My favorite part though has to be the diversity. I have students from across the globe including all over Central and South America, Europe, the USA, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. This presents some challenges, like language barriers, cultural misunderstandings, and even some stereotyping, but it also makes for a very dynamic learning environment. We were talking about role-models and doing a KWL chart before I read aloud a book about Cesar Chavez. A boy from Venezuela said that he was pretty sure that Chavez was the president of his country and that the US didn’t like him. Then a girl from Iran shared her connection that she was pretty sure the US didn’t like Iran’s government either. Then a boy from South Korea added a little bit about the difference between his country and North Korea. It is definitely going to help me to grow in culturally sensitivity and brushed up on world happenings!
On another note, I experienced my first earthquake. Ok, so it was more like a tremor, but it freaked me out nonetheless! It was about 5:30 in the morning and I was only half asleep because I had already hit the snooze button a couple times. Then it felt like something jumped on my bed and that one corner of the bed was wobbling and vibrating from it. So my initial thought was, “Eeek, there’s an animal in my room!!” By the time I realized what was going on and could even think about getting to the doorway the tremor had already stopped. Later a student asked, “If there’s an earthquake on Mars would they call it a marsquake?” Lol, makes sense to me!
We didn’t have power on Tuesday and there was talk of calling off school because of hygiene concerns. There is a little bit of a hypersensitivity about swine flu here because Costa Rica’s President came down with it. So, in many ways I have had to learn how to take things as they come so far.
Rainy season
My classroom
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