Anna
Art Education
Undergraduate |
Anna
Art Education
Undergraduate |
So it's been about a month since we arrived back home in Buffalo, NY. (I know, I know, I'm late to the game on this). When I first got back to the United States, it almost didn't feel real. I felt as though I were stepping out of a movie theater, into a subliminal state of mind where you haven't quite processed anything yet. It felt like the whole trip was a move, but it also felt like returning home was a movie as well. It was shocking to return to the wide streets, lit up with lamps. One thing I was struck by was the vast amount of space that exists between everyones homes in the suburbs. After spending so much time in the beautiful but tight streets of the Dominican Republic, the incessant need for privacy and useless land was a little jarring. The cold was brutal, and my asthma immediately kicked in as I stepped out of the airport. I miss the warm and humid air of the Dominican. I miss the familiarity and welcoming attitude of the community. I especially miss the food haha.
As I'm writing this, I have finally gotten out of my cast and have been using a wrist brace, which is really nice! (My spray tan was still on underneath the cast). Some of the things that have really stuck with me from this trip is a newfound love of communication, a strong confidence of my abilities and my strength to persevere, and a love of laughter. Communication wise, I loved the ability to talk to and learn about all of the people I spoke with in the Dominican Republic. It has started a new obsession with language learning, and I am currently planning on mastering in Linguistics after college. My confidence has greatly improved. After breaking my wrist and finding the strength to keep smiling and laughing, I realized that I really am able to carry a lot while still maintaining a positive attitude and genuinely having a good time. I have also grown in my confidence to speak up and share my opinions and my thoughts without being afraid of the consequences. Laughter is something that, while common in the Dominican, is something to be earned. You are more likely to get a smile or a huff rather than a full belly laugh. However, through my continued practice of subpar Spanish and my silliness, I was able to score a genuine laugh out of many of the people that I met. I am extremely excited to continue that in the United States and in my classrooms. Overall, this trip has genuinely changed me and my views on myself, the world, and the people around me. I am so glad I got the opportunity to go on this trip, and even glad that I broke my wrist as it has inspired so many great stories from it. I will continue to travel and learn, and I hope to keep having wonderful experiences such as this trip. Signing off, Anna Stang
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This weekend we did a lot of touring around the town. On Friday, we started out by having breakfast at the cafe and then driving down to Puerto Plata. The drive wasn’t too long, and we had our wonderful guides Maddie and Alta Gracia to help us get around. First, we walked along the water and got to play in a little playground. We walked to an outdoor market and I got to talk to an interesting vendor who was selling paintings. He said he wouldn’t charge me to look, and showed me how he incorporated sand into the paintings. He then took out a sponge and soap and scrubbed the painting as hard as he could to prove that it was durable. We kept walking and got to tour a local HIV clinic. After our tour we got lunch as this cute hidden cafe that served the BEST chicken and mushroom crepes. (Bonus, there were lots of cats to pet). After this we headed back to Nanny Estates to walk on the beach and finish shopping. For dinner, we made a group dinner that consisted of everything we hadn’t eaten yet.
On Saturday, we went to Monkey Jungle and Zip lining. This is especially exciting for me because I originally did not think I would be able to zip line, however as soon as we got there the guide assured me that I could do it!! We got suited up and headed out with our crazy guides that were showing off on the lines the whole time doing flips or hanging upside down. I did three lines by myself and four lines with a guide just to make it a little easier on me! I’m so happy i got to go as it was so much fun. After zip lining we got to see the monkey sanctuary, which was easily just as cool. I loved having the little spider monkeys climb all over me, even checking out my sling. When we got home, we walked on the beach and made another group dinner. As I’m writing this, we are packing up to leave and are taking one more quick walk on the beach. Overall, the last two days have been so much fun! I will miss it dearly here and can’t wait to come back. As an education specific trip, I have been able to flourish and grow so much throughout this journey. Through planning English lessons to finding fun activities to having the students do fun activities, I have learned so many ways to increase my knowledge of classroom management, accessibility, and equity. Some of the lessons my cohort and I have come up with include a Fake Passport project in English and Spanish, a plant rubbing impression activity, and even a Biodegradable Plate weaving lesson. Through these, I have not only been able to communicate in different languages, but also have been able to plan for a variety of age groups at once. Something that I have taken away from all of this is that despite our communication barrier and our different life backgrounds, that students are almost always willing to participate in an activity if you as the teacher are excited about it. If you can gain the attention and the excitement of the kids, you're almost guaranteed to have success in your lesson. Obviously some Google Translate had to be involved to help explain the prompts to students who didn't speak Spanish OR English (Creole, French, and German are extremely common here), but they still were able to have fun and participate just as much as the other kids. Overall, I feel more confident in my ability to plan and execute lessons, and through it have become more prepared for my student teaching this upcoming semester.
