How have your perceptions of disability and inclusion changed since completing the independent study on inclusive education and the field experience in Belize?

I dont think that my perceptions have changed, I feel that I am able to handle students with disabilities in my classroom better.  I feel that I have more tricks in my toolbox that will allow me to better help students.  I have learned during this experience that if students with disabilities are left alone and not helped they can become a distraction to others, and they can even develop anger issues from their frustration.  
I have a student in one of my classes that does not do very well, and I believe it is because he can not read.  When I walk around the room checking work and answering questions when I get to him he just asks if I will do his work for him.  He has asked me to do his work a handful of times and I wonder if that works in his other classes.  Are some of these students who do have some time of disability in the classroom being pushed through because they are having other people, even possibly teachers, do their work for them? 
I have always believed that if you push students to their full potential they will be successful, but I have really seen that here.  There are so many students here that dont have disabilities but they still need differentiated instruction and they will show what they can do if we just push them to do so.  

What strategies have you used to support children with special needs in your classroom?

Something that I have found to be very interesting in the high school is that there are very few students with learning disabilities because parents dont feel the need to pay for their students to go to school if they are not going to "get anything out of it".  The biggest issue I have noticed is that lack of focus with a lot of the students.  My strategy with those students is to constantly walk to room and tap their shoulder or have them work in pairs with students who are more focused.  I also try to mix up the activities so that students dont have the chance to get bored.  It is much easier to do that here because they only have 45 minutes classes. 

I have also noticed that there are students in my classes who still dont know how to read or they are not very comfortable with reading.  When I notice this I try to use pictures a lot to help represent any word problems and to circle the parts that we are focusing on.  

Another issue in the schools here is that some of the students dont speak English, and that is something that I dont know how to help especially since Spanish is spoken in most of the homes and even sometimes in the classroom by the teachers.  The teachers very rarely speak Spanish in the classrooms, but sometime they have to with certain students because they would not understand otherwise.

April 16 - April 20

This was my second full week in the schools, and I love it.  I have finally gotten to meet the rest of my students because they were gone on a field trip the first week I was there.  I am working with a freshman class who are in prep classes because they didnt do well on their entrance exams.  I am also working with 3 senior classes who I have absolutely fallen in love with.  These kids are awesome! I am just helping with the senior classes because my teacher is pressed for time and she is really worried that she is not going to be able to finish the curriculum.  So I walk around and help students one on one and really get to know them.  I have been teaching in the freshmen class though! Since they are a prep class they are going at a much slower pace than the other freshman, and we are covering one topic in a 45 minute class that would take about 10-15 minutes in the other classes.  Something else that is really interesting here is that they separate the classes by grade, not by topic.  So in freshman math class you learn that basics of algebra, geometry, statistics, etc, and then in your sophomore year you learn the next level of the same topics.  My teacher, Mrs. Iris was joking that her students would be so bored if there was a whole class dedicated to just algebra!  The teachers complain that the students have no motivation to learn and they just dont care like they used to, but from my experience I feel like these students are way more enthusiastic than the students back home.  But one thing that I have learned is that teenagers are the exact same no matter what country you are in. 

Now that you have experienced the cultural heritage of Belize, what have you learned that gives you insight into the children and families you are working with?

Some that stuck out from the cultural heritage that we learned about on our inland trip what that Belizeans come from a culture where religion is everything.  In the ATM Cave we saw a skeleton of a young woman that was sacrificed by volunteered.  This lets me know that the students I am working with and their families are very proud and most likely religious people, and I need to be sensitive when making references in the classroom and when I make examples.  It also explains the crucifixes in the classrooms.  In one of the senior classes, there is a crucifix that is about 2 feet tall in the middle of the board.  Something that has to be noted is that these are the students classroom, and they decorate and they are responsible for what is in there.  So the crucifixes are not something that the school is putting there, it is something that the students are bringing into the classroom.

April 9 - April 13, 2012

Last week we went inland to San Ignacio and it was great! We traveled all day Monday to get there and our methods of traveling were a serious culture shock for me. First we left San Pedro by water taxi which is a boast PACKED with people, and we rode that for about 2 hours.  We arrived in Belize City were we ate lunch and waited for a taxi.  We found a van that we can all fit in and it look extremely sketchy.  The van took us to to the bus station.  This is where it go crazy! The bus station was full of old school buses, and they are known as "chicken buses".  We had to wait in the station for about an hour until our bus was ready to leave.  When it was time to get on the bus one of the Grad Students Mike that is with us told us to RUN to the back that way we could trick the crowd and get on from the back.  We were squished up against the door and they opened it and there was a mad rush to the bus.  I sprinted to the back but so did half of the other people.  They were having to lift us into the bus where we had to fight for seats.  There was about 100 people on the bus.  I was really worried about it being stinky, but all the windows were open and it was fine.  We rode that bus for another 2 hours stopping every 100 yards to let people off and on.  That was exhausting.  

