After teaching in San Pedro I realized that when I was in the states I relied to much on technology to help make the lessons more engaging. I found that technology is not a necccessity to engaing the students and that you can be more creative when creating your lesson plan. Also I found that in San Pedro that everyone and the school is really laid back to that of my field experience in Wilmington. Here in San Pedro my teacher was very supportive and helped me prepare my lessons when needed. I felt that my experience in San Pedro was much more rewarding then that in Wilmington because it pushed me as a teacher to function with little resources.

Blog 3 San Pedro and San Ignacio

I love San Pedro the town is so friendly and I feel like I know everyone that lives their. The children their are very loving and everything is laid back. In San Ignacio I did not really see many of the children out like you would in San Pedro and everyone seemed to keep to themselves. Also San Ignacio seemed so small to San Pedro and everything closed early. When we first got to San Pedro it did not take long for the locals to start talking to us, they actually seemed interested in what we were doing there. Where as in San Ignacio we were there for five days and the locals did not seem to interested in what we were doing. I feel that I would like to teach more in San Pedro just because everyone is so friendly there and outgoing. I have learned that San Pedro is more laid back and compacted, like everyone lives very close to each other. And in San Ignacio everyone seems to keep to themselves and it is very rural.

blog 2 privilage

In America I never viewed flushing to toliet paper down as a privilage, or being able to go to the atm and it not being out of money. I have found that in Belize the things I take for granted like consistancy in running water, flushing toliet paper, money in the atm, and having power are actually privilages. You become so use to what you have that it is hard to image what it would be like when you do not have it. I feel that one of the hardest thing for me to over come, other then the water and power issue, had to have been the lack of money in the atm and that resturants did not stay open late and their is not fast food resturants on the island. It was so hard to get used to these concepts because when you live in America it is second nature to have these privilages but in Belize it is not.

Blog 1

I have found by observing the behavior and attitude of education by my students that some value education more than others. I have two students who are originally from Belize who have dreams and goals that they are working towards. However, those two students also slack off on turning in assignments and studying for test. Those students if you ask them what they want to do when they grow say a marine bioliogist and a fashion designer. One of the students parents owns a jewerly store and always provides money and a ride to school for this student. When talking to the teacher to find out how much family support he has, she said that the parents do care and they are aware of his grades. The only thing I could not figure out was why this student did not strive to do better on his assignments. On the other hand there is one student if you ask him what he wants to do when he grows up he could not tell you. But he does well on almost all of his assignments. This student gets into trouble a lot because of his background. When I had asked the teacher about him she said that his dad had left them and his mom was very tough on him. Far as the others I noticed that the ones who are originally from another country seemed to value their education a little differently. The student from England would never turn in any of his assignments and seemed to care very little if he got a good grade or not. Where as one of the students from Canada got upset if she did not do well on assignments, and strived to be number one in the class. After observing the class and learning more about the backgrounds of my students I realized that many of them did not care too much about their education because their parents gave them everything and they assumed they would take over the family business. This was interesting to me because back in the states I had graduated with quite a few people who had the same view as them on education. Overall I feel that education is only valued by those who do not want to inherit the family business and who have higher aspirations and goals outside business, finance, and tourism.
Far as how the childeren are veiwed I feel like it depends on which families you are talking about. If the family has money I feel that the children are viewed as children, they are given money to go out and play and buy items with. On the other hand if the family does not have money I feel that the children are viewed as family employees. I believe that the love for both types of families are still there but rather the role has changed.After talking and hanging out with one of the kids that sells jewerely I realized that is what makes up the latter part of the day. This kid goes to school then sells jewerly until about 11 at night. I asked him when he went out and played and he said when his mom or sister takes over for him. The child did not seem to mind selling jewelry but I believe that is because he knew he had to in order for his family to surive.

Day 23,24, and 25 Jungle days

Day 23 we just hung out in San Ignacio and did some shopping. San Ignacio is much smaller compared to that of San Pedro. Also not many restaurants were open after 9 P.M. We were able to travel to almost all of the tourist stores in about an hour. It was very interesting talking to the locals around San Ignacio, one guy asked if we were from Belize. I felt that we actually didn't stand out like tourist. The prices for food, gifts, and fruit was a little cheaper than San Pedro and the people here did not take advantage of us as much. Oh and there is one hill in San Ignacio that was killer to walk up especially during the day, unlike San Pedro, there was not breeze there. Over all San Ignacio was a pretty neat little town;however, it was much different from San Pedro.

