My weekend

I’ll be honest…teaching does consume my life during the week…but weekends in Belize are amazing!

Friday ended my second week teaching. Every day was sweltering hot and I grew more and more thankful for the tiny air-conditioning unit in my classroom. On Friday night, I played bingo at the local Lion’s Club with a few others. It was fun even though I never wonL  After bingo we met up with another group to play trivia at one of my favorite local spots, BC’s. I actually saw one of my students playing on the beach at BC’s and was introduced to his parents. I have met all of my students’ parents at least once. Seeing my kids after school and on weekends is just another joy of teaching in a small town on a small island!

On Saturday morning, our group biked to the south end of the island to explore a Mayan ruin site. Even though we left at 8am, the heat was intense, making the 5-mile bike-ride to the site all but fun. Fortunately, most of the ruins were in shaded forest areas, but we then had to battle with bugs. We were able to see ancient Mayan artifacts such as pottery, tools, and bones. It was so cool to stand on desolate land that at one time was a bustling Mayan trading post. Now I am even more excited to see Mayan temples and more ruins on our inland trip in a few weeks!

I spent Saturday evening at the Miss San Pedro High School beauty pageant. It was…interesting; much different from the kind of pageant that would take place in America. Nearly the entire town gathered at the outdoor auditorium to show support. My favorite thing about the pageant was that it was supposed to start at 6pm….but it did not begin until almost 8oclock…making the pageant last way past midnight! Belize time is crazy.

Sunday was my favorite day so far in Belize. Again, our entire group woke up early, but for a very different reason. All 22 of us piled onto a boat and spent the first part of the day snorkeling at two different sites: the barrier reef (gorgeous) and Shark Ray Alley (scary). I saw so many different kinds of fish, nurse sharks, stingrays, and eel’s. By far the coolest animal was a huge sea turtle that swam only a few feet away from me. After snorkeling, we sailed to Caye Cauker, the Island directly below San Pedro. We had a delicious lunch and spent a few hours shopping. Caye Cauker is even smaller than San Pedro, with only one main street and hardly any activity at all. It was gorgeous though! The long boat ride home was a perfect end to a perfect day as we sailed beside dolphins and watched the beautiful sunset in the distance.

Today was back to the grind of teaching full time. I really missed my students over the weekend and we had a fun day together.   I started reading a short chapter book, “Frindle” to my class today and they loved it! I loved their eagerness and excitement for me to read to them. I am excited for what the rest of the week will bring!

I have learned a great deal from my partnership teacher in Belize. Hector teaches with limited resources and materials, but is always prepared to teach an engaging lesson. Learning to plan and teach with limited materials and supplies has been most valuable to me. In Belize, I have stretched my mind beyond what I thought I was capable of in order to teach without any materials. I have learned how to improvise and make use of the supplies that I do have. For instance, I wanted to teach an interactive math lesson on measuring liquids, but I only had one measuring cup. I ended up cutting plastic water bottles and using a marker to turn the bottles into measuring cups. I have actually enjoyed planning lessons without materials because it takes much less time!  All it takes is an interesting presentation of the content and an engaging activity or game.

Adios,

Katy G