We finally made it to San Ignacio and we stayed at Rosa's.  San Ignacio looked more like what I was expecting a Central American town to look like. We were in the mountains and it was gorgeous.  You could see the houses going up the hills and there were little shops and houses everywhere. 

Monday was a very tiring day but it was totally worth it!  When will I ever get to say again the I rode a chicken bus through Central America again!?

For the rest of this entry I am going to just talk about the different excursions we did instead of going by days.

Caracol

Caracol is a Mayan ruin that was a huge city.  It was really cool to walk around and see all the different ruins and temples that had pasted the test of time.  Our guide Diego was awesome and very passionate about Mayan history.  I learned a lot about the meaning behind a lot of their temples.  The Ruler was the "meteorologist" and would  predict when the rain was coming.  He was able to do this because of the was they built one of the temples.  Depending on where the sun rose over this temple was similar to a calendar and would let him know when summer and winter solstice was coming. We also learned about their different beliefs.  When a child was born into a royal family they would tie a board to the child's forehead so the child would have a tall, flat forehead.  They would also tie a jewel to this bored that would hang in front of the child's eyes and would make the child be cross-eyed. Something else that I found really interesting was that the archeologists didnt uncover all the temples.  They left a lot of them covered with grass, trees, flowers and all sorts of wildlife because they didnt want to disturb the nature that was there.

After this LONG day at Caracol we went to the most gorgeous waterfall ever and went swimming!  We were able to jump off different ledges into the water.  I was too big of a chicken to do any of the super high ones because you had to climb up really slippery rocks and I was not about to do that.  I did jump off a medium one that was not as intimidating.  The water was really refreshing and was a nice change to go to fresh water after being in salt water for so long.

 

ATM Tour

This tour was through an underwater cave where many of the Mayan rituals were performed.  It was the second coolest thing I have ever done.  It was pitch black and we had head lamps on but for a long period of that the guide had us turn them off and walk through holding on to each others shoulders.  He was carrying mint leaves and it was amazing how strong the smell was in the huge cave.  There were some parts of the caves where you had to squeeze your neck through this really skinny part, and that was really scarey.  After about an hour of walking, climbing and crawling we make it to the main room where things were happening.  We learned about blood letting and that is where men and women would cut themselves and bleed on a piece of paper and then the Ruler would burn the paper in the cave, this apparently was a very popular method of giving back to the Gods.  The part that got me the most was this fully intact skeleton was laying in the back, and she was a human sacrifice.  I asked if this would be something that people volunteered for or was it a decision the Ruler made.  Martin, our guide, told me that it was always a volunteer and it was an honor for those volunteers. He also said that she was left in a way that made her look like she was dancing so she was not only giving herself but her talents.  That gave me goose bumps.  We hung out for about an hour looking at all the cool stuff and then traveled back for an hour.  The water in the cave was freezing!! I was ready to get dried off.

Crystal Cave

This was by far the coolest thing I have ever done! It was only Colin, Tony, Elizabeth, Diego and myself.  We had to hike through the jungle for about an hour to get to the entrance of the cave.  Then once we got there we had to REPEL down into the cave! Never in my life did I ever think I would do anything like this!  We went straight down for about 10 feet and then stayed on the line and walked backwards for another 15 feet.  People rarely take this tour because it is so intense.  Once in the cave we were in there for four hours.  The Crystal Cave is a dry cave so there was no walking through water but there was slick clay all over and some unsteady rocks.  We crawling up and down to get to the back of the cave which is a place called "Wonderland".  This cave was truly amazing.  Everything was pure white and sparkly.  There was stalagmites hanging everywhere and the walls were covered in minerals.  We could only touch what had been touched before and that was the brown spots because the oils from our hands would kill the minerals and keep them from growing.  It was the most physically challenging activity I have ever done!  Ok, back to Wonderland!  This place was the farthest back in the cave you can go, and the air was much thinner and that was what made it so beautiful.  I wish I could tell you more about this cave but until you see it in person you will never understand how beautiful it was. 
After the Crystal Cave we went to a Blue Hole which is a really, really deep hole that people can go swimming in.  It was really nice but we were all too tired to enjoy it haha.  Lets just say that it was a very quiet ride home that day.

