Alyssia
Psychology Undergraduate |
Alyssia
Psychology Undergraduate |
Tuesday 1/17/23 Today we went to the Mariposa Foundation in the morning. At the foundation we started our day with a large circle made up of all the staff and students at the foundation. In the circle, Fernanda (a staff member who is super cool!) led. We sang happy birthday to one of the students and we introduced ourselves. We had to add a movement after we introduced who we were so I decided to do the disco dance. It was a fun way to be introduced. Then, the girls got into their assigned groups and us girls paired off to go with them. Andrea and I got paired up and we went with the 7/8-year-old group. We began our day in the Foundations library. The staff read a book about pandas to the girls, and they seemed so interested in it! They were pointing out different things about the pandas and even answering questions the staff asked them. We also got to try and learn Spanish by listening to the Spanish book. After the book was over the girls went to sit at the table and they wrote about what they had learned. The girls were practicing their uppercase and lowercase differences while doing this and the staff really helped them out and even showed them on a whiteboard. To switch subjects a staff member or student will hit a gong 2-3 times and the students know to go to the next subject. Our next subject was Softball. But it was actually kickball. I’m not sure if they call it softball there or kickball but it was still fun. It also made me realize how out of shape I truly am. This whole trip has shown me that and it made me want to get back into shape. Regardless, Kickball/ Softball was fun, and the kids were able to get some energy out. After kickball the cohort was sent to work with the sixth graders for the rest of the morning. They had cooking class today and they were learning English while doing it. We made granola together and it turned out really good! The girls were making up the rules for cooking class and what they should follow in the kitchen as well as writing down ingredients and how much they needed. Cooking truly is all subjects in one! This project took us about half an hour and then it was lunch time!! Today’s lunch we had with the girls at the foundation. It was rice and beans with avocado and cabbage salad. It was all pretty good, but I couldn’t eat it all it was so much food! After lunch we took a walk to 3MM where we did some activities with the kids. I got to finally read my bilingual book and I was so excited. Some of the kids seemed to really take to it while others didn’t really. Which I expected. It was really fun, and it felt like I was a teacher. Which has been a very weird experience for me because I’m not in school for teaching but it's so fun.!! After that we played Mr. Fox with the kids, and they absolutely loved it! It was fun to join in too! It reminded me a ton of elementary school gym. Our afternoon was short with 3MM school. That night we went home and did more activity brainstorming and had a cohort meeting. It was really fun night with everyone. Wednesday 1/18/23 Wednesday, we went back to the foundation in the morning, and we went back into the same groups we were in the day previously. We read a book about penguins and wrote about them, just like the pandas the day before. We also played softball/kickball again and I got out many times. After those two activities, us girls in the cohort were able to sit with the Founder of the Mariposa DR foundation and do our research interviews. This was where I conducted my research about Mental Health in the Dominican. Now I’m not sure if I’m allowed to talk about raw data so Ill just say that it was an extremely interesting point of view from her, and I’m excited to write about it. That took up the rest of our time at the foundation for the day so we gathered to have lunch another rendition of rice and beans (I’ve never had so much rice! But its so good!!) and we headed to 3MM. Today at 3MM we had a schedule made out of what we would be doing for the day. The first half hour block consisted of Emily reading a book and the Wiggle and Freeze game! The kids were wiggle and freeze veterans; they knew it so well!!! It was a fun activity to do with them and it even made me feel silly. Then we had a short break before the second block. We worked with the 3–6-year-olds this day. At the second block Emily, Andrea and I taught the kids about fruits in English by singing the Wiggles fruit salad song. They liked that and so did I. It felt like I was reliving a small piece of my childhood. We ended the second block with the Hokey Pokey and the kids laughed the whole time. Thursday 1/19/23
