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Natalie- Costa Rica Blog #10
I have officially been home from Costa Rica for 48 hours. It doesn’t actually seem real that I was gone for six weeks; it just feels like I was gone for a long weekend. Then I think about my time in Costa Rica and realize what a different person I am. I am so much more confident in myself and my ability to survive in a foreign country.
Towards the end of my time in Costa Rica I realized how much I had learned about the country. In Spanish there are two different words for “to know” the verb “saber” which is to know information and the verb “conocer” which is to know in a familiar way. Towards the end of the trip I finally felt comfortable saying “Yo conozco Costa Rica.” What made me realize that I really conozco Costa Rica was one time on the bus. Leila and I had gotten on the correct bus at a new stop we had never used before. Then a few stops later some people who did not look like the typical Ticos got on the bus. The bus costs 265 colones (about 50 cents) and one of the boys tried to pay with a $5 bill. We immediately recognized that this wasn’t going to work well since the busses don’t have change for United States dollars on board. Luckily there were other people in his party who had colones for him to pay with. After they took their seats in front of us we were able to assist them in getting off the bus and figuring out where they were going (they had already gotten lost once). This experience caused me to reflect on how at one point, I was exactly like them, I had no clue what bus to get on or how they worked, and by that time I was able to give directions and explain how to use the busses.
From that experience I gained so much self-confidence. I went into Costa Rica knowing almost nothing about the country and remembering almost none of my high school Spanish. I took eight days of Spanish classes and was shown around my immediate area for three days, and then Leila and I were on our own to figure out the country. I think we did an amazing job of figuring everything out! The first time we took a bus by ourselves we took a bus going to wrong direction, but that was the only time that we got lost. There were other times when we took busses that we going along routes that we were not expecting, but we always could get ourselves home without another bus. Only getting really lost once showed me that I could go somewhere that I had limited knowledge of and figure out how to get where I needed to go.
Finally, I became so much more confident in my ability to learn language. I have always struggled to learn languages; I struggle to remember the vocabulary most of all. Unfortunately the vocabulary is the most important part, if you have the vocabulary, you can typically get your point across, but without vocabulary, grammar won’t help you. Somehow I managed to pick up enough vocabulary and mime my way through six weeks of Spanish. Of course, people in Costa Rica knew a good amount of English and would speak to me in English, and in the schools I let them, but when out in town, I would always challenge myself to speak Spanish to everyone. Now I can do pretty much everything I need to in order to survive in Spanish! Â
Overall, this experience has shown me that when push comes to shove I can do what needs to get done and being unsure of myself will not hold me back. I had the most amazing time in Costa Rica; I remember being scared and unsure of leaving the country six short weeks ago, and now I feel like I can take on the world. Going to a new country will always take some time to figure out, but now I am sure that I can do it.
Leila- Costa Rica Blog #10
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!
Leila- Costa Rica Blog #9
Having the chance to teach English in a public school in Costa Rica has been an amazing experience. I have had the chance to work with a wonderful mentor teacher, learn new techniques to teach English, and work with some of the sweetest, most curious kids I've ever met. I am really going to miss my students and all of the staff at my school. The school system in Costa Rica is slightly different from the system in the States. The biggest differences that I noticed were in classroom management. At my school the way that behavior was dealt with was that teachers would write notes in students communication notebooks (like agendas) that would go home every night. However, many teachers expressed that parents didn't really take these notes seriously, and thus classroom management was very difficult. Students got away with much more in the schools here, and even violent behavior, like hitting one another was accepted. The school day itself was structured very differently. Periods were technically 45 minutes, but most classes lasted double minutes, so elementary school students were expected to sit in one class for an hour and half at a time. In between each class was a recreo, or recess, which lasted 10, 20, or 30 minutes. The 30 minute recreo was technically supposed to accommodate lunch. Â However, because the dining room was so small, students were allowed to eat their lunch during any of the recreos (students frequently brought lots of snacks or a whole lunch, and still ate the school lunch). Â Additionally, during specials time, teachers took students to the lunch room (we had to take first graders to lunch on Tuesdays and Fridays). Â English was treated like a special, along with Music, Art, Religion, and Physical Education). Â This means that we did not have our own classroom, and traveled to each of the classrooms with a shopping cart full of material (which you can see in the picture above!) We saw each class three times a week, twice for a double lesson, and once for a single lesson. Â I thought that it was super interesting that students had Religion classes even though we were in a public school. It also seemed as if students spent a lot of time in specials. They did not have the core subjects, like Spanish and Math every day, which is super different from the States. Â The system as a whole was very different, but getting to understand more about how education is viewed and carried out here was such a great experience!
