back in the montes and the classroom

The next two weeks I will be with my group in Monteverde. My room is the "cuartito" up in Casas del Toro, which is the residence for students in CPI Monteverde. While I do not have a kitchen, there is a washer and dryer, so I did some of my laundry last night and now I have clean polo shirts for a while. Luckily this week there are two other chaperonas in the apartments too, so I can use their kitchen in the meantime. Next week I will be using the kitchen at the school more, or just making do with the microwave. No worries!

On the day my group arrived it was very wet and cloudy, and I ended up staying at a friend's house because we couldn't get a hold of the key to get me into the cuartito. Coming up the mountain the driver commented on how cloudy it was, and visibility was very limited. It served as a great introduction of Monteverde to the group..."Remember," I told them, "We are in the cloud forest!" and cloudy it was. Thankfully today is looking much nicer, only slightly overcast and pretty warm. In the evenings it gets pretty chilly, and the group knows to always bring their rain jackets and a sweatshirt. It feels like winter here now! In Heredia it was much warmer.

Today we visited a local primary school in Santa Elena, and did some activities with 4th graders and observed an English class with first graders. I was talking with the English teacher and she was saying that the kids in this school will learn only basic English, what is required by the Ministry of education (pronunciation, numbers, colors, the basics). During the first few years (grades 1-3) of learning English there is more emphasis on speaking and listening: pronunciation and hearing spoken English. Later on (grades 4-6) students focus more on reading and writing. She also said that in many cases a teacher's hands are tied...that they only teach what is required by the Ministry of Education. Many times they try to do a little more but sometimes face resistance from parents and students, claim that the material doesn't count because its not part of the required curriculum. To learn more fluid and conversational English, students have to study in the University. I found that very surprising...I thought maybe more parents would want their kids to be learning English! I think that you can begin to see more of a generational shift, that parents of people my age (21-30)did not have to learn English while they were in school, and may not be as supportive. While people in my age group who have kids are emphasizing more the importance of learning English, because it is important in getting a good job and being more marketable. You can also see now too the interest of younger children in learning English...every time the group enters a classroom, you hear a chorus of "Hello, how are you?" and often students are eager to practice the basics they know, and ask questions to learn more. It is a very different attitude from some older folks, who rely more on someone to translate and may not be as interested in learning English. Today I translated fro the professor of my group and the professor of the classroom we visited, because he spoke no English and she has very little Spanish.
It has been very interesting working with this group of education majors, and going back into the classroom with them. Observing them teach and helping to translate and coordinate their activities in the classroom has been eye-opening, and reaffirmed my hope to someday raise my children to be bilingual. Education and language go hand in hand, and these students are experiencing something really important, being exposed to another classroom in another culture and teaching in a different language.

Learning has no borders.

Pura vida!