Week Four: Last Minute Adventures

Well, our last weekend in Belize is upon us.  I have mixed feelings about returning home.  I am very excited to see my friends, family, and my bed. I am more than ready to gorge myself on delicious, All-American holiday food...but I will miss Belize, especially my students and the friends we have made here. 

We have made it a point to enjoy our last week in Belize.  We started the week returning from Placencia Beach, where we had a relaxing weekend by the water.  We stayed at the Maya Beach Hotel where we were some of the only guests.  We had the beach almost to ourselves, except for at meal times.  The Maya Beach Bistro is a very highly ranked restaurant in the Placencia Beach area and at meal times, people would flood in to enjoy nice dining with a gorgeous beach view.  Below are photos of our mealtime view and an order of fish tacos that I enjoyed with every fiber of my being.

We also spent lots of time relaxing in the hammocks..

And even spent a day doing some ocean kayaking...

November 19th (Wednesday) was a national holiday here in Belize, called Garifuna Settlement Day.  Garifuna Settlement Day celebrates the arrival of the first Garinagu to Belize by dory (a dug-out canoe).  Garinagu are descendants of two ethnic groups, Carib Indians and Black Africans, that lived on the island of St. Vincent.  This holiday is celebrated in all Garifuna communities throughout the country, as well as in Garifuna villages throughout Guatemala and Honduras.  The celebration can last up to a week long and includes parades, dancing, live music, drumming, prayers, and the election of Miss Garifuna.  Some Garifuna communities throughout Belize include the villages of Punta Gorda, Dangriga, Hopkins, and Georgetown.  San Ignacio doesn't have a large population of Garifuna people, but we did snap some photos of a few celebrators.

Thursday was an exciting day at St. Andrew's Anglican School because it was "Sports Day."  The staff put together different games and sports for the students to play all day.  The games were relay games and races and the students either wore green or yellow shirts for teams.  My class was part of the yellow team and the other Standard IV class was part of the green team.  Only about half of the students came because parents knew there were not going to be any academic activities happening all day.  Here is a photo of my Standard IV yellow team!

Although I've only spent a month with these students, I've grown quite attached to them and have gotten to know some of them really well.  One of my students, Beyla, is new to Belize this year.  Her family moved to Belize in June from Orlando, Florida to open up a restaurant and grocery store.  Our group stopped in for lunch at their restaurant, B'z Place, in Unitedville on our way back from Placencia on Monday afternoon.  Meeting Beyla's parents was a great experience. The excitement on Beyla's face when I showed her a photo of her mother and I standing outside the restaurant was priceless.  I hope to keep in touch with her and her family after I leave via email. Below is a photo of Beyla and I and the photo I showed her of her mother and I.

 

 

If you find yourself visiting Belize in the future, make the approximately 30 minute drive to Unitedville and check out B'z Place!

Friday was my last day teaching at St. Andrew's in Mrs. Cocom's class.  It was a bittersweet day.  The students made me good-bye cards and wrote me short letters and Mrs. Cocom got me an awesome beach towel with the map of Belize on it (which I had been wanting but hadn't talked myself into buying yet)!  Here are a few photos from my last day.

Today, we made the spontaneous decision to venture into Guatemala with our trusty friend and cab driver, Tosh.  We spent a couple of hours shopping in Melchor de Mencos.  Many Belizeans travel to this village to do their shopping for many reasons: it's only one mile across the Guatemalan border, only eleven miles from San Ignacio, has several more shops than San Ignacio, and the shopping is cheaper.  Guatemalan currency is the Quetzal, which is one for every $3.50 Bz (that's one for every $7.00 American)!  I bought a mini guitar that I hope will be of use in my classroom someday, a Guatemala bag, and some nail polish all for about $13 American.  We were nervous about having some sort of trouble at the border because Belize and Guatemala don't have the best relationship, but luckily we had a pretty smooth experience.  Plus, we all got to add stamps to our passports which we were quite excited about!

