#leilak

Leila K.

#tbt Thanks to John and Costa at Beon Nights for reminding me of this late 80’s club gem! #robnraz #leilak #got2get #moveyerbutt #oldschool #hiphouse #housemusic #clubkids https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo0FYJTFVKn/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=squduiqqkkr5

Got to get and get again and again...  

Leila K - Electric (1995) Out Of Control! ⚡⚡ #leilak #electric #dennizpop #maxmartin #jessicafolcker #eurodance #sweden #90s #musicvideo #outofcontrol

Hi everyone! I'm back in the States and will be heading back to St. Mary's in a few hours! I am so excited to see my family and friends, go to the docks, finish my MRP, and graduate in less than a month! It is crazy how fast everything is going! I definitely will miss Costa Rica though! I'm having trouble not responding to every question in Spanish, and I'm definitely lucky my parents understand enough Spanish to not be completely confused! My time abroad was so beneficial for me for a number of reasons. Getting a chance to actually have a placement in teaching English as a second language will be invaluable to me when looking for jobs and in the school system. Since I will be certified to teach ESOL, I am glad I now actually feel qualified to do so! My placement allowed me to learn different strategies and approaches to take in English language teaching which will definitely be useful for me! I have also had the ability to greatly improve my Spanish language skills, which was one of my biggest goals for going to Costa Rica. I love the Spanish language, and I am so excited with how confident I now feel in speaking it. Coming back to speaking exclusively English has actually been such a struggle. In the airports in the States, Natalie and I had serious trouble responding to people appropriately in English. My school Spanish has also improved to a great deal, so I feel really comfortable interacting with Spanish speaking students and their families, and I think that this is something that I will really value next year in the schools. Going abroad also just increased my self-confidence in general. I feel like if I can navigate a city that I'm not familiar with in a language that I am still learning, and do not completely understand, I will be fine anywhere. This experience has really pushed me outside of my comfort zone in a lot of ways, and that's something that I think I will be able to translate back into my life in the States. For example, I am terrified of heights, and while on this trip I went para-sailing and ziplining (and even went upside on the zipline!). Also, I'm so desensitized to spiders now (even horrifyingly big hairy ones), so that's definitely a plus. Just in general, this trip has made me get used to things that I otherwise would never have to face, and I'm so glad I got the opportunity to do that. Also, in terms of a school environment, this internship has also helped me to clarify what I value most in a school environment. The things that I really missed while in my school placement in Costa Rica were classroom management, and technology. This will be useful for when I do school interviews with principals, because now I know more about what kinds of things in a school help me to be the most effective teacher I can be (a school-wide discipline plan would definitely be at the top of this list). This opportunity has been amazing, and I am so, so glad I decided to do the away placement in Costa Rica! It was definitely a fantastic experience!