The Belize Zoo 

The zoo was more like the wild than the zoo!  There are animals behind chicken wire basically, and some you were allowed to pet.  I think my favorite animal was the tapir.  That is the national animal, and it is really ugly but really sweet.  Another cool thing about the zoo was that we got to go inside a cage inside the jaguar's cage and feed him!  His name was Jr. and he could do tricks like doing a somersault.  He was really cool.  I got to see some really awesome animals.

  

As you participate in the service projects, identify something you learned during your service week about the Belizean culture that you didn't know and that is important for you to know as a teacher.  As you start to recognize how cultural difference impact education and teaching, you can bring that awareness into your classroom next year.

The service projects that I have worked on this week have been working at a Easter Camp at the library, walking dogs at the Humane Society, and writing a child's book.  I feel like I learned the most from working at the camp, and had a great time while doing it.  Something that I learned during this week is how touchy and loving the children are here.  That is something that I had been told, but it wasnt until I witnessed it was it that I really understood.  As a teacher it is important to know that here it is allowed and even encouraged to physically interact with the children.  These kids want to hug, they want to ride on your back, they want to hold your hand walking down the street, and they really want to you to meet their parents.  I know that this will be different when working with high school students, but it is important for me to know how my students grew up and the relationship they had with their teachers in previous years.  

 

Day Sixteen: April 5, 2012

Today was by far the best day of my life! I know I have said that before in some of my blogs but today was a day I will never forget. 

We went to Rocky Point, which is where the land meets the reef, on golf carts.  It is only 14 miles, but because we were alternating between driving on the beach and driving through the jungle, it took about 2 hours to get there.  About a fourth of the way there one of the golf carts blew a fuse and we were stuck for a while.  We finally reorganized people on the golf carts and we continued on while one of the guides stayed behind.  On the ride we stopped and say Cuban “refugee” boats is the best way I can think to describe them.  People wanted to leave Cuba made these boats out of time and rubber and an engine made of pipes, car rims and tons of other things you find around the house.  If these people found their way to Belize and were discovered Belize had to send them home to an unknown fate.

Once we go to our location we threw on our snorkel gear and jumped in! It was a different experience than Hol Chan because the water was much shallower.  We saw a 4(ish) foot barracuda, a really big lobster and beautiful angelfish.  We also found conch that we would be eating later in the day.  I thought that I would a lot of conchs but I didn’t know what it looked like if it was alive or not and my guide quickly let me know that all of them I found were dead haha! Finally one of the guides took my over and was helping me decide if the conchs were alive or not.  (I finally found one and I got to keep the shell after we ate it but I am getting ahead of myself).  I did cut my leg on the reef and that doesn’t feel good but nothing could ruin this day. 

After we were done snorkeling and collecting conch we went to go bbq.  The guide made FRESH conch ceviche with tomatoes, onions, cilantro and tons of lime juice. (Remind me to tell you the story of what I ate when the guide was cleaning my conch… lets just say they wouldn’t tell me what it was until after I ate it.)   After that he grilled grouper and we had fish tacos.  I have never had better seafood in my life.  It was amazing to eat food you had just taken out of the ocean. 

At lunch I met Santiago.  Santiago was a local man that looks like he was been on the island his entire life and doesn’t intend on leaving… well until he met me.  He told me I was the most beautiful girl he has every seen in Belize, he liked the way I move, and that he wants to go home with me to Canada.  I told him multiple times that I am from North Carolina, which is in America, not Canada, but after a while I gave in.  Everyone was picking on me that I was never going home and Santiago and I would stay in my jungle of Belize forever.  He didn’t smell like someone that I could spend forever with haha!

After lunch we went fishing on the reef.  It was really scary because we had to wear our flip flops to keep from our feet from being torn apart by the reef. At that point I was too scared that I was going to be knocked over and stung by a ray so I couldn’t focus on fishing.  I did catch one snapper though!

The sun was going down so we finally had to head home and I am exhausted. I cant think of a time that I have been this happy and relaxed.  Today was truly the best day ever (just ask Jessica, I said that phrase about a million times!!)

Day Thirteen: April 2, 2012

Luis is the sweetest child ever!

