMU who are slaving over a hot scantron this week 🙂

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.

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.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Even though we are in a different country, we are still celebrating Thanksgiving just as we would at home! Our students celebrated at school today with a Thanksgiving brunch including all kinds of Dominican breakfast foods. (I have officially come to the conclusion that I do not like plantains, I think I’ve tried them in every form now.) I also taught government for the first time today, and I think that it went well! School is closed for the rest of the week for the holiday.

After school 4 of us student teachers stopped by a local colmado to hang out and discuss our weekend plans. Our professor even stopped by to chat. On our walk back home we stopped by the grocery store to pick up a turkey so that it could start thawing for our big feast tomorrow. I don’t know how much turkeys cost in the states, but 2500 pesos seemed like a lot! That’s almost $60! But we are trying to feed about 15 people. In addition to a delicious turkey, we are planning to make green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, and more! I am so excited!

We are also planning to stick with our other various Thanksgiving day traditions such as running the Turkey Trot (not me, I don’t run) and eating Lucky Charms while watching the Macy’s Parade (that’s my plan).

Tonight we are going to see a Dominican ballet, which should be very interesting. I hear that it is not like a ballet we would go to in the U.S., so I’m not really sure what to expect.

Week 3!

We are halfway through our Santo Domingo student teaching experience! =

Today I taught U.S. History again. We are still talking about World War I and I am having a great time with it. My favorite time period is from about 1900-1950. The world wars are a fun topic to teach because students find it very interesting and sometimes have stories to add if their grandparents or other relatives were around during the war. One of my favorite things to do while teaching about the wars is to analyze propaganda, it is a great way to see how people felt during the war, and how their government wanted them to feel. I will finish up the WWI unit after Thanksgiving.

In 8th grade Geography the students had a food day! They have just finished learning all about the North and South American continents so each student brought a dish from a different country. We had cheeseburgers and fries from the U.S., empanadas from Argentina, banana bread from Guatemala, nachos from Mexico and so much more! It was delicious. I thought it was funny that the student who brought nachos brought chips, salsa, and queso dip that were all Tostitos brand, and chili that was from Wendy’s. I would have thought they would have some delicious homemade nacho stuff down here, but they brought exactly what I would make at home in Michigan. Not that I’m complaining, I love Tostitos!

The 8th graders enjoying their feast!

Yummy!

Another random cultural observation is that Spanish is exhausting! George and I discussed this over the weekend while we were watching Semi Pro in Spanish on TV in our hotel. He thought the movie was just hilarious gibberish because he didn’t understand a word of it. To me it was almost stressful to watch because I was trying to keep up with what they were saying. This is how I feel everyday, because I understand Spanish except when they are speaking too fast, which is almost always. By the end of the day my brain is fried. I really hope that feeling means that my brain is learning more Spanish, like the way your muscles burn after a good work out. Reading in Spanish is so much easier for me, I think because I’m a visual learner, and because I can read at my own pace. I am so glad that I had really good high school and college Spanish teachers, because I would rather be struggling to understand than to have no idea what is being said at all. So a big thank you to Mrs. Chahbazi, Mrs. Cavric, and Mrs. Vernon for teaching me everything I know about this language!

Teaching 8th Grade Geography and My First University Coordinator Observation

Tuesdays are shorter days in my classroom because we only have students for 3 of the 7 class periods. It gives plenty of time for things such as lesson planning and grading. Today I taught the U.S. History class as we continued learning about U.S. Imperialism. I also taught the 8th grade Geography class for the very first time. My CMU professor came to observe my teaching for this lesson.

In geography the students are currently giving presentations on the different countries in the Americas. I interrupted their presentations today with a lesson on the geography of Michigan. I showed them how to use a KWL chart and we reviewed the 5 themes of geography while learning about the state I live in. They seemed very interested in the lesson, and had some wonderful questions, which made me very happy! I love it when students get involved with a lesson because they are genuinely curious about the topic. The students were very well behaved as well. They had so many questions that the lesson went right up until the bell rang, even though I had a few more things that we could have done in class. Both my coordinating teacher and my CMU professor both liked the lesson and provided some very helpful feedback.

 

I have noticed that I teach much differently here than I did back in Michigan, and I think there are a couple of reasons for it. Typically, I stand and move around the room more while lecturing, but here I feel like I am a little more tied to the desk because of the set up of the desk/computer/projector. Since I taught in my Michigan classroom for a much longer period of time, I felt more like the class was mine and I created almost everything on my own. Being here for a shorter amount of time makes me feel like the classroom will never become “mine.” I am okay with this because I expected things to be different, but I had gotten used to being the only teacher in the classroom and using my own materials. I guess I just felt more in control and prepared for my classes in Michigan.

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!