Hi everyone! Today is my last full day in Costa Rica! I't starting to hit me that this time tomorrow, I will be on a plane headed back for the States. I'm going to miss this country so much, and I will definitely miss all the friends that I've made here! For one, my familia Tica have been amazing! I have loved playing with my niece and nephew, watching the news and a lot of CSI with my Mama Tica and talking about social issues in Costa Rica with my Papa Tico. Having the chance to be immersed so fully into Tico culture through my host family has been extremely beneficial for me as it's helped me to understand the culture at a deeper level, and it's allowed me a low pressure place to practice my Spanish. I will also definitely miss my mentor teacher, Karla.  She has been a wonderful resource in the school, and she has been my guide to understanding the Costa Rican educational system. Karla's been a wonderful person to talk to, and because she speaks English so well it's been wonderful having the opportunity to really compare and contrast issues in the school system here and in Costa Rica. Throughout the weeks that I was in the school, she also became a person that I could talk to about non-school related issues. She taught Spanish in North Carolina for a while, and so we could talk about cultural differences on a greater level as well. I also made friendships with students from the States that I really cherish. One of the first people from the States that we met here was a girl named Sam, who was also studying at ICADS. Sam is from Wisconsin, and she is also planning to begin teaching in the fall. We became close with Sam really quickly, and she was a great friend to have. Sam was here finishing her minor in Spanish, and she's pretty much fluent.  She also had already been in San Jose for a month when we arrived, so she was a wonderful resource for us, especially in the beginning of our trip.  Later on we also met other students from the Field School that ICADS runs. One student, Curtis, had been here since January, so he helped to show us around and take us to awesome places, like Manuel Antonio National Park.  We met lots of the Field School students throughout the trip, and it was always really interesting to compare our experiences and to have an English break as well! Although, speaking Spanish with other students from the States was really nice too, because there was almost no pressure to be 100% correct. Getting to talk to Ticos around our age was probably my favorite part about going out on the weekends. We normally went out on Calle de la Amargura (which means street of bitterness, named because of the abundance of bars on the street) in San Pedro.  San Pedro is where the Universidad de Costa Rica, Univerisdad Latina and Universidad Fidelitas are located, so there are always lots of college aged people around. Learning about Costa Rican culture from people our age was super interesting, because this age group is one that I don't think we got to interact with as much, being in the schools and in our families. It was super fun to learn about Tico slang and things like that from Ticos our age.  I'm definitely going to miss everyone that I've gotten close to in Costa Rica, but I'm excited to come home and see all my friends at home as well!

"Hola! Today I'm going to talk about what English language education is like at my school! My school is a public school that serves a pretty diverse population.  The students we serve are primarily from lower socioeconomic classes, and they are exposed to very little, if any, English outside of the school.  I teach three classes of first grade, three classes of second grade, two classes of third grade, and one fourth grade class. The classes are taught about half in Spanish and half in English. My mentor teacher explained that this is because in the past, when she taught entirely in English, she received many parental complaints.   The approach to English language education in my school is very interesting. English is essentially a special.  We teach each class five periods a week, with all but one being taught in double periods. Each period is 45 minutes. This means that we teach each class for 90 minutes two times a week, and for 45 minutes once a week.  90 minutes of teaching is a lot for the little ones, so the majority of the classes are half instruction and half English games or coloring. The curriculum is interesting, because it is essentially the same thing for all of the grade levels, just with more vocabulary added at each level. We have done the same thing in all of the classes and just added different vocabulary to the lessons for the older kids. In fourth grade the topics do seem to become a bit more difficult, but only marginally. It is interesting that by the time students are in fourth grade, they are only slightly more fluent than they were in first grade. The books we use are called "Bilingual By Nature," but that's definitely not the goal of English instruction at the school. English is not viewed as a priority by the administration or the parents, and therefore students often come to school without their books and without having studied.  Unlike the general education teachers, my teacher is not allowed to ask parents for money for supplies, and so she is required to buy the materials for her classes herself.  My teacher is very dedicated, and we travel around to our classrooms with a huge cart full of materials, however, the English teacher for fourth, fifth, and sixth grades only carries a single bag with her to her classes.  My teacher has stated that classroom teachers often question why she needs the amount of materials that she has. My teacher has told me that her main goal in her English classes is to teach the students as much as she can while making sure that the classes remain fun for the students. She doesn't think that she has the capability (in her school, with the materials she has and the support from parents that she has) to educate students to a bilingual level. Her goal is that students remember English class as being something fun that they enjoyed, so that when they are older they will want to continue or go back to take more intensive classes.  This is why our class is made up of so many songs and games.  I think that her philosophy is really interesting, and it makes me think a lot about the Spanish classes that I took in high school. I would say that they prepared me to speak Spanish to the same degree as we are preparing these students to speak English, but they really did make me think that learning Spanish was fun, and they did encourage me to continue to learn it in college.  I think that my teacher's approach to teaching English is very wise, even though it was not what I was expecting when I first arrived at the school."