Here I Go Again!: Update Part 3: Work

So, I just realized that I haven't updated in almost 2 months. Sorry about that. I've been getting into the swing of things with working in the schools, and had a great trip back to the states to see my family and go to my good friend's wedding.

So, what do I do here?
Well, I am an environmental education volunteer. I am assigned to work at 2 different schools, where I co-plan and co-teach natural science with Nicaraguan teachers and help make school composts, tree nurseries, and gardens. I am required to work with 4 teachers, but I actually work with 5. At Escuela Benjamin Zeledon, here in town, I work with 4 teachers, 2 5th grade teachers and 2 6th grade teachers. There's a 5th and 6th grade class in the morning as well as in the afternoon, so there are some days of the week where I'm basically at the school from 7:15 a.m. until 5 p.m. (with a short break to run home for lunch). At my other school, in Valerio, a community that's less than 10 minutes away on the bus, I work with a teacher who has a multi-grade class of 2nd, 5th, and 6th graders. I'm there one day a week, and focus on teaching science to the 5th and 6th graders (even though that's only 5 students!).

I'd love to say things are going great, but that's never really the case in the Peace Corps. Some of my biggest internal struggles and challenges involve my disagreements with the education system here and the beliefs that many teachers have grown up with and therefore adopted. In the classroom on a regular basis I see mostly students copying what's in the textbook, what's on the chalkboard, or what's being dictated by the teacher, into their notebooks. When asked a question, the teacher either answers it for them, or the wording of the answer is copied directly from the text. And then when a test comes, students memorize the "guide" that the teacher has given them and write their memorized answers on the test. Everyday I struggle with the fact that THIS ISN'T LEARNING! The students aren't thinking on their own, being challenged, or actually understanding the content.

Part of cultural understanding is taking a step back and thinking about why people are the way that they are. In doing that, I can usually calm myself down when frustrated by the way things are in the schools.

The teachers that I work with have a lot less formal training than I do, and are not trained in current, interactive, participative methodologies--how can we expect them to do what they don't know?
The teachers were brought up in the exact same school system, therefore they are teaching based on what they know and experienced
Lastly, and most importantly, they are severely under-resourced. As much as I'd love to have them teaching like we do in the states, with not enough textbooks for every student, no classroom or school libraries, no paper or functional copy machine, and very few educational resources, it would be really difficult to teach that way. The resources that teachers have at their disposal are: chalk, a chalkboard, a few textbooks, their curriculum guide, and the students' supplies that they are required to have (pencil and notebook). Really they're just doing what they know how to do with the materials that they have.

That being said, I've made some headway with some of my teachers, and the kids love it when I'm teaching. We've been using interactive techniques, getting the kids up and moving, and having them work in groups more instead of just copying from the text or chalkboard.

One major success that I've had has been with the KWL technique and some of the dinamicas (active-type learning activities or icebreakers) that I've used. In case you're not a teacher or never had a teacher who used KWL, it stands for Know/Want to Learn/Learned. You basically just make a chart and before teaching a lesson on a new topic, you ask the students what they already know about the topic and write it on the chart (activating their prior knowledge). Then you ask them what they want to know, and write questions in the "W" part of the chart. After the lesson, you fill in the "L" with what they learned. It's an extremely simple strategy that I used a couple times with my teachers. And guess what....THEY STARTED USING IT IN OTHER SUBJECTS WHEN I WASN'T THERE! That's right...making strides. Another simple strategy that I used to ask students questions (a dinamica) is called "repollo caliente" or "hot cabbage." Basically it's like hot potato except the students are passing a ball made up of a bunch of pieces of paper crumpled up together. The student that ends up with the "repollo" has to take off a piece of paper and answer the question. AND I ALSO SAW A TEACHER USING THIS WITHOUT ME! Success! And the teacher at my smaller school asked me for suggestions on how she could be a better teacher! (It's nice to have these successes in writing, to remember on those not-so-successful days)

So, we've covered some interesting and not so interesting topics in science. Various systems of the human body (btw the endocrine system is BORING!), reproduction, the menstrual cycle, production of sperm, STIs, and HIV/AIDS to name a few.

Some of my most awesome lessons have included acting out the excretory system, kids walking the path that the sperm take when they leave the body, drawing an outline of a student on the floor and labeling the muscles, and making a model of the menstrual cycle out of plastic bottle caps. I've definitely learned to be resourceful and do whatever I can to get the kids actively participating and learning (as opposed to just copying and memorizing).

And then there's the gardens, and compost, and tree nursery.

Compost-- success. Did it a few months ago and now we're using it in the garden.
Tree nursery---sort of success. Some trees grew, some trees didn't.
Garden---we shall see. Everything has been planted. I was pleasantly surprised when I got back from my trip home and the students had almost finished getting the garden ready for planting. I took the big area that we had and divided it into 4 parts for the 4 classes that I work with (this is all in my school in town, the smaller one is way behind, but we should be planting this week). This ended up being a genius strategy because it created a competition to see which class could get the most work done. We have planted tomatoes and peppers in plastic bottles and have planted rows of sugar snap peas, spinach, kale, carrots, beets, cucumbers, lettuce, cabbage, and radishes. Now we wait to see if they grow. The radishes have already sprouted, so that at least gives me some hope.

So, that's what I've been doing for work. Another part of the environmental education project is working with community groups to do environmental projects. I have plans to start up a youth group with kids from the secondary school to do community service and environmental projects. I'll let you know how that goes once I have my first meeting.

In other news--

It's the rainy season. This is great for the plants because we never have to water them because it rains EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. I bought myself some rain boots, so now I'm officially prepared. I asked my host brother how long it's going to be like this (as in, raining everyday)....his answer...6 months. ahhhhh!!!
I got a puppy. Her name is Toña (which is the nickname used for Antonia, but also one of the two beer brands here in Nicaragua). I have no idea what "raza" (isn't it funny that they call them races of dogs instead of breeds?) she is, but the vet in town thinks she's got doberman in her. She's adorable and mischevious. She's definitely a Nicaraguan dog. She pretty much does whatever she wants, hangs out with the other dogs in the street, visits the neighbors on a regular basis, and eats anything. I was buying her dog food, but my host family told me I should just stop buying it and start giving her leftover people food because it's cheaper...can't argue with that. She also may have killed 2 of our baby chicks, but I'm going to go with "innocent until proven guilty" on that one. My favorite thing is when she just follows me around town and into stores and people's houses, but that's totally normal for dogs around here. Her nicknames include: chiguina, niña, Pancha (the uncle calls her that because his dog's name is Pancho), and sometimes Tortilla or Lola (because those were the names of the dogs of the other volunteers that have lived here with my family).
Toña has now been fixed. Which is a foreign concept for people around here. People don't seem to understand why I would make her have a surgery that's not "necessary." She's been walking around with a cone on her head for the past week, which people are also confused about. We've been inventing funny explanations for people like "it's so her head doesn't get wet" and calling her "lampara" (lamp). Although I feel bad because I know she was in pain for a few days, and the wound hasn't exactly been healing very well, I know it's for the best.

That's all for now. I think that's a pretty thorough update, if I do say so myself. Hope everyone's having a great beginning to their summer, and when you're enjoying the sunny weather, send some dry thoughts down here. I have a feeling this rainy season thing's going to get old really fast.