This the first day of our service project week.  The library is having a three day Easter "Camp" where kids can go for four hours a day and do different Easter activities.  I worked the morning shift with Parker, Jessica, Kristen, and Elizabeth.  It was so much fun! There was 20 kids and they are between the ages of 7 and 10.  I felt out of my element at the beginning because we dont do these kind of activities at the high school level! I was really grateful for my elementary education majors today.  We started the day with reading the Easter Story.  The kids really love story time.  We then moved on to making "stained glass" crosses out of construction paper.  That took the most amount of time, and then it was snack time.  The librarian brought sandwiches and juice boxes for the students.  We ate outside and then had an egg race.  That was really funny to watch because the kids were running all over the place.  Then it was time to go back inside and we made Easter egg baskets out of paper plates.  After we finished up with the baskets it was time for us to leave.  

It was great to spend the morning with some local children, outside of the school environment.  These kids are at such a great age.  It was awesome to get hugs and to read books like "The Monster ABC's". 

 

What were you unprepared to handle in your assigned classroom and how did you respond? What strategies did you use to figure out what you needed to do?

The main thing that I was unprepared for was the amount of noise that was in the classroom.  The students are constantly talking, and that is not something that I am used to back home in the States.  Whats crazy about that is that the students and the teachers are able to still be productive in that environment.  At first I felt very anxious about how was I going to be able to teach if the students were not paying attention, but what I soon realized was that just because the noise level is high, that doesnt mean the students arent paying attention.  Once I realized that, my anxiety level dropped and I knew that I could use that to my advantage.  My main strategy for responding to this action is do lots of group activities to give the students things to talk about.  When I taught last week, there was group work during each part of the lesson. In the beginning of the lesson the students had to work out problems in pairs and then switch with another group and check each others work, during the lesson I was constantly asking question in a call and response form to let the students answer and feel like they are part of the class.  As a wrap up activity, I had a chart that had a bunch of blanks that the students had to fill out, and they could talk to each other and fill out the whole chart.  I think that is going to be the outline for most of my classes, have group work in the beginning and end, and have lots of call and response during the notes/lecture time so that way the students will talk like they usually do, but keep them focused on the math at the same time.

 

Day Eleven: March 31, 2012

Excursion One: Snorkeling at Hol Chan and Shark & Ray Alley.

Thanks Dr. C for your great underwater camera!

Today was AMAZING!! We got at a catamaran named "SEAduced" and rode about 35 minutes out to Hol Chan.  The boat was really fun, they had bean bags, fresh fruit and drink for us.  Once we arrived to Hol Chan, we put our snorkel gear on and jumped in! Hol Chan is the break in the reef where boats can go in and out.  There was so many fish and SEA TURTLES! We had a guide that would swim deep down and grab different animals and fish to show us.  One time he went down and grabbed a green eel but it slithered away.  He pointed out a lot of plants and the coolest one was coral that was purple or brown depending on if it was sleeping or was awake and eating.  I tried to swim deep down but after four feet you and to be able to pop your ears underwater and mine were not cooperating.  It was the coolest thing to be so close to the reef and all types of sea life.  

After Hol Chan we went to Shark and Ray Alley.  We got back in the water and they threw lots of dead sardines in the water to attract the rays and the sharks.  I was kind of scarey but then they told us that they were nurse sharks and they didnt bite.  I was still nervous about the sting rays because I didnt know if you get hurt if you get hit by the tail or if they have to decide to sting you.  Our guide held a shark upside down to put him to sleep so we could pet him, and then he got a sting ray for us to pet.  The shark felt different that I expected, I was expecting it to be smooth but it felt more like a finger nail file.  The sting ray was smooth and kind of slimy.  It was really cool to swim with the sharks and sting rays.

After we were done snorkeling we sailed to Caye Caulker which is just a little island with a few restaurants and shops.  I bought a couple of prints that I cant wait to frame and put up and the wall back home. 

We finally got back to San Pedro around 5 pm.  We hurried upstairs and changed for the Miss. Isla Bonita beauty pageant.  This is a  beauty pageant/talent show where students of Isla Bonita Primary school can participate in the show and if they win, they get a scholarship for the following school year.  This show lasted from 8:30 (it was suppose to start at 6:30 haha) until around 11:30/11:45.  These little girls dance, sing, do fashion shows, question and answer sessions, and there is even a bathing suit session.  I didnt stay the whole time, but it was very very interesting.

After that we came home and passed out.  Today was slam packed but a lot of fun!

Day Ten: March 30, 2011

Lazy day :) We dont have school today so we are just hanging by the pool.  It is a really hot day so I have spent my afternoon in and out of the pool and playing spades.

Jessica and I are on a mission to find a coconut that we can drink out of, and we found it! It was not as good as I wanted it to be.  The coconut water was not very sweet and was kind of tart.  The meat of coconut was pretty bland too, but it was still fun to finally find a place to drink out of one. 

