Friday:
Today was our first day teaching at St. James Primary school, upon arriving at the school what I first noticed were the kids. All the children watched as we entered the school eager to meet the strange visitors. They quickly crowed us and began to talk with us as if we had been there the entire year. We soon realized that we would in fact be teaching 4 classrooms in total spread over the three hours. We began by teaching a group of children ages 9 and 10. Merrill and I were in one room while Emma, Leah, and Katie taught in another room. The children were eager to learn and before long, could easily maneuver the XO computers better than myself. As the kids began to explore the computers, I was surprised by their understanding of technology and their desire to play games such as temple run, subway surfers. These small children were trying to find games and YouTube, such things I didn’t even know were available to the kids. In the first class room, we played games with them such as a drawing game and an instructional walking game in order to help the kids understand how to give instructions to their computers. We were able to also begin working with Scratch and it didn’t take long for the kids to realize how to make their sprites dance and move. Before we knew it, our time with the first classroom was already up, and we had a small break which gave us time to carry the computers to the other classes that we would teach. These kids were ages 8 and 9, and something slightly difficult about teaching these kids was their classrooms were connected and only had a small barrier to divide the classrooms, in addition these classes were bigger than our first class. As in the first class, we were able to play the games, and helped the kids begin their projects on Scratch. After teaching the “surprise class”, I was already time to go! We packed the computers into a closet at the school and then left for the day. Many of the kids had asked us all day if we would be back or if they could keep using the computers which I thought was really cute and heartwarming. After leaving the school, we spent the rest of the day at Mullins Beach where we played in the crystal clear water and laid on the beach in the sand. After having a great time at the beach, we went back to Villa Marie for dinner. My advice for students next year, is even if you’re surprised with who you may be teaching, such as two classes instead of one, it’s going to be okay because it’s easy to shorten the lesson plan. Although it may be slightly more challenging, in the long run you are giving more kids the opportunity to learn about computers and learn how to code. Teaching was so much fun, and I can’t wait to see the kids again on Monday!
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Friday
In some ways, walking into a primary-school classroom in Barbados felt as familiar as walking into one at CSG. The walls are covered with colorful posters: word groups, math conversions, homework assignments, and inspirational quotations. The students are in uniform; they're roughly the same age (nine or ten); they love playing sports or reading or singing (sometimes all three), and their favorite foods are pizza or chicken and chips (french fries). But these Barbadian classrooms held both boys and girls, and they called their student teachers from CSG "ma'am," and today, for the first time, they began learning how to code on XO computers. As a teacher, I found myself strangely anxious for both our CSG students and their St. James students. I wanted things to go smoothly. I wanted both groups to learn: the younger students, valuable technological skills and logical processes; the older students, equally valuable communication skills, as well as patience, flexibility, and time management. I needn't have worried. The St. James students were enthusiastic and nimble. They gave (quiet) cheers when they learned to make their sprite cats meow, and they quickly picked up on how to make that cat do other things. And the team of CSG students balanced each other's strengths wonderfully. One would take the lead in directing the class, while the other two would work with individual students. It was a hectic morning, but by noon, we had accomplished what was essential: establishing a rapport with the students and getting them enthused about the computers and coding. I was proud of our CSG student-teachers. They were serious and warm and approachable, and they've set themselves up well for the week ahead. Thursday:
Hey everyone! Today and yesterday, we traveled all the way from Columbus to Barbados. It is one of my first time traveling without my family, so I must admit I was a little nervous, but it has been fun! On the first day we all went to the airport, said our goodbyes to our families, and then boarded our plane. The flight to Miami was a little stressful because there was bad weather so our flight was longer than expected, but it’s all good because once we got to the hotel we ate ice cream and had a good nights sleep. Today we woke up early and caught the flight to Barbados. It is beautiful here. The weather is warm, the people are friendly, and the ocean is absolutely breath taking. Our place is also super cool. All of our rooms are super spacious and the showers are AWESOME. Once we got settled we ate an amazing dinner that was cooked by our incredible caterer. After dinner and a little grocery shopping, we got to plan for our first day of teaching tomorrow. I am so excited to teach all of the little kids! I am a tad nervous because I haven’t taught little kids for more than an 80 minute period, and we are going to be teaching for three hours, but I also love kids and am excited to get to know them all. It is awesome to know that what we are doing is going to make a difference, and that we are going to be able to share everything we learned with them. Cannot wait to see what amazing experiences the rest of this trip will bring! Thursday:
Wow, that was about the longest trip I could have imagined. Well, actually it could have been way worse, but we definitely got caught up in that weather in Florida. After a slightly delayed departure because Miami was slowing down it’s arrivals for the weather, I was feeling hopeful that we’d have a smooth trip. But next thing I know, we land in Fort Meyers! They shut down Miami for arrivals due to the storm and our plane didn’t have enough fuel to keep holding. So we landed in Ft. Meyers to refuel and then back up again for the 20 minute flight to Miami. Not too bad. Instead of arriving at 9PM we arrived at midnight, but then it was so late we struggled a little to get the shuttle to the hotel. Still, not bad. We had a good, albeit short night of sleep before departing for Barbados this morning. And… more weather delays. Fog or something slowing down the departures brought us in to Barbados an hour late. Then the line at the immigration was really long. Anyway, long story short, we were too late to pick up the laptops today. We will have to do that tomorrow, and hopefully not be too late to school. Still, it is great to be here. We had a fantastic Bajan-themed dinner from our amazing chef, Selena, a warm welcome from our host, Pete, picked up groceries for breakfast tomorrow morning, and had a really great meeting to plan tomorrow’s lessons. This group is SO thoughtful about what they are trying to teach and how they will try to teach it. You’d think after doing this for so many years I’d remember how impressed I ALWAYS am by the way our students approach things, but I found myself yet again being in awe of them as I listened to their thoughts about tomorrow. All year long they have surpassed my expectations in just about everything I’ve asked them to do. I can’t wait to see how they manage the classroom tomorrow and next week. Here we go! Some housekeeping: We will be working in two different classrooms, so there will be one student blogging from each room each day. Patricia and I will alternate with teacher additions to the blog. So you’ll see three posts per day, except on the days when we will be together (weekends, and travel days). We will add a daily photo directly into the blog, but the bulk of our photos will be in the photo gallery. We hope you enjoy following our adventures! Some housekeeping: We will be working in two different classrooms, so there will be one student blogging from each room each day. Patricia and I will alternate with teacher additions to the blog. So you’ll see three posts per day, except on the days when we will be together (weekends, and travel days). We will add a daily photo directly into the blog, but the bulk of our photos will be in the photo gallery. We hope you enjoy following our adventures! |
Trip BlogWe will post daily during the trip. Please also check the photos page for peeks into our experiences. Archives |