Student Teaching Week 14

A BREAK THROUGH IN CROSS-CULTURAL BARRIERS!

Can I please just say. "I'm feeling GOOD!"  

This week has been an incredible week. I think my adrenaline was raging faster than whitewater rapids.  I feel like I made several major break throughs with my students.  For the longest time in my teaching here at Belize, I kept hitting this wall with my students.  It felt like I was on one side trying to communicate and connect with the students who were on the other side only getting bits and pieces of what I was saying and only hearing about who I am rather than seeing.  This has created several challenges in my classes that I have been struggling with.

Well, fear no more because the walls are coming crashing down! What is breaking them up?  Well, for one, I finally had a couple opportunities to sit and chat with a couple students while working on the biodigestor.  We talked about our experiences, about what we liked to do, and where we come from.  Some of these students were excellent in my classes, others...eh....not so much!  Once they realized that I truly cared about them, they were like angels in my classes. Which I happened to notice this week.  

Secondly, I prepared a very challenging lab, actually on dissecting flowers, for my sophomore students who have me completely baffled.  The lab went extremely well.  At least in terms of previous classes.  EVERY student handed in the assignment to me before the end of class, they genuinely asked questions for me to assist them, and they declared their love for the more inquiry based lesson.  While the class still acted like a bunch of hooligans, I could see that I gained the respect of at least a few more students.  Cha-Ching!!  I'm conquering them one at a time!

Thirdly, I finally realized that I was talking way too fast and using words my students would not admit they didn't know.  I thought I was making sense, I thought they were comprehending yet I suddenly realized, that was NOT the case.  So I have slowed down in my teaching this week and it worked!  I could see a change in my students faces that they were actually on the same page as me.  

All of these major accomplishments were able to happen only because I spent a significant amount of time with my Belizean supervisor reflecting on my teaching and going through what was happening and thinking through the next steps to take.  

While it is sad that my teaching is drawing near to an end, I feel confident that if I stayed here at Mopan Technical High School for a few more months, I could have some pretty awesome classes doing some pretty awesome things.  This wall that I am attacking, is a stone wall.  It has to come down one stone at a time and that's exactly what I'm doing.  I'm identifying one problem area, creating a solution, and resolving it.  The changes I see are amazing!

In the two pictures below, you can see my students were butchering chickens.  Several times throughout the school year, the agricultural classes will take a Friday and butcher 100 chickens to be sold to school faculty, students, and community members.  In the other picture you can see some of my students taking care of their broiler projects during their double period "Practical".  These students are entirely responsible for the care and maintenance of 50 broilers from the day they are brought as chicks till the day they are butchered.

                                      

Next Week

Next Week is the last week of my student teaching experience.  So I will be wrapping up my classes and preparing to return to the states.  It is definitely sad to leave after feeling like I'm finally beginnig to make a difference in my classes.