Getting off to a good start...

School started for us on a Thursday, February 11th. The first two days of school were orientation half days. Alejandro (my cooperating teacher) and I spent that Thursday and Friday with our fifth grade homeroom only. I felt that this would be a good opportunity to try some getting-to-know-you activities. We played a couple of silly name games and team building games, voted on classroom rules and illustrated them on posters that we hung in the room, and designed gingerbread figures to look like each of us. On the gingerbread figures I instructed students to draw three things that they like to do, and when they had finished we went around the room and shared our names and the three things we like to do. This was difficult for the students who hadn’t been practicing English over the break. I started them out with, “My name is Melissa and I like to go fishing, listen to music and be outdoors.” We helped each other as we went around the room. This was good practice for students in a nonthreatening environment and they also got to know a little about each other in the process. The gingerbread figures were hung in the room for students to revisit later and become more acquainted with one another.




Another activity we did during those two days was to label different things around the room like; door, window, whiteboard, eraser, marker, chair, desk, etc. We left the labels up so that students could reference them later. One more activity I conducted during the first couple days was a Hopes and Dreams Activity. If you’re familiar with Responsive Classroom, then you know that a Hopes and Dreams Activity is an activity in which students set goals for themselves for the school year. Some examples of the Hopes and Dreams my students set were, “To pass fifth grade,” “To learn more about math,” “To become a better soccer player,” and “To make more friends.” Students used a template of a rainbow which they colored, glued Froot Loops Cereal onto, and then wrote their Hopes and Dreams in the Pot of Gold at the rainbow’s end. Of course, the students were very excited to eat their left over Froot Loops when they had finished their projects!

I also had the fifth grade students practice procedures during the first couple days such as, morning activities, the “Give me five” attention getter, and a job chart. Alejandro helped me to explain the processes of these procedures and why they were important, and we practiced them as a class a few times through. The students were very responsive to all of the procedures, especially, “Give me five.” We’re into our third week of school now and the students are still doing really well with the procedures we put in place that first week. The Morning Activity in the photo was one I used after we had labeled items in the classroom and before a science lesson on classification.


The following Monday and Tuesday we had orientation half days with our sixth grade class, and we did many of the same activities with them. We then started the regular curriculum. Our school, like many of the schools in Costa Rica, uses curriculum from the United States. It’s nice because I understand how to use it and am familiar with it, but unfortunately it doesn’t appeal to the students much - as they are not familiar with many of the themes or topics. Many of the stories refer to states in the U.S. that the students have never heard of and don’t even recognize as the name of a place.

Like many of the schools in the United States, the teachers in our school are required to follow the curriculum. It’s been a challenge already and as I’m gradually taking over I am supplementing more and more with activities I’m finding online or making up on my own. The students are very responsive to the activities that I plan, and grateful for the opportunity to try new things. A couple of the teachers at this school have told me that they like the curriculum because it tells them exactly what to say and do. As a product of my professors, I know that this is not always the best instruction, as you need to account for; differences in student abilities, the relativity of the context, etc. Besides these important factors, classroom text books are generally written at reading levels above the grade they are intended for. For English Language Learners (ELL’s) this makes quite a difference. It’s been frustrating trying to explain certain things. For example, last week our sixth graders had a reading on the Fibonacci sequence in their reading class. The reading was very dense and difficult to comprehend, but without access to supplies or computers in the classroom, it was nearly impossible to explain!

I’m also responsible for teaching an Oral English class to the fifth and sixth grade classes on my own. This has been going alright so far, as we’ve just been getting acquainted and practicing greetings, but I feel that the addition of this class is a huge responsibility! The students in my classes struggle with their English frequently and I want them to be successful in all of their subjects. I’m working on basics for now, and I see grand possibility in sight, but it’s definitely a stressful task.

This entry was to bring my blog up to speed. I’m currently in the third week and it has been going very well - I will write more about that later! Thanks for reading!