I think the biggest take-away that I've had during this trip is the difference between necessity and comfort. In the DR, everything revolves around necessity (defined by money, human needs, and happiness) : education and learning English to make money or basic toys and education materials. Happiness, however, prevails despite anything else. Everyone that I've had the pleasure of meeting here is so kind and happy to share their cultures, homes, and food.
All of the students at the schools that we've been visiting are excited and devoted to learning and being the best human beings that they can be. Personally, I've really gotten to see this because of only having one working arm. The students always offer to help me move my things, pick up things I drop, or even help me zip my bag. They are all such genuine little people. They laugh at my Spanish mistakes, then gently correct them. Everyone here has genuinely made me feel welcomed and loved. I feel excited when I get to talk to the students or introduce a new lesson. Despite my normal anxiety, I really haven't felt any in regards to meeting new people or interacting in a different language. The people here have made this feel like a second home to me, despite all of the obstacles that are faced here on a daily basis. So, starting from Thursday, we started off our day at Tres Mariposas doing interviews with some of the teachers about our research questions. My research centers around formative and summative assessment in Montessori schools. I was really intrigued to find that the schools mostly use formative assessment to check where their students are in their learning progression. We got to talk to many talented teachers, and it was very insightful. After the interviews, we got to have lunch with our host moms again, and this time our host mom’s son was there and able to translate Spanish to English more easily than we could. We also found out that our host mom speaks mostly Creole and learned Spanish as a second language, so now it makes more sense as to why some of the translations that me and Alyssia were making didn't make as much sense. We learned that Kerlande’s son wants to be a businessman or a soccer player, and that he knows about 5 languages, which is very impressive. After our lunch we went to Coral to teach one of our first lessons. Me and Janinna taught a lesson about English, where the students had to go on a picnic and bring a fruit or vegetable, which they then had to translate to English from Spanish. It was a lot of fun and it's interesting to note the difference between the level of attentiveness that the students showed between American schools and the Dominican schools. Here, education is a necessity whereas in America I feel as though it is viewed more as a comfort. Learning English here is the difference between having money and not, which I don't agree with, and do believe that Americans should make more of an effort to learn other languages as each language has its own importance and one shouldn't dictate the level of education or monetary gain over the other. After all of this, we went home and enjoyed so Mac and cheese and grilled cheese as a house.
On Friday we observed more at Tres Mariposas and had our last host lunch with Kerlande, which was very sad but also heartwarming as she called us her family and said that she would miss us. We got to take photos with her and exchanged phone numbers so that we can always stay in contact. We then went to Coral and did our last lesson there, where me and Janinna set up a fake airplane ride where the students had to create their own passports in English and Spanish to board the plane. It was very chaotic but very fun and we got to make a lot of good memories along the way. I had the students all sign their names on my cast, so now my cast is covered in beautiful names from the amazing children that I got to meet. After that we went home and went to the beach to have a photo shoot and then had a girl's night to celebrate the weekend. On Saturday, the forecast called for lots of rain so we ended up cancelling our plans and staying back at the hotel resort two weighted out. It ended up not raining so many of us hung out on the beach all day and got tan. On Sunday, we left early to visit the Mirabel Sisters Memorial Museum which was about a two hour drive away from us. The ride was through windy mountain roads which made many carsick, but the view was worth it. The museum was beautiful and featured items from the Mirabel sisters and had a wonderful garden that I got to explore. After we got back some of us went to the beach again to walk around but it was a little cooler today so we didn't do quite as much. I then sat down and made a video of all of our adventures from the last few days and compiled them together to the video above. I'm very excited for what the next week will bring as so much has happened already this week and I can't wait to explore more around the city and meet more people. So to call the last few days "A Wild Ride" would be an understatement. The flights went fine, and I slept through the entirety of the second flight. Things took a turn for the worst when one of Tam's suitcases got lost in transit, and I blasted Spanish music in the taxi while we waited for her to figure out the situation. We got to our houses at the wonderful Nanny Estates and explored the beach in the rain, which was much appreciated after the very hot taxi ride. We all slept very well that night as we had to get up to go kayaking in the morning.
