1st Full day in the classrooms

The JCE Family today got up bright and early to experience being in a Belizean classroom first hand. When we arrived at San Pedro Roman Catholic School (RC) around 8:00 A.M., kids were running around and enjoying their breakfast. The students lined up after the first bell at 8:30 A.M and then filed into the classrooms. After coming in the students say “Good Morning Miss Teacher” and then say their daily prayer. From there they went into approximately three 45-55 min classes of learning. Then they had a short break where they ran around and got snacks, this was very similar to a recess. From there they lined back up and sat down for one more class. Then they went home, to the cantina or to a local shop for their hour and a half lunch. When they returned they came back, lined up, said their prayer again, before having two more 45-55 min classes. They had another recess like break and then finished out with one more class. As class ended, around 3:30 P.M., some stayed, some went home and some cleaned the classroom. 

Mrs. Smith went to an Infant 1 classroom, which is equivalent to about a Kindergarten/1^st grade level class. She had 35, 5-7 year old students in her room with two Belizean teachers. She spent the day visiting with the students and learning their routines. Tomorrow she will be teaching a lesson in Language Arts on how to pronounce the a, o, and u, but in the Creole Language. She also plans to do some reading groups with her students.

Mrs. Glasmyer was in a Standard 2 classroom, which is equivalent to a 4^th grade level class. She had 29, 8-11 year old students in her room. Her teacher did lots of fun and exciting lessons to get her kids involved. They sang songs, planted seeds, reviewed types of angles, discussed importing of goods, and talked about peace. Today she assisted the students in their lessons and tomorrow plans on team teaching.

Mrs. Curlee was in a Standard 3 classroom, which is equivalent to a 5^th grade level class. She had 28, 9-12 year old students in her room. In her room the students stayed in the room while for each of the 7 classes the teachers rotated around to them. So today they did Grammar, where they learned about clauses, sentences and phrases, Comprehension, where they read and discussed their reading, Math 1 and Math 2, where they discussed metric and customary units, how to find distance, weight, volume, capacity and area, Religion, where they discussed how to help others in their families, Social Studies, where they discussed their rights and Spanish where they learned about the Mayans and their monuments. Today Mrs. Curlee got to teach the second group of students about clauses, sentences and phrases. Other than that she observed the kids and all their lessons. Tomorrow she plans on teaching more and learning as much as she can.

Mr. Ehmann roamed the school grounds and observed all of the classrooms that they teachers were in. After that he enjoyed an eventful meeting with the Secretary of Education for the Island, which is basically similar to Dr. Spencer our Superintendent of Schools. Tomorrow he will be teaching a Standard 6 math class, which is equivalent to an 8^th grade level class.  

Come back tomorrow to see how our second day goes in the classroom. J

On Sunday, the JCE Family visited the next island Caye (pronounced Key) Caulker, which is a much smaller island and more of a village than a city or town like San Pedro. It was even more remote with no automobiles on the island. While there the Family visited the local vendors and shops. We enjoyed a local cone of ice cream while beating the blazing heat.

Today the JCE Family visited the schools of San Pedro. We started out our morning by visiting Little Angels Preschool, where we talked with the children and listen to them sing there good bye song for the day. The preschool is only in session for half of a day so we went right before they dismissed. From there we walked to Isla Bonita, which is a semi-private “K-8” school with approximately 92 students. Each class had about 10-15 students in each room. From there we had a short lunch break and then traveled to San Pedro Roman Catholic School (RC) which is a public school that serves most of the “K-8” students, approximately 900 students all together. Much larger than the first “K-8” school we visited, about 30 students in each room. While at RC the JCE Family, the Carolina Forest Family and JCM Family worked very closely together to build relationships with the administration and teachers.  The Northside Family visited San Pedro High School, which serves most of the students in San Pedro unless they go inland to Belize City for schooling. Overall, it was a very eventful and fulfilling day. Tomorrow we will be going back to RC to work with the teachers and maybe do some team teaching. So come back and read all about our partnership!!

The Itty Bitty Plane Ride

Our first Belizean meal at Hurricanes

UnBELIZEble first 2 days

Leaving from Jacksonville on Friday April 13, 2012 at 6:00am the JCE Family landed in Atlanta for a short layover. Then from Atlanta the JCE Family flew straight to Belize City. As we disembarked and went through customs, we met the wonderful Hot, Hot Humid Air of Belize. Then the JCE family flew for the first time on the tiny Tropic Air, 1 propeller plane from Belize City to our final destination of San Pedro. We flew over the crystal clear water and experienced the Belizean coastline from the air. We arrived in San Pedro, gathered our luggage and walked the ¼ of a mile dragging our luggage in the blazing heat to our hotel Pedro’s Inn. After changing out of our sweat drench clothing, we had a tour of the city and dove right into the culture and food of Belize. Mr. Ehmann tried a local dish called Ceviche and really enjoyed it. We walked all around, viewing where the schools were and then finishing off the trip with some tasty ice cream.

After a restful night in our air conditioned rooms, the JCE Family got up and enjoyed a local breakfast at Sara’s Kitchen. We enjoyed exotic fruits and delicious breakfast burritos filled with eggs and veggies. From there the family decided to do some sightseeing, some of us biked the city, while Mr. Ehmann rode around on a golf cart with his friends from Carolina Forest Elementary. These are the two main modes of transportation on the island.  Then we spent the afternoon resting and relaxing in the sun and water. Some of us splashed around in the pool, while Mr. Ehmann lived on the dangerous side swimming with a nurse shark and sting ray. For dinner the JCE Family went to a Maya restaurant and enjoyed some traditional Mayan cuisine.