Embracing my need to learn about new cultures.
~The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.~
My service with Peace Corps in the Eastern Caribbean is based on English Literacy. I'm working with a 1st grade class at Tourama Government School to enhance reading and writing skills. However, I have been tasked with a secondary project: fixing up the school's library. It needs to be cleaned out and redecorated.
The students have a say in what their library should look like, so I asked all the students at the school what their favorite cartoon characters were. I would like to paint them on the outside and the inside of the library. I'm now trying to learn how to draw Spiderman and Paw Patrol, so I have a lot of work ahead of me.
Books are being donated to the library from Hands Across the Sea once I get the library cleaned out. All the books that were in the library were put in boxes to be sorted. Some have been given to teachers for useful material in the classroom and others will be sold in a book sale to bring more money into the school. I will post updates on the work being done in the library. However, I am just getting started.
"Whatever we believe about ourselves and our ability comes true for us."
~Susan L. Taylor
Normally, I teach Language Arts, but I taught the Social Studies lesson for today. In light of Black History Month, I wanted to teach the students in my class about some of the African American heroes that have gone done in history for great things. We went to the computer lab to watch a video on Youtube.
The video was on Mae Jemison, George Washington Carver, Madam C.J. Walker, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams and Garret A. Morgan. I paused the video a lot to explain things about each person and what they did to contribute to society. When we got to Madam C.J. Walker and the hot comb, I explained to kids how it worked and how my grandma used to always straighten my hair in the morning before going to church. The video ended with Mae Jemison's quote: "I always knew I'd go to space."
Afterward, I talked to the students about the power of the tongue and how you can speak things into existence. I asked each one of them what they wanted to be when they grew up and that if they spoke it out loud and believed in themselves, that they could do it. When we went back into the classroom, I had them write down what they wanted to be. One of the girls in my class said she wanted to be a doctor, but changed it to a nurse and I told her that there are doctors who are women as well. After they wrote what they wanted to be, they had to write "I can do it!"
This lesson was important to me because I was able to share a part of my culture with my class and co-teacher. Also, I wanted them to know that just like these historical African American men and women, they could accomplish anything they wanted. It warmed my heart to hear them chant "I can do it!"
Last Wednesday, I was invited to do an interview on Nice Radio Station, where 30 minutes is allotted to Peace Corps. The program was started by a volunteer named Tom over 20 years ago.
The current hosts are fellow volunteers, Myranda and Ford. We talked about my life before Peace Corps and how my service has been so far while in St. Vincent. Down below is a recording of the
radio show. I hope I'm able to go back by end of year to give an update about my service. You can listen to the radio show by clicking on the link below.
"All you need is love. But chocolate now and then doesn't hurt." ~Charles M. Schulz
On Valentine's Day, everyone came to school in red, pink and white. In my class, we did a chocolate exchange where the students came to school with chocolate bars and candy (spending up to $5) to give to a classmate. I wrapped some of them in construction paper and my co-teacher wrote their names on them.
At break time, they did the exchange and we had them find who it was for. We had to help some of them though because they got the names confused if they started with the same letter.
They were happy to receive the sweet treats and ate them during break time. One of my students received a big chocolate bar with fruit and nuts in it. She ate half and gave the other half to me accompanied by a hug, which put a huge smile on my face. I had never tried it before and it was really good.
My co-teacher even got me a gift. A wine glass decorated with hearts on it and chocolate in the inside.
Valentine's Day isn't the only day we should show love to each other, but it is nice to give something to someone and receive something from someone. The smiles on their faces was worth it.