I can't believe this journey is coming to an end... I am so excited to head home in two days but I can confidently say that Belize and the community of San Ignacio will always hold a special place in my heart.

Until next time :)

Week Three: Culture Shock.... Sort of.

It's nearing the end of Week 3, and I want to talk a little bit about culture shock.  I've been to South America, so I didn't expect any kind of culture shock here in Belize after that. The national language is English, they were going to celebrate Halloween with trick-or-treating our first weekend here, and the people were said to be very friendly. But I have had culture shock.... sort of.

The first thing I noticed upon arriving in Belize was the vast difference in architecture of the homes and other buildings here in Belize versus the States.  We flew into Belize City and had a two hour drive from the airport to San Ignacio.  The typical home that we have seen here in Belize is bright-colored, open-air, and small regardless of the size of family living there.  Some homes are built of stone, some of wood or bamboo, and some of sheet metal.  Many homes, even homes that are quite far inland, are built up on stilts for precautionary measures during hurricane season.  In 1961, Hurricane Hattie hit Belize City, devastating nearly half of the city and causing the relocation of the nation's capital to Belmopan due to it's safer, more inland location. If not for their signage, buildings such as stores, schools, and police stations are sometimes unrecognizable by American standards. Below are some pictures of the architecture we've seen in Belize. In order, there is a home, a library, a supermarket, and a police station.

My next bit of culture shock came from the laid-back, slow-pace of lifestyle here.  Burns Avenue is the main drag for tourists here in San Ignacio.  We walk down Burns Avenue multiple times each day.  It's our way to and from school and the majority of shops and restaurants are located here.  We see the same faces every day, some of them workers at the restaurants and shops and others are locals who just hang out there all day, everyday.  No one ever seems to be in a rush.  Nothing starts on time.  If an event is supposed to start at 6 p.m., it may start at 6:05 p.m. or it may start at 6:33 p.m.  Now, I'm not saying this is a bad thing.  In fact, I needed a little of this laid-back, slow-pace atmosphere in my life.  It's just been an adjustment.  And we have adjusted quicker than I thought... going home and speeding back up may be the challenge now!  Here's a couple of pictures of Burns Avenue.

And a random fact..  Due to flooding problems, the dead here are buried above ground!  Here are some pictures of the cemetery just around the corner from St. Andrew's Anglican School, where I teach.

Probably this biggest contributor to my culture shock here in Belize has been the amount of stray and/or loose animals on the streets.  It is impossible to walk outside here and not see stray dogs.  Some of these strays are fairly healthy while others are skinny and mangy.  It is clear that spaying and neutering is not a very common practice in Belize.  Maybe because many people can't afford to take their pets to the vet?  There is a Humane Society here in Belize, but it is relatively new to the country.  It was founded in 1996 by two local Belizeans and two Peace Corps volunteers who were concerned about the growing problem of stray animals in Belize.  For many years, the government has taken part in controversial dog eradication in Belize.  Once a year, they put out food laced with strychnine, an aggressive poison, to try and control the stray dog population.  We are extremely thankful we won't be here during that time...

On a slightly lighter note, we have seen several horses and donkeys on the side of the road and even at the park.  Apparently, their owners don't necessarily keep them fenced in pastures.  It's not uncommon to see them grazing on the side of the street tied to a post while their owners go about their business.  Here's a couple of pictures. Note: the second picture is of a horse just feet away from a street sign.

 

 

One of the best things about Belize are the people who live here.  Belizeans are some of the friendliest, liveliest, most interesting people I've ever met.  Staying here for an entire month has allowed us to connect with some people here.  We see several of the same, smiling faces every day.  Here's a picture with our friend David and his brother and a picture and link to a video of Anthony Pitts, a flute-playing street performer who has been outside our balcony almost every night we've been here!  I requested Happy Birthday and he played it so that I could send it back to my little sister for her birthday.

