Today, we were all up bright and early at 5 a.m. for another “eye-opening” experience. the more fluent Spanish speaking Glimpsers went to the local public school, Instituto Nacianal Automono Eliaeo Picado (INEP) while the others went to the local private school, Colegio San Luis Gonzaga (K-12 Catholic School). Many of the Glimpsers played soccer and basketball with the students in this huge courtyard. KK and Lezine rocked the house with their basketball skills.
I (Tannin) personally went to the private school and there were a lot of unexpected occurrences. We walked into a room of yelling students, phones out, test cheaters, lack of resources and ineffective teachers. Regardless, I made friends, Kelly and Jennifer, who both spoke amazing English. We conversed about life, boyfriends, future careers, compared America and Nicaragua, and much more, Even though this experience was more in unique than I anticipated, I believe I made some new friends that I will keep in contact with for as long as possible!
I (Laz) “attended” 3 classes (one of the teachers was not there) at the public school (INEP) My first class had a physics teacher who tried to help the students who paid attention. While my second and third classes either did not have a teacher or the teacher had left the classroom altogether for most of the period. Although some of the teachers were not there, the students were friendly, loud and rambunctious. What I have learned from this experience is that many people in the U.S. including myself take advantage of teachers who try to help and put actual effort into their instruction.
After returning to the Hostel at 12 pm we all gathered around the table and ate our lunch. Next, we spent the following hour writing our lesson plans for our daily English tutoring class which was later canceled due to a city-wide power outage. We finished off our long, productive day with back-to-back seminars on the topics of human rights and our community action projects which will be started next week.
P.S. Tit, I made more friends than you 🙂
It sounds like you are all having an incredible experience. Thank you for sharing your insights; I am enjoying reading them. You will be tutoring students as well? I can’t wait to hear about your experiences as teachers! Keep up the great work!
What an amazing experience you all had!! Be grateful what you have!
Glad you did kid!!! Love and miss you! Continue making the most out of every experience! Love reading all about your trip, checking this thing daily:)