Day 24 was the day we left San Ignacio to head to the jungle for two days. We were on our way to Caves Branch not knowing what to expect from the jungle. Ah haha boy was it interesting, beautiful by day and scary by night. The grasshoppers were humongous. That night I was attacked by one at dinner, which was not fun. So the first night we stayed in the jungle some us got the bunkhouse, needless to say with all the roaches crawling up our arms, beds, and luggage, the scorpion and other unknow specimans we doubled up and slept with the other girls in the bungalow.

Day 25 I did not feel so great that morning so I just hung out at Caves Branch and enjoyed the jungle. The staff was so nice and friendly, so it was very pleasent hanging out with them. Also that day I got upgraded to a suit so I invited a few of the girls to stay the night with me. It was great two showers and no bugs. However, you could hear the jaguars, other unknow animals, and howler monkeys outside our windows that night which was a little creepy. Overall the jungle experience was not too bad during the day but a little creepy at night.

Day 22

Wednesday inland we went on the ATM tour. Basically we went caving and learned more about the Mayan civilization. It started off with a 45 minute hike through the jungle which was not too hard. The jungle was very hot to hike through but gorgeous. Once we arrived at the clearing we put on our helmets, broke into groups and continued to hike to the cave.
Once arriving to the cave we had to jump in the icy cold water to begin our journey. Parts of the cave were dry, while other parts had different depths of water. There were many ancient artifacts from the Mayans, like bones, pottery, skulls, and more.

Day 21 Tikal

Today we traveled to Guatemala to tour one of the largest Mayan ruins. When we were picked up that morning we rode in this bus/truck thing that had airport seats drilled to a truck bed. That was an interesting experience. Once getting through the border and heading towards Tikal we were able to see the country side of Belize. There were so many cows and oxen things. Also there were a plethora of horses that meandered about the side of the road. I was really scared that we were going to hit one.
After about an hour/hour and a half ride we finally reached Tikal. The forest was magnificent and the wildlife was stunning. We hiked our way up a road to visit the first site. We learned about their ceremonial chambers, pyramids, and culture. The best part of the park was the huge pyramid that we were able to climb. I believe it was over two hundred feet tall. Overall it was a very interesting experience and trip.

Day 20 Going inland!

Today we left to go inland. We took a ferry from San Pedro to Belize City, which was a beautiful ride. Once in Belize City we had to catch a cab to get to the bus station. Belize City was very different from San Pedro; there were more cars and people. The streets and streams were very dirty. Once arriving at the bus station I was not sure what to expect. The station was like a ware house but more open. And oh the bus was a school bus. For some reason when I was thinking of a bus to travel on I was imagining the buses that we find in Wilmington. Oh no these were definitely school buses. The bus schedule was posted on a piece of poster board, written in marker, up on the side of the wall. The sign that specified which bus to take was a piece of broken wood painted with the designation. This is very different from the bus system we have in the US. Once on the bus we had a place over head that was built out of wood to stash our luggage. However, my bag was too big so I held it on my lap. Once on the bus we learned that there is not really a limit on how many passengers can be admitted and that there were random stops to let people off and on along the way. Our designation was the Belize Zoo which was only a 45 minute bus ride from Belize City, but it felt much longer. While traveling to the zoo we had to go through a police check point, at that point everyone who was standing on the bus just had to sit down, making it three to a seat.
Once arriving at the zoo I was not sure what I really expected. I had been to the Asheboro Zoo but I figured that it was not going to be that nice. The zoo only cost us ten US dollars which is significantly cheaper than most zoos in America. We had to walk down a gravel driveway to get to the ticket booth and entrance to the zoo. Many of us had to use the bathrooms. There were four old outhouses to the side that were falling in and the actual bathrooms with plumbing next to them. The old out houses were like the ones that you would see in the movies with the little drawings on the front to distinguish the men from the women’s. Once entering the zoo we began our journey through it. We were able to see the national animal, the tapir, which is a mountain cow. There were pumas, toucans, a jaguar, eagles, warthogs, and other weird animals that you might not find at some of the zoos back home. It did not take long to make our way through the zoo. The cages were not that bad but many of the animals looked miserable. However the animals that we observed were saved from the wild from being hunted and killed. The cages for the birds to fly around were relatively small so I felt bad for them, especially the eagle.
After leaving the zoo we had to wait on the bus to take us to San Ignacio. Once arriving in San Ignacio we found out that because it was Easter Monday that many businesses were shut down. Luckily we found a Chinese place to eat. All I wanted was an egg salad sandwich, but apparently an egg sandwich is an actual egg between bread and not egg salad. Other then it was not what I had expected it to be I ate it and it was not that bad. After eating we had to go check in to our hotel which was the San Ignacio Resort. The resort was really nice but was on top of this humongous hill. Needless to say we took a taxi up it. For the rest of the day we enjoyed the beds, pool, water and water pressure because when we left San Pedro we had no water and basically had not showered for about three days. This resort was like heaven.