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152391592906540&l=5513888582939303950

 

 

While we've had slight culture shock, I think we have all adjusted to the Belizean lifestyle pretty well.  Going home will be an adjustment!

Until next time! :)

Week Two: A School Day in the Life

Week Two in Belize has been just exciting as the first!  The girls and I have gotten settled into the slow-paced, laid-back lifestyle of Belize.  We have made friends with some of the locals, scoped out some really cool restaurants and shops, and are still living like tourists on the weekends.

For our second weekend in Belize, we spent Saturday doing jungle zip-lining and cave-tubing at Jaguar Paw.  The experience was unforgettable.  Our tour guide, Eddie, was very friendly and has been to Missouri.  He even had a Missouri driver's license!  It was fun to connect with a Belizean local who was also familiar with our home state.  Eddie was very knowledgeable about Belize's cave systems and gave us a very detailed, interesting tour.  The caves of Belize were once believed to be the gateway to the Underworld by the Mayan people.  The caves were massive, some containing mini-waterfalls and rapids.  The water was a beautiful turquoise and was the perfect, refreshing temperature on a sunny, 90 degree day.  Sunday was mostly spent relaxing, with a quick trip to the Cahal Pech Mayan Ruins, which are located just a 15 minute walk from our guest house here in San Ignacio.  Below are some pictures of our week two weekend adventures.

Our weekend was wonderful, but for this week's post I want to focus mainly on the schedule of a typical school day here in Belize.  As you learned from my blog post from week one, our reason for travelling to Belize for the month of November is to work and complete a portion of our student teaching in the schools.  Liz and I are working at St. Andrews Anglican Primary school and Chloe is working at Sacred Heart College, one of the secondary schools in the area.  I am working in a Standard IV (6th grade) classroom at the primary school, and for this post I want to share what a typical school day is like in my classroom.

School begins at 8:30 a.m., however most of my students show up early to work on completing their homework before school starts.  When the first bell rings at 8:30 (there is a series of 3 bells every morning, break time, and at the end of each day), the students must freeze.  The sound of the second bell lets the students know it is time to form their lines outside of their classrooms.  The third bell sends the students' into their classrooms.  Below is a picture of my Standard IV classroom schedule.

Every classroom at St. Andrew's has the same academic schedule, so everyone's day begins with their morning prayer, which is memorized by all students and recited each morning. This is followed by Scripture.  The Scripture lessons in my classroom typically consist of reading a Bible chapter or a parable followed by a discussion of the reading.  The teacher then writes notes or key points from the reading down on the whiteboard and the students copy them down into their Scripture notebooks.  Some of my students are engaged in the Scripture lessons, but many are disengaged because they are not of the Anglican faith.  Although St. Andrew's is an Anglican school, many parents send their children there because of their high achievement levels, not because they are Anglican.  In fact, about half of the students in my class do not come from religious families.

Let me take a moment to explain the timed schedule, student notebooks, and note-taking guidelines for St. Andrew's Anglican School.  The bell schedule at St. Andrew's is not automatic, it is a bell that is manually rung each day, usually by the principal or vice principal and sometimes by a teacher.  Lunch is not at 11:45, it is at 11:45-ish.  First recess is not at 10:30, it is at 10:30-ish.  The school days here are very much non-linear compared to the school days in the US. The students all have notebooks for each subject, plus an extra notebook for homework.  St. Andrew's is very strict about the neatness and precision of the students' notebooks.  Students must begin each daily lesson in their notebooks with a heading that is neatly written and underlined using a ruler. This heading is two lines, the first line stating their name and the name of the school and the second line stating which Standard they are in and the date. Starting in Standard I (3rd grade), the students are required to write in cursive.  Their handwriting is expected to be a certain size, not too big or too small.  The students must also use proper spacing between each word.  If the students handwriting and headings are not neat, they must tear out their page and start again.  The government comes into the classrooms periodically to check the students' notebooks, checking that they are neat and that the teachers have been checking off for their work.  Below is a picture of the students' notebooks and a picture of a student using his ruler to complete his classwork neatly.

