Study Abroad Field Experience in Belize

This week teaching math turned out to be very interesting. I initially had a lesson planned that required the students to read directions and look around the room to divide objects in half. The lesson turned out to be far too abstract, so I changed my lesson to include the foam blocks that demonstrate halve's and whole's. These blocks helped the students (infant 1 and 2 especially) see physically that two halve's come together to make a whole. This activity alone taught me a tremendous amount about the way students think. Especially as student's are young, it is easier for them to stay in the "real world" essentially by using manipulatives that can make their learning concrete. I underestimated how abstract my lesson was and how much I was asking of the students. What I really needed to do was bring my lesson back down to a more literal and concrete lesson. As the students got older, I was able to make my lessons more and more abstract over time. I eventually ...

Since traveling all over Belize this week, I have learned an enormous amount about the people of Belize and it's culture. It was very interesting to see the ways that the people in other parts of Belize such as Punta Gorda were so different than those in San Pedro and San Ignacio. When I am in San Pedro and even in San Ignacio, I did not feel as much as an outsider. The people are very friendly and welcoming, and are not surprised to see someone from another country in their area. When I got to Punta Gorda, however, I felt much more like it was obvious that I was not from there and that people knew it. People were still friendly, however I felt there was more of a division between us and the local people. I really enjoyed getting to travel all over the country and see the different types of people that inhabit Belize that I normally wouldn't get to see if we stayed in San Pedro. Most of our bus rides were full of different people from Belize such as Mennonites and Mayan's w...

This week has taught me that I am more prepared to be a teacher than I previously thought. There are many times where I feel as though I may not be prepared or may have enough experience to teach quite yet, but my first week working with the teachers and being in the schools made me realize that I am more equipped than I thought. Since working with the teachers in Belize is learning experience for both us and them, I feel like I have learned that being a teacher is not always as easy as we may make it appear in the United States. Teachers in the US have difficulties within their classroom as well, but may not have the same types of challenges that teachers in Belize have. Standing back and watching the teachers in their classroom yesterday, I couldn't help but keep imagining strategies in my head that the teacher could be using to make their classroom easier to handle. It makes me excited that we are here to help them with some of those strategies and broaden their knowledge of new...

I was very excited to arrive in Belize Saturday evening and begin to learn about the culture here. It is not much different than I imagined, with it being very busy and touristy in some areas like Dr. Catapano had mentioned. I was excited to see all of the beautiful scenery by the beach and begin exploring around the island. Since arriving, the people here have made me feel very welcome and have been very nice and helpful. This made me feel better since I have never traveled outside of the country before. I have also noticed that there are parts of the island that are more modern than I originally thought. It is interesting to me that the island is so modern in some aspects but not in others. For example, several places around the island have wifi, but others may not even have air conditioning or be able to flush the toilet paper. Although some things in Belize are different than in America, I don't feel like being in Belize has been a complete culture shock. Since everyone on the ...