We went to the foundation again today and we worked in the same groups we had been in. We ran the morning circle this time and it was fun. We taught them our “Lets go Buffalo” chant. They also loved it just as much as the kids at 3MM did. We got to spend our entire morning with the 6th graders and see what they are working on. First I sat in on a coding class which I give lots of props to those girls taking it because I was so confused!! They seemed to really be into it and wanted to keep learning new steps. We were in there for a few hours with the girls, id say about an hour and a half. Then we moved on to the kitchen with the girls where we got to try the granola with bananas that we had made two days prior, and just as it was the first time, it was delicious! Those girls did a great job. I think the girls had a sense of fulfillment from doing this activity because they were able to see the product turn out so well. They also learned the directions to make it and learned them in English and Spanish. Then for the remainder of the class we all played board games. I taught the girls how to play Go Fish and they taught me how to play Spot It. I had lots of fun with them, I love board games so much! We played for about an hour and it was time for lunch. Before the girls went to wash their hands for lunch Janinna and Anna had the idea of a mural of butterfly hands. We got each girl to pick a color and we put paint on their hands, then they made their hands into the shape of a butterfly and put it on the paper where their name was. It was nice, and the girls were excited to get their hands on the mural. The girls in my cohort and I also added our hands. Lunch, again another rendition of rice and beans with avocado and cabbage but it was so good. We walked over to Tres Mariposa Montessori (3MM) after lunch and began by going over our schedule for the day. In the first block of the afternoon we did three different activities with the kids. We did laughing mindfulness led by Janinna which I got a kick out of and the kids did too. They all talked about how their bodies felt after and a lot said “good” or “ relaxed”. Then we went on to play the copycat game which was fun, and the kids seemed to enjoy that too. Everyone wanted to be the leader. After that it was time to do my mindfulness activity. I had chosen progressive muscle relaxation because it forces the children to only focus on which part of their body they are tensing and letting “melt” into the ground (or relaxing). Manny the Licensed Social Worker at the school helped me run this activity because I had never done anything like this with children before. I kind of let him take over and at the end of it we got some really meaningful responses from the children. The children felt more comfortable with us and were open to sharing their emotions. Since they trusted us with those emotions I wont be going into any detail but it was really rewarding to know that my activity actually worked and the children took to it. Especially after the mixed reviews my book got from the kids. We took a break for snack and to prepare for the next block. Once the break was over, we started to prepare for a biodegradable art project. Anna and Janinna came up with this really cool idea to use biodegradable plates and yarn to create dreamcatcher like projects that the children could hand outside and watch over time. The goal was to teach the kids about the rate of degradation and what happens when something does degrade. The kids loved it and were very proud of their new projects. Some decided to hang it up in the school while others decided to take them home to show their parents. We ended our last day at the school with our Buffalo chant and took so many pictures. We gave our bilingual books to Sarah at the school and she was very grateful for them. We took a picture with Frank too (I’m testing your memory on who frank is !). It was very bittersweet, and I hope I’m able to visit the schools again one day. We left the school and some of us went shopping. I stayed back to work on blogs and prepare for our dinner later that night at the Foundation. Around 6 pm everyone pilled into our taxi and headed back to the foundation to have Empanadas (they were amazing). We talked with Sarah and Tricia about what our biggest take away from the trip was. I talked about the bond I was able to establish with the kids and the impact that I hope I left. I also talked about navigating my health in a foreign country and how it really made me be independent. I talked about the culture shock that I witnessed the whole time we were in the DR. Everything is different. Not flushing toilet paper, military out and about everywhere, babies on motorcycles and motorcyclist without helmets. Everything is so different in the Dominican. The other girls went around and talked about their takeaways and we thanked our professors and the founders of the foundation and 3MM for everything they did for us on this trip. At the end of the night, we went home with a ton of Empanadas to eat!
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AuthorHi! I am currently studying psychology at Buffalo State College! I hope to be a clinical child psychologist in the future. I love to spend time with my friends and family and I love taking naps! You’ll catch Me on the couch every Sunday for the Buffalo Bills game! Im always busy learning or trying new things! :) Archives
February 2023
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