After Scripture, the students move into Language Arts.  During Language Arts lessons, the students usually read aloud a short story out of their language textbooks.  The choral reading strategy is used most often because the school lacks an adequate amount of text books for each classroom.  When students choral read, it ensures that every student in the class will hear the story even if they do not have a book directly in front of them.  After the students finish reading their story, they lead a class discussion using the story questions provided in the book.  Then, the teacher makes notes of important details from the story and the lesson and the students copy them neatly into their notebooks.  You will start to see that lessons at St. Andrew's tend to follow the same structure each day: reading, class discussion, student's copying notes from the whiteboard.

Two hours into their day, students have their first 15 minute recess break.  At the front of the school campus along the fence next to the gate, there is a snack hut.  The students frequent this snack hut during each break, buying chips, fruit, candy, and drinks to enjoy before they head back to their classrooms.  Although the school has a swing set and a teeter-totter, students usually spend their breaks socializing and snacking.  Teachers do not have recess duty; students are trusted to carry on responsibly during their breaks.  At the end of break, the 3-bell system repeats again and the students freeze, line-up, and head back to their classrooms.

The next subject of the day is Math.  Teachers have a topic in math that they must focus on each week; the topic this week was long division. For many of my students, math is their favorite lesson of the day.  Math in my classroom is simple, yet interactive.  The lesson begins with a guided practice problem that the teacher works out on the whiteboard while students follow along.  Next comes the independent practice.  For the independent practice, students get to rearrange their desks into ability groups to complete the problems.  The higher students are at the front of the classroom and the lower students are at the back of the classroom.  The teacher focuses on the higher students for the first couple of days to make sure the students fully grasp the concept.  The last few days of the week are used to get the lower students up to speed.  Once the higher students have achieved success with the topic, they can assist their classmates in their class work.  My cooperating teacher does a very good job of switching up the materials she uses for math lessons; some days she provides the students with mini-whiteboards to work out their problems and other days she passes out problem cards and has the students work in teams to solve them.  The students really enjoy the different activities.  Below are some pictures of my students during math class.

The students' lunch period comes right after math and lasts from 11:45-ish to 12:45-ish.  The students are free to leave campus.  Some students walk home for their lunch break, some buy snacks and sandwiches from food trucks that park outside the school grounds, and some students even meet their parents at restaurants down the road.  The majority of the students spend their lunch breaks unsupervised. 

When the students return from lunch, they spend 15 minutes doing silent reading before moving into either Science, Social Studies, or HFLE.  HFLE stands for Health and Family Life Education.  The structure of these lessons is the same as Language Arts.  They begin with review and recall from the previous lesson on that subject, spend some time in discussion, and copy notes from the board.  However, I have found the HFLE lessons quite interesting because the main topic that they have covered since I have been here is HIV/AIDS.  HIV/AIDS is a much bigger problem here in Belize than it is in the U.S.  Therefore, secondary and primary schools alike spend time educating their students of all ages about the virus and disease, including what they are and the various ways they are contracted.  Below are some HIV/AIDS murals.  The one on the blue and tan wall is the outer wall of St. Andrews Anglican Primary school.

The last block of time for the school day is Physical Education on Monday, Spanish on Tuesday, Social Studies Wednesday, and Expressive Art (club time) on Fridays.  Thursdays are short days because the teachers spend the last hour of the day planning with their teaching partners. 

Physical Education is taught by the Computer teacher, the students simply refer to him as "Maestro" which means teacher in Spanish.  He takes the students to the park a couple of streets away and does an activity with them for an hour.  Although the classroom teachers do not teach PE, they are required to go with their class to watch and help with management.

