After a crazy week, this past weekend was exactly what I needed. On Friday night Morgan and I went down to the bay with our host mom. It is basically one big street party! There are people selling food and drinks all over, and there is a lot of dancing. In one of the intersections they have a big speakers set up and people are all dancing. It was wild! Thankfully we had our host mom with us as a guide and body guard. On Saturday Morgan and I were finally able to meet up with Sam!! We spent the day on the beach near Pigeon Island. We were able to catch up on how our experiences are going as well as get some sun. Sam's experience is bit different than Morgan and myself's because she is at a public school. The Montessori Centre is a private school and many of the student's parents have a higher socio-economic standing than those at the school Sam where is teaching. It was very interesting to hear how our schools differ. Our day on the beach was very nice! Sunday we began our Kweyol celebration with church in Monchy. After mass we walked around the celebration. There were people all over selling traditional Kweyol foods. It was very hot and crowded so we decided not to stay long. After the celebration we went back to Sam's house and relaxed on her porch. It was another nice time to catch up! Then around 4:30 our host mom took Morgan and I to another party. It was a small family party on top of one of the hills! The view was gorgeous! We had more traditional Kweyol foods there. For the past week I have been trying many different Kweyol foods and my favorite so far is the bouillon. It is dumplings and meat (lamb, pork, pig tails), and an amazing broth. It is similar to chicken and dumpling soup. After the party we came home and slept. Morgan and I were exhausted after this weekend!
Today was my first day teaching at school! I taught a science lesson about simple machines. It went very well! It is going to be a challenge getting used to teaching here though. I do not have as many resources as I do at home so I need to be creative, and not having technology available in the classroom is TOUGH! I am used to being able to show students pictures on the SmartBoard, or look up something on an iPad, but I can't do that here. Everything I wanted the students to have in their notes I had to write on the white board (with markers that didn't work well), and I teach science to both grade six classes so that means I had to write everything on the board twice. It may not seem like a big deal, but it takes a lot of extra time to write everything out while teaching. Being here has made me realize how much I rely on technology while I am teaching and what a wonderful tool it is to have. I take it for granted in the United States that if I want to show a Power Point I know I can, but here there is only one projector for the whole school to use. My teaching experience here will challenge me to think of new ways to approach my lessons. As tough as it is I know it will help me become a better teacher. I will continue to teach science for my remaining time here. I will up more classes as the weeks goes on as well.
Today was my first day teaching at school! I taught a science lesson about simple machines. It went very well! It is going to be a challenge getting used to teaching here though. I do not have as many resources as I do at home so I need to be creative, and not having technology available in the classroom is TOUGH! I am used to being able to show students pictures on the SmartBoard, or look up something on an iPad, but I can't do that here. Everything I wanted the students to have in their notes I had to write on the white board (with markers that didn't work well), and I teach science to both grade six classes so that means I had to write everything on the board twice. It may not seem like a big deal, but it takes a lot of extra time to write everything out while teaching. Being here has made me realize how much I rely on technology while I am teaching and what a wonderful tool it is to have. I take it for granted in the United States that if I want to show a Power Point I know I can, but here there is only one projector for the whole school to use. My teaching experience here will challenge me to think of new ways to approach my lessons. As tough as it is I know it will help me become a better teacher. I will continue to teach science for my remaining time here. I will up more classes as the weeks goes on as well.