Tonight we are having dinner at Pedro's, they cooked spaghetti and lasagna for everyone.  It was sooo yummy!  After we ate the group of us got together and did a little team bonding by sharing our most embarrassing stories, and naturally Colin and I had the most stories to tell.  We asked Walter to share his story, and lets just say it is not blog friendly haha. We spent a little more time just hanging out together and slowly everyone headed to bed but Jessica, Parker and myself.  

We are the lucky few that got a photo shoot with Walter.  He likes to share his dreads and make it look like you also have dreads. 

Day Nine: March 29, 2012

Today was CRAZY!!! It was the last day before the two week Easter Break.  There was hardly any students in school today because there are now two field trips going on, and because a lot of students wanted to start their break a day early.  Today was also casual day if the students paid a dollar, and that just put fuel on the fire.  But, out of all this craziness it was an awesome day.  I was able to talk to a lot of the students more than I would have normally.  We played pictonary and charades in one of the classes and that was a lot of fun.  I got to pick what the students had to act out and draw.  As part of charades I said they had to be their teacher, Mrs. Arcs, and that was the funniest thing I have ever seen.  They were up at the board being goofy and putting their hands under their shirts to give themselves a belly. 

Pencil toppers my teacher made for her
students.

I also got to spend a lot of time talking with my teacher, Mrs. Iris.  She is great! She likes to have my opinion on things and likes for us to think of new ideas together.  She asked me to grade the test from 1E, and we made the key together and decided on the point distribution.  She has been teaching for 15 years, but still likes to have suggestions and fresh ideas.  

We ended school early to have an assembly to wish the track team luck on their meet this coming up weekend.  They called the members of the track team one by one to the stage and the whole school cheered, these students are very supportive of each other.

Tonight was a great time!  We ate dinner at Caroline's Cookin' and I had the Seafood Ceviche.  That was my first time with ceviche, and it was delicious.  It was full of conch, shrimp, fish and fresh chopped veggies including tomatoes, cucumbers and carrots. We then went to Thursday night trivia at the Road Kill Bar.  It was such a good time!  Our team didn't win, but we only lost to the professors team by a half a point.  Its always a good time when all twelve of us get together.

Day Eight: March 28, 2012

Second day in the schools, and this was a little smoother.  I knew more of what to expect, and I think the students are already getting used to me being around.  I taught my first lesson today and I think it went pretty well.  I taught the 1E math class.  What that means is that the students are in Form 1 (freshman) and they are group 5.  Each class is separated by Form, and by a letter so that there are more than four classes.   I taught students how to change percentages into fractions, and then we reviewed going back and forth from fractions, percents and decimals.  I found that the students seem to be comfortable with new material, but then when it is time for them to combine topics they get confused.  It was really exciting to be in this class because when I asked a question to the class I had almost all 16 shouting out answers, both right and wrong.  The students wanted to come to the board and show their work and they wanted to help their classmates.  I wish I could bottle up all the enthusiasm in these classrooms and bring it back to the States.  If we could mix the focus of the students in the States with the enthusiasm of the students here in San Pedro the educational system would be unstoppable. 

 I also was able to obverse Mrs. Iris in a Form 2 class.  They were reviewing for a geometry test for tomorrow.  She did an awesome activity where she put diagrams up on the board and gave the students the matching vocabulary words but all cut into little pieces.  The students had to not only make the vocabulary words would the strips they were given, but they also had to match them with the corresponding diagrams.  She also made it a race to see which groups could do it the fastest.  I really liked this activity because it really made the students think about the meaning of the vocabulary words. 

I have only been in the classroom for two days and I have already realized that sometimes technology isn’t the best tool in the classroom.  I feel like I spent so much time using technology during my 10 weeks in the States, when I could have done it without the technology and the students might have done better.  Technology for the sake of technology is a complete and total waste.  These classrooms only have chalk and craft supplies, and that is literally the extent of their supplies, but their students are still getting an education.  It has really made me think about the role of a teacher in the classroom.  The teacher is the GPS but the students are the drivers, and it doesn’t matter how snazzy the tools you use to get to your destination, all that matters is that you get there.

**Random story of the day: So the 1E class is the prep class that didn’t score very high on their entrance exams and they have a lot of character and even more class clowns.  Today a boy in class looked and me and told me that he was probably going to behave badly.  I asked him if he was acting badly now or if he was just warning me that it was coming.  He told me that he was going to try really hard to behave but he could make any promises.  Well he did his work and participated in class and never acted out until I was trying to learn names.  He made sure that he told me all the wrong names haha.