It is mandatory for teachers to teach Spanish once a week for the students.  The national language of Belize is English and children are required to speak English in the classroom.  The students typically speak Creole in their homes, which is sometimes referred to as "Broken English."  Creole is a simplified version of a language and has been spoken by Belizeans of European and African descent for hundreds of years.  About half of my students speak Spanish in their homes.

Expressive Arts, or Club Time, lasts for one hour at the end of every Friday.  Students in Infant I and Infant II have a half day on Fridays, so they do not participate in Club Time.  Several clubs are held throughout the school grounds, such as Art Club, Dance Club, Choir Club, Band Club, Karate Club, Girls Sports Club, and Boys Sports Club.  The students sign up for their club at the beginning of the year and must stay in that club for the entire year.  Each teacher is assigned to a club.  The clubs are very laid back and are a form of entertainment and socialization for the students at the end of each week.

The last 10 minutes of each day is designated for Homework Time.  St. Andrew's requires homework every night in each subject that was covered that day.  For example, if Language Arts, Math, Science, and Spanish are taught that day, then the students will have a number of homework questions for those subjects that night.  The homework follows the same format as the rest of the written work in the classrooms throughout the day; it must be neat.  Homework is not graded but is used to give students practice in their learning each night.  Below is a picture of the homework my students had one day last week.

Typically, the teacher is still copying down the homework questions when the last bell rings at 3:10 so the students usually stay at least 10 minutes late each day to copy their homework down and say their afternoon prayers.  Once the students' homework questions are copied down neatly, they are free to head home for the evening. 

The laid back, non-linear school days here have been an adjustment, to say the least, but I must say it has been an interesting adventure!

Until next time! ;)

Week One: You Better Belize It!

My name is Shelby Sullivan and I am one of three student teachers who has embarked on an adventure to Belize to complete one month of my student teaching experience.  We attend Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, Missouri.  We are two months into our student teaching experience and we have all been teaching in local schools in Missouri.  I have been teaching at Columbia Elementary school in a 2nd grade classroom.  It has been a wonderful, eye-opening, and exciting experience thus far.

At 6 a.m. Monday, October 27th, our journey to Belize began!  Our flight arrived in Belize at 11:30 and we met Tosh, our charismatic driver, who drove us from Belize City to San Ignacio, the town in which we will be living for the next month, teaching during the week and being tourists on the weekends.  The drive was an adventure in itself, as we drove past several villages full of busy civilians going about their daily routines.  We saw children roaming the streets for their hour-long lunch break, where they are aloud to leave their school grounds and are on their own for lunch.  We saw construction workers laying cement in the middle of the street where passing cars didn't slow down or even make much room as they drove past.  We also a policeman napping in his vehicle on the side of the road.

When we finally arrived at the Casa Blanca guest house in San Ignacio, we were eager to unload our bags, find some lunch, and explore our temporary home.

Our first meal was at Han-Nah's, a restaurant directly across the street from our guest house.  I ordered the national dish of Belize, which is Rice and Beans with chicken, coleslaw, and plantains.  It was delicious.  Below are pictures of the guest house, Han-Nah's (the yellow building), and my meal.

Our first day in the schools was Tuesday and teaching may prove to be our biggest adventure of all while we are here.  Let me begin by explaining a little bit about the school system here in Belize.  Aside from the private schools, most schools in Belize are funded and ran by the church.  The church that myself and my fellow student teacher, Liz, are working at is called St. Andrew's Anglican Primary School. The levels in the school are Infant I (1st grade), Infant II (2nd grade), Standard I (3rd grade), Standard II (4th grade), Standard III (5th grade), Standard IV (6th grade), Standard  V (7th grade), and Standard IV (8th grade).  Liz is working in one of the Infant II classes and I am working in one of the Standard IV classes.  My students range from 9-12 years old.  At the end of each year, students take a test that determines whether or not they move on to the next level.  If they don't pass the test, the repeat that level the next year.  Chloe, the third student teacher, is working at Sacred Heart College, which is one of the secondary schools in San Ignacio and has students ranging anywhere from age 11-18.  She is teaching PE.

