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.