Day 15,16, and 17

Wednesday was our first day of Easter Holiday. We had to decide what type of service project we wanted to do. Down from Pedro’s there is a shelter for dogs. A few of us decided that it would be fun to take the dogs out each day we could to give them exercise and to get them out of the cages. That day we walked to the Saga Animal Shelter to talk with the owner to see if we were allowed to walk the dogs. The people there were so friendly and willing to let us help. We are supposed to start Thursday at 9 A.M. Thursday we got up to walk the dogs which was very fun. In the states I probably would not have done this ever in my life time so I was very excited about participating down here. The dogs were all friendly and approachable. Surprisingly most of them could walk on a leash without pulling too much. While we walked them one of the workers would clean their cages and refill their water bowls. Later that day we worked on creating a spreadsheet for our school and teachers so that they could enter their grades easier. So far we have completed one service project and are working on two others. Friday we walked the dogs as well as worked on the grade book. The grade books were a lot harder than I expected them to be. Because there is only one computer at ACES most of the time they give their grade books to Vanessa who works in the office, and she enters the grades into the computer and makes copies of all of the exams. However, Dr.Renee wanted all of the grades to be put on a spreadsheet to make it easier to track students’ progress. However, with their only being one computer accessible to internet in the school and two computers the teachers would have to wait in line. So we created a way that they could put their grades in however, we were suppose to go back and do term one and two and set up three but because my class is two standards in one class it was difficult to figure out an efficient way. This was a long and frustrating process because I am not very fluent in excel, however, by the end of the day I learned more about the program and ways to set up grade books in the future.

Day 14

For the last half day the students had an Easter egg hunt. This was fun to watch the students run around the playground to find the eggs. The older grades, middle school, even got to participate and surprisingly they were excited about it as well. For their snack that day we were able to help out with serving the kids. We got to put the cheese dip and chips on the plate and pour them punch. One of my students asked me if it was rum punch and proceeds to tell me that if it was that she could not have any. This was interesting because why would she think that we would serve rum punch at school and to a minor at that. I was not sure about the purpose of this school day unless it was just suppose to be a fun and relaxing day. Our half days in the states are usually a little bit more structured and instructional. While the eggs were being hid I just hung out with my class and listened to music. I was not teaching or giving them any instruction. In fact I was not sure they were even allowed or supposed to be listening to music and the type of music they were listening to. In the states this would defiantly have not been allowed.

Day 13

This was our teacher work day which is very different from ours in the US. Our only purpose for the work day was to do report cards and put candy in the Easter eggs. I graded a few papers that day and then packed Easter eggs full of candy for our Easter egg hunt on Tuesday. The rest of the week we are off from school for Easter holiday and the students’ spring break. However for this week we are suppose to do a service project. Part of our service project was to create a spreadsheet to help our teachers out with recording their grades. Today at the work day we tried to work on it. However, many of the teachers like the way they are doing grades now which is they record grades in their grade book and then they average them and put them on the report cards. However, the office has to photocopy the grade book and make copies of the exams that they give. Dr. Renee the principal wanted to change if over to the computer so it is easier to compare and contrast scores and students grades. When trying to figure out how to set this up it became very complicated so many of the teachers did not want to do it. So now this issue became part of our service project. We are suppose to figure out a simple way that meets the principal and the teachers needs. Once we complete it we will share it with our teachers after the break.