Leila- Costa Rica Blog #8
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. Â 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. Â 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. Â 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. Â 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. Â 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. Â 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!
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Spending four weeks in a Costa Rican school has been a wonderful experience for me. It allowed me to experience how schools in another country are different. It showed me how difficult it can be to teach English as a second language and how to teach it effectively. And perhaps most importantly it showed me what is important to me as a teacher.
I have had a very skewed experience of the school system in Costa Rica. For the past four weeks I have been in a private school in Costa Rica. It is not really fair to compare their private schools to our public schools. I feel like I have experienced different types of public schools in the US from my experiences being a student to my experiences as a teacher. I do not feel this way about Costa Rica, I have experienced one school that I have been told is not representative of the schools in Costa Rica. That being said, I can compare what I have heard and experienced in schools in Costa Rica and the United States.
During my time in school in Costa Rica, two of the four weeks that I was there for were test weeks. This was something that was very similar and different to the education system in the US at the same time. At first glance it is very similar. These tests are supposed to be everything that the students have learned over the past trimester, very similar to standardized tests in the US. Everything else pauses for these tests. Nothing new can be learned during these two weeks. Students should not be doing or learning anything outside of their tests. The school has fun activities for the students to do between tests to let them relax. This reminded me very much of when I was in high school and we had HSAs where the entire school would stop so that we could take tests. What makes these tests different from standardized tests in America was that the teachers made the tests based off of what they had taught instead of teaching what was on the test. My mentor teacher had kept very specific records of how many lessons she had spent teaching each subject and was careful to create the test in proportion to what she had taught. This made the tests seem more like a final exam rather than standardized test.
Another thing that I noticed between these school systems was the teacher-student relationships. In the US it is always obvious that teachers care deeply for their students. They are willing to do almost anything for them to ensure that they are able to succeed. Teachers in Costa Rica love their students an equal amount, but show their affection in a very different way. In my private school, teachers were very close with the students and did not have as much of a professional relationship with their students as a personal one. Many students had my mentor teacher’s cell phone number. When she left for a three week vacation all of the students had better contact with her than I did. There was one day when I was in a sixth grade class the students were trying to make sentences in the past perfect in English. One of the students said that Teacher Ana loved him. She agreed with him and kissed him on the top of his head before correcting him about how to use the past perfect. Teachers in the US are cautioned against hugging their students, no less kissing them. I also worked with a male teacher in this school, male teachers in the US have to continuously think about how their actions could be viewed and whether they could be viewed as sexual harassment. This male teacher seemed to have none of that fear. I saw many students come to him complaining of various injuries, if it was an upper body injury he had no problems lifting a student’s shirt to see exactly what the problem was and apply appropriate medical care. In the US I would not lift a student’s shirt for fear of it being considered sexual harassment. These differences may be because I am in a very small private school where most of the families have been with the school for years and know the teachers and administration very well.
The final difference that I noticed was in the classroom management. In the US students are expected to listen to their teacher’s, sit quietly, and pay attention. Here that is not the case. The students do what they want. If they don’t want to be learning in class that day they don’t. If they want to be talking to their friend that’s what they do. This puts a lot more responsibility on the students for their own learning.
Natalie- Costa Rica Blog #8
I am one of the worst people at making friends. I am very introverted and can be painfully shy. I don’t like talking to new people and social interactions exhaust me. Because of these things I struggle to make friends and often only have a few close friends. I usually make friends with people who I am forced to interact with. This is basically what happened to me in Costa Rica. The people that I would consider to be friends are my classmates, one of the teachers at my school, and one of my host brothers.
I was lucky enough to come into the program with a friend already which was wonderful, but Leila and I have become much closer through this experience. There are very few things that we do separately now. Whenever I tell my host mom that I am going out to do things, her first questions is “con Leila?” The answer is always yes. The other classmate that I have become friends with is a wonderful girl named Samantha. She also graduated last May and is studying to be a teacher. The three of us were really just meant to be friends. She was the only student taking classes at ICADS when Leila and I were taking classes, so she was someone who was able to teach us about San Jose and how to get around Costa Rica and we were there so she wasn’t at a school by herself. The three of us have become almost inseparable and I honestly can’t imagine traveling without them. We even have a special order to take selfies in that maximizes our abilities to get ourselves and important landmarks in the picture.
My next friend I couldn’t have gotten through teaching without, and he wasn’t even my mentor teacher! My mentor teacher went on a trip for three of the four weeks that I was there and I was working with a substitute. The other English teacher became my work friend. He is fantastic because I don’t feel confident enough in my Spanish to participate in teacher lounge conversations in Spanish, so after we eat, we will go downstairs and supervise the kids during recreo and talk in English. He also translates everything for me. There was a story teller who came to our school and started telling this story. I didn’t understand a little of what was happening. I understood that Juan Ma was the king, and that was about it. Then the story teller looked right at me and told me that I was the queen. So I got up in front of the entire school and acted in a language that I didn’t really understand. Thank goodness Juan Ma was the king because it meant that he was next to me the entire time to whisper translations and what we needed to be doing.* This was our real bonding moment where I knew that we would be friends. Even though we haven’t done anything outside of school, I feel like I would consider him to be one of my closest friends here in Costa Rica.
My final friend I am just getting to know and am very upset that I am going to be leaving him at the end of the week. My host family actually had two students staying here while I was here, I was here for six weeks and for the first four the other student was in Nicaragua doing field research, but then on the fourth weekend I was here I came back from a day out and met Julio. We bonded pretty quickly because both of us speak Spanish poorly and need it to be spoken slowly so we talk to each other in broken Spanglish. We also often work together to communicate our thoughts and the culture of the United States to our host family. When I first met him my Mami Tica introduced him as Julio. The first time that we went out together with my friends, I was introducing him to Sam, at the same exact moment I introduced him he said “HI, I’m Jaxon (pronounced Jackson).” Apparently my host family calls him Julio the way they call me Natalia because it is easier to say, but he didn’t think this was important information. Now he is Julio Jaxon to me and one day I will forgive him for not telling me his real name.
Even though I am awful at making friends, I have found a few friends who I hope to keep in touch with well into the future. Leila and I already plan to visit Sam in Wisconsin, and to make her visit us on the St. Mary’s River. Juan Ma and I will keep in touch on FB and he will keep me in practice with my Spanish. Hopefully Julio Jaxon and I will be able to keep in touch and have a strong friendship. Regardless of what happens in the future, these people have made my experience in Costa Rica what it has been and I wouldn’t change any of them for the world and am going to miss them terribly when I leave. I can’t believe I have less than a week left here!
*Note: video evidence of this exists, but I don’t have it.
Leila- Costa Rica Blog #7
"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. Â The students we serve are primarily from lower socioeconomic classes, and they are exposed to very little, if any, English outside of the school. Â 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. Â The approach to English language education in my school is very interesting. English is essentially a special. Â 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. Â 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. Â 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. Â 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. Â 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. Â This is why our class is made up of so many songs and games. Â 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. Â 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."
