B'ILI
English Education Undergraduate |
B'ILI
English Education Undergraduate |
I've been home for a little over a week now and Ive had time to reflect.
I LOVE WHAT I DO . I love teaching I love seeing the " AH HA " moment. I love the struggle to get to that point. I am currently student teaching in my last semester here at buffalo state. I applying what I learned in the Dominican such as patients and sacrifice to my classroom . Im still somewhat co-teaching but most days its me in the classroom teaching like how it was in the DR. I am so grateful to have went on this study aboard trip because it truly opened my heart and my minded. I can't really find the words to describe how I feel but three things I know are that I found my why, I found myself . Throughout this journey of me going study aboard I found myself in a sense of testing all of my capabilities. I nervous about how my cohort and I would blend. Im glad I went in optimistically because normally before this trip I don't like new people mainly because I don't trust them or their motives. Throught his trip and experience I learned how to trust and make good friends. I Tested my self in cooking. Almost every night I cooked for my house. This was meaningful to me because again I don't like new people , I also am negative and slightly insecure when it does come to my cooking. However, everynight my house was very excited for whatever was for dinner. SO excited it started to include other houses. One of our last nights , I made chicken Alfredo from scratch for the very first time everyone pitched in for ingredients ad we ALL ate and the reviews were good that made me feel good because as I've stated in previous blogs and vlogs I believe food really brings people together. All of my cohorts brought something different to the table. but what I loved most not a single person was stingy, or mean , rude etc. We had moments don't get me wrong but overall if someone short on pesos or food we gave them it and didn't really look for it in return ( I think in a sense we adopted the Dominican culture of sharing because like at the empanada stand he would always give me free pieces of his OWN food for HIS lunch and share it with me not looking fo anything in return. CHI CHI and SOry took us to the nail salon not looking for anything in return! They all just wanted to see us happy My b-2 fam( they put us all in the right house) , we grew very close very quickly. Keiayrrah, I thanked her almost every day for being my roomie , dealing with my shenanigans but most of all making sure I never felt alone. She defiantly helped be feel balanced out because she quite and Im EXTREMELY outgoing. I often don't like going out with new groups because I do like being the center of attention ironically enough because it makes me feel like im the joke and not the one telling the joke. She made me feel more comfortable. Anytime I needed something taste tested She'd be the deciding factor lol. I for sure built a great bond. As well as with Sam, Like I said food brings people together. Thank Goodness all three of us ended up in the same house because we eat so much and big meaty portions ( the other houses didn't really eat meat) SO this worked out for the better. But in B-2 we always made sure everyone ate everyone had enough and no one was left behind. We played pranks on each other, finished a Netflix series together that was a big part of me learning trust new people as well. This trip also taught me about love. Ironically enough my bilingual book was about love and self-love. But the love I learned isn't the same love I wrote about. I learned acceptance, unconditional love and respect. Not romantically but in a friendly way I grew to love Kassia. I didn't hate her at first or anything like that but she was simply someone I did not know. On this trip I watched her lead, grow and blossom almost. I also had a few heavy conversations both and non verbal were I grew to love her more. When I say grew to love, I mean respect , understand and complete value. Kassia and I are two completely different people from different worlds however she showed me how similar we are as well. I grew to love someone who I'd normally stereotype. But I took the time to actually understand someone who's different than me and I feel like I can't express how much I genuinely love and respect the person that she is and how she effected me. I feel like overall I learned about love differently in a since of being completely vulnerable and accepting others for who they are and not judging them for it. This impacted me as a person and as a teacher because everyday you will encounter someone different from you instead of assuming what they will do or think ask them and try to understand them. NO, I am not saying understand someone mean you have to agree with everything they think or like but understanding means you listened and you don't pacify them you acknowledge the difference and maybe try to see what they see and share both sides. Love is acceptencing each other differences and learning their love language , learning how to care for them and their differences , learning how to communicate. Not to be corny but this was my version of eat, pray , love but it was more like EAT , TEACH , LOVE. Thank you to Wendy and Tamara for this amazing journey. THANK YOU Alvaro for never leaving us stranded and being so cool !
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One of our last days in the Dominican, we observed at the Tres Montessori School. I had no idea, completely no idea what this type of schooling was until I learned about ti on this trip. I loved this school because it was very independent based. The learning was self correcting and self validating. I love it because it taught students from a young age to be independent and to n to seek validation from others. I feel that validation has become a huge thing in our society espaiecally since social media has become so popular. How many followers and likes you have makes you more valuable literally.
The students in this school barely used technology. They were trusted with certain jobs such as being a greeter. They were handling glass everything. Everything about this school to me was so well thought out. Even to the point were its quiet almost all the time. No one yells no one screams except when they play and its not because they are forced not to yell or controlled in any way its because everyone is literally focused on themselves MINDING THEIR OWN BUISNESS! I LOVED THAT PEROSNALLY. While observing I noticed things that would've helped my brother and I growing up being that we work best when we are independent and learning things hands on. I feel like we would've flourished in this school versus the catholic school we attended were we were strictly taught how to be of a certain standard not really allowing us to explore ourselves and be who we wanted to be but we had to be what they wanted us to be. ( Hope that makes sense) While Observing I met JOsé again. I didn't recognize him. SO I started signing again think he was someone else but he was the same person that I met in the nail salon. We signed back and forth briefly but had to remain selective because he was suppose to be working. He would smile at me here and there and wave at me. When we were in the library he came over to the window and attempted to sign his name. I knew he was finger spelling but I couldn't tell what he was saying because it want how I learned it. I picked up a scrap paper and a writing untensil and he began to write his name. After he wrote his name he signed it again and what I noticed what that he signed what the letters looked like as apposed to signing what they actually were in sign language. This moment was small but I think it was the best moment of my entire trip. I taught im how to sign his name in ASL. I managed to explain that he was signing what it looked like instead of the actually thing. That was amazing and I kept the paper we wrote our names on. After that interaction I had to think. I was like are there any schools for the deaf here? Who can teach them sign language? José must have so much more to say well past his name but how would he communicate that. How would he learn? After that experience, I think I decided that I want to finish learning ASL and Spanish, I wan tot be able to teach people how to communicate. That why I got into teach int he first place how ever this trip seems to have remind me of my purpose. Emma our caterpillar volunteer! Took us on our very first empanada walk. The original crew was Emma, Sam, Keiayrrah and I. We would go every day after our first set of classes. One day Emma wasn't there but we walked by ourselves and communicated with the empanada people by ourselves. This experience was small but it was meaningful to me because it brought me closer to being a local in the Dominican. Everyday we would come so late we could miss the meat empanadas , so all that would be left is egg and cheese. The man and woman who freshly made our empanadas were so nice and worked with us knowing we clearly didn't know Spanish but we still found a way to communicate. In America , my local store the empanadas aren't made fresh and to my liking. Back home they sit in the heater all day and I still get charged $2. In the Dominican for an entire meal ( 2 empanadas and a freshly squeezed juice) it would cost barely a total of 20cents. On this walk , I got to bond more with my cohorts. Im a firm a believer in food brings people together. I looked forward to our walks every day I got to experience something outside of the classroom that my students in DR experience and do all the time. It was one of the ways I took a step into their world. |
AuthorI am from Staten Island, NY. I am Senior in English Ed. ArchivesCategories |