Day 9 and 10

These were the last two days of exams. I got to do arts and crafts and PE with the students once they finished their exams. While they were taking their exams I would check their other exams, I realized that they got far more in depth with several of their subjects then we do in North Carolina. However, many of them did not score over a 70. I felt that many of the grades were very low. When Ms. Conchita was averaging their grades for their report cards many of them had C’s and D’s which was interesting because if no one in the class had a B average in North Carolina we might think it was a teaching problem. I found out after talking to my teacher that many of the students do not care what they make on their exams because they get whatever they want from their parents. Also some of the students come from a well off family so they think that they will just go into their family’s business. There were many students when I asked if they studied they said no that they did not feel like it. Also when grading the exams I found that one student only answered nine questions, she made an 11 percent on her exam. When she was told her score she did not seemed phased by the grade.

Day 8

Again the students were taking their exams. They have an exam in the morning then a break, then they study, lunch and then another exam. However today they finished early so I got to take them outside for PE. This was interesting because they really don’t have a PE program in the primary schools. There are two balls, one soccer ball and a volley ball, for the whole school. We decided that we would play soccer. It was so much fun I divided up the teams equally with myself on one of them. We played for about forty-five minutes. It was so hot outside though which took a little getting used to. The goals that we had to play on had no nets and they were made out of wood. The students were not too bad at soccer. The girls even participated which was funny because some were scared of the ball. Overall it was a fun experience to play soccer with the students but very different from the states, I always watched my students play soccer.

Day 7

The second day of school, which was Tuesday March 23rd, was about the same as Monday, all of the students were taking their exams. However, I helped grade many of the exams and the material is about the same that I had learned at my charter school. I am not sure how it compares to the regular public schools in NC but the information was very detailed. I found out that they have some of the same subjects that we have but then a few additional ones such as, ethics, learning potential, and HFLE. Their ethic exam dealt with more safety type questions, such as bike safety and all. HFLE is like their health course. For the HFLE exam it was mainly dealing with male and female reproduction systems. I found this very interesting because I never had a course in this it was always just slide into biology. Last, Learning Potential, I found this one very interesting because we do not really have a course equivalent to this one in the states. The exam questions all dealt with a word that represented a group of something. For example, " what is a group of sheep called?" When grading the test I realized that though their is more information the class still has some of the same problems that we have in America, not enough studying. There were not many A's if even one and most of the grades were in the 70s. However, unlike Bradley Creek and Rachel Freeman the grading scale down here is on a ten point scale, similar to that of high school and college. So there are some similarities between the school system here and the one in North Carolina.

Day 6

Today was our first day in the schools. It was a nice walk to the school and once we got here we realized that we can leave a little later in the mornings. Everyone is on Belizean time so we were kind of early. The school is very laid back and everyone is so willing to help you. When we got here we got our assignments to which grade level we will have. I have standard 5 and 6 which is like 6th to 8th grade. The students age range is 11-14 and I only have nine of them. I have three that are in standard 6 and six that are in standard 5. The students here are so loving and nice. They like to run up to you and give you hugs. For this week they are doing their examinations so there is not much teaching. The time that they took their exams allowed me to get to know my teacher a little bit more. She is my age and has been teaching for almost three years now. I found out that she has a lot of responsibilites within the school. Her lesson plans are very similar to mine along with her objectives. I found out that because of her lesson plans she is the one who helps the other teachers with theirs and make sure they are doing them correctly. Overall it was a very laid back and interesting day.

Day 4 and Day 5

Day 4 was a lot like Friday mainly laid around by the pool and went to the beach. We went to this place on the beach that had a variety of T-shirts that visitors to the island have signed and left. It was really interesting because we found once that was from Carolina Beach and had the last name of one of my students from Wilmington. For the rest of Saturday we just enjoyed the time off and relaxed.

Day 5 was a very productive day. A group of us went to get breakfast then went snorkeling. A few days prior, at Lola's Pub, we met a guy name Lou. He offered to take us out on his boat to go snorkeling for a very discounted price. So after eating that morning we went to go rent our equipment and meet Lou. After spending way too much time at the rental place trying on each pair of fins they had, Lou just came and picked us up on his boat.

The travel to our snorkeling spot was great, we got to see the other side of the island and the bright blue water. We thought we found the head bangers house, which was this guy named matt that we met at Legends that Friday. We took a picture of the house so we could email him and ask him.

When snorkeling we got to see a lot of different fish and the reef. Also on our travels we spotted a stingray which was huge. It was amazing. After snorkeling for a few hours we went conch fishing so that we could taste conch ceviche. I felt bad for the little guys. They were being plucked from the ocean and beaten out of their shells. However, it was a very interesting experience to see the process of getting and cooking conch. After going snorkeling, seeing the lagoon, hanging out with Lou's family and eating conch we headed back to Pedro's. On our way we found out that the whole country had a power outage. So for about six hours there was no power. Needless to say we did not shower and we felt gross. With the whole island being out of power for that long and that being the first time they had ever experienced something like that I was a little nervous. It got dark very quickly. However, the power did come back on that night around nine which was great because I was getting a little worried about not being able to shower for school the next morning. Over all it was a pretty productive day.

Day 3

Well by Friday my side of the hall had hot water because we asked Walter to fix it. All I did that day was lay by the pool and enjoyed the weather. Something that I have learned down here is that I have no concept of time and it always seems later than it really is. Friday was a pretty much lazy day which consisted of naps, pop tarts, and laying by the pool. However we did check out the local places to go in San Pedro. Our group that night made a visit to a place called Legends. It is a bar and food place out in the middle of no where. Apparently it is about a five mile walk from Pedro's Inn. That night we ate at a great place called Lola's Pub, then we got ice cream. Once eating we set out on our journey to Legends. This was by far the longest walk I have ever made. Once crossing the bridge everything was dark and creepy. There were only a few people out and some golf cart riders. Luckily we made it there safely, thanks to our compainion that we recruited on the way, Fido. Fido was the dog that had no ears that started following us and stayed with us pretty much for the rest of the night.

That night at Legends was so much fun! Everyone was there, even our friends from Texas, Australia, and other countries. There was a band that played all night and everyone was so friendly. By the end of the night I was exhausted. Luckily I was one of the few that had to make that hike back to Pedro's, I caught a ride on a golf cart.

Day 2

Day 2 of the field experience we were going out to see the schools and meet the staff. I found that with the time difference and just getting use to day light savings time that I was up at 4:30 Belizean time. Any how after waking up earlier and showering, which was cold again we set off as a group to find food. We ended up eating at a resturant called Georges, it was simply delicious. After eating we traveled down to Ambroguis Cayes Elementary school. It was such a cute school house. It was yellow and had a little playground and everything. The principle was super nice along with the rest of her staff. The class sizes were really small, there was even one that had just two students in it. The next school we visited was the high school. This was very interesting because there were more students then I had expected. The gym was very neat because it was outside and was an open building with a roof on it. The staff was very friendly as well as the students. The last school we went to for the day was the other elementary school. This one was very different from the first one. The playground had a fence around it with barb wire at the top. The building had an opening in the middle where you could look up at the second level and see all of the classrooms. At this school the students get an hour for lunch where as the other school gets half days on Fridays.

Once finishing our tour of the schools we headed back to Pedro's Inn to lay out by the pool. Out by the pool we say our friends, Travis from Texas and Glynn from Australia, we learned a lot about them and how they had been traveling around different countries for a while. I found it very interesting how so many different people end up in San Pedro. That night we just hung out at Pedro's by the pool chit chating with our new friends and swimming (just Brittany and me).

Day 1

Well the first day in Belize was spent traveling to Belize. The flights were not bad just long and tiring. Once arriving in Belize City we had to go through customs and everything and catch our flight to San Pedro. So the flight from San Pedro was interesting because the plane was so small and the landing strip was very short, there was no rooms for errors. When flying on the puddle jumper we were able to see many of the islands and the beautiful blue water.





Once landing in San Pedro's airport, which is not the typical airport, we gathered our belongings and caught a cab to Pedro's Inn. On our cab ride over we were able to see some of the streets in San Pedro. The streets were very different from the US. There were few cars, some bikers, and many golf car riders. There are not any traffic lights 0r very many traffic signs. The cars move very fast down the streets which are sand and cobblestone in some places. There were quite a few pedestrians walking on the side of the road and many stray dogs accompying them. The children just come and go as they please which was very interesting to me because sometimes I could not figure out who the parents were.





So the place we are staying is called Pedro's Inn which has a very laid back atmoshpere. The rooms have two beds, one tv, a sink (not in the bath room) and a bath room in it. However, the cold water knob is acutally the hot water, but in our room neither knob got warm. Showering in cold water is not that bad especially when you are hot. Tolits down here are very interesting because you can not flush the tolit paper so this is an interesting aspect you have to get used to.



After dropping off our stuff we ventured around exploring the island of San Pedro. We ended up stopping for food. I quickly learned that there are not many vegaterian options and that they give you a lot of food. The first place we ate at was great.