The kayaking trip was on Rio Yasika and was very calm and peaceful. I was partnered with Janinna and we learned how to steer the kayak. We listened to many stories from our guide that included a crocodile getting lost and a bad case of rain. We kayaked to a restaurant that was only accessible by boat. The food was extremely delicious, and we got to explore the rest of the island. We kayaked back and drove back to our houses. It was then that things got “wild”. I took a shower and was invited down to the beach to hang out with the rest of the girls. When we were down there, my friend Grace decided that she wanted pictures of her on the rocks next to the beach. Being the good friend that I am, I took as many good photos as I could. However, when I went behind Grace to take a photo with the beach in the background, I misplaced my footing and fell onto the rocks. I laughed at first until I realized that my wrist really hurt. I noticed that my wrist looked a little funny, and had the girls go get the teachers. We decided that I needed to go to the hospital to get an X-ray of my wrist, which entailed a very chaotic taxi ride. The doctors took one look at my wrist and told me it was broken. I then had to undergo a procedure where they gave me anesthesia and reset my wrist. I woke up in a blue cast that matched both my bikini and my hospital garb. Luckily, I did not have to stay the night and was able to go home to the rest of my friends who had made me feel better cards and beaded bracelets. It was a rough night. The next day, Tuesday, I decided to stay at the house to rest up. Today, Wednesday, I rejoined the arrest of the group in seeing Tres Mariposas and the public school Coral. Tres Mariposas is a Montessori school, which was very interesting to see in comparison to American schools. It was open air, and the students were able to independently choose their puzzles, tasks, and resources. The students we're very confident and made decisions for themselves. As an art educator, I would like to integrate more of this teaching style into my future classroom, where students feel confident enough to make their own decisions and their own mistakes. After observing Tres Mariposas, we had lunch with our host families. I was partnered with Alyssia, and we got to visit the home of Carol Anne. She made us delicious food that consisted of chicken, salad, rice, and beans. She insisted that we “EAT EAT EAT” (come come come) as much as we could, even though we tried telling her our stomachs were small in our broken Spanish. She was incredibly sweet, and even wanted us to write our names on her kitchen wall when we left so that she would remember us. After our amazing lunch, we took a ride over to Coral, which is the local public school. I was partnered with Janinna again, and we observed the 4th graders. However, the teacher wanted us to teach her class right away, and immediately gave us the marker for the board. We did a comical lesson on math and English that the students laughed at us about as we were put on the spot. The students were extremely sweet and corrected me nicely on my Spanish. Overall, while the last two days have been crazy and painful, I am still extremely glad that I will be able to continue this experience and share it with all of you. Gracias! Ever since I applied to be a part of this trip, I have been overjoyed at the concept of being able to partake in a study abroad opportunity! Before the pandemic, I had always wanted to be able to travel and see the world. I had feared that because of the pandemic, I would not be able to participate in a study abroad due to the time constraints of being in my senior year. However, I have luckily been given an opportunity to do just so in the Dominican Republic!
Throughout the semester, our class has prepared me for this trip better than I could have ever hoped. I have learned so much about the culture and history of the Dominican Republic, found resources to better appreciate and understand their traditions, and even learned a little Spanish along the way! The past few days have definitely been stressful through planning and packing everything for the trip. I fear that I have definitely overpacked, but better to have then to not! I am very excited to begin this journey, and see what I can learn along the way! My main focuses are on communication (in Spanish and between teacher/students/community), appreciation and understanding of culture, and on bringing back ideas and artists to use in my future classrooms! Stay tuned for future updates! |
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