All of the schools are open-air, meaning they do not have air-conditioning.  There is a computer lab with old, bulky, Dell laptops that the students get to visit once a week.  This room and the office are the only areas in the school that have Wi-Fi.  Resources are limited, but I was impressed with my classroom.  It is very bright and colorful.  The walls are covered with student work, helpful posters, and management strategy signs.  My classroom has a small library which consists of one shelf with weathered books, but the kids seem to love it and get a lot of use out of it.  Below are some pictures of my classroom and my students.

 

There are some similarities between my classroom in the States and my classroom here in Belize.  Both classrooms have students seated in groups because the students complete many group activities throughout the school days.  Both classrooms also have management posters posted throughout the classroom, such as the pole that has "Things To Do When You're Done."  One really cool parallel that I observed this week was when the principle came into the classroom to teach a math lesson.  The topic of the lesson was multi-digit multiplication but when the principal was teaching, she realized that the students did not fully understand the concept of place value.  Therefore, she back-tracked her lesson to focus on place value and the importance that place value has when working with multi-digit math problems.  This was cool to see because the week before I left the States, my principal came into my 2nd grade classroom to co-teach math with my cooperating teacher and found the same issue: the students did not truly understand the concept of place value.  My students in the states were simply learning how to use a hundreds chart, but the understanding of place value was the core of that lesson, as well.  It was cool to see the principal come into both classrooms and teach the same thing two countries apart.

The biggest difference I observed this week was that schools in the States tend to be much more strict on behavior than the schools in Belize and the schools in Belize are much more strict on neatness and spelling than schools in the States.  Here in Belize, students are loud and rowdy.  Once the teacher stops talking, the students immediately begin talking amongst themselves.  Students interact more aggressively with each other here than they do back home.  However, they are very strict on neatness and presentation here in Belize.  Words must be spelled correctly, handwriting must be neat and the appropriate size, and rulers are used constantly for headings and underlining.  When mistakes are made, the students must use a ruler to draw one single line through their mistake, and then the word must be re-written.  In the States, handwriting is important but students aren't expected to all write the same size.  In the States, spelling isn't the main focus of writing.  Students are encouraged to use their "best spelling" by using what they know about spelling patterns to help them stretch and sound out words.  The last big difference I observed this week was that teachers in Belize leave their classrooms often to confer with other teachers, use the restroom, or make a trip to the office, leaving their students alone in the classrooms.  In the States, classroom teachers do not leave their students unattended because of the risk of something bad happening while the teacher out of the room.

So far, I have observed many similarities and differences between both of my classrooms.  I look forward to my next 3 weeks in my Belizean classroom and the memories I will make working with my class.

Our weekend held quite a bit of adventure, as well.  Friday was Halloween, or Day of the Dead, as some people refer to it here.  We walked the streets of downtown San Ignacio and handed out candy to trick-or-treaters.  It seems that children here don't go door-to-door, instead they trick-or-treat at local shops, restaurants, and pedestrians out for evening strolls.  Below are some pictures of the fun costumes we saw.

 

 

Saturday we were up bright and early for our first tourist adventure, the Caracol Mayan Ruins Tour.  Our journey began with a rather bumpy 2 and a half our ride through the jungle.  Once we arrived, we set off on a hike to the ruins.  The ruins that we saw were palaces and temples.  We were able to climb and explore the ruins and learned a lot about the history of the Mayans and how they lived their daily lives.  We also got to see some interesting jungle wildlife, such as toucans. We ended our tour with rice and beans for lunch and another bumpy ride through the jungle. It was quite the adventure!  Below are pictures of our jungle drive and the ruins.

This first week has been quite the adventure and we can't wait for what the next three weeks has in store! Until next time!  :)