March 21-25, 2011

The first week of internship in the Belizian schools has been successful.  The photos below show a busy week.  Most of the students taught in their classrooms by the end of the week. Some have taken over the class fully and are currently planning for next week.

Having bikes to ride this year has really made it a lot easier to get around.  We are able to ride all over the island and park anywhere.  Unfortunately, bike theft is a problem and one student had a bike stolen from the school--she left it there overnight.

Dennis and I met with the Minister of Education's representative in San Pedro Town, Candy Armstrong on Thursday.  She is going to set up a meeting with the Minister of Education and some of the people in his office for us when the graduate students come in.  She is excited to have our graduate students hold some professional development activities for the principals and lead teachers while they are here.  She is particularly interested in discussing working with children with special needs and principals supporting teachers as instructional leaders.  This International Professional Development Site is becoming more formalized.

I was able to sit in with two of our students and their teachers as they planned for next week.  At Roman Catholic Elementary School each grade-level plans together for the week.  Two of the teachers asked us if this was how teachers in the US plan.  We said that was not what usually happened. It seemed like a good idea as they planned to share activities.  Kathleen and Keely are going to teach science and creative arts for all four Standard 1 classrooms next week.

At Isla Bonita Elementary, the students presented the school with the UNCW flag and sang the National Anthem.  Parents came by and picked up report cards while most of the students taught all day.  Ms. Addie (principal) and Ms. Dianna (school cook) treated us to lunch as a "thank you" for working with the school this year. We had delicious chicken tacos served on crispy, flat tortillas and fresh watermelon.

Saturday we spent half the day at the Palapa Bar and Grill.  They had chicken burritos and watermelon juice for everyone.  They also had large tubes for floating in the ocean and everyone played a tossing the coconut into the tube game.  Kyle won the tee shirt first prize.  The students at the high school spent the morning helping with the field day.  They were ready to cool off in the ocean when they joined us at Palapa's.

Today, Sunday is a day for planning for next week. Although a few students went diving or sailing, most are nursing sun burns from